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Before I install Windows Vista

Questions. Just a simple one.

Can I install it onto my secondary Hard Disk, and will it dual boot (Give me the option of using either Windows Vista or Windows XP, and if Vista goes badly, can I just easily reformat the secondary Hard Disk to erase all traces of it?
 
you could install it on your second hard disk

then you'll need to edit boot.ini on your main drive, and tell it to look for Vista, as well as XP, which will then give you the choice during bootup
 
i think you can also use msconfig to make the changes for boot, ive just installed xp on a sep hard drive but instead of choosing on a boot menu i change the boot sequence in my bios
 
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I've installed the 64 bit version on a seperate hard drive without any problems.

As far as configuring boot.ini goes, for Vista it is a fair bit more complex than the old method found in XP etc, for a starters you have to boot the Vista DVD from within the previous opertaing system and not directly from startup, otherwise it simply won't recognise the previous OS.

Some info regarding the boot system and BCEDIT.exe can be had here:
http://www.vistaforums.com/forum/Topic415-9-1.aspx

The simple solution is just to install on a seperate HDD, and just use the bios to change the boot order of the physical drives.

Apart from that, i'm finding Vista to be very good indeed.. it'll take some getting used to though, it's quite a departure in may respects from it's earlier cousins.
 
Ok. Im in awe. Its a good OS.
Im using it with a 2.8 P4, 512mb Ram and 128mB graphics card.

It runs better than I expected. Loading times are longer than XP, but that was expected.

However, is it suppose to use 100% CPU all of the time, and only leave me with 80mb ram, when nothing is actively running.

Plus, when I start up, it automatically gave me a prompt of running the old version of windows or the new version. No need to adjust boot settings in BIOS.
 
Ive been using it all this morning, and found that 3rd party programs were causing ram issues and CPU issues. In this case, it was getright download manager in the taskbar.
Eliminating them, Vista run really well, considering I cant get Aero effects because my card cannot support them.

The only real major problems, is that there are no drivers for any of my main pieeces of hardware which I was surprised about.
So I have No Nvidia display drivers, no soundblaster drivers.

Nvidia Vista beta drivers say "you are not using vista" (really?), so games will not run properly
Plus I have no sound.

However everything else works fine such as office and my printer, so I think I may just clean install vista and hope this sorts somethings out. I dont think I can go back to XP after experiencing the ease of use and pleasant icons that comes with this OS.

So in all, software should work fine. All my programs are working. However if you run into any trouble, it will be due to lack of driver support, which should be fixed in the next few months.
 
Darkspark,

Go over to the vistaforums and you should be able to get all your hardware to work according to the advice on there.

Regards
 
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Thanks for the site. It looks like I will be neededing it a lot over the next few months, If I look to keep vista as my main OS.
 
And I thought Vista was not pubically available yet, and not even a public beta, correct me if I'm wrong but I thought the release had been delayed even more recently?
 
Microsoft messed up with the folder permissions on their FTP server's and one of the final beta test editions was made publicly available through a playing around with a URL.
 
Success. I now have sound, graphics drivers, and vista beta 2 is the perfect replacement. It runs a bit slow, and I can take advantage of any of the new effects, such as Flip3d, toolbar thumbnails or aero glass effects, but as soon as I get a new graphics card, some time next year, Vista should be amazing.

By the way, for the performance rating, on "gaming graphics", I have an entry saying "not detected".and a measly 1.0 rating. What is gaming graphics there to measure? I assumed it was my graphics card, but there is a seperate entry for that.
 
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