What do you think would be best?

[ingeborgdot]

I have vista 64 as my main os. Would it be best to run a dual boot using xp pro or to make a virtual machine and add xp pro that way?

 

[Rik]

A virtual machine would be easier provided you can find software that works well with vista 64.

 

[Nodsu]

If your system can handle it, definitely use a VM. That is unless you want to play some 3D games in that XP instance..

How much free RAM do you have? You want to dedicate at least 512MB to XP. With Vista I'd say you need at least 2GB total to have a smooth experience.

 

[ingeborgdot]

I have the Q6600 oc to 2.8 and 4gb or high performance ram. I haven't gone to the 8000 series as there are no real benefits yet. I have the 7900 series. Will I take any performance hit if I do virtual instead of dual boot?

 

[Nodsu]

Yes, there is always a performance penalty. With normal desktop use, it will be almost unnoticeable on modern hardware.

In the gues OS there is absolutely no hardware acceleration, so nothing in there will benefit from your video or sound card.

 

[ingeborgdot]

The reason I would need to go over to xp would be for video editing. There is little software out for 64 bit yet. I need hardware acceleration and all the power I can get. I think a dual boot would work best for my situation.

 

[ingeborgdot]

After looking around I think I may dual boot but some say I need bartpe. Is this true or can I just install xp and do my stuff and then install vista and go about my business?

 

[Crazy]

you don't need partpe or anything.
All you need to do is install xp on another partition and if needed change the boot.ini file. And then you'll have your dualboot.
Nice and simple

 

[ingeborgdot]

I have xp installed already. I will be installing vista next. How will I know if I to change the boot.ini file. What do I do if it is needed?

 

[Crazy]

Don't know if you can start the Vista install from XP, but if you can do that you won't need to do anything.
If you make a clean install on another drive(booting from cd), and you don't get a bootmanager, then you'll need to change the boot.ini.
You can google it, there are allot of tutorials/help about the boot.ini file etc.

 

[ingeborgdot]

I have dual booted and all seems to be working fine but I have a question. On my xp side my drives are different then on my vista side. I loaded xp first so c: was xp. Then I loaded vista later and when I was on my vista side vista became c: at least on vista side. I then formatted E: and my other hdd F. I looked at my drives on vista and here is what they are-
C: Vista
D: XP
E: Music and documents
F: Pictures, videos and programs files

When I go to my xp side the drives are arranged differently.
C: XP
D: Music and documents
E: Vista
F: Pictures, videos, and program files
It seems to be working fine but is this the norm. I tried to arrange it right but this is how it turned out. Anyone care to explain? Thanks.

 

[Crazy]

You can change the driver letter in "Disk Management", right click on "this computer"/"computer"(vista) and then manage.

 

[ingeborgdot]

Do you know why this happened?

 

[Crazy]

A drive letter is just something windows gives your partition. The drives arn't in a "fixed" order or anything

 

[ingeborgdot]

I changed two letters but the documents letter won't let me change. It sticks and just sits there. I had to do a restart and then mmc.exe came up. Also another time it actually said microsoft management console and I had to end it. Wierd stuff.