Installing Windows Vista without removing Windows XP

Step Wise Installation of Windows Vista in a Dual-Boot Setup | Deploying Windows Vista: A Power User's Toolkit

Windows Vista, Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP and their each and every versions support dual-booting natively. It is also possible to dual-boot between any of these OS as well as older Windows version like Windows 98 or Me.

• Dual-Booting with Windows XP

  Windows Vista is a radically different OS and you may want to check out before installing it to check out whether you can install windows vista without removing Windows XP. One may need Windows XP for applications to run, which still not working properly in Windows Vista. Also many times a software or web developer, want to test creations in both Windows XP and Windows Vista. For such kind of reasons, Microsoft has long supported the notion of dual-booting, where one is able to go for installation of two or more OS on the same PC, choose a desired one through boot menu whenever you reboot or turn on the PC.

  If you have Windows XP installed on your PC already and want to install Windows Vista as second OS, as Windows XP was developed few years back and Windows Vista is latest version of Windows so you might not be having much knowledge about it's boot loader and boot menu, so its always better to have Windows XP first installed when you would like to go for dual boot option.

  Also the latest Windows Vista was designed with knowledge of Windows XP's boot loader and boot menu, and so can easy and safe to add to a PC along with Windows XP OS. There are major issues to consider are, you have to add a second hard drive or partition to your computer into which you will install Windows Vista and how to do it is explained here. Never ever try to install Windows XP and Windows Vista to the same partition or hard drive, as well as it is possible that both OS use many identically named folders and so you may get into troubles.

  Decide how you are going to initiate the dual-boot install of Windows Vista, ther are two ways, in Windows XP itself insert the Windows Vista Setup DVD and begin Setup from there Or, reboot your system, boot from the Setup DVD, and then begin the Setup.

• You may be wondering what is the difference?

  In general when you go for dual booting of Windows XP and Windows Vista, you have two hard drives or partitions, one dedicated to Windows XP, and other is for Windows Vista, so we have a Windows XP on the C: drive and Windows Vista on the D: drive, when you have started installing Windows Vista Setup from within Windows XP.

  But if you reboot the system and boot with the Windows Vista Setup DVD, and when both OS got installed, you will find XP will be on C: and Windows Vista will be on D: when you are using XP. But while using Vista, you will find Windows Vista is on C: and Windows XP is on D: drive.

  This is former method, because Windows users are used to seeing the OS partition located on the C: drive. To solve this problem only, install Windows Vista as OS in dual-boot systems, booting the system with the Vista Setup DVD and launching Setup from there.

• Adding a Drive or Partition for Windows Vista

  Lets know more about how to make a space for Windows Vista. There are mainly two ways to make space on your existing PC for Windows Vista. You may go for addition of the other extra hard drive, totally new one for Windows Vista, or can go for separate partitions, two logical hard drives in the existing one for both the XP and Vista OS. But this method is more preferable one because it don't require to partition the softwares as well as to endanger data you have on the C: drive.

  Also there are no efforts of installing the hard drive, which can be dicey. Desktop PCs and most notebook PCs can not be able to upgrade to support an additional hard drive. Then you have to strictly go for the portioning of the hard drive one which you have already. But at all if you decided to go for new hard drive for windows Vista OS, then just follow the instructions, and you can easily install it. Now a day hard drives are of more capacity so there will not be any problems during setup.

  While partition existing hard drive, its life is not so simple. Most partitioning tools, like the built into Windows, are known as destructive partitioning tools, as they literally destroy whatever was on the disk while partitioning. A non-destructive partitioning tool let you slice an existing hard drive or partition it, while leaving all data and OS as well as applications intact on the first.

  Also some commercial partitioning solutions in market available, like Norton PartitionMagic which is quite reliable. But there are also some more free partitioning solutions as well. As you are the destructor of your whole data, and if at all due to any error, hard drive became inaccessible, you have to loose it, so take care while partitioning hard drive.

Windows Vista Setup looks simpler than the Setup routine used by Windows XP, but there are many options to understand and some features, need to configure manually after Setup gets over. Selecting the windows Vista version which you require, you can go for the clean installation of it or upgrade an existing Windows XP installation to Vista, or dual-boot between XP and Vista on the same system. Also one can go for Microsoft's enterprise oriented deployment tools to create, own custom built Vista deployment image, which may give you freedom of installing exactly what you want while installing the OS.