Installing XP and Vista on same computer

[namooney]

With so many difficulties with installing and playing games on Vista, is it
possible to have both XP and Vista installed on the same computer? I am
getting a new Dell 420 with a 500 GB hard drive, Quad Core Processor, and 3GB
of RAM. I was going to take a relatively new hard drive from my old computer
and install it in the Dell 420 so I would have two hard drives. Could I
install XP on the other hard drive and play my games from there with the same
functionality that I have with my older desktop that runs XP SP2?

 

[GreenieLeBrun]

With so many difficulties with installing and playing games on Vista,
is it possible to have both XP and Vista installed on the same
computer? I am getting a new Dell 420 with a 500 GB hard drive, Quad
Core Processor, and 3GB of RAM. I was going to take a relatively new
hard drive from my old computer and install it in the Dell 420 so I
would have two hard drives. Could I install XP on the other hard
drive and play my games from there with the same functionality that I
have with my older desktop that runs XP SP2?

Yes, install XP first then Vista.

Two caveats, make sure you can get XP drivers for your hardware from Dell
and be aware that each time you boot up XP it will erase your Vista restore
points and shadow copies etc., there are some products that avoid this, one
is BooiT Next generation (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/) but it costs
money.

 

[peter]

or here is another little trick
disconnect the original HD and install XP onto the HD your moving. XP cannot
see the disconnected drive so nothing on that drive will be changed. When
you have finished setting up XP the way you want shut down and reconnect the
Vista drive. Check your boot order in the BIOS so you know which drive has
which OS.
The catch to this is that you need to tell the computer which drive(OS) to
boot from...either by entering the BIOS each time and changing the boot
order or if your new system is capable of it by means of pushing an F?
during the booting process which would bring up a boot order screen for you
to chose which drive to boot from.
This way both drives have an unchanged Master Boot Record...and if you
decide to abandon XP just remove or format that drive ...no major hassles in
playing around trying to change a VISTA MBR.
peter