I'm liking this section. I've always been afraid to dual-install an OS due to resource requirements. Looking back on it, I suppose those fears have been unfounded.

I have a dual-boot XP / Mepis setup. Installing each OS on its own dedicated drive is the best and safest way to go. I went through six or seven different Linux distros before settling on Mepis. Keeping the XP hard drive and "XP ONLY" hard drive, I was able to swap out LInux distros with ease. The only thing I had to do between installs was boot with my XP disc and do a FIXMBR.

BTW, it helps with data sharing between OSs if you create a small FAT32 partitionon the XP drive. One thing I use it for is syncing profiles for Firefox and Thunderbird between Linux and XP.

Since you can only load Vista ONCE, I bought a second 350 gig WD harddrive from Tiger Direct, installed it into my second drive slot and loaded Vista. I use either or by cracking the case to change two plugs from Drive A to drive B. Basic and simple.

I understand that I'm not the sharpest tool in the shed about puters but I really don't use the drive with xp that often. Thank You for your tips since that's what I like about this website. The free information and techniques are priceless.

BACKUP YOUR PRESENT FILES FIRST
Use Acronis True Image, and create and image of the partition that your present operating system and files are on. Save the image to another HD, or burn it on to DVD disks.

Afterwards with Acronis again = check the image to make sure it is OK. Then using Acronis again, make a CD boot disk so that you can access the image if necessary. With Acronis, all these procedures are rather simple. I consider Acronis miracle software. It's amazing what it can do.

At this point, you can play with your computer, and use what ever operating system you want.

If you don't like the new operating system, or you screw up, you can put your computer back just the way it was originally, by using the boot disk, and the image that you created.

Once you change your operating system, and you are sure that you are satisfied with the new one = DON'T FORGET, make and image of it, then you can simply choose to install what ever operating system you want, anytime you want. About 10-15 minutes is all it takes.

Good Luck

Joseph

Message was edited by: bighunk

A far better way is to run different OS's as virtual machines, sharing the hosts hardware resources etc. This means multi OS's AT THE SAME TIME. There are free servers/players available and very easy to configure for the three main platforms - Win/Mac/Linux. Paid products allow you to run an individual OS application in a 'native' host window, on some platforms at least. Check out VMWares free server for starters.

I use Ubuntu dual booted on a Vista machine and an older XP tablet PC. I run Windows 2000 and Vista in VMWare to run the more problematic compatible programs (and to test Windows software as I build it). I used to run Linux in VMWare under Windows, but Vista finally pushed me over the edge and got me to adopt Linux full-time. Only the Windows partition has a Windows file system. Everything else is ext3, now.

I've also discovered that if you're not afraid of a little tinkering, Linux will run Windows games in WINE (including games that don't run under Vista).

The ONLY scary part of making a 'dual boot' machine is re-partitioning the drive to make room for it. You definitely don't want it to get halfway through resizing an OS partition and then have a blackout. Back up the OS before you 'resize' it, and use a UPS.

VMware (or any other virtual machine software) is also nice for previewing an OS. Virtually all of the Linux distros work under VMware with no problems, and many of them even come with VMware drivers now. So you can at least see it as it 'should look', even if your particular machine has some driver issues. A nice way to run and preview open source software, too, since most of it works best in the environment it was originally developed for.