Dual Boot with USB ket?

[Guest]

I am looking to dual boot my system with XP and Vista RC1 with out the Vista
boot loader.

I installed Vista to a separate HD than my current XP install. When I did
the install I disconnected the XP HD so Vista could not see it.

I can boot to both Vista and XP by changing the boot drive in my BIOS, which
works but is a pain at times. What I am trying to do is load Vista boot
manager onto a USB. That way in my BIOS I can put the USB key as my primary
boot device and my XP HD as my secondary device. If the key is in I can load
Vista if the key is not in then it will boot XP.

Does anyone know how to do this? I am thinking it can be done by making a
boot CD/DVD also. Any help will be appreciated.

 

[Techno-Crat]

Well that's cool but your boot file contains the instructions for both boot
devices
Not sure your going to have much luck with that
Maybe a third party boot manager ?
but in XP the boot.ini contained the info
now Vista uses a new one
keep us informed on your adventure

 

[bob]

Hi

Another option is the following so you won't have to swap your hard disks in
your BIOS - see http://www.vistabootpro.org/intro.php
- it worked for me

 

[Guest]

UPDATE:

Not sure if it would help any one looking at this, but neither OS has boot
information about the other sytem.

So when I switch to my Vista HD in the bios the boot loader does not know
there is an XP system and vice versa. I did this on purpose so Vista would
not take over with it's boot loader. Being that I am only testing and not
running full time on Vista I wanted to be able to rebuild that drive anytime
I wanted without affecting my main XP OS.