Simviation Forum - Two O/S in one PC?

Jan 31^st, 2009 at 11:53am

Alrot Ex Member
I Love Simviation.

I was wondering ,Is it possible to install without consequences in each of my two drives in One winXp and the other Windows VISTA without crossing Info between each other ,I mean absolutely Independent operating system,is this possible without problems?

I think FSX runs better and faster in Vista while in Xp is a bit slower , I would have my normal xp with all my softwares and my hardwares and in the other with vista would be Just for using FSX..

Thanks

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Reply #1 - Jan 31^st, 2009 at 2:10pm

Fozzer Offline
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An elderly FS 2004 addict!
Hereford. England. EGBS.

Posts: 24861

What I do, Alex, is to have one OP System (XP) on my main Hard Drive, and another OP System (Win '98 SE) on a separate (second) Hard Drive...

Then select which Drive I wish to use in the Boot-UP Sequence via DOS...

...!

This ensures that the two Windows Registers are kept separate.!

Paul... Cool

...!

Most of my "Old Games/Software" are running on my Win '98 SE Drive

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Reply #2 - Feb 1^st, 2009 at 7:21am

Alrot Ex Member
I Love Simviation.

I was thinking due for the complexity of VISTA ,neither Xp has such auto thinking system Shocked

and I'm worried about if I EVEN disconnect each drives at the moment of each O/S installation ,when I connect them back VISTA will take all the PC for it self ,once it recognize the new Hdd ,and it will make it his ,and perhaps will install some of their things inside Xp .

Win98SE is much more simple ,we can even create two partitions in a same drive having win98 and Xp without problems at all as you already have Paul....I mean Pablo Cheesy

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Reply #3 - Feb 1^st, 2009 at 11:55am

Fozzer Offline
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An elderly FS 2004 addict!
Hereford. England. EGBS.

Posts: 24861

Alejandro Rhodes wrote on Feb 1^st, 2009 at 7:21am:

I was thinking due for the complexity of VISTA ,neither Xp has such auto thinking system Shocked

and I'm worried about if I EVEN disconnect each drives at the moment of each O/S installation ,when I connect them back VISTA will take all the PC for it self ,once it recognize the new Hdd ,and it will make it his ,and perhaps will install some of their things inside Xp .

Win98SE is much more simple ,we can even create two partitions in a same drive having win98 and Xp without problems at all as you already have Paul....I mean Pablo Cheesy

Hello Alex...Pablo here... Grin

...!

As I mentioned, I would use two separate Hard drives (Master and Slave).

Install Vista on your Master Hard Drive....(the BIG one!)...

Install Win XP on your Slave Hard Drive.

All the Windows, etc, data will be kept separate, on each Drive...

...!

Then Boot up which Hard Drive you wish to use in the BIOS DOS Screen...

The Hard drive will only use, (operating system and programs), what is contained in its individual Boot-up Drive.

(This is, of course, if Uncle Bill will let you Install two separate Registered, Windows Programs on the same Computer)... Shocked

...

...!

Paul/Pablo The Magnificent.... Cool

...!

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Reply #4 - Feb 3^rd, 2009 at 5:51pm

ozzy72 Offline
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You've got two real options Alex;
A) dual boot system (best choice for you methinks)
B) VMware virtualised system such as ESX (expensive but VERY effective)

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Reply #5 - Feb 10^th, 2009 at 8:45pm

dodger Offline
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This might not be completely relevant to your question, alrot, but I have just installed the beta (test) version of Windows 7, the proposed successor to (and based on) Vista. I installed it to a second, 80 GB hard drive, while keeping the main (250GB) drive for XP. I now get a choice of OS when I start the computer (that boot choice was provided automatically when I installed 7). I have since installed FSX on both drives. So far, they behave as if they are two different computers (good!), but it's early days yet as I've only just done this over the last 2 weeks. (Not so good

) Otherwise it works fine, as Fozzer says. BTW, both drives are SATA on my system so I did not need to set Master/Slave protocols and jumpers. And I have not used Vista at all,so W7 is brand new to me. PS, I like it!

