Different MS Vista group ??

[David Morgan \(MAMS\)]

MVPs,

Is there a more focused, more MVP laden group available
in MS 'public-type' (or any other MS forum) for posting a
few general Vista questions?

Thanks,

DM



I've downloaded 600 posts a day for the past three days
and tried to research specific issues of a personal interest.
Trying to read through the little letter, no punctuation, chat-
children's "help" around here (before asking questions that
may have been answered and archived already), is less than
fullfilling, time consuming, and quite un-microsoft like. Doing
an advanced group search turns up mountains completely
useless, argumentative, anti-MS trash to sift through. Help........

 

[Jeff]

David,

Could try Technet, or other, non-MSFT groups,

Here's a general link,
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/community/default.mspx?wt_svl=20017a&mg_id=20017b

or here,
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/community/experts.mspx

But ya never know who may be in here to begin with, if ya don't ask a
question.

What are your "general' Vista questions?
If you asked them, then you might get an answer.

Jeff

 

[Richard G. Harper]

Ignore the trolls and post your questions here - this is as good as it's
gonna get. ;-)

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] (e-mail address removed)
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

 

[Kerry Brown]

Try searching Google groups.

http://groups.google.com/

Go into the advanced search and use a wild card like
microsoft.public.windows.vista.* if you want to narrow down the search. If
you don't find anything applicable post your question in one of the
Microsoft Vista groups and just ignore the trolls who will inevitably
respond if your question involves a topic like UAC or licensing.

 

[David Morgan \(MAMS\)]

Ignore the trolls and post your questions here - this is as good as it's
gonna get. ;-)

I have an Intel D945Pvs, a couple of gig of ram, running only one peripheral...
an Nvidia G-Force 6500 video card. I installed XP Home before Christmas
and wish to save the tediously tweaked install behind a partition and add a
copy of VISTA to the C: drive. I want to be perfectly certain that my XP clone
is a completely reliable fallback should I decide VISTA comes out (I seriously
doubt that it will because I should have no conflicts). There are only two pieces
of software installed at this time... Acronis True Image ver 9, and Norton Partition
Magic 8.

Can you direct me to a simple set of instructions on installing VISTA Home Basic
and setting up the system for a dual boot with XP Home?

Thanks,

DM

 

[David Morgan \(MAMS\)]

Try searching Google groups.

http://groups.google.com/

Go into the advanced search and use a wild card like
microsoft.public.windows.vista.* if you want to narrow down the search. If
you don't find anything applicable post your question in one of the
Microsoft Vista groups and just ignore the trolls who will inevitably
respond if your question involves a topic like UAC or licensing.

Thanks Kerry,

Google advanced group search has been an ally for many years. It doesn't
seem to be helping me much in this case because of the high number of trolls
and huge amount of irrelevant bickering... that of which I've entered myself over
the past couple of days. Sorry.. but I've finally become tired of perusing as many
as 1000 posts per day in search of intelligent life.

I just responded to Richard H. with a request for bual boot instructions, as I'm of a
mind that despite the apparent idiot factor, that I can probably have success with
VISTA in a brand new box... I'm anxious to see it and have a pretty good idea of
things to watch out for. If Richard doesn't get back to the thread, please feel free
to offer up a response.

Thanks,

DM

 

[David Morgan \(MAMS\)]

Ignore the trolls and post your questions here - this is as good as it's
gonna get. ;-)

By the way... I've read this page...

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/help/8572be9b-8580-49f7-9719-b3a4c42749fe1033.mspx

And I get the impression that I would have to install XP all over again behind
another partition and lose my tweaking. Yet I see a number of complicated
references to simply cloning the current C: to another partition and then
doing a clean install of the upgrade to VISTA.

 

[Leo]

Leave your XP as it is and install Vista (a full version) to another
partition and all should be well.

--
Leo

For every difficult and complicated question there is an answer
that is simple, easily understood, and wrong.
H.L. Mencken

 

[Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User]]

Sorry, I don't dual-boot and don't recommend it with XP and Vista due to the
problems inherent in the process. I'd image the XP box and save that image
in a safe place (external hard drive) then go for the Vista install. If it
fails, don't activate Vista and put the XP image back while sorting out the
errors, finding drivers, and/or deciding how to address the problems.

 

[Kerry Brown]

I just responded to Richard H. with a request for bual boot instructions,
as I'm of a
mind that despite the apparent idiot factor, that I can probably have
success with
VISTA in a brand new box... I'm anxious to see it and have a pretty good
idea of
things to watch out for. If Richard doesn't get back to the thread,
please feel free
to offer up a response.

I agree with Richard. I don't like dual boot setups if they can be avoided.
I prefer to install one OS and one others in virtual machines if needed.

 

[David Morgan \(MAMS\)]

Sorry, I don't dual-boot and don't recommend it with XP and Vista due to the
problems inherent in the process.

I thought it was a simple matter, with the last OS determining your boot.

I'd image the XP box and save that image
in a safe place (external hard drive) then go for the Vista install.

It's already behind another partition, but I could pick up an external.

If it fails, don't activate Vista and put the XP image back while sorting out the
errors, finding drivers, and/or deciding how to address the problems.

There should be no problems... this is a brand new machine with virtually
zero peripherals... unless you're saying that an 256meg Nvidia e-Ge_Force
6500 is already (6 months) too old to be compatible with VISTA.

