Rather than installing a second HDD into my PC, can I partition my existing 160Gb drive and install Windows Vista onto the new partition?
2007-01-18 05:40:19 · 3 answers · asked by MPatrinos 3 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
Yes, you can, but beware. When I tried the Vista Beta, it was sucky and stupid and installed a new bootloader that overrides the old XP one. If you decide you don't like Vista and you want to uninstall it, the Vista bootloader is still going to be present on the Master Boot Record. You're going to need to do a format /mbr. You're basically going to have this problem whether or not you install it on a second drive or not, but I'm just warning you. I think I remember too that Vista likes to be on the primary partition of the hard drive and not the secondary partition. The primary partition is the partition the computer loads from first. So not only will you have to parittion the drive, you'll have to set the Vista partition as primary. Partition magic can do this, and maybe the Vista installer. Good luck.
2007-01-18 05:45:57 · answer #1 · answered by merlinn31 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Check your BIOS, if it allows you choose an alternative operating system at boot up, then it should be OK However, I wouldn't mess with Vista until it's fully debugged. Remember Millennium?
2007-01-18 14:27:01 · answer #2 · answered by Trixie Bordello 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I have done this.
It worked perfectly.
I have since uninstalled it.
That worked perfectly too.
You can still choose to go to XP at boot.
You machine returns to its original state with your XP as default.
2007-01-18 14:08:34 · answer #3 · answered by Apple Crumble(Devils Advocate) 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