Partition and Vista Advice

[jeffchan]

Hey,

The problem is this. I have a 80 gig drive with two partitions, each 50%. One is my WinXP system drive, the other is my data drive where I store all my things.
This partition was setup without realizing I might need extra partitions in the future. Now I want to install Vista on my drive.

There's only 4gigs of stuff in my data drive, so I know I can either resize my data drive partition. My other option is to just backup the stuff onto a DVD and delete the partition to setup again. Which option would be ideal for me?

After I get the partition things sorted out, I'll be installing Vista. How would this work to dual boot? Instructions and tips would be helpful. I know lots of people around here have Vista and Xp dual boot.

Thanks alot.

[darknessgp]

Ok, probably the simplest way would be to backup that data to a disc, delete the partition and then split it up into two partitions. You can do it without deleting the partition, but that can get complicated and involve some partitioning software. i had more trouble because I wanted to split my XP partition, so... it can be done, but easier not too...

As far as the dual booting goes. After Vista is installed... It'll hit your bios, then you will get a screen that has 2 options for OS booting

Previous versions of windows
Windows Vista

Obviously, previous will take you to the XP and Windows Vista will go to Vista. I believe it has an autochoose that it set to Vista and waits 30 seconds before going...

Now, uninstalling Vista is easy, but you need to know what to do as well. You can just format/delete the partition that Vista is on, but then to remove the Vista boot menu, you need to boot into a recovery console (you probably have it on your XP disc, if you have the disc), but then do a fixboot and it's recommended that you also do a fixmbr. And that's it.

[jeffchan]

Thanks alot. That pretty much answers my questions :)

[jeffchan]

This is pretty awesome. I'm posting from Vista. Thanks tons for the answer. :D