Vista

[FTD1949 0]

I'm considering installing Vista on a spare SATA drive I have available and either going dual boot or just simply swapping drives. I currently have my OS on 1 drive while FS9 and FSX reside on their own drive. My question is will Vista see the drive where FS9 and FSX reside, will they work?, and would I be able to swap the drives between XP and Vista if I wasn't happy with Vista at this point with my hardware config. Also what version(s) of Vista are recommended. I do have a 64 bit processor. Craig ASUS A8N- nForce SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCIe MOBOAMD ATHLON64 3500+ CPU w/ HT TechLG GWA-4161 DVD/CDSeagate ST3160811AS 160GB Barracuda 9 7200RPM 8MB SATA II 3Gb/s NCQSeagate ST3160811AS 250GB Barracuda 9 7200RPM 8MB SATA II 3Gb/s NCQEVGA 7950 GT KO PCIe 512mb nvodngov19147-[Guru3D.com] drivers SB Audigy 22G Corsair PC 3200 400MHZ Dual Channel DDR Super Alien 500W P/STrack IR3 w/vectorCH Yolk & RuddersFS Genesis Terrain MeshActive SkyRC4

[Jay R 0]

Hey There Craig,It's a very good idea to install Vista and XP as a dual boot configuration. Vista should run nicely on your setup, as yours is similar to my own. I run Vista Ultimate. However 'Home Premium' may work fine for your needs:See this link for more info:http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/...ns/default.mspxYou can buy the 32-bit Vista or the 64-bit, if you do by the 32-bit version now, I believe Microsoft will allow you to buy the 64-bit for a much reduced price if you choose to do it that way.Your installation of Vista will be able to see the other hard drives or partitions on your PC no problem. As long as they are FAT, FAT32 or NTFS file systems. Be sure on install of Vista you choose the advanced install option to be able to choose which partition to install to. Feel free to PM or post here again for any questions you have.Hope this little bit of info will help you.[hr width=100%" size=1 color="black]http://forefrontgrp.com/MyLogo2.JPGJason | General Aviation Fan

[FTD1949 0]

Jason, Thanks for the response. I may take you up on the pm at some point in the future. Craig

[Guest iwantmydc3]

One concern I have about "uprading" to Vista is only the "Ultimate" edition (which happens to be the most expensive; how about that) will let you do an "in place" upgarde from XP Pro; the other versions must do a "fresh install." I'd use caution with this.

[W2DR 1,859]

I'd always do the clean install regardless of the version. There is no other way to insure that it's right (at least as right as any new OS can be).Doug

[Guest Buck Bolduc]

>Hey There Craig,>>It's a very good idea to install Vista and XP as a dual boot>configuration. Vista should run nicely on your setup, as>yours is similar to my own. I run Vista Ultimate. However>'Home Premium' may work fine for your needs:>>See this link for more info:>http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/...ns/default.mspx>>You can buy the 32-bit Vista or the 64-bit, if you do by the>32-bit version now, I believe Microsoft will allow you to buy>the 64-bit for a much reduced price if you choose to do it>that way.>>Your installation of Vista will be able to see the other hard>drives or partitions on your PC no problem. As long as they>are FAT, FAT32 or NTFS file systems. Be sure on install of>Vista you choose the advanced install option to be able to>choose which partition to install to. Feel free to PM or post>here again for any questions you have.>>Hope this little bit of info will help you.>>[hr width=100%" size=1 color="black]>http://forefrontgrp.com/MyLogo2.JPG>>Jason |>General Aviation FanJason I agree with you. I have the Ultimate Edition also. If memory serves one of the differences between Home Premium and Ultimate is the addressable memory in 64 bit. Unlimited for Ultimate, but lets face it, maybe down the road.I dual boot with XP and Vista 32 bit, haven't tried 64 bit yet.Dual booting works great. NVidia's recent drivers are fine, at least with the 8800GTX. I run 1600x1200 16q-AA and 16x-AF.With a clean install one can choose any drive or partition. With NVidia drivers I could NOT use the Vista drivers for install, Vista has a "Load Drivers" menu choice, forget it. I found (trial and error) that Vista installs straight away with XP drivers. After install I upgraded the drivers and increased the Vista score thingy from 4.1 score to 5.9. The score thingy is Vista's built in performance rating, 5.9 is the highest. Found that out after fooling around for an hour trying to make it go faster, higher.Some report a reduction in FPS with Vista, have had no problems like that, same as XP. Not sure if the reported slowdowns are vid card or CPU related.When in and around KFJK I get very good frames, close to 30 FPS. I started a flight from KDFW and the frames were a bit lower? I did move the ground traffic more to the right side tho. But even with frames at 22-28 the smoothness and handling on the ground and takeoff were fine, no stutters or pauses etc.Too bad Avsim has a 150kb JPEG limit.

[Guest iwantmydc3]

> I'd always do the clean install regardless of the>version. There is no other way to insure that it's right (at>least as right as any new OS can be).>>DougYes, but the problem with that as far as a truly different OS (Vista is not like going, say from 98 to XP; there are big changes), you will lose a lot of settings and other things that may be usable in an upgrade. I've heard two big areas of concern are graphcis card and some types of peripheral drivers. And it's just my personal thing, but I don't mess with ANY new OS for at least a year, maybe two, unless there will be a new computer involved.

[Tabs 2,790]

To answer the original question, no you are not going to be able to use your FS installs on the other HD - there's registry settings and other data used by FS that can only be created through installing on the OS that's running it...I also believe the comment about only Vista Ultimate allowing an upgrade install is false. I know my full version Home Premium can do it...

[Guest alajoa2001]

Hi Guys,I just upgraded from XP Media Center 2005 to Vista Premium 32 bits on my HP a1654n core duo E6300 without any problems, had to reinstall X-FI and ATI x1900xt drivers (was expected..):) I must say i noticed some slowdown on FS9 and FSX, around 20% on fps plus an excessive loading time from menu to flight ?!:( i will investigate more and update..Alain

[Max Kraus 338]

Have been running a dual boot recently. FSX ran badly on Vista but I only have 1 Gb ram and when the OS is using 57% of the physical memory, putting FSX on there is pointless.Doing a reinstall cause I poo-poo'd the boot sector and screwed everything up this week. No rush to reload Vista. I must say It's "nice looking" but Xp will do me fine for ages yet. I'll get 2 or 4 Gb RAm then try again some day.