Can I use my recovery partition to install/try Vista?

I have a dv9000t with XP media as my OS. I have a 80GB HD with 12GB recovery partition that I do not need. ( I have discs) I also have a copy of PartitionMagic 8.0 which I have not used or installed.

Is there enough HD in the recovery partition to install Vista Premium on it and have it work properly to play with and try it?

It would be nice to have both OS installed to see which one I like better.

 

M$ recommends 15GB for Premium,

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/editions/systemrequirements.mspx

but I've installed Ultimate and a bootload of apps (including Office 2007 and Nero 7 Ultra plus 1GB hibernation and 1.5GB pagefile) in 15GB total.

My guess is you should be fine if you just want to check it out. If you decide to keep it, you can always adjust your space allocation with PM (on XP) or Vista's disk management tool.

 

You will need to look on Microsoft.com on how to establish the dual boot setup. There is something funky about the boot sequence of vista compared to XP or any other preceding MSOS that makes changing something in the root files a requirement. I have been looking at running a dual boot set-up if Vista doesn't play well with some of my programs and bluetooth GPS.

I suggest doing a 40/40GB partition. Both partition information will be accessable for both operating systems, plus seek speeds will increase due to reduced virtual disc size.

 

if you have vista installation disk, at least 1gb ram and 15 gb free disk space you can do following:

1) download for free microsoft virtual pc 2007 from ms site
2) setup virtual machine with 512mb ram, and 15 gb disk
3) install vista there

of course speed will be much slower and you won't get 3D interface, but you will be able (at least) to explore new GUI functions.

if you have partition magic, you can merge hidden recovery partition with yours main partition and get more free disk space.

P.S. don't forget to install virtual machine add-ons after vista installation, only then you'll get sound at it may work faster...

 

actually, when using virtual pc and installing vista enterprise edition, I needed only 9gb free disk space
(virtual pc fools its operating system, by showing, that it has let say 30gb hdd, but actualy, on your real hdd, it may take only 3mb)

 

Could this damage the HD?

 

no, your real info is untouched. os installed on virtual machine can not access your main pc.

e.g. if you format your virtual hdd 100 times, on your real hdd nothing will be changed.