Vista - Dual Boot Vista Home Premium and Vista Ultimate?

I have a Dell XPS 730x with 4 internal harddrives (2 are WD Raptor drives). I'm currently running Vista Home Premium x64 that came with the system on 1 Raptor and want to try Vista Ultimate x64 on the other Raptor. My questions are:

1. Can I do this as long as I can select which drive to boot from without problems with the MBR?

2. If it's not as simple as selecting the boot drive, what software do you recommend to edit the BCD? I know of 2, Easybcd and VistaBootPro.

Thanks in advance for any input,
MelH2o

this does work to dual boot vista, just install ultimate on a second hard drive to be safe

The installation options

You can approach the dual-boot installation operation in one of two ways -- by cold booting from the Windows Vista DVD or by inserting the Windows Vista DVD while Windows XP is running. As you can imagine, you'll encounter slightly different introductory screens depending on which approach you use, but once you get stared the operation is essentially the same.
While both methods will produce the same result, I prefer the cold booting from the DVD method. The main reason is that you don't have to worry about any interference from antivirus/antispyware/firewall software on your existing Windows XP installation.
Performing the installation

Once you have your second partition or second hard disk operational, just insert your Windows Vista DVD, restart the system, and boot from the DVD. Once the system boots from the DVD, Windows Vista’s Setup will begin loading and will display the screen shown in Figure A.
Figure A:
Windows Vista’s Setup will take a few moments to load files before the installation actually commences. In a few moments, you’ll see the screen that prompts you to choose the regional and language options, as shown in Figure B. As you can see, the default settings are for U.S. and English and if that’s you, you can just click Next to move on.
Figure B:
The default settings on the regional and language screen are for the U.S. and English. On the next screen, you’ll be prompted to begin the installation procedure, as shown in Figure C. To begin, just click the Install Now button
Figure C:
To get started, click the Install Now button. In the next screen, you’ll be prompted to type in your product key for activation, as shown in Figure D. By default, the Automatically Activate Windows When I’m online check box is selected; however, you’ll notice that I’ve cleared it. The main reason that I’ve done so here is that while writing this article, I’ve experimented over and over with this installation procedure and want to conserve on the number of times that I can legitimately activate this copy of Windows Vista before Microsoft locks it down and requires me to call in and manually request a new product key.
Figure D:
At this point in the installation, you’re prompted to type in your product key for activation. Now, if you just want to temporarily install Vista in a dual-boot configuration while you experiment, but plan on installing it as your main operating system once you’re satisfied with the way that Vista behaves with your hardware and software, you too may want to disable the automatic activation routine. Even though you’ve disabled the automatic activation routine, you can still install Windows Vista and use it as you normally would for 30 days.
If you want to keep Vista in a dual-boot configuration, you can activate your license online anytime you want. If you decide to make Vista your main operating system, you can repartition your hard disk, reinstall Vista on the main partition and activate the new installation in the process.
If you decide to disable the automatic activation routine, you’ll see a confirmation dialog box, as shown in Figure E, which contains a harsh warning and prompts you to reconsider. You can just click No to continue.
Figure E:
Even though this dialog box contains a harsh warning, Microsoft wouldn’t have made automatic activation a choice if opting out was really dangerous. Because, I didn’t enter in a product key, Setup doesn’t know what edition I’ve purchased and prompts me to select one of the seven editions on this disk, as shown in Figure F. Since, I'm working with the Ultimate edition, I selected that edition, checked the box, and clicked Next.
Figure F:
When you don’t enter a product key, Setup doesn’t know what edition you have a license for and so prompts you to select one of the seven editions On the next page (Figure G), you’ll see the Microsoft Software License Terms and are prompted to read through them. However, unless you’re very curious you can just select the I Accept The License Terms check box and click Next.
Figure G:
Unless you’re very curious, you can just click through the license terms screen. If you’re booting from the DVD, when you get to the Which Type Of Installation Do You Want page, the only option is Custom (advanced) as shown in Figure H. To move on, just click the Custom icon.
Figure H:
When you boot from the Windows Vista DVD, the only installation type that is available is the Custom (advanced). When you arrive at the Where Do You Want To Install Windows? page, you’ll see your second partition or second drive. I created a second partition on which to install Windows Vista, so my page looked like the one in Figure I.
Figure I:
I created a second partition on a 160 GB hard disk on which to install Windows Vista. Once the select a partition or disk and click Next, the rest of the installation will continue as it normally would. As such, I won’t follow the installation procedure any further in this article.
Windows Boot Manager

