G1S: Do I have to reformat to dual-boot???

Hi guys,

Do I have to format and start from scratch if I want to have a dual boot XP & Vista? I was wondering if there was anyway to install XP at this point without having to go through all of that. I'm currently running Vista Ultimate.

Additionally, I've searched around, and while I realize there are many posts on this topic, I still haven't found a step-by-step guide for an amateur like myself on how to do this. Which program do I use to create a partition, and is it really necessary to have three distinct partitions: one for XP, one for Vista, and another for storage?

Is there a link which I haven't found which a thorough guide on this issue?

Thanks for your help!

 

You can resize your current partitions/delete/create others.... I think Vista has a built in tool for that, of you can use a 3rd party one like Partition Magic.

 

Do I have to format, then? Or can I simply install XP on one of these partitions?

 

all you need to do, is shrink one your partitions using whatever tool you want (like the first reply said, i believe vista comes with one). then just install XP on that partition, no need to reformat.

 

Yipee. I'll let you guys know how it goes!

Does having two OS'es installed sap resources? In other words, is Vista juicing the machine while XP is running, or do they run pretty much exclusively, with the same speed and efficiency as they would if there was only one OS on the system???

 

the way dual booting works, is when you turn your comp on, you should be prompted "Vista or (INSERT OS HERE)"

you then choose which environment you want to boot into. both are not running simultaneously.