Switchable OS?

[Red.Anthem]

Okay so I have this Dell XPS 410 with XP home on it. I just bought a new computer from ibuypower that im stoked about, only deal is it comes with vista home 32bit. Now I have 2GB of RAM so it should be fine to run games if i have to on vista, but what I want to do is port all my stuff like my design portfolio from my old computer's hard drive to my new hard drive, put my old hard drive back in my dell, reformat it and reinstall XP, then put it back in my new computer so that one HD has vista and one HD has XP. I have to put my hard drive in my dell to reformat it because it has that proprietary license thing where it wont install xp unless it recognizes the computer as part of the family of Dells mine is in. So after having both OS systems(one on each HD) would that work correctly? Would I be able to decide which one to boot to on startup? I would use Vista while working in Adobe CS3 and such, and XP for games to save more memory. Since I still have the OEM license to XP i should be able to use it right?

[3NVY]

Hi Red...

Here's is an advanced way to do it but this is my personal preference: You need some partitioning software (I highly recommend Paragon Partition Manager PRO or Enterprise versions - they are great and will work with BOTH XP & Vista...there are other programs out there but I have found Paragon's to be the current best one). I recommend AGAINST using the old hard drive for gaming assuming it's slower than your new one...I would personlly use it for data storage.

1. Install partitioning software.

2. Create bootable CD/DVD version of the program for non-windows use (or create floppies)...the program will have a wizard to do this.

3. Partition drive (2 or 3 partitions)

4. HIDE the Vista partition within the software and mark the 2nd new partition ACTIVE

5. Reboot & Install Windows XP on the 2nd partition (in will install as C: which is what you want...I advise against dual booting (i.e. making XP boot as D:, etc...ALWAYS make it C: )

6. Boot into XP, load the partitioning software in XP

7. Unhide the Vista Partition with the software

8. Whenever you want to switch OSes, you just open the partitioning software and mark the current one INACTIVE, and the one you want to boot to ACTIVE...next time you boot it will be to the other OS.

*** NOTE: NEVER Install Vista AFTER XP!! Long & complicated but trust me!...if you have to reinstall Vista back up xp to an image file, install vista then restore the XP image file ***


The other way to do it as you said is just to hook up the 2nd hard drive to the computer and *** IMPORTANT *** disconnect the one with Vista on it...install XP on the old one (do all the updates etc.), reconnect the vista hard drive. Some mobos have a nice bios boot menu so when you hit ESC or something a menu comes up asking which drive to boot. If you don't have this, all the partitioning softwares have boot menu stuff that can be installed, or you can just get programs specifically designed for boot menuing. Do not let Vista sink it's claws into XP as it can ruin the OS and you won't be able to boot it...this is why I recommend a mutually exclusive setup option. Some bioses also will allow you to change the boot priority of the drives...

[Red.Anthem]

yes those both sound easy enough...but the catch is I MUST install XP on the old drive while using my OLD computer because it was an OEM OS install so it checks to make sure its actually the Dell computer before it installs. Then I will take it out, disconnect my vista hard drive, put the old drive in and do a repair or an IDE dump so it recognizes the new hardware, then reconnect my vista hard drive.

OR...take the vista hard drive out, put it in my dell, partition it like you said, and install XP on a second partition, then put it back in my new computer, along with my old hard drive(completely formatted blank since both OS's are on the same hard drive), repair or dump the IDE to recognize the new hardware and then use the partition software to mark which partition to boot from.

OR... run vista 32 alone since 2GB of ram will probably still run games plenty well even on vista and have my other hard drive completely reformatted. It is already partitioned so one partition on the old drive has just my portfolio stuff in it, so I could reformat the windows partition and leave the second one alone.

[ziadoz]

Why would you want to use XP over Vista anyway though?

[isp_of_doom]

NEVER Install Vista AFTER XP

You're talking about running 2 OS's at once right? So install Vista first, then XP second.

Also: why not dual boot? (dual booting is where you have 2 OSs installed at once, right?)

Why would you want to use XP over Vista anyway though?

Because Vista takes way more processing power, uses UAC.... read everything there ====>>>> http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en...e+Search&meta=

[3NVY]

yes those both sound easy enough...but the catch is I MUST install XP on the old drive while using my OLD computer because it was an OEM OS install so it checks to make sure its actually the Dell computer before it installs. Then I will take it out, disconnect my vista hard drive, put the old drive in and do a repair or an IDE dump so it recognizes the new hardware, then reconnect my vista hard drive.

OR...take the vista hard drive out, put it in my dell, partition it like you said, and install XP on a second partition, then put it back in my new computer, along with my old hard drive(completely formatted blank since both OS's are on the same hard drive), repair or dump the IDE to recognize the new hardware and then use the partition software to mark which partition to boot from.

OR... run vista 32 alone since 2GB of ram will probably still run games plenty well even on vista and have my other hard drive completely reformatted. It is already partitioned so one partition on the old drive has just my portfolio stuff in it, so I could reformat the windows partition and leave the second one alone.

NO NO NO NO...never ever move a hard drive from one system to another and let it do a hardware detect...you are asking for major trouble and building on a foundation of sand. You must then "Obtain" or borrow a non-dell copy of the OS from someone and install it on the new computer...

Also, Vista is A LOT slower for gaming at the moment so I would recommend running both and "advanced dual booting" as per my first post.

(isp of doom: yeah, I was only saying that I wouldn't dual boot by install a second OS to a D:, etc...which would cause all pointers in the registry to point to D: which can cause headaches later if you want it as a main C: )

[ziadoz]

Because Vista takes way more processing power, uses UAC.... read everything there ====>>>> http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en...e+Search&meta=

Vista runs much better than XP. It also utilises your RAM properly. People somehow think XP leaving loads of free memory is improving their performance.

As for UAC, its good for the average home user, but its not exactly hard to disable. All the not getting Vista articles are just FUD anyway.

[3NVY]

Vista runs much better than XP. It also utilises your RAM properly. People somehow think XP leaving loads of free memory is improving their performance.

As for UAC, its good for the average home user, but its not exactly hard to disable. All the not getting Vista articles are just FUD anyway.

Have you benched it yet? If not plz do so and post your results - here's the official bench thread: http://utforums.epicgames.com/showth...=1024x768+only

...I've yet to see a Vista load run faster than an XP load on the same computer.