Vista - Dual Boot Vista 64 & XP Seperate Hard Drives

Please be patient! New to all of this!
Here's my scenario!

- I have a new PC.
- 4 GB RAM
- 2 500 Gb seperate hard drives.
- Vista 64.
- Apart general computer stuff, it's being set up for home recording studio.

MY PROBLEM.

-Even though I thought I had carefully researched my hardware requirements,e.g. a ESI 49+ USB keyboard controller, Sonar software, it appears that I have compatibilty problem with ESI keyboard controller. Even though I even contacted ESI, and they replied that there would be no problem with the keyboard controller. Well, they were wrong. And found out after that, they haven't and have no intention of developing 64 bit drivers. OK, will live with that!

Now I got suggested that perhaps a generic 64 USB driver may fix the problem,(Cypress Generic USB device), but unsure as to taking this path.

So to avoid any other hardware or software problem, the friend who built this system for me, decided that perhaps Dual Booting the system would be the way to go. Fine by me!

Now Vista 64 is already installed on one drive, the other drive is empty. He hasn't done a dual boot before so were both learning. So we installed XP disc, it allowed me to install on the empty drive, all good so far, copying files,etc. But then it needed to reboot, and then when back installing the XP software again! I understand now that there is a problem with Vista 64 being on there first, but is there a way to install XP?

I would like to have Vista 64 on one hard drive, and XP on the other, so then I can install all of my music software and hardware without a compatibilty problem.
Is this possible? And if so, how do you change between drives, and will it still allow it to boot to Visat first, or is it optional? I hope someone can help, and remember, I'm new to this(as we all were once), so I'm going to need some clear instructions, as I don't want to stuff up!! Thanks. Colyn Gypsy.

Hello Colyn Gypsy, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Check with this tutorial below, it can help guide you through installing XP to dual boot with Vista.

Dual Boot Installation with Windows Vista and XP


Afterwards, while in Vista, you can change what OS you would like to have the computer to start by default. The tutorial below can help show you how to if needed.

Boot Partition - Default


Hope this helps,
Shawn

I'm running Vista 64, and have been trying to dual boot, therefore installing XP. I have 2 separate 500GB hard drives, 4GB RAM. I need XP has I am having compatabilty problems with my external hardware, which is not Vista 64 compatible. So thats why I wish to install XP on my other hard drive.

Now I've followed instructions that I have found on this forum on installing XP after Vista. I can understand that it will work, but am having no success as yet! After inserting the XP disc, it begins the process of formatting and copying files, which is cool. But when it reboots the computer, it begins asking me to boot from cd which then begins, copying and formatting the files again. Or else if I don't enter a key to boot, it just does nothing. I considered the disc may be faulty, but two things swayed me from this. 1- why would it begin the first part at all; 2- I have used this disc less than a few months go, but also I have two XP discs, and it seems to much of a coincidence for them both to be faulty.
Can anyone help or have some advice. My computer is new, and I'm a novice at this! Would appreciate any and all suggestions! Thanks! Colyn Gypsy.