Vista and XP on the same computer?

It's time to get a new computer. I'm currently using a Compaq T8000
(purchased in Nov. 2002). Drive D became "toast" and can't be formatted,
and Drive C is getting worse and worse.

I have read various messages about Vista. Some love it, and some hate it.
Is it possible to have *both* Vista and XP installed on the same CPU, and
made my selection at bootup? If so, is there a downside (other than disk
space) that I should consider?

Thanks,
MaryL

On Sat, 5 Jan 2008 11:44:17 -0600, "MaryL"
<-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote:

>I have read various messages about Vista. Some love it, and some hate it.
>Is it possible to have *both* Vista and XP installed on the same CPU, and
>made my selection at bootup?

Sure. Get Partition Magic. There's probably other choices as well.

> If so, is there a downside (other than disk
>space) that I should consider?

None whatsoever. Well, perhaps the slight increase in boot-up time.

>Thanks,
Welc!

"Paul Knudsen" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Sat, 5 Jan 2008 11:44:17 -0600, "MaryL"
> <-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote:
>
>>I have read various messages about Vista. Some love it, and some hate it.
>>Is it possible to have *both* Vista and XP installed on the same CPU, and
>>made my selection at bootup?
>
> Sure. Get Partition Magic. There's probably other choices as well.
>
>> If so, is there a downside (other than disk
>>space) that I should consider?
>
> None whatsoever. Well, perhaps the slight increase in boot-up time.
>
>>Thanks,
> Welc!

Thanks very much. I was hoping that would be the answer.

MaryL

MaryL wrote:
> "Paul Knudsen" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> On Sat, 5 Jan 2008 11:44:17 -0600, "MaryL"
>> <-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote:
>>
>>> I have read various messages about Vista. Some love it, and some hate it.
>>> Is it possible to have *both* Vista and XP installed on the same CPU, and
>>> made my selection at bootup?
>> Sure. Get Partition Magic. There's probably other choices as well.
>>
>>> If so, is there a downside (other than disk
>>> space) that I should consider?
>> None whatsoever. Well, perhaps the slight increase in boot-up time.
>>
>>> Thanks,
>> Welc!
>
> Thanks very much. I was hoping that would be the answer.
>
> MaryL
>
>

It is indeed possible to dual boot with Vista/XP, but you don't need to
spend money on Partition Magic. The setup routine on the Windows Vista
installation disc (Windows XP disc as well) will permit partitioning of
your hard drive.

Install Windows XP first, if you try this...then install Windows Vista.
If you install in reverse order, Windows XP will wipe out the Vista
bootloader.

"Bill" <> wrote in message
news:%y4gj.11453$...
> MaryL wrote:
>> "Paul Knudsen" <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>> On Sat, 5 Jan 2008 11:44:17 -0600, "MaryL"
>>> <-OUT-THE-LITTER> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I have read various messages about Vista. Some love it, and some hate
>>>> it.
>>>> Is it possible to have *both* Vista and XP installed on the same CPU,
>>>> and
>>>> made my selection at bootup?
>>> Sure. Get Partition Magic. There's probably other choices as well.
>>>
>>>> If so, is there a downside (other than disk
>>>> space) that I should consider?
>>> None whatsoever. Well, perhaps the slight increase in boot-up time.
>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>> Welc!
>>
>> Thanks very much. I was hoping that would be the answer.
>>
>> MaryL
>>
>>
>
> It is indeed possible to dual boot with Vista/XP, but you don't need to
> spend money on Partition Magic. The setup routine on the Windows Vista
> installation disc (Windows XP disc as well) will permit partitioning of
> your hard drive.
>
> Install Windows XP first, if you try this...then install Windows Vista. If
> you install in reverse order, Windows XP will wipe out the Vista
> bootloader.

Thanks. If I later decide to uninstall XP, will that affect Vista?

I got slowed down a bit in my search for a new computer -- ended up in the
hospital and had surgery last week. I'm going to start looking in a few
days.

MaryL

>
> Thanks. If I later decide to uninstall XP, will that affect Vista?
>
> I got slowed down a bit in my search for a new computer -- ended up in the
> hospital and had surgery last week. I'm going to start looking in a few
> days.
>
> MaryL
>
>

If you ever want to uninstall Windows XP, you'll be perfectly fine...it
won't harm your Vista installation in the least. : )

Best of luck with your search for a new computer. I purchased my current
system, which as an Intel quad core processor, during a sale at CompUSA
back in August. Getting the drive partitioned, and getting things set up
the way that I wanted them, was a monumental headache during the first
few days.

An unexpected issue involved the installation of Windows XP. XP's setup
routine doesn't recognize serial ATA hard drives, and the new system's
motherboard only uses serial ATA connectors. Anyway, an SATA driver had
to be loaded in from floppy disc during the XP setup because of
this--without that driver, the XP install couldn't detect any hard
drives on my system and would halt with an ominous "System Protection
Error." Only one problem--my new system didn't come with a floppy drive,
and XP expected these drivers to be loaded off of floppy. I ended up
tearing it apart that weekend, and installing the floppy drive that was
part of my older system.

I have Vista, WinXP Pro, Win98, Win2000 and 2 or 3 flavors of Linux on my
Vista computer.

All these OS's are on ONE partition and each OS doesn't confect with any
other OS.

I use a program called Parallels
http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/. You load each Operating
system just like you would on a normal computer but Vista being my Host OS
and all the others are a Virtual Computer Systems.

If you want to game this won't work but for running "most" apps this is an
ideal way to run these OS's on a single computer without rebooting. With my
2 GB Ram I can run Vista, Win XP and Win2000 and RedHat Linux all at the
same time ( with tweaking on each VM ram usage)

They have a trial and it's worth a look to see if it suits your needs, and
no I don't work for them I just like the program as it solved my testing
issues for the software I run. Oh and the VM's run fast for almost all of
the programs I run.

c/p from website below

Harness your PC's full power and potential!
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level - including computer professionals, sales executives, and home users -
to easily run multiple operating systems on a single computer. Completely
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a.. Users upgrading to Windows Vista can run legacy software not fully
compatible with the new OS in previous versions of Windows on the same PC.

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different operating systems, all at the same time and reduce dependency on
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Why Parallels Workstation?
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pocket.

"Br40" <> wrote in message
news:47845607$0$4927$...
>I have Vista, WinXP Pro, Win98, Win2000 and 2 or 3 flavors of Linux on my
>Vista computer.
>
> All these OS's are on ONE partition and each OS doesn't confect with any
> other OS.
>
> I use a program called Parallels
> http://www.parallels.com/en/products/workstation/. You load each Operating
> system just like you would on a normal computer but Vista being my Host OS
> and all the others are a Virtual Computer Systems.
>
> If you want to game this won't work but for running "most" apps this is an
> ideal way to run these OS's on a single computer without rebooting.

Thanks. This sounds like a good solution. I don't do any gaming, but I
have a great many digital images on the computer. I want to learn PhotoShop
after I retire in August and would also like to work "a bit" with video
(primarily camcorder clips of my family and cats). I primarily use
WordPerfect and Quattro Pro for professional work, and I still use a *very
old* address program that has suited my needs perfectly, even though it is
no longer published and came before the days of XP.

MaryL