i have looked at all the threads and from reading there seems to be some real
random ways of installing Vista. i want to install Vista with XP. should i
have two drives or just two partitions?

You can do either I went for a second hard drive install with mine as the PC
is not my main one. I have XP on one hard drive and Vista on the 2nd one
which was completely empty.

If you use a partition on C just make sure you have left enough space as I
think this is when installs can be a problem. Make sure to take an image
first actually if you go by the warnings it is best on another computer not
the one you rely on.

my preference was a completely free second HD and a different computer.

"Confucious" wrote:

> i have looked at all the threads and from reading there seems to be some real
> random ways of installing Vista. i want to install Vista with XP. should i
> have two drives or just two partitions?

thanks for the reply pippin, but i dont have another computer, which is the
reason i have a second HDD. and still doesnt answer the question of what to
do once i install to the second drive. if you read some of the other posts
regarding this exact same setup, they are all quite different. i was under
the impression this was a Microsoft sponsored site. where are the Microsoft
people?

"pippin" wrote:

> You can do either I went for a second hard drive install with mine as the PC
> is not my main one. I have XP on one hard drive and Vista on the 2nd one
> which was completely empty.
>
> If you use a partition on C just make sure you have left enough space as I
> think this is when installs can be a problem. Make sure to take an image
> first actually if you go by the warnings it is best on another computer not
> the one you rely on.
>
> my preference was a completely free second HD and a different computer.
>
> "Confucious" wrote:
>
> > i have looked at all the threads and from reading there seems to be some real
> > random ways of installing Vista. i want to install Vista with XP. should i
> > have two drives or just two partitions?

This is a peer to peer site. Microsoft people are rare.

Since I don't have your prior posts I have no idea what your problem is but
Microsoft isn't going to help you.

"Confucious" <Confucious@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9A5B6086-C782-40EC-BFFB-16C6B4DFE918@microsoft.com...
> thanks for the reply pippin, but i dont have another computer, which is
> the
> reason i have a second HDD. and still doesnt answer the question of what
> to
> do once i install to the second drive. if you read some of the other posts
> regarding this exact same setup, they are all quite different. i was under
> the impression this was a Microsoft sponsored site. where are the
> Microsoft
> people?
>
> "pippin" wrote:
>
>> You can do either I went for a second hard drive install with mine as the
>> PC
>> is not my main one. I have XP on one hard drive and Vista on the 2nd one
>> which was completely empty.
>>
>> If you use a partition on C just make sure you have left enough space as
>> I
>> think this is when installs can be a problem. Make sure to take an image
>> first actually if you go by the warnings it is best on another computer
>> not
>> the one you rely on.
>>
>> my preference was a completely free second HD and a different computer.
>>
>> "Confucious" wrote:
>>
>> > i have looked at all the threads and from reading there seems to be
>> > some real
>> > random ways of installing Vista. i want to install Vista with XP.
>> > should i
>> > have two drives or just two partitions?

what prior posts? this is my first post. i simply want a straight answer as
to how to install Vista on a second drive. if you look at all the threads
with this exact title you will find that none of them match. one says to
unplug the drive, another says to install from XP, another says to boot from
DVD. so which is it?

my question is this, plain and simple:

i would like to install Vista Build 5728 on a second hard drive, still be
able to boot to both drives from one screen and during the install not take a
huge risk on losing data from my XP disk. what is the BEST way to achieve
this?

dont say Vista is BETA and there is a risk because it not final ....blah, blah
i am fully aware, but there is always a way to minimize risks, right?

Confucious - In your first post you ask "... i want to install Vista with
XP. should i have two drives or just two partitions?...". Pippin answered
you question as you asked.
In your second post "... and still doesnt answer the question of what to do
once i install to the second drive..." that was not asked previously. The
purpose of installing XP on one partition or HD and Vista on another
partition or HD is to provide for a "dual boot"
scenario.
There has been much information in the news groups regarding dual boot setup
procedures - more than enough to cover the many situations under which an OS
can be installed.
It is difficult for the news groups to provide "basic" information with
detailed explanations - it may require effort on your part to cull out
pertinent information.





"Confucious" <Confucious@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:9A5B6086-C782-40EC-BFFB-16C6B4DFE918@microsoft.com...
> thanks for the reply pippin, but i dont have another computer, which is
> the
> reason i have a second HDD. and still doesnt answer the question of what
> to
> do once i install to the second drive. if you read some of the other posts
> regarding this exact same setup, they are all quite different. i was under
> the impression this was a Microsoft sponsored site. where are the
> Microsoft
> people?
>
> "pippin" wrote:
>
>> You can do either I went for a second hard drive install with mine as the
>> PC
>> is not my main one. I have XP on one hard drive and Vista on the 2nd one
>> which was completely empty.
>>
>> If you use a partition on C just make sure you have left enough space as
>> I
>> think this is when installs can be a problem. Make sure to take an image
>> first actually if you go by the warnings it is best on another computer
>> not
>> the one you rely on.
>>
>> my preference was a completely free second HD and a different computer.
>>
>> "Confucious" wrote:
>>
>> > i have looked at all the threads and from reading there seems to be
>> > some real
>> > random ways of installing Vista. i want to install Vista with XP.
>> > should i
>> > have two drives or just two partitions?

point well taken AJR.
i would like to say that i am not looking for a point by point explanation,
but i hope you understand where im coming from. you are correct there are
many posts, i have read many of them (for the past two weeks), the thing i
understood is that there are multiple ways to acomplish "dual boot" but
nobody seems to agree, and thats what i mean. so with that:

i have XP pro x64 on a sata hdd 250gb
i currently have a brand new sata 250gb hdd which i would like to have Vista
build 5728 x64 installed to
i run amd x2 3800 cpu with 2gb ram

i burned the iso imagae and have checked it against the md5 sum and it is
good.
that is my box in a nutshell and now just looking for clarification as to
how to begin the install.
should i boot from DVD or from XP? will it keep the drive letter designation
or loose it? (in otherwords will XP be C: in both systems?)

