Member Avatar for hbk619

I've sent off for my Vista Home Premium Upgrade (which was free, only reason i sent off). My laptop is on Windows XP Media Centre at the moment, and according to the vista advisor, there's not enough room on my C: (main) harddrive. I have an empty 40gig HDD which is the D: drive. and the Advisor suggested installing it on that.

Would the XP still be wiped off? (as it's an upgrade). A guy in my class said it would wipe out the XP key so once Vista is installed, i can't go back to XP (which came pre-installed on the lapopt so i have no CD for it). Is that true?

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Dani AI

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For : installing the Vista Upgrade to a different partition or drive can leave your existing XP installation intact and give you a dual-boot, but only if you prepare correctly and choose the right install path. As observed, many people end up with both OSes usable after the install. The differences between the two installer modes matter: running Setup from inside XP lets the installer see your existing Windows (the Upgrade check), while choosing the Custom option lets you place Vista on another partition.

Before you begin, do these things:

  • Make full backups of personal data and use your laptop vendor's tool to create factory recovery discs now (you may not get them later).
  • Free at least 15 GB (32-bit Vista) or 20 GB (64-bit Vista) on D:, and allow extra room for programs and updates (30+ GB recommended).
  • Defragment and convert the target partition to NTFS if needed.
  • Start the Vista installer from inside XP, pick Custom (advanced), and select D: as the target. Do not format C: if you want XP preserved.
  • Download Vista-compatible drivers from the laptop maker before rebooting into Vista.

Important notes and caveats:

  • Vista installs the new boot manager (BOOTMGR) and will add an entry for XP. If D: is a separate physical disk, the installer may place boot files on the first disk in BIOS order; that can complicate later removal of a drive. To avoid surprises, either change BIOS boot order or temporarily disconnect the other drive while installing.
  • If you need to revert to factory XP later, use the recovery discs or the vendor recovery partition. The OEM product key on the COA sticker is not erased by installing Vista, but having recovery media is the safe route. If boot problems occur after removing a partition, run Vista's Startup Repair from the DVD to rebuild the boot configuration.

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Member Avatar for Ancient Dragon

When I installed Vista Home Premium upgrade on d: drive it left the XP Pro on c: intact and now I can boot with either os (dual boot)

Member Avatar for hbk619

that sounds promising. thanks

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