Here's the deal. We bought a 500 GB HD so that we could wipe our 320 GB out, and put XP on it while cloning whatever was already on it (Vista 64) to the 500 GB drive. However, while installing XP on the 320 GB hard drive, XP decided suddenly that it wanted the 500 GB drive, and started partitioning it. Then, the installer got confused, and halted the partitioning. In the end, both the hard drives were wiped blank, and we lost everything. We found that the 500 GB disk was defective, and now I am stuck with XP 32-bit for the time being. What went wrong?My questions are, is there a way to dual boot XP and Vista on two separate hard drives without just partitioning one? If so, anyone know how to do it?Also, should I go back to FS9? I was wondering if XP 32-bit would have any ill effects on FSX+SP1+SP2 (3 GB switch is enabled).Thanks very much in advance,Regards,

You shouldI installed Vista32 first, then XP, which deletes Vistas boot that is reteaved by "repairing" Vista using a Vista DVD boot repair When in Vista the first time, to make it happy that it is boss, partition the rest of the OS parttions you want from the management apps in Vista, then when installing XP just direct it to the partition you named XP Now if you are installing XP on the same drive be careful It likes to think it is boss too but that can be reapired by repairing VistaThen get BCDedit (freeware) to thereafter manage the dual or triple boot if you then install Vista64 after, using the same key as the Vista32 (if from same DVD)

Cleanest/ Easiest way to boot from different drives is to use the boot drive selector in your bios.On mine, I just press f8 during boot, and then select the boot drive.With other MBs you may have to press delete then go into the bios settings and change the boot drive.That way you don't have to mess around with partitions and boot records.When installing a OS on a driveI disconnect all other drives. That way I'm sure it wont write boot records to different drives.

Thanks for all the replies,In the end, the XP installation partitioned the 320 GB Drive (recognized amount 298 GB) into a 170 GB partition and 128 GB partition. We have the 170 GB for Vista and the 128 GB for XP, however, I'm still wondering how to put an OS on each drive, rather than have 2 OSs on one single partitioned drive. In other words, how can I use the 500 GB drive to dedicate more room to these OSs on the 320 GB drive?Regards,

Now that you've installed XP, you should be able to install Vista onto your second drive very easily. During the installation process you should be presented with a choice of installing to three places: your 170Gb partition, your 128Gb partition or the un-partitioned 500Gb drive. If the 500Gb drive is not immediately "accessible" from the boot options, then you might have to partition it and/or format it, but that can be done from the install programme and is the work of an instant.If your 500Gb drive does not show up in the Vista install programme then you may need to check your BIOS settings. NB: For anyone finding this thread later: it would be quite a bit harder if you'd installed Vista first. If you're in a mess because of this, see this article and note Step 6:http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_a...ystep_guide.htmTim