Booting from the DVD makes it much harder to clean things up if the install
fails (like it did on my system). If you do a clean install from within XP
and the install fails it will either automatically rollback and remove all
the files it installed or give you the option to rollback. When I did a DVD
install that failed I had to spend hours manually removing all the stuff
Vista installed. Personally, I have had so many problems with trying to
unsuccessfully install either the 32 ot 64-bit versions of Vista I may pass
on it all together! Never seen a Release Candidate that can't even be
installed my PC!

"Confucious" wrote:

> point well taken AJR.
> i would like to say that i am not looking for a point by point explanation,
> but i hope you understand where im coming from. you are correct there are
> many posts, i have read many of them (for the past two weeks), the thing i
> understood is that there are multiple ways to acomplish "dual boot" but
> nobody seems to agree, and thats what i mean. so with that:
>
> i have XP pro x64 on a sata hdd 250gb
> i currently have a brand new sata 250gb hdd which i would like to have Vista
> build 5728 x64 installed to
> i run amd x2 3800 cpu with 2gb ram
>
> i burned the iso imagae and have checked it against the md5 sum and it is
> good.
> that is my box in a nutshell and now just looking for clarification as to
> how to begin the install.
> should i boot from DVD or from XP? will it keep the drive letter designation
> or loose it? (in otherwords will XP be C: in both systems?)
>

really, you really think RC1 is a bad idea in genereal? i have seen many
posts with hung installs, i just figured it was because of bad burns, but you
are thinking otherwise? how many installs have you done of Vista? just
wondering?

"THOMAS KOLAKOWSKI" wrote:

> Booting from the DVD makes it much harder to clean things up if the install
> fails (like it did on my system). If you do a clean install from within XP
> and the install fails it will either automatically rollback and remove all
> the files it installed or give you the option to rollback. When I did a DVD
> install that failed I had to spend hours manually removing all the stuff
> Vista installed. Personally, I have had so many problems with trying to
> unsuccessfully install either the 32 ot 64-bit versions of Vista I may pass
> on it all together! Never seen a Release Candidate that can't even be
> installed my PC!
>
> "Confucious" wrote:
>
> > point well taken AJR.
> > i would like to say that i am not looking for a point by point explanation,
> > but i hope you understand where im coming from. you are correct there are
> > many posts, i have read many of them (for the past two weeks), the thing i
> > understood is that there are multiple ways to acomplish "dual boot" but
> > nobody seems to agree, and thats what i mean. so with that:
> >
> > i have XP pro x64 on a sata hdd 250gb
> > i currently have a brand new sata 250gb hdd which i would like to have Vista
> > build 5728 x64 installed to
> > i run amd x2 3800 cpu with 2gb ram
> >
> > i burned the iso imagae and have checked it against the md5 sum and it is
> > good.
> > that is my box in a nutshell and now just looking for clarification as to
> > how to begin the install.
> > should i boot from DVD or from XP? will it keep the drive letter designation
> > or loose it? (in otherwords will XP be C: in both systems?)
> >

There aren't many bad installs, so I would not worry. If you want to worry,
then the only 100% safe install is with only your new drive connected.
Install fails, you just plug in your original drive again, set the BIOS to
have it first in boot priority and you are back in business. A little more
difficult to set up dual boot, but if you can select which drive to boot
from during post as many BIOS's do, you have an easy way to set up. Both
drives are clean for booting and you select the drive, not the OS during
boot.
Add the multibooting later after everything is working in both systems.

"Confucious" <Confucious@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:B98F21D2-6244-42FB-91DB-0F80151CC291@microsoft.com...
> really, you really think RC1 is a bad idea in genereal? i have seen many
> posts with hung installs, i just figured it was because of bad burns, but
> you
> are thinking otherwise? how many installs have you done of Vista? just
> wondering?
>
> "THOMAS KOLAKOWSKI" wrote:
>
>> Booting from the DVD makes it much harder to clean things up if the
>> install
>> fails (like it did on my system). If you do a clean install from within
>> XP
>> and the install fails it will either automatically rollback and remove
>> all
>> the files it installed or give you the option to rollback. When I did a
>> DVD
>> install that failed I had to spend hours manually removing all the stuff
>> Vista installed. Personally, I have had so many problems with trying to
>> unsuccessfully install either the 32 ot 64-bit versions of Vista I may
>> pass
>> on it all together! Never seen a Release Candidate that can't even be
>> installed my PC!
>>
>> "Confucious" wrote:
>>
>> > point well taken AJR.
>> > i would like to say that i am not looking for a point by point
>> > explanation,
>> > but i hope you understand where im coming from. you are correct there
>> > are
>> > many posts, i have read many of them (for the past two weeks), the
>> > thing i
>> > understood is that there are multiple ways to acomplish "dual boot" but
>> > nobody seems to agree, and thats what i mean. so with that:
>> >
>> > i have XP pro x64 on a sata hdd 250gb
>> > i currently have a brand new sata 250gb hdd which i would like to have
>> > Vista
>> > build 5728 x64 installed to
>> > i run amd x2 3800 cpu with 2gb ram
>> >
>> > i burned the iso imagae and have checked it against the md5 sum and it
>> > is
>> > good.
>> > that is my box in a nutshell and now just looking for clarification as
>> > to
>> > how to begin the install.
>> > should i boot from DVD or from XP? will it keep the drive letter
>> > designation
>> > or loose it? (in otherwords will XP be C: in both systems?)
>> >