How safe is this, and how does it work?

[Michael A. Covington]

I have a Windows XP system with one disk drive.

What if I...
.... Add a second drive;
.... Install Vista Beta as a dual-boot system to boot off the new drive...

Will this simply add something to boot.ini on the first disk, or will
something more complicated happen? How risky is it?

Will the two operating systems be able to read each other's disks?

 

[Andre Da Costa [Extended64]]

It should work just fine, yes, it will alter the MBR on C: and take over as
the default bootloader, you will still have access to your XP installation
on under the Earlier Version of Windows boot entry on the Vista boot
manager.

Just launch setup from within your existing installation of Windows, when
the Custom option is made available on the Setup wizard, click it and select
the disk you dedicated to Vista.
--
--
Andre
Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com
Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com
Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre
http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta

 

[Michael A. Covington]

Thanks. Can I easily make XP the default? Also, what happens when, later
on, I want to remove drive D: (which has Vista Beta on it) and go back to
one disk and one operating system? Would I just need to edit boot.ini to
get rid of the reference to the no-longer-existent disk and OS?