is it possible to...

[BawllaStyles]

this may be a dumb question but.... i was wondering if it was possible to have 2 diff operating systems on 1 computer, if say i had 2 different hard drives hooked up could i have xp on 1 and vista on the other?

[shadowpr]

Yes, it's possible.

It's called dual boot. There are several guides and threads that discuss this issue.

[amdalex]

If you want you can have a dual boot with windows and Linux. I have Windows XP and Ubuntu 8.10 on my computer with one hard drive.

[minsonngo]

http://www.tweakvista.com/article39206.aspx

[EzyStvy]

How to Multiple Boot Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows 95, Windows 98, and MS-DOS (http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q217/2/10.ASP)

[liambl]

You can have more than 2 as well, as far as I know it is unlimited (or as many as the bootloader will allow).

[BawllaStyles]

wow thats awsome thanks, illl be sure to look into it i need to get a hard drive to, would it be best to run the same kinds of hard drives or is mismatching ok? thanks again i cant wait to have xp and vista!

[amdalex]

It doesn't matter what kind of hard drive, the boot loader doesn't care the hard drive just has to work.

[shadowpr]

I have both my os's on the same hard drive. They just need their own partition.

[BawllaStyles]

http://www.tweakvista.com/article39206.aspx

Hey i followed your TUT there and it doesnt give me the option to dual boot at startup any ideas, i installed xp pro on a 200gig HardDrive and vista 64bit on a seperate terabyte HardDrive
after vista install vista would boot only becuz i had boot order cd rom then hard drive in the Bios boot order options, with vista cd iin ofcourse(and no dual boot options)
but as soon as i switched boot order to Harddrive then cd rom it only would boot xp with no dual boot options aswell.

the only OS that doesnt hav drivers and updates yet is vista 64bit, could that be why there is no dual boot or is it something else?hanks hope som1 can help
t

[Strider]

the only OS that doesnt hav drivers and updates yet is vista 64bit, could that be why there is no dual boot or is it something else?hanks hope som1 can help
t

I have Vista 64 / Windows XP dual boot on my computer and Vista 64 is updating just fine. You need to configure your Boot.ini file (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022). I did a quick google search on it, but I would recommend doing a more in depth search on configuring a computer to dual boot or have one here on pcmech explain it better for I have only done it once (This Computer) 6 months ago and my memory isn't what it use to be;).

[BawllaStyles]

i have found i good way to boot both operating sytems works fine just need a little fine tuning with internet connections,

All i do is change harddrive order in bios------>boot------>Harddrives
Works like a charm

allthough 2 options on start up would be much better.