[CJIS]

I have downloaded and put to DVD the new Windows Vista beta 2 and I wish to use this on my current PC. I have windows XP installed on my C:\ and wish to install Vista on my empty E:\, will this be possible and will it create problems with my Windows XP.

[Advertisements]

Hi CJIS...

The configuration you are looking at should work very well. Just pay attention during the install to make sure Vista installs to the proper directory (E:).

About the only thing installing Vista this way will "do" to XP is to add a line to the boot.ini file and give you the option at startup to select which operating system you want to boot to.

wannabe1

[wannabe1]

Hi CJIS...

The configuration you are looking at should work very well. Just pay attention during the install to make sure Vista installs to the proper directory (E:).

About the only thing installing Vista this way will "do" to XP is to add a line to the boot.ini file and give you the option at startup to select which operating system you want to boot to.

wannabe1

[CJIS]

OK thankyou

[CJIS]

Works perfectly, but how would I remove Vista when I am done with it without destroying my XP partition, could I just format the Vista partition?

[wannabe1]

Yes...you will be able to just format the Vista partition to remove it if you want to be rid of it.

[gerryf]

just a point of clarification---adding Vista does MORE than add a line to your boot.ini

It actually writes a new boatloader

Yes, formatting the e: drive will remove vista as an OS, but leaves the boot loader

there are a couple of things you can do

first, when vista installed, it created a folder called c:\boot

inside, you will find several files, but the most important:

fixntfs
fixfat

after formatting the e:, to restore your old bootloader, you would open a command line and type

fixntfs -xp
or
fixfat -xp (if c: drive was formatted as fat)

Or, you can boot with the recovery console and type

fixboot c:

[CJIS]

Thankyou

[Caracas]

I found Vista beta 2 to be quite unstable... I'll wait until there is a better version

just a sidenote

greets

[gerryf]

i did not find it to be unstable--but it was kind of "slow"

the post beta 2 release (5456) is smoother on my low end machine, but less stable in networking.