questions on dual-booting

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MrMetal_53

[H]ard|Gawd
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Apr 21, 2006
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I'm sorry if this is in the wrong forum, but I figured it might be better off in the general hardware forum than in the hard drive forum.

Anyways, I just received my free copy of Vista Ultimate from Microsoft for the WFP program. Instead of doing a fresh install, I was thinking of dual-booting Vista Ultimate x64 and XP Home. XP home is already installed on my C: drive. C: has about 65 gigs free after the basic windows installation and some random overclocking programs and monitors. I also have a 320 gig HD (D: drive) with around 250 gig free, and this holds my games, music, and other media.

Now, I've been looking into dual-booting and found this guide. It doesn't seem that hard to do, I just have some logistical questions:

1) If I use GParted to partition my C: drive so it will contain both the old XP partition and the new Vista partition, would giving the Vista partition 40-50 gigs of space be enough? Is that too much, too little, etc.?

2) Once I install it, if I boot into Vista, I shouldn't have to do anything to see the D: drive, correct? I mean, it will be there, but I won't be able to access any of the games that were installed under the XP format, right?

3) Overclocking: I have my gaming rig running the specs below:

E6750 @ 3.6 ghz (8*450)
2 gig of Bufallo Firestix running at DDR2-900
8800 gts 640 mb (running at something like 612/965)
SB X-Fi Gamer

This overclock has been proven stable in XP. I am going to install the new ram that I bought (2 x 2 gb of OCZ PC2 6400 ram) so that I can have four gigs for Vista. How does overclocking work? Is it the same as with one OS running? Should I run the stress test in both XP and Vista to verify stability? This is the only part of the dual-booting that I am slightly worried about and a little confused. Any guidance is most welcome.
 
40-50GB should be fine for vista, i don't use it on my main rig anyways...

i beleive that in my main rig, XP is installed on the 80GB drive and vista is on an 80GB partition of the 160 with another 80GB for games etc. this then means that in XP the XP partition is C:, the vista partition is D: and the data is E:, but in vista the vista partition is C:, the XP is D: and the data is E:

of that made any sence at all, godo luck...

i used that same guide for my dual boot, so it worked for me...

are you in australia? or did you jsut find the article?
 
My Vista Ultimate x64 Windows folder is 18GB, so 40-50GB should be okay - obviously some room is needed for things outside the Windows folder too, like the swapfile, potentially a hibernation file, and the things it puts in the Users and Program Files folders.

You'll be able to see the data on all your drives, but you won't be able to run things unless they're fairly simple programs that don't need Registry entries, other components installed etc.

If you've stress-tested it in XP then I would be very surprised if it wasn't fine in Vista, although I've heard a few people claim that their overclock wasn't stable in Vista - skeptical though. I guess you could run it for a while in Vista just to verify.
 
Thanks for the response, guys. I appreciate it.

To soundguy: Thanks for the information. I'm not in Australia, it was just the first guide that came up when I googled "dual booting vista and xp."

To mithent: Thanks for the heads-up about running programs off the D: drive. I feel that now that Vista is more mature, I shouldn't run into any driver conflicts, OC problems, etc. I'm looking forward to getting some time to install the memory and get this dual-boot going :D

I thought of another question: This might be stupid, and sorry if it is: The guide says to put GParted on a CD and run it. Can I just as easily install it on DVD and run it (assuming that my PC has a DVD-RW drive?) I have a bunch of DVD-Rs lying around, and no CD-Rs :confused:
 
Ok, so I've got a question. Obviously the overclocking of the CPU and memory is done via the BIOS. Overclocking the video card (at least the way I did it in XP) was to manipulate the clocks in the Windows environment using RivaTuner. Now, I remember back when Vista came out, people could not use RivaTuner to keep the overclocks of their cards (they would revert every time the computer was restarted). Is this still the case for RivaTuner (Ver. 2.09) in Vista Ultimate x64? Obviously I would much rather do this than have to flash the BIOS of my card. I have my 8800 gts 640 mb overclocked to 621/965 in XP. Is it safe to assume I can achieve the same OC in Ultimate?

By the way, the whole dual-boot/GParted went so smooth. It was so easy. I love the way Aero looks, it just has such a clean feel to it :D My next task it to install SP1. Will it show up under the Windows Update, or do I need to do that on my own?
 
As for the RivaTuner thing - I do not know.. I do not have any experience with OCing video cards - I don't game at all...

As for the Windows Update - SP1 should be seen in the automatic update... If not, I would download it from MSFT's website... also while you're at it. Might as well slipstream it into a new install disk if you ever need it (google slipstreaming) and you can use nLite (google that too) but that's just my suggestion.
 
huh, odd - i posted in a different thread and it showed up here...
 
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