dual boot

[Tracy]

Hi I have a computer with Windows XP on a sata drive. I was given Windows
Vista Ultimate and decided to install it on another drive (IDE) so I
disconnected my sata drive and installed Vista on the ide drive So now I
want to dual boot between Vista and XP as my printer and scanner do not have
drivers for Vista. So I reconnected my sata drive but it now shows as drive
E: Is there an easy way to set up dual booting or should I wipe Vista, get
my computer booting from the sata drive, then reconnect the IDE drive and
install Vista again.

A new printer and scanner are not an option at this time.

Any help appreciated, Tracy

 

[Mike]

Hi I have a computer with Windows XP on a sata drive. I was given Windows
Vista Ultimate and decided to install it on another drive (IDE) so I
disconnected my sata drive and installed Vista on the ide drive So now I
want to dual boot between Vista and XP as my printer and scanner do not have
drivers for Vista. So I reconnected my sata drive but it now shows as drive
E: Is there an easy way to set up dual booting or should I wipe Vista, get
my computer booting from the sata drive, then reconnect the IDE drive and
install Vista again.

If your BIOS has a way to change the boot drive, then use that. Vista
will come up as drive C when it boots, and XP will come up as C when it
boots.

I *think* that if you had left your sata drive attached, Vista would
have seen it and added XP to the "Boot Menu", allowing you to select
which OS to boot when you power on.

There are also 3rd party software options to control your boot up, but
you shouldn't need any of these unless you have no BIOS method to change
boot drive.

Mike

 

[Tracy]

I *think* that if you had left your sata drive attached, Vista would
have seen it and added XP to the "Boot Menu", allowing you to select
which OS to boot when you power on.

Hi I did it that way in case I screwed up my sata drive as the only way for
me to reinstall my original XP installation is via a hidden partition after
pressing F10 during boot up (Mesh Computer) I can in fact change the boot
order, I had never noticed that option before :-(

So all fixed now I can play to my hearts content with Vista without screwing
anything up of my original installation

Thanks Tracy

 

[babaloo]

Vista boots fast, has great solitaire and hearts games.
Unfortunately it is unusable for many common tasks that actually require
productive luck.
Since you switch boot drives through your BIOS you may miss one of Vista's
most retarded features: if you dual boot to XP via the Vista boot manager
Vista deletes your Vista restore files!
Among the many dumb decisions that went into Vista that may be the corker.