Dual boot with 2 drives

[Guest]

Many of the discussions have centered around creating partitions and dual
booting from one physical drive, but what about two drives?

I currently have a 320 gig hard drive with xp media center. My Vista
upgrade disk should be coming from dell this week. I dont want to mess with
my current drive because I know several programs wont work with vista. Can
I install a second 500 gig hard drive and install vista on that drive? will
it automatically create a dual boot system? When I add the 2nd hard drive,
should I format it from xp first, or from the Vista installation disk.

 

[Lee]

Many of the discussions have centered around creating partitions and dual
booting from one physical drive, but what about two drives?

I currently have a 320 gig hard drive with xp media center. My Vista
upgrade disk should be coming from dell this week. I dont want to mess
with
my current drive because I know several programs wont work with vista.
Can
I install a second 500 gig hard drive and install vista on that drive?
Yes

will
it automatically create a dual boot system?

Yes

When I add the 2nd hard drive,

should I format it from xp first, or from the Vista installation disk.

Choose the partition size and format it from Vista Setup.

Lee

 

[Guest]

I wasnt planning on partitioning the 2nd drive. I wanted to leave it as a
single 500 gig drive and install vista on that.

another question. Assuming this works and I have a dual boot system with xp
and vista on their own drives, can files be transfered from one drive to
another? I have 150 gigs of photos and video that I would want to transfer
from my xp drive to my vista drive.

 

[John Barnes]

It is unlikely that the Dell update disk will let you dual boot, but you
can't legally do it anyway. You would need licenses for both operating
systems and you don't have them.

 

[Guest]

I thought it was too good to be true. I didn't think there would be a legal
problem because both installs would be on the same computer, but I guess
thats not the case.

 

[Lee]

I wasnt planning on partitioning the 2nd drive. I wanted to leave it as a
single 500 gig drive and install vista on that.

Every hard drive has a partition, so in your case it would be one.

another question. Assuming this works and I have a dual boot system with
xp
and vista on their own drives, can files be transfered from one drive to
another? I have 150 gigs of photos and video that I would want to
transfer
from my xp drive to my vista drive.

Yes, you can copy or move such files from one hard drive to another. The
first drive will continue to be C: and will contain the boot files for both
systems, so it will be necessary to leave it in place in order to run Vista.
The Vista drive will take the next available letter.

Lee

 

[Lee]

I thought it was too good to be true. I didn't think there would be a
legal
problem because both installs would be on the same computer, but I guess
thats not the case.

Perhaps not, but I'm not so sure that you will not be presented with the
option to install to a different drive. Dual booting is not illegal, it is a
supported scenario

Lee

 

[Lang Murphy]

Not with upgrades. An upgrade -replaces- the existing OS, license wise. Only
a full install copy would fit this scenario, license wise.

Lang

 

[Lee]

Not with upgrades. An upgrade -replaces- the existing OS, license wise.
Only a full install copy would fit this scenario, license wise.

I don't see why that should be the case, you have paid in full for the
pre-existing OS, that is the reason you got a discount, not because you
pledge to stop running the old one as a dual-boot. In any case, even if you
are correct in strict EULA terms, it may still be possible to run Setup from
the CD and choose the new disk as the location for the install, the presence
of the old OS would be sufficient to alllow the install to proceed and the
boot menu would likely get installed. I could be wrong, but Dell OEM OS
disks are usually pretty close to retail.

 

[John Barnes]

There are always those who can't read, or who come up with some excuse to
justify theft.

 

[Guest]

Since yoou seem to know a lot about the legality of these installs, would it
be legal if I bought an additional oem xp copy from a local store and
installed it on the second drive before the vista upgrade? I would have
bought 2 copies by doing so? If that doesnt work, I'm ready to just throw
the upgrade disk into the desk drawer. This vista upgrade is more of a
headache than it seems to be worth. Especially for a bloated os loaded with
DRM schemes.

 

[Lang Murphy]

I don't see why that should be the case, you have paid in full for the
pre-existing OS, that is the reason you got a discount, not because you
pledge to stop running the old one as a dual-boot. In any case, even if
you are correct in strict EULA terms, it may still be possible to run
Setup from the CD and choose the new disk as the location for the install,
the presence of the old OS would be sufficient to alllow the install to
proceed and the boot menu would likely get installed. I could be wrong,
but Dell OEM OS disks are usually pretty close to retail.

Well... the issue here is the Vista upgrade. That's an upgrade to an
existing OS which means it replaces the existing OS's license. If one
purchases a full license, then, yes, one can continue to use both OS's.

