WinXP/Vista Dual Boot - Which Way is Best???

[Guest Scratch1964]

I'm contemplating adding Vista home premium to a desktop PC which has WinXP home already installed. The question is which is the best way to do it for my needs?I ask this question as I have four identical Seagate Barracuda 320GB SATA II drives. One has WinXP O/S installed, two are set up in RAID 0 and the other is still unused (intended either for back up or for Vista O/S.I also run a LAN connection between this desktop and another desktop. Both of these computers run WinXP home SP2.Obviously I can squeeze in a partition on drive C for Vista but I think Vista & WinXP on a 320GB drive might leave me a little tight for space.So, what I had in mind instead was to install Vista home premium 64Bit on to a fresh Seagate drive and keep it entirely separate from XP, then just access BIOS to boot from either of the two O/S.Will this work as well as a dual boot drive? Also can I get LAN to work with the other PC?....(scrtches head in thought) probably can't get LAN to work as the other PC will report a network conflict, or will it?Help & suggestions much appreciated.Scratch1964

[wsieffert 0]

You should be able to add vista to the drive you want. You will have to ensure you add it as an option during startup, i.e., you will be asked which OS to boot on this startup. This will be part of your boot.ini file (I assume Vista still uses this concept). I would search MS website or elsewhere about dual booting Vista with other OS.You indicate you have a LAN to another computer. Do you have a router connected to the other computer or do you set fixed IP addresses. If a router, then I don't see there should be a problem. If fixed IP addresses, then you would have to set the correct IP address in the Vista side after you have installed it.W. Sieffert

[Glynn 405]

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