dual boot with two drives

J

jrg70

Weaksauce
Joined
Jun 23, 2004
Messages
84
I would like to set up a dual boot on my system.
Here's the deal.

I've got a current install of Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit.
My install of Vista is a little screwed up and I'd like to do a reinstall.
Almost all of my documents (mp3s, videos, etc.) are stored on my server so the reinstall would be pretty easy.
I'd like to install a second hard drive and reinstall on that. I would prefer to install Vista 64-bit.

I would like the current install to be unaffected while I'm getting the reinstall configured and getting all the programs installed and running. That way my wife won't get upset during the process. Once the new install is up and running how I want it I can just remove the drive with the old install and be good to go.

Can I do this pretty easily?
Is there any problem with dual booting with 32-bit and 64-bit?
In a perfect world it would be nice to have a prompt when I boot just asking which drive to load the OS from.
When I would upgrade to Windows 7 I would probably want to do it in the same way.

Thanks for any input.
 
I have to ask...but aside from maybe a Cisco VPN, why would you want to dual boot the same OS. VIsta x64 has been around for three years now, and some of us have been using it since the day it was released on TechNet. Dual-booting is pretty much dead now anyway, but there's very little, to no need to dual boot the same OS.
 
the very simply way to do this would be unplug the drive with 32 bit and install 64 on the other one, then once done plug both in and choose which one you want to boot from by changing the boot order in the bios

this isnt really dual booting though since each drive will contain its own boot sector, thus no "option" everytime you turn on your computer
 
I'm not really looking to have the set up going for that long. Maybe just a few days or a week while I set up the new install.

I guess I'm not really doing a dual boot if I have two drives with two completely separate OS. I can have the bios set to boot to which ever one I need at the time.

Very interesting...
 
That is the way to multi boot and keep the installs completely independent of each other.

Unless your motherboard is very old or very cheap, it will let you access a device boot selection menu by pressing F12 during post so that you don't even have to enter the BIOS.
 
You can go into your BIOS and select the hard drive boot order, just change it to whatever drive you want to boot from. Possibly too technical for the wife, but you could leave her install as default, and change it when you want to work on the new one. Then change it back at the end.
 
MrF said:
That is the way to multi boot and keep the installs completely independent of each other.

Unless your motherboard is very old or very cheap, it will let you access a device boot selection menu by pressing F12 during post so that you don't even have to enter the BIOS.
Click to expand...

Yes, forgot about F12

this makes it even easier
 
Standpoint said:
You can go into your BIOS and select the hard drive boot order, just change it to whatever drive you want to boot from. Possibly too technical for the wife, but you could leave her install as default, and change it when you want to work on the new one. Then change it back at the end.
Click to expand...

This is by far the best approach to take for a circumstance such as yours, where you are only looking to have the dual-boot in place for a few days or weeks.
 
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