 

[David Morgan \(MAMS\)]

Leave your XP as it is and install Vista (a full version) to another
partition and all should be well.

I would have thought so... but apparently there are other opinions to the contrary.

 

[David Morgan \(MAMS\)]

I agree with Richard. I don't like dual boot setups if they can be avoided.
I prefer to install one OS and one others in virtual machines if needed.

Mmmm.... but this is what I *want* to do if there's even enough confidence
that the VISTA OS will simply run on a 6 month old (new), still virgin machine.

 

[Meanon]

Mmmm.... but this is what I *want* to do if there's even enough confidence
that the VISTA OS will simply run on a 6 month old (new), still virgin machine.

Why not simply install a second hard drive (they're certainly cheap
enough if you don't already have a spare laying around) and use your
BIOS to select the boot drive? It's a bit of a pain in the butt to
have to go into CMOS setup to switch boot drives (ie.- switch
operating systems) but it will give you the ability to run both
operating systems of a C: drive and not have to worry about losing
your tweaked XP install.

 

[Leo]

I have seen those opinions but little in the way of support for those
opinions.

I dual boot and have zero problems with the exception of deletion of Vista
restore points when I boot into XP. This causes no difficulty for me as I
have up to date Acronis images of my XP and Vista installations and data.

--
Leo

For every difficult and complicated question there is an answer
that is simple, easily understood, and wrong.
H.L. Mencken

 

[Richard G. Harper]

I'm saying there are too many problems, already well-described in this
newsgroup and on various web sites, to recommend dual-booting unless you are
prepared to go to extremes (using a boot manager that can hide one OS'es
partition from the other, for starters) to make it work. Period.

--
Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] (e-mail address removed)
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

 

[David Morgan \(MAMS\)]

I'm saying there are too many problems, already well-described in this
newsgroup and on various web sites, to recommend dual-booting unless you are
prepared to go to extremes (using a boot manager that can hide one OS'es
partition from the other, for starters) to make it work. Period.

Very well.

I'll return the product to Microsoft for now.

Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] (e-mail address removed)
* NEW! Catch my blog ... http://msmvps.com/blogs/rgharper/
* PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups
* The Website - http://rgharper.mvps.org/
* HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm

I thought it was a simple matter, with the last OS determining your boot.


It's already behind another partition, but I could pick up an external.


There should be no problems... this is a brand new machine with virtually
zero peripherals... unless you're saying that an 256meg Nvidia e-Ge_Force
6500 is already (6 months) too old to be compatible with VISTA.

 

[David Morgan \(MAMS\)]

OK.... according to Richard (MVP), and a few hundred archived posts, it doesn't
work. According you, and a few hundred archived posts, it works fine. I want to
either install the damned purchase along side XP in a brand new box, or I want
to return it... I'm tired of reading the horror stories (mostly from the clueless) and
the less than grand responses from the tumultuous numbers of "wanna' be" help
(also mostly clueless), and tired of visiting web sites that aren't addressing the
issue of installing VISTA to dual boot with XP as of yet.

What if I lose the tweaking I've done to the XP install and start from scratch...
would the proceedure change and be any safer? Have you seen my other
entries in the thread describing the system?

Are you saying that a clean install of an Upgrade version will not work?

Do I understand correctly that it is a *must* to use two separate drives (which
I already have... installed, partitioned and formatted) ?

I don't care *anything* about artificially generated backups and restore points;
as with you, everything is manually backed up a number of ways. If there are
ways to turn these options off, I will. The last thing I want to see is hard drive
content that grows while you sleep.


Thanks,

--
David Morgan (MAMS)
http://www.m-a-m-s.com
Morgan Audio Media Service
Dallas, Texas (214) 662-9901
_______________________________________
http://www.artisan-recordingstudio.com


One 40 Gig IDE, partitioned:

C: Fat-32 - primary - My Computer - contains XP Home (tweaked to my liking)
E: Fat-32 - logical - XP B/U - contains an Acronis clone of C:

One 300 Gig SATA, partitioned:

F: NTFS - primary - Misc. Storage / BU - unused /empty
G: NTFS - logical - Vidio Files - unused /empty
H: NTFS - logical - AudioFiles - unused /empty
I: Fat-32 - logical - Win98SE - unused /empty

I have an Intel D945Pvs, a couple of gig of ram, running only one peripheral...
an Nvidia G-Force 6500 video card (PCIe).

 

[Leo]

Strict accordance with the rules requires deactivation of the OS license you
are upgrading from. However, there is a well documented procedure that
allows you to do a clean install with a upgrade version of Vista while
retaining your old OS and dual booting. Some say this violates the rules
and some say it does not.

In my case I have installed a full version of Vista on a different partition
of the one drive in my computer and it works flawlessly. I have yet to see
detailed reasons of why some say it does not work. It works for me and I
see no reason why it won't work for you.

--
Leo

For every difficult and complicated question there is an answer
that is simple, easily understood, and wrong.
H.L. Mencken

 

[David Morgan \(MAMS\)]

I've paid for and own both OS's... and I intend to run them both for at
least 30 days once I have mustered up the energy to take the time.

Is there a link to this "well documented proceedure"? (Sorry, but I am
not having any luck finding anything dealing specifically with XP and
VISTA). I may just put 98SE somewhere on the machine as well...
I've already allocated space, and I'm about resigned to starting all
over with the loading proceedure... as that seems to be a must for
successful multi-booting.

Many thanks,

DM