Dual OS's/ Dual Boot?

[Peelback79]

I'm getting a new computer soon. After the release of the GeForce 9 series hopefully. I use XP right now and have a lot of stuff I want to transfer to my new computer that will be Vista. Just a few questions:

A). Should I just transfer my XP files to Vsta?
- Several people have said it's not worth trying right now. Said to wait untill after the first Vista Service Pack.

B). Can I just put my old hard drive in a new system and run Vista and XP with on one system.
- Is this what people refer to when they talk about "dual booting". Bad idea?

C). When choosing a new hard drive: Is 10,000rpms going to make that big of a perfofmance improvement over 7,200?

Any other options that I missed? Any tips and related links is much appreciated.

 

[jonmcc33]

A. I'd agree with the several people. Wait for the first Service Pack.
B. Not sure what you mean. Dual booting just means you have (usually) two partitions with one OS installed on each one. If you install Windows XP on the first partition and then install Vista on the other it will end up in dual boot. It is not advised to install a pair of OS on a single partition.
C. It makes some difference. Mainly in access times. Load times, etc will mainly improve in benchmarks but you aren't going to notice it yourself.

 

[compuwiz1]

I run a dual boot system, but I use two separate hard drives.

 

[TitleistProV1]

Men,

I have a related question.

Since HP is not writing Vista printer drivers for my printer (what are the thinking at HP?), I find that I am going to have to set up a dual-boot system on my new Vista PC.

If I take my old HD from my old PC, transplant it into my new PC, is it just a Bios tweak to make it a dual boot system, or do I have to use some other software to make the choice of drives possible?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Peelback79]

I was wondering that also. I don't expect just plopping the old HD in with a new quad system to run right from the get go.

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

Originally posted by: TitleistProV1
Men,

I have a related question.

Since HP is not writing Vista printer drivers for my printer (what are the thinking at HP?), I find that I am going to have to set up a dual-boot system on my new Vista PC.

If I take my old HD from my old PC, transplant it into my new PC, is it just a Bios tweak to make it a dual boot system, or do I have to use some other software to make the choice of drives possible?

Thanks for the help!

Seems pretty inconvenient to set up a dual boot setup just for printing. Why not just setup a virtual machine in Vista with Windows XP and install the printer on that?

 

[TitleistProV1]

Sound,

Two reasons:

1. There are apps I can/need to run that Vista won't run, though I admit I have not tried some of them in an XP Compatability box.

2. Never thought about setting up a virtual machine in Vista, have to look into that. Any place where I can information?

 

[ShawnD1]

Originally posted by: TitleistProV1

Since HP is not writing Vista printer drivers for my printer (what are the thinking at HP?), I find that I am going to have to set up a dual-boot system on my new Vista PC.

My Laserjet 1012 and PSC something-a-rather work fine in Vista. At least try it before you start making elaborate plans with dual booting and/or virtualization.

 

[TitleistProV1]

Oh, how I wish it was true.

But, I already tried to get the printer working, and it totally failed to work.

When big time vendors like HP are not writing Vista drivers, it seems to sat MS is in trouble with the OS.

 

[ShawnD1]

Alright, I had to ask because some people give up without even trying plug & play drivers. It's actually funny because sometimes plug & play drivers are better than the real deal. As an example, creative's website drivers for a soundblaster 24-bit actually cripple the sound card; the microphone no longer works and programs lose the ability to control their volume (I can hit mute in BSplayer and it doesn't do anything). I uninstalled the website driver in favour of the plug & play driver, and suddenly the microphone works and BSplayer can control its volume. This is for Vista I'm talking about. Back in the XP days, my soundblaster 5.1 would have horrible EAX when using website drivers, but P&P worked great.