M
MATT
Hi,
I've got a Dell laptop, with Vista Home Premium, and I love it.
I need to install XP as well, and make it a dual boot system, because I want
to run some audio software using XP.
Right now, my ~300GB drive is partitioned as follows:
I want to create a new partition to install XP on, but cannot do so b/c I
have four partitions already. I cannot delete the EISI partition - I would,
but am unable to.
What's my best approach here?
Should I get a good disk partition software (Disk Magic isn't (yet)
Vista-ready), move & resize my partitions as I want them, then install XP
(and fix the MBR)? If so, any recommendations?
Or should I backup everything and wipe the whole disk clean, then install
XP, partitioning the drive into four parts (Recovery, VISTA, XP & DATA)? If
I do that, I don't know if I can install Vista - Dell didn't include
installation disks, they included recovery disks. Would I be able to use
those disks to install Vista on a specific partition, or would they just
wipe my disk clean and return it to factory install state?
Many thanks!
Matthew
I've got a Dell laptop, with Vista Home Premium, and I love it.
I need to install XP as well, and make it a dual boot system, because I want
to run some audio software using XP.
Right now, my ~300GB drive is partitioned as follows:
78MB: Healthy EISA partition, which I cannot delete using Disk Management.
RECOVERY: 10GB.
C: (Vista), using 12 out of 80 GB, haven't been able to shrink it further.
80GB unallocated - this used to be in C:, then I shrank C:
DATA: 90GB
FREE SPACE: 40GB
I want to create a new partition to install XP on, but cannot do so b/c I
have four partitions already. I cannot delete the EISI partition - I would,
but am unable to.
What's my best approach here?
Should I get a good disk partition software (Disk Magic isn't (yet)
Vista-ready), move & resize my partitions as I want them, then install XP
(and fix the MBR)? If so, any recommendations?
Or should I backup everything and wipe the whole disk clean, then install
XP, partitioning the drive into four parts (Recovery, VISTA, XP & DATA)? If
I do that, I don't know if I can install Vista - Dell didn't include
installation disks, they included recovery disks. Would I be able to use
those disks to install Vista on a specific partition, or would they just
wipe my disk clean and return it to factory install state?
Many thanks!
Matthew