XP Pro to Ultimate upgrade vs new install

[Chris Cowles]

As stated in the subject, I have XP Pro on my home computer, and ordered
Vista Ultimate (not upgrade). I plan to initially install it as dual-boot.
I need to be able to use XP Pro reliably until I'm sure Vista is stable,
and I've found all the necessary driver and program updates.

After I'm happy and ready to ditch XP Pro, can I somehow abandon the XP Pro
partition and dual-boot, without having to jump through hoops? Or am I
better off simply starting over with a clean install at that point?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Rock]

As stated in the subject, I have XP Pro on my home computer, and ordered
Vista Ultimate (not upgrade). I plan to initially install it as dual-boot.
I need to be able to use XP Pro reliably until I'm sure Vista is stable,
and I've found all the necessary driver and program updates.

After I'm happy and ready to ditch XP Pro, can I somehow abandon the XP
Pro partition and dual-boot, without having to jump through hoops? Or am I
better off simply starting over with a clean install at that point?

Jump through hoops? Well you will have to do the same things you would do
to remove any dual boot. I am running Vista and XP in a multi-boot setup
for printer compatibility.

There are some important issues to be aware of in dual booting XP and Vista.
The main one is that when booting into XP, XP deletes all the system restore
points, shadow copies and backups created by Vista on partitions XP can see.
There will be no fix for this.

The way around this is to either hide the Vista partitions from XP (several
ways to do this), or use bitlocker on the Vista partition, or use a drive
imaging program to keep regular images of the Vista drive, thus mitigating
the lose of that recovery data.

 

[Kevin Young]

As stated in the subject, I have XP Pro on my home computer, and ordered
Vista Ultimate (not upgrade). I plan to initially install it as dual-boot.
I need to be able to use XP Pro reliably until I'm sure Vista is stable,
and I've found all the necessary driver and program updates.

After I'm happy and ready to ditch XP Pro, can I somehow abandon the XP
Pro partition and dual-boot, without having to jump through hoops? Or am I
better off simply starting over with a clean install at that point?

Thanks in advance.

While either is possible I personally would do a clean install after dumping
the XP Partition. One thing to note about dual boot is that XP will destroy
your Vista restore points unless you hide your Vista partition from XP. You
can do this by using Bitlocker on the Vista partition if you purchased Vista
Ultimate or by using a third party boot utility that provides this
functionality.

 

[Chris Cowles]

While either is possible I personally would do a clean install after
dumping the XP Partition. One thing to note about dual boot is that XP
will destroy your Vista restore points unless you hide your Vista
partition from XP. You can do this by using Bitlocker on the Vista
partition if you purchased Vista Ultimate or by using a third party boot
utility that provides this functionality.

I did purchase Ultimate and while I don't know what Bitlocker is, I'll
figure it out from the doco.

I'll probably re-do a clean install when I'm ready.

 

[Chris Cowles]

Jump through hoops? Well you will have to do the same things you would
do to remove any dual boot. I am running Vista and XP in a multi-boot
setup for printer compatibility.

There are some important issues to be aware of in dual booting XP and
Vista. The main one is that when booting into XP, XP deletes all the
system restore points, shadow copies and backups created by Vista on
partitions XP can see. There will be no fix for this.

The way around this is to either hide the Vista partitions from XP
(several ways to do this), or use bitlocker on the Vista partition, or
use a drive imaging program to keep regular images of the Vista drive,
thus mitigating the lose of that recovery data.

I've heard of the restore point deletion issue and will investigate using
Bitlocker. I bought Ultimate and understand it's included.

I never set up a dual-boot system but am confident I can create one. What I
don't know is how to remove the XP partition when ready.

Thanks for your reply.