Dual Booting a Dell

[Kubie]

I believe I'm in the correct forum with this question.

I'm contemplating buying a Dell with Vista. When my Windows 7 O/S is shipped, I would like to install XP Pro and the Win 7 and dual boot.
Can I do this?
I also realize that if I buy a 64bit pc, I won't be able to unless I purchase XP 64 bit. The only reason for going with the 64 bit pc is that the price seems to be a little cheaper.
By the way, this will be a Dell refurbished pc.

TIA Carl

[EzyStvy]

If you install the older operating system first - dual booting is a piece of cake. (provided you have two partitions or two hard drives)

AND you can run a 32 bit OS on hardware designed for 64 bit.

[Kubie]

Originally Posted by EzyStvy If you install the older operating system first - dual booting is a piece of cake. (provided you have two partitions or two hard drives) AND you can run a 32 bit OS on hardware designed for 64 bit.

I didn't know that Steve. I do know that the HDD will be more then big enough, but I do have some HDD's here I can use to keep the O/S s separate.
Thank you.
Carl

[piniongear]

Originally Posted by Kubie I didn't know that Steve. I do know that the HDD will be more then big enough, but I do have some HDD's here I can use to keep the O/S s separate. Thank you. Carl

Just keep in mind that you will not be able to install XP on a machine that already has Vista on it.
Separate hard drive or not.
There is no way to 'uninstall' Vista either, so you will have to install XP over it, formatting the Vista drive, and then install Vista or Win 7 after XP........ pg

[EzyStvy]

Actually you can install XP second...It isn't easy but it's do able

Install Windows XP on Your Pre-Installed Windows Vista Computer

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...vista-computer

[piniongear]

Actually you can install XP second...It isn't easy but it's do able

Yes, I tried that and found it was too complicated for me. Add to that the 'not free' Vistabooter and I found it much easier to wipe clean the partition Vista was on, and start over installing XP followed by Vista........ pg