Dual Boot Guide & Operating System FAQ

[Astrotoy7]

I think Jae is a Windows gal, Astro.

 

But I'm afraid, Jae, without a proper installation disc, you're pretty much screwed. :/

 

The only thing I can think of that might work is deploying a backup image of Jaes current install. Of course, you need a third party app to do the backing up, and reinstalling it. But its a helluva roundabout way of doing it

 

I did the equivalent of this with two desktops, using Norton Ghost 9. A backup install was made, and the same image placed onto another desktop PCs HD. It recreated the 80gb partition exactly from the original desktop HD on the new 750GB HDD. I had to go in there with a partition manager later on to clean it up and get the partitions the way I wanted them. Still worked though

 

Activation issues wont apply as you are restoring a snapshot of a full install.

ASTRO EDIT- actually they might! In the instance of **restoring an existing** vista install after an xp install(ie.not a fresh vista install after xp, as in original guide above), Vista may prompt to re-enter a product code, even if you happen to have an enterprise copy of vista that requires no activation!! This is only to particular hardware though. So, just a little warning for those contemplating it. (I had to ring MS to get an 'unlock a product that should never be locked' code)...lolz. If you have the luxury of doing so, installing XP>then Vista fresh(as in the guide above) is the least hasslesome by far, from an activation point of view

 

 

mtfbwya

[Negative Sun]

Be careful with partition managers though Jae, unless you know exactly what you're doing, or you can afford to lose some data and possibly some hair, I wouldn't recommend throwing around partition sizes like that

[Negative Sun]

Just posting to say that this guide has really helped me in dual-booting Vista/Linux, and EasyBCD is pure genius!!!

 

Thanks Astro

 

Two thumbs up from the Fonz for you:

 

[Astrotoy7]

Just posting to say that this guide has really helped me in dual-booting Vista/Linux, and EasyBCD is pure genius!!!

 

Thanks Astro

 

Two thumbs up from the Fonz for you:

 

 

cool bananas. The guide was written for adventurous first timers, just like you negsun! (and me before I wrote it)

 

Easy BCD is a great demonstration of how a well made GUI makes advanced functionalities accessible to all users. Every function in it is do-able via the cmd line prompt, but why bother.... slowly but surely, the more 'people friendly' Linux distros are going down the same path.

 

mtfbwya

[Negative Sun]

cool bananas. The guide was written for adventurous first timers, just like you negsun! (and me before I wrote it)

 

Easy BCD is a great demonstration of how a well made GUI makes advanced functionalities accessible to all users. Every function in it is do-able via the cmd line prompt, but why bother.... slowly but surely, the more 'people friendly' Linux distros are going down the same path.

Damn straight!

[Slvr]

Also another alternative to Dual Booting is the use of virtual machines now. Programs like vmware can launch another system in windowed form and just borrows resources from your host OS.

 

I personally have never dual booted a system but have used a VM when wanting to mess with things (mainly LINUX) and was afraid of messing up my whole system.

 

The only downside really is that any information saved in the VM cannot be transferred over directly to your host OS, you would have to use some sort of external storage device (External HDD or flashdrive) to transfer it.