How to set up dual boot

I have a DV9310, I want to try dual boot XP and Vista, my C drive is loaded with windows XP Pro and D drive is loaded with Vista " 2 seperate harddrives, at the boot screen I press ESC it pop up " Notebook harddrive and Cd/DVD drive " it dosen't have any option in the "Notebook harddrive" so I highlight Notebook harddrive and hit ENTER than it boot from C drive, anyway I can setup it boot from C or D drive.

 

it doesnt have th eoption to boot from the second drive. you have to install vista so its boot manager is located in C then it can direct itself to the D drive for vista and C for XP

 

If I switch the drives, use Vista on C and XP on D, It that works? Do I need any set-up? Thanks for your help!

 

as long as the vista boot manager program has a record of where XP is, then it isnt a problem.

i think u can install XP first on C. then install Vista on D (keep both drives in when doing this). Vista should install on D but the boot manager record should be in C.

if you want to install Vista first on C then XP on D, then google the Vista boot manager or something to see how you can add XP to Vista's boot menu

 

I was thinking of dual booting with my own dv9500 but someone in this forum recommended VMWARE and it is AWESOME!! I am running vista 32bit and with vmware i run a copy of XP and it is flying! I am really impressed by its performance. Give it a try, its amazing!

Alex

 

VMware is a great tool, but for someone that will want to play games and run very intensive programs VMware isn't the way to go and I'll tell you why. VMware is a program that runs inside the native OS and allows you to run one virtual machine or multiple virtual machines, which means that the native OS is still taking RAM and processing power to run programs in the background and just for basic OS functionality. I've been using VMware for 2-3 years and know all its ups and downs, and if you want a dual boot for basic small programs or for testing purposes and you don't want the hassle of creating a dual boot machine go for VMware, but if you want to dual boot to be able to game and use intensive programs than a true dual boot is the way to go. Also, if anybody has any questions about VMware and its capabilities I'd be more than happy to help out!

 

I think you have to change the boot.ini file.

 

I am new on computer, Would you please tell me how do I change the boot.ini file, let me repeat what I have, I have 2 harddrives, 1 loaded with windows XP pro and other loaded Vista, The one loaded with Vista came with the laptop, the one with XP I bought the harddrive loaded Windows XP by myself, now my laptop is using XP the Vista I already took it out,what I want to do is I want to put the one with the Vista back into the second slot then I can pick windows XP or Vista at the boot menu, or I just dreaming ! anyone can help me that.