Dual Boot Question I Should Know...but don't.

[djnes]

If I was setting up a dual boot system with XP and Vista 64, how would my drive letters be arranged for each OS? I vaguely remember reading that Vista handles the C drive differently, such that each OS would treat it's system volume as C. Here's how my 2 250 GB drives are partitioned:

Drive 1:
Partition 1: 100 GB Windows XP SP2 installed
Partition 2: ~130GB Windows VIsta64 installed

Drive 2:
Partition 1: 230 GB Data Storage for both OSes.

I believe when I boot to XP, I'd have C and D on the first drive, and E would be my data drive. Now, what happens when I'd boot to Vista? Would Vista's sysvol be C, XP's be D, and then my data drive still be E? It's important to note that my second physical drive will be pulled from the system until both OSes are fully installed.

 

[Catweazle]

I'm testament to the fact that mileage varies. I haven't yet seen an adequate explanation of Vista's drive letter allocations.

Most people seem to report that Vista appropriates the C: drive letter allocation for it's install partition, irrespective of the system configuration. This was certainly my experience when I was running a release candidate. The drive recognised as G: was used, and identified in Vista as C:

Since I've overwritten that installation with a retail installation though the Vista drive is now recognised as G:, just as it is if I boot into XP.

 

[djnes]

Interesting. I guess I'll have to give it a shot to have a definitive answer, as it seems to have changed for you. I have some old games I wanted to play again, that don't run too well in Vista. I'm also a bit unhappy that I'm having the file copy problem trying to back my data up to my server. I'm doing more testing of it before making any final decisions on dual booting or not.