Once the installation is complete, you'll see the Windows Boot Manager screen, as shown in Figure K. As you can see, booting either Windows XP (listed as an Earlier Version of Windows) or Windows Vista is a simple menu choice. This menu will appear on the screen for 30 seconds before Windows Boot Manager launches the default operating system, which is Windows Vista.
Figure J:
The Windows Boot Manager allows you to select which operating system you want to boot. The Activation countdown

Since I described installing Windows Vista without activating it for testing purposes, I wanted to point out that the Windows Vista will indeed keep track of your 30 day trial on the System screen, as shown in Figure K. In addition, it will regularly display
Figure K:
If you decide not to activate during your dual-boot installation, you can keep track of how many days you have until you must activate on the System page. Configuring Windows Boot Manager

As I mentioned, the Windows Boot Manager menu will appear on the screen for 30 seconds before Windows Boot Manager launches the default operating system -- Windows Vista. However, if you wish to adjust the countdown or change the default operating system, you can do so from within Windows Vista.
Once you've booted into Windows Vista, press [Windows]+[Break] to access the System page. Next, click the Advance System Setting link in the Tasks pane and confirm though the UAC prompt. When you see the System Properties dialog box, click Settings in the Startup and Recovery panel. You’ll then see the Startup and Recovery dialog box, as shown in Figure L.
Figure L:
You can use the controls in the Startup and Recovery dialog box change the default operating system and the number of seconds that the Windows Boot Manager menu will appear on the screen. In the System Startup pane, you can change the Default Operating System setting from the drop down list as well as use the spin buttons to adjust, up or down, the number of seconds to display the menu before launching the default operating system.
Conclusion

Installing Windows Vista in a dual-boot configuration along side Windows XP is a great way to experiment with the new operating system until you get comfortable with it. In this article, I’ve shown you how to how to create a Windows Vista dual-boot configuration.

Hi,

If that is someone else's article - you might credit it and provide a link to the site.

SIW2 - not sure where i got it, have had it on my hard drive for a long time. ever since vista came out and i was running XP on my old system (P4 1.7, 512mb ram) yes it did run including aero.

trust me if i copy things from a different site i leave them in tack will all the links and everything.

Nice post faderds, very detailed and informative. I'm assuming you're saying that it works the same way when installing another version of Vista to a second drive. I'm concerned about the fact that Vista has only one MBR, on the default boot drive.

Just curious, why dual boot the same OS? I could understand dual booting a 32 bit and a 64 bit to test for driver compatibility, but I can't say I see a purpose in running both when ultimate is just home premium + X amount of features.

you could also use a program like vmware to run a virtual machine if you just want to see the diff's

Great suggestion. I've used all the flavors of vista, and the only thing I feel I'm missing on home premium is GPEdit, thank God I still got regedit.

I appreciate all the comments and I'll try and explain my reason for wanting to dual boot 2 versions of Vista.

When I ordered the XPS 730x, it came with Home Premium and I wasn't going to pay extra for Ultimate since I already had a copy for my XPS 600. My new system has the new Intel i7 965 processor (factory over-clocked), the H2C cooling system, DDR3 SDRam memory, Alienware lighting and Thermal Monitoring software per-installed. I want to make sure I can set everything up correctly and test it out on Ultimate before I switch OS's. I've invested a considerable amount of money in this system and won't take any chances with other OS's. When Windows 7 is finally released I won't to upgrade to it.

Bottom line, I want to make sure everything works just like it did out of the box and preserve the warrantee. Hope that explains it.

So you're going to use your OEM license from your 600 on your 730x? I assume your 600 is done for and you're going to activate the key from it on your 730x. You're running x64 on home premium, ultimate simply adds media center, gpedit, and some other features that you may or may not use. It's the same OS.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...s/default.aspx

The differences between the versions are laughable. Did you know that you can have MORE fun with Home Premium then Home Basic? Microsoft doesn't indicate if you can have EVEN more fun with Ultimate. Long story short, no I still don't see what you're trying to do. Ultimate is Home Premium with a few addons and additional software.