xp and vista on the same computer??

[ash1900]

i am wanting to put to OS on to one machine( xp and vista)

i am posting on here for some more expert advice before i go spending on OS'S and stuff!
the way i was thinking was having to separate harddrives with 1 HDD with xp and the other with vista on.....

am i right in thinking this?

thanks guys.

 

[r.bartlett]

Or one HDD with 2 partitions..

 

[kjacko]

It can be done by partitioning one drive, but 2 drives are better.
Do the XP one first, then the Vista.
What i do is install the XP os, then disconnect the drive, leaving only a blank connected and install Vista.
When its done, reconnect the other drive back up.
You'll probably find that the pc boots into vista, but you can interrupt this by pressing F11 to bring up the choice of hdd you want to boot from.
Just make sure ALL your hardware is vista compliant or you'll be wasting your time....and money.

 

[foxhole]

Or buy an Intel Mac , then you can have any mix of OS on one computer.

 

[ash1900]

thanks guys.

what would be vista compliant? and what is the cost difference in vista hardware to xp hardware?

 

[kjacko]

You only need to check to see if your hardware is vista compliant due to driver releases etc.
For example its possible you may have a motherboard that is so old there are no drivers released for vista for it, so it won't work.
Also bear in mind you'll need 2Gb min to run Vista 'effectively'.

Anything you will have bought in the past year will almost definitely be vista compatible, so don't worry too much.

 

[empip]

Or not the complete answer but a good testbed - given the software ....

Untitled

• empip
• 26 Jan 2009
• 1

Surprisingly easy. Win98se and Wind 7 beta running in XP Pro.

 

[ash1900]

ok thanks again.

is this mother board ok ?http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MBB-222946

and in time (if i do get this motherboard) i am planing to upgrade the RAM to its max(4GB)

thanks.

EDIT: not rekated to this as such;
is there any way to give more pci slots on a motherboard?

 

[kjacko]

Its a matx board and as such you are slightly limited with what extras it may have. Is it the bundle you are thinking of getting or just the board?
4Gb of ram is only worthwhile if you have a 64-bit operating system. XP won't even see the other 2gb. Vista will see all 4gb but will only utilise about 3.2Gb max.

Why would you want to add pci slots to a mobo?
As far as i know, you cannot. Buy a mobo with more pci slots. Surely you cannot be using more than 3?

 

[ash1900]

ok that's fair enough.

the bundle, is there anything i have missed as in specs on the bundle?

what sort of board should i go for if a matx isn't good?

ok i was just wondering didn't think there was any way of doing it.

thanks

 

[kjacko]

nowt wrong with matx boards at all really mate, but they're spacing saving boards for smaller desktops/towers.

And although to say it was unrelated to this topic, but you asked about extra pci slots. Well matx will usually only 1-2, 3 at max. ATX boards will have up to 5, thus giving you expansion if you need it.

Tbh that bundle is pretty neat. The boards gives you everything you'd probably need including SLi (should you want it).

 

[ash1900]

thanks mate. i think i will probaly stick of the matx boards as they seem cheaper. and like you said i probaly wont need more than 2 or 3 PCI slots.
thanks for the advice.

 

[kjacko]

ash, one thing to bear in mind though. Are you a gamer?
The bundle will certainly accommodate a high end gfx card, but it may occupy 2 slot spaces which would eliminate one pci slot for use. Also if your case is matx size then it may not actually have the room for a full length gfx card.
Of course all you'd need to do is buy a full atx tower and that would solve the issue.

Thought it worth mentioning though.

 

[ash1900]

yeah, i didn't actually think of that

not exactly but the will be a fair bit of 3D rendering and graphics etc. going on. so i will be putting in a decent graphics card (needs to supply 2 monitors)

thanks mate,