Hello, I would like to know how to dual boot between XP (with a lot of stuff already installed) and Vista, I want to do it now considering the semester is almost done and I want to take advantage of my wonderful Student Discount. Thanks.

I know you are probably just trying to get some feedback from those that have already done it but it might work out better to google 'how to dual boot xp and vista' first, read a few articles, and then come back with a few, more specific questions.

BTW Google responds with 1.3M answers and at least the first page looks pretty good.

And searching here will give you quite a few hits as well.

good luck.

I hope to dual boot with XP and Vista on my desktop machine, so I still have a XP installation for software that will not run under vista.

Ya, Google is your best bet for stepwise instructions. Its really easy though, not like Linux or anything, which can be trickier. Unless you want to do a complete reformat, then you will need to create another Primary partition on you existing harddrive, or use another drive (which is harder, u have to change which one to boot from in the BIOS). You do not want to install both XP and Vista on the same partition.

Anywho, get a program like Partition Magic 8 to create a new partition (its really intuitive to use.. defragment first), or use the XP installation cd to delete all your existing partitions, and create at least 2 new ones (or however many you need).

From there, just install XP on one partition, and Vista on the other. You will be given an list during launch about which one you want to launch.

Only question --- what is your computer as it seems like existing computer --- which may be problem for vista or may not be--- but dont know specs so dont know what advice to give --- what are specs of computer ---- main thing i can give =-=== atleast have 2 gigs of mem --- and the latest hardware graphics adaptor which is vista certified (or capable??? but may not work with vista version you are using?)---- dont know what you are trying to do or spec of system so cant give specific recommendation.

Can you give computer spec you are using and version of vista --- then can give specific comment as to recommendation.

All you need is another available primary partition.
It can be on the same hard drive or on a completely different hard drive.

During the Vista install, choose this new, blank partition and Vista will install as a second OS and leave you with a boot menu that says..

(1) Earlier version of Windows (which will be your existing XP install)
(2) Vista


As an AID to myself, I labeled the volumes as "MAIN-XP" and "MAIN-VISTA" to make it easier to move/copy files once I was up and running.