Dual boot vista 32/64 XPS1530

Hey,

My XPS1530 came with Vista 32 Home Premium when I bought it, since then I have received a Vista 64 Home Premium disc from Dell (for free). Right now I am running the 64bit version of Vista on the laptop.

I know it is possible to dual boot these operating system versions, however is it possible with Dell's vista discs? Specifically will the licenses allow me to install both at the same time on the same laptop?

Thanks!

 

Firstly why?

I believe the OEM license only allows one install regardless of 32 or 64bit. You will need to double check this.

To dual boot you just need a 32bit Vista install disc. Recovery partition/disc will not work because they will just wipe your drive to factory state.

 

yeah there might be a conflict there, but you could always try to make a new partition and install, if i may give you a bad idea, try putting windows 7 64x on it ( it works like a charm )

 

It does work.

1. I partioned the hard drive to two equal portions. (keeping media direct as well)

2. I installed Vista 32 on partition 0, once completed I loaded the drivers via a flash drive.

3. Shut down and boot from Vista 64 disc. I installed Vista 64 onto partion 1, once completed I loaded the drivers via a flash drive.

This was done using two Dell OEM vista discs. Upon boot up, I can select which OS to run. So far, no ill effects.

And why? Because I have CAD software that won't work on a 64bit OS and I would prefer to use the x64 when not using that specific software.

 

try VirtualBox.... virtula machine... see if you have any performance loss... VirtualBox has this 'seamless' mode whihc is really nice

 

It probably won't work if you're sharing the license key and one of the installations is a virtual machine... because it'll look like different hardware and that may get flagged by WGA.

 

First issue, I put a CD in that has some software which has a known worm virus on it.

While in the 32bit OS, Norton Internet Security 2007 finds the worm via autoprotect without me even looking for it.

While in the 64bit OS, Avast (working in 64bit mode) does not find the virus from autoprotect, nor does it find it when I scan the directory.

Both anti-virus' are up to date on definitions.

When tried on a 32bit XP OS system, the virus is picked up immediately by McAfee.


Is this because Avast is not a "true" 64bit virus scanner? Or is it because of the different way the kernels work between 32/64?

Any input is appreciated.