Hi, George.
No matter where you choose to install the bulk of Vista (or any other
Windows), it will put its startup files in the System Partition. That is
the Active (bootable) primary partition on the HD designated in your BIOS as
the boot device. After installation, on each reboot, the system will start
in that System Partition, where it will learn such basic facts as how to
recognize other partitions and folders, and to find an operating system,
load it, and switch control to it. Like the letter "Y", it will always
stand on that single leg, but then branch to whichever OS you choose for
that session.
I cannot remember whether to boot from DVD or from Windows?
If you boot into your existing Vista HP desktop and run Vista's Setup from
there, Setup will see the "drive" letters that your Vista HP has assigned
and will respect those assignments. Your present Drive C: will remain Drive
C:. Vista Setup will, of course, have to choose a not-yet-assigned letter
for its own "boot volume", which is where it will install its own \Windows
folder tree. If you like, you can use Disk Management from Vista HP to
assign a letter (U: for Ultimate?) to the new partition that you plan to use
for Vista Ultimate.
If you run Setup by inserting the DVD and then rebooting from it, Setup will
not know Vista HP's existing drive letter assignments. It will start from
scratch and assign the letter C: to its own boot volume; then it will most
likely assign the next letter to the System Partition. So when you boot
into Vista Ultimate, the partition that Vista HP calls C: will probably be
D: in Vista Ultimate.
In either case, Setup will ask which partition on which HD you want to use
for the new installation. No matter which method you use, after the
installation, each OS will maintain its own letter assignments and will not
know what the other OS has assigned. It will be up to you to use Disk
Management in each system to keep the letters synchronized, if that's what
you want. You can easily change the letters for any volumes except the
System and Boot volumes. For the definition of these terms, see KB 314470:
Definitions for system volume and boot volume
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314470/EN-US/
Installing a 64-bit Windows alongside a 32-bit Windows is not a problem for
the computer. Neither is the situation of having different drive letters
after rebooting into the other OS. And it should not be a problem for you,
once you adjust your mindset to deal with a dual-booting system.
RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 0908 in Win7 x64 6801)
