Am I better with 32-bit?

[Guest]

Hi,

Firstly, the download for the 64-bit says its about 13mb lol, so dunno whats
goin on there.

Secondly, will I be "safer" using the 32-bit version as a lot of my programs
are older and I dont want to mess about re-installing XP etc... becuase half
my drivers or programs wont work lol. ???

Also, my HDD isn't massive. If I installed Vista on a seperate partition,
will I get a message asking me which OS to use when I boot up? and if I
choose vista will I be able to access my documents etc...as I would normally
with XP? Or can I only have one OS?

Cheers,

 

[Dustin]

SilentOlsenwrote
Hi

Firstly, the download for the 64-bit says its about 13mb lol, s dunno whats
goin on there

Secondly, will I be "safer" using the 32-bit version as lot of my programs
are older and I dont want to mess about re-installing XP etc.. becuase half
my drivers or programs wont work lol. ??

Also, my HDD isn't massive. If I installed Vista on a seperat partition,
will I get a message asking me which OS to use when I boot up? an if I
choose vista will I be able to access my documents etc...as I woul normally
with XP? Or can I only have one OS?

Cheers

As for the 13MB download. Try again. That is a common error, and i
associated with the downloading process

I'd stick with the 32 bit version for now, as you have the olde
programs and want full driver compatibilty (which is still hard wit
Vista!).

And, yes, if you install Vista on another partition or HD, you do ge
an option at boot as to what OS you want to boot to

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

If you have two empty partitions or drives why not install both?

 

[Guest]

because my HDD for the comp I want to install is only 60GB, and I only hav
18GB left lol.

Btw, how much should I partition for the installation?

 

[Kerry Brown]

18 GB isn't really enough. You will have to leave some room for your other
OS. You should buy another hard drive to install Vista on or go on a serious
cleanup mission before re-partitioning the hard drive. At a minimum you'd
want 30 GB free, 15 - 20 GB for Vista and the rest for the other OS. You'll
need a 3rd party tool to do the re-partitioning. You should also backup
before attempting this.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I suggest that you add a drive. By the time you allocate even the 15GB
minimum required for Vista you will not leave sufficient for XP to run
smoothly. Even 15 GB for Vista only allows enough for the installation
(11GB), pagefile, temp files, etc. Vista dwarfs XP in every dimension I
know of.

 

[Todd]

I would go the other way. I would use the drive manufacturers software to
partition the new hard drive, and then copy the old operating system into
the first partition.

Then I would install the new hard drive as the primary master to prove that
it works before doing anything else.

Then I would remove the new drive, and install the old drive as the
secondary master.

Boot from the x86 Vista DVD, partition the old drive into two 30 Gig
partitions, and install X86 Vista onto the first partition.

Boot from the 64bit Vista DVD and install 64bit onto the second partition.

Reinstall the new drive as the primary master.

Use the BIOS to select which drive to boot to.

Make sure all three Operating Systems work.

This way Vista won't know about your old XP operating system, and won't mess
with the MBR.

Todd

 

[Guest]

I agree with everyone a little-add another hard drive 30-60(30 for only one
Vista OS) but I have tried dual booting a couple ways and I prefer to boot
Vista install from XP desktop so when I am running Vista or XP my drive
letters remain constant and it seems to boot better on my PC. I run my
drives in Cable Select mode instead of master/slave too.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

On more modern system (SATA drives and such) it will not affect the boot up
which method the poster uses or which drives he chooses to put which
operating systems on.

 

[Jim Fraas]

This is what I have done,despite having a well running 32 bit partition
installed clean FROM XP.
Reinstalled 32 bit booting from the DVD.

 

[Guest]

Well I have another HDD in my comp with about 30GB free space now.

Also, will Vista beta 2 work on a pretty good laptop? I'm talking 2GHz,

 

[Todd]

I also use cable select, which is what Maxtor recommended for my new 200 Gig
hard drive.

Just the same, since the new hard drive is jumpered to be cable select and
the black cable connector is on the hard drive, it is cable selected to be
the master.

Since the DVD burner is jumpered to be cable select, and the grey cable
connector is on the DVD burner, it is cable selected to be the slave.

The old drive is jumpered to be the Master.

Todd

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Good job. That will be a much better target.

Well I have another HDD in my comp with about 30GB free space now.

Also, will Vista beta 2 work on a pretty good laptop? I'm talking 2GHz,