Lang

 

[John Barnes]

Either way would be perfectly legal. Put Vista upgrade in a drawer until
later, or install it over your Dell oem, and install the additional copy of
an OEM XP purchased from the local store on the other drive. If you want
help deciding how to set up the dual boot situation if you go with the later
method, post back. There are ways that make the machine more flexible.

 

[Lee]

There are always those who can't read, or who come up with some excuse to
justify theft.

There is no theft involved, every crime involves some form of harm and there
is none here. User pays full price for XP, and thereby qualifies to use the
upgrade version of Vista, which he also pays for. Whether not the user wipes
out the existing XP during setup or leaves it intact as a backup or to run
some legacy app should be of no consequence to anyone but him. If the user
downloaded Vista as a torrent, installed it and applied an activation crack,
THEN he would be stealing the software.

 

[Lee]

Well... the issue here is the Vista upgrade. That's an upgrade to an
existing OS which means it replaces the existing OS's license. If one
purchases a full license, then, yes, one can continue to use both OS's.

Is the existing OS deactivated if Vista upgrade is installed as a dual boot?
In my view what we are talking about here is an unfair and unreasonable
restriction.

 

[John Barnes]

You agree to be legally bound by the EULA when you use software and
therefore agree that in exchange for the discount you agree to fold your XP
license into the Vista license and cease the use of XP. It does take
integrity to abide by your agreements, though.

 

[Lee]

You agree to be legally bound by the EULA when you use software

I realize that, it's implied in the acronym.

and

therefore agree that in exchange for the discount you agree to fold your
XP license into the Vista license and cease the use of XP.

That's not an argument, it is tautological, an empty reassertion of opinion.

It does take

integrity to abide by your agreements, though.

That ill-mannered remark is nothing more than an implicit admission that you
are ill-equipped to discuss this issue substantially. However I'll give you
a benefit of the doubt which you have not earned and ask a followup
question. What about Virtual PC? Microsoft provides a Vista compatible
version of VPC free for users to run other operating systems within Windows,
are you suggesting that they would consider it theft if someone installed
their existing copy of Windows XP in a VPC session in order to run some
piece of software or hardware that will not work in Vista directly? There is
no logic or sense of reason behind the rigid position you are taking.

And quit top-posting, it's also rude.

 

[Lee]

You agree to be legally bound by the EULA when you use software

I realize that, it's implied in the acronym.

and

therefore agree that in exchange for the discount you agree to fold your
XP license into the Vista license and cease the use of XP.

That's not an argument, it is tautological, an empty reassertion of opinion.

It does take

integrity to abide by your agreements, though.

That ill-mannered remark is nothing more than an implicit admission that you
are ill-equipped to discuss this issue substantially. However I'll give you
a benefit of the doubt which you have not earned and ask a followup
question. What about Virtual PC? Microsoft provides a Vista compatible
version of VPC free for users to run other operating systems within Windows,
are you suggesting that they would consider it theft if someone installed
their existing copy of Windows XP in a VPC session in order to run some
piece of software or hardware that will not work in Vista directly? There is
no logic or sense of reason behind the rigid position you are taking.

And quit top-posting, it's also rude.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

That ill-mannered remark is nothing more than an implicit admission that you
are ill-equipped to discuss this issue substantially. However I'll give you
a benefit of the doubt which you have not earned and ask a followup
question. What about Virtual PC? Microsoft provides a Vista compatible
version of VPC free for users to run other operating systems within Windows,
are you suggesting that they would consider it theft if someone installed
their existing copy of Windows XP in a VPC session in order to run some
piece of software or hardware that will not work in Vista directly? There is
no logic or sense of reason behind the rigid position you are taking.

The EULA does not employ sense or logic. Those who quote it repeatedly
are nothing but mindless parrots. Microsoft itself does not enforce several
of the EULA provisions because they would not be defensible in court.

 

[Lee]

The EULA does not employ sense or logic. Those who quote it repeatedly
are nothing but mindless parrots. Microsoft itself does not enforce
several of the EULA provisions because they would not be defensible in
court.

Exactly right. Meanwhile their lawyers dictate that MS spokepersons must pay
lip service to this absurd extreme interperation of the EULA because to do
otherwise they fear that it might lead to some unforseen loophole in their
legal position. The question is, what should honest people do who have paid
good money for the right to use this software in a reasonable and fair way?
It *benefits" Microsoft to enable users to continue to use their existing
operating system as a fallback while adapting to the new one,
on_the_same_pc.