Vista Tutorial - Dual Boot one C Drive Sata E drive IDE

Ok here is my question. Im not a tech guy so I dont want to do this if its
not going to work. My main C drive is a Sata drive and My E drive is an IDE
drive. I wanted to load Vista on the E drive and once all is said and done be
able to start the computer and have a choice of which OS I boot up to each
time. For I may not want to boot to Vista all the time or XP Pro all the
time. If I load Vista on the IDE drive will my computer still work fine. Will
i say be able to boot to vista on my E drive and see my other drive that has
XP Pro and all my files on it. Or will I have to go through a big ol process
to make this all work. I am trying all of MS betas and have the Office 2007
beta, office live beta and love them both and would really like to try the
VIsta Beta as well. But not if its going to mess up my whole system and I
wont have a choice which OS to boot to or if it will just give me a black
screen becuase if it does then I have no way of coming back here for help.
Your help and input is much appreciated in advance.

matthew

"mstout2001" wrote:

> Ok here is my question. Im not a tech guy so I dont want to do this if its
> not going to work. My main C drive is a Sata drive and My E drive is an IDE
> drive. I wanted to load Vista on the E drive and once all is said and done be
> able to start the computer and have a choice of which OS I boot up to each
> time. For I may not want to boot to Vista all the time or XP Pro all the
> time. If I load Vista on the IDE drive will my computer still work fine. Will
> i say be able to boot to vista on my E drive and see my other drive that has
> XP Pro and all my files on it. Or will I have to go through a big ol process
> to make this all work. I am trying all of MS betas and have the Office 2007
> beta, office live beta and love them both and would really like to try the
> VIsta Beta as well. But not if its going to mess up my whole system and I
> wont have a choice which OS to boot to or if it will just give me a black
> screen becuase if it does then I have no way of coming back here for help.
> Your help and input is much appreciated in advance.
>
> matthew

I am very aware of the age of this original post--
I also see hundreds of posts like this--
They all seem to NOT know what BETA is--

SO I thought this was as good as any to reply to, for the many that will see this trying to find the same answers, or give answers, and the points I make do all boil down to the same thing, multibooting, and beta information (accent on beta by importance only)....


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Today even more than in the past, I see daily people loading up BETA programs, then asking for help because things are going wrong that were working fine.

FIRST THINGS FIRST, for all those looking to get a BETA program...

BETA IS A TESTING LEVEL... In other words, IT IS NOT A WORKING PROGRAM!

There ARE ERRORS in the program, ranging from basic typo's in grammar, to damaging code strings.

Those of us who have been around for many years have issues with getting involved on some of them, such;

We know what is required.
We know the time they consume.
We know what not to do.
We don't have just a couple computers.

To sum it up for you not so techy users, I want to give a fast simple FYI to get you going in the right direction.

There are levels of testing. Alpha = 1, or 1st stage of testing, meaning that the program has at least been partially assembled and is in a testing period of how the parts work together as a unit.

The Alpha testing goes through several stages, which can be a few for a small program, to many, for a larger program, until they have the full set of the programs sub-parts assembled as one, and somewhat stable enough for installing and accessing each part, though not necessarily running the parts.

{{To get involved in any Alpha program, you either have to know someone, or climb the ladder and prove yourself first. Using some easily available web based programs offering open doors to be a beta tester is a good starting point, BUT climb ONE mountain at a time, don't try to beta test several program on one computer.}}

When the program is somewhat stable, and packaged, it moves into a broader testing arena, this is the Beta, or 2nd Level of testing.

The Beta group is generally persons with knowledge assisting the Alpha group and programmers in weeding out the last of the bugs and various errors. Beta is NOT for the newbie with ONE computer. Beta is however a good training area for student in programming or systems management etc.

FINALLY, in this post we see the person is running, SEVERAL BETA programs. I do not know this person, and he is not alone, it's a very common problem today. For the time consumed in patching up the problems inherited with beta's, I wouldn't even be doing this on a computer I use for my main system. Beta testing is just that, it is testing NOT SAMPLING, and if you mix a few beta's, you muddy up the water and begin to obscure which one is creating the problem, and thus you need to be even smarter or more experienced to get down to the necessary fix.


I have several main systems I use for different reasons, and many test systems and equipment, yet being retired due to health (cancer), I do it all as a hobby, and to pass time, for knowledge and research, and even for fun, and I go out of my way to be able to help young kids, the elderly, and disabled people, and a few others who have buried themselves wrong choices for their own level of abilities.


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NOW the latest BETA and hottest BETA, Windows 7, with maybe less bugs than Vista... My EXPERIENCED review...

[[[note]]] I read yesterday, MS may have the W7 Beta released next week, January 16th 09. Windows 7 is truly a major step above Vista, and it looks like it will put MS over the top once and for all, hands down. Only fools will make mockery commercials about Windows7.

A 20 minute raw install on many systems, w/cold boot about 40 seconds on average systems, installs on systems with ease that are barely able to run XP, and runs faster than XP on them.

Trouble Shooter actually does something now!

Virtual systems, beyond that of bios capable virtual options.

Sleep AND WakeUp works great!

Multi-Booting was never so seamless....

Too many good things about Windows 7, you must do searches on youtube, and other video sites and see all the previews, but be aware that so many are out there to deny the beta as actually being W7, calling it a skinning job, such as windows blinds etc, when in fact there are a couple out there, and at WinCustomize you can get some mod kits, such as Windows7-XP, Windows7-Vista, Linux-Vista, etc.... But the true W7, stands out.... You'll see drivers for Vista that can't install into 7 because they are too old, BUT the good thing is that "Windows7 Compatibility Mode" if used right (and it's easy) will install any level of 32 bit programing you want.

After sampling Vista's Beta a while back, I wasn't too particularly willing to run Vista's production release as one of my main stream boxes, but so many people I know started ending up with Vista and having such bad problems, I got a top end Vista Ult 64b, so I could help anyone having a mental melt down panic. I found lots of problems and issues with everything from installation and hardware, to simple use and extensive software uses. I eventually decided not to ever buy MS again.

For several month's now, I have been following MS forums, and many other forums that have been talking the W7 gossip, and I have been seeing some very promising remarks, unlike any other system, by any other group. Mac, for me is just too confined for my taste, and Linux is to time consuming, 98 was simple and fast for a long time, then all since has slowly degraded to what I think as a total flop "Vista", then suddenly to this all new, smooth running, embarrassing to even say it's MS, so just WOW7...... I have to say, I dropped out, and now wish I didn't, so I'm jumping back on, and only AFTER running some tests myself, and it passed my tests....

MORE INFO HERE - Welcome to Windows 7

Thanx for the Comback MS.... I hope this is a sign of correcting your evil ways...

S.P.S. DONT GET A BIG HEAD MS...

I am still displeased with the drag down of Combat FS after #1, and slow corruption of FS from 2002 to the total scew over of the customer with FSX, not just the newbies, but those of us who have been FAITHFULL with FS since before the release of FS1, and purchased every single copy, and built a major collection of aircraft painstakingly correcting thousands of errors in mdl, air, fx, and graphics files for them, and building true scenery areas, and then you guys dump on us, some slick new system, that we all like the graphics, terrain and objects in, BUT now we have no planes in our hangers, WE GOT SCREWED!!!... I for one rarely use FSX because it's too much work to make models for, importing the older models is too much time and work... You need to update it with a patch system that incorporates gmax, flight shop, and all earlier fs model programming for all of us FAITHFUL followers that are losing our faith.

Live for today, tomorrow is always tomorrow, and it never gets here, today's worries are more than enough, and they are not what you expected they would be yesterday.