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Reply #6 - Feb 12^th, 2009 at 1:01pm

drummer_tom Offline
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The best bet is deiniftely a dual boot. There are two ways you could do this - partition your existing hard drive in to 2 so the computer sees them as two seperate hard drives, OR buy another hard drive.

I would go with another hard drive if you can afford it as this means you're not going to have anything else anywhere on the HDD enhancing performance even more.

You will then need to select the drive you want to use in the BIOS.

HTH!

Tom

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Reply #7 - Feb 15^th, 2009 at 3:23am

Keep It Simple Offline
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I've been running a dual boot (XP/ Vista) sys for quite some time now with no problems.
This is on a two partition drive.

The easiest way is to:
1) Partition the drive.
2) Install XP.
3) Install Vista on the second partition.
Vista will reconize the XP install and install the proper dual boot loader allowing you to chhose what OS to boot. It could't be simpler.

BTW, I have FSX installed on a seperate drive and it is running under XP.

Be aware that if you have to reformat XP, you will loose your Vista boot loader.
However, this is not a problem as Vista has a boot repair feature to restore the boot loader as before.

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Reply #8 - Feb 15^th, 2009 at 6:24am

J. Offline
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I think most people would recomend you not use one hard drive partioned. use two seperate hard drives.

I currently have Windows 7 beta installed, and I run a VM (Microsoft Virtual PC) to run a Linux Distribution which is used for work. Thats one way to tun two OS's but i dont think it would be very good for gaming.

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Reply #9 - Feb 15^th, 2009 at 7:09am

Fozzer Offline
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Posts: 24861

J. wrote on Feb 15^th, 2009 at 6:24am:

I think most people would recommend you not use one hard drive partitioned. use two separate hard drives.

I currently have Windows 7 beta installed, and I run a VM (Microsoft Virtual PC) to run a Linux Distribution which is used for work. That's one way to tun two OS's but I don't think it would be very good for gaming.

...which is what I recommended right at the start of this Post... Wink

...

A fully installed Operating System on each separate Hard Drive, and select the desired Drive during Boot-up time... Wink

...!

Each Hard Drive will contain its own Operating System and Registry...so no confusion between them!

Paul...Win '98 on one Drive...Win XP Pro on the other... Kiss

...!

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Reply #10 - Feb 16^th, 2009 at 2:55am

Keep It Simple Offline
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USA

Posts: 495

Don't each OS operate independenly with "no confusion between them" even when installed on partioned drive?

They are complertely independent installs.
The only thing they share is a boot loader.

Even your computer views the partitions as seperate drives.

I believe the "myth" obout seprate drives for an XP/Vista dual boot came about due to lossing the Vista boot loader when reformatting XP and most didn't know how simple it was to resore it.
I have seen scores of threads on the net telling people how to possibly restore the Vista boot loader using rather contrived methods that never worked when all they had to do was to simply run the "Boot repair" option from Vista.

Like I said, I have been running a dual boot sys on a partioned drive for a long time. I nerver had a problem even after reformatting XP.

BTW, this is on a sys tweaked to the max for FSX and gaming.
The main reason I have Vista installed it for DX10 games.
I should also add that I run SATA drives.

« Last Edit: Feb 16^th, 2009 at 1:49pm by Keep It Simple »

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Reply #11 - Feb 22^nd, 2009 at 9:55am

HarvesteR Offline
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I've had dual boot configurations before, and i'm pretty sure that they don't get in each other's way... you can still access the other drive from the one you're currently running the OS, and even mess with the other OS's system files (although that's not generally recommended Wink

)

but they can coexist peacefully... it's a very common configuration and very simple to put into practice

about the partitioning vs separate drives, i would recommend separate drives, not because of problems that might arise from not using them... i can't really see how that would give you trouble, but mostly because it keeps things simpler and safer... say, if one of those drives break down, you can just remove it and keep using the computer on the other one, it's just more flexible that way

Cheers

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