win xp and vista together

[John]

Hi

My primary SATA disk has win xp. I installed vista on the secondary SATA
drive. At the start-up I get a menu to allow me to select vista or earlier
versions. I am now thinking of wiping out or replacing the primary disk
Would this in any way effect my running of vista from secondary disk? If so
is there any way I can disconnect vista set-up from the primary (xp) disk
before doing anything to the primary disk?

Thanks

Regards

 

[Richard Urban]

Not an easy question to answer as there are many variables that may come
into play.

Questions:

1. Is each operating system installed on a primary partition on it's
respective drive?

2. Was the drive that had Windows XP installed upon disconnected when you
installed Vista on the 2nd drive? Did you, at least, hide the Windows XP
drive with a utility program such as Acronis Disk Director before you
installed Vista?

Vista, like Windows XP, is drive and partition sensitive. If Vista was
installed to drive 2, partition 1 you will lose the ability to boot into
Vista if you remove, or disconnect, drive 1. If you delete the partition on
drive 1 the same thing will happen.

Additionally, if drive 1 was connected, unhidden and fully functional when
you installed Vista on drive 2, the boot code will have been written to
drive 1 while the operating system resides on drive 2. Remove drive 1 and
Vista will not boot.

At this point I would, if I were you, backup any files that I can't afford
to lose. I would then shutdown the computer and disconnect any hard drive
except for your primary drive (drive 1). I would the install Vista on the
primary drive. During the install setup I will get to the point where I can
choose advanced disk options. I would delete any partitions that are
presently on the drive. I would create a new partition for Vista (If you
want to use the entire drive that is your choice). I would create a 30 - 40
gig partition for Vista and install to that partition. I would also create
optional partitions at this point and format these partitions.

After Vista is up and running I would shut down connect the 2nd drive. Upon
booting to Vista I would immediately delete the old Vista partition on the
2nd drive using Disk Management. I would then create a new partition in it's
place. After a reboot the new partition on the second drive will be usable.

I would then copy my backup files back to the computer and install my chosen
programs.

The above scenario is dependent upon you having a retail version of Vista
full install (not upgrade install).

--


Regards,

Richard Urban MVP
Microsoft Windows Shell/User

 

[John]

Please see inline

Not an easy question to answer as there are many variables that may come
into play.

Questions:

1. Is each operating system installed on a primary partition on it's
respective drive?

Yes, xp on primary, vista on secondary.

2. Was the drive that had Windows XP installed upon disconnected when
you installed Vista on the 2nd drive? Did you, at least, hide the Windows
XP drive with a utility program such as Acronis Disk Director before you
installed Vista?

No.

Can I now disconnect primary (xp) disk and then reinstall vista on secondary
(currently vista) disk over the existing vista install to make things any
better i.e. disk 1 independent?

Thanks

Regards

 

[Richard Urban]

When you boot into Vista the way it is now, is Vista being seen as residing
on drive C:?



--


Regards,

Richard Urban MVP
Microsoft Windows Shell/User

 

[John]

Well vista was installed on F drive which is the primary and only partition
on second (secondary) SATA disk. I presume that only "boot" part is on C
which is the primary (and xp) partition on primary SATA disk. Like this

Primary SATA: C: E: partitions, C: has xp installed before vista.
Secondary SATA: F: had vista installed on it while primary disk (above) was
still enabled.

 

[DP]

For what it's worth, on my machine when I choose Vista from the two options
at bootup, the disk it's on shows up as the C drive. But if I choose XP Pro
x64 at bootup, its drive shows up as the C drive. And these are two separate
physical drives.
It realigns the drive letters whenever I boot up.
I don't mind this (as long as I never forget what it's doing). I only bring
it up so that the OP is careful not to wipe out the wrong drive.

 

[John Barnes]

Why don't you try disconnecting XP, boot to the Vista DVD and see if you can
do a startup repair.