dv9000 - Vista on one HDD, XP on the other?

Greetings - My dv9000t just arrived late yesterday - mini-review forthcoming but so far I really like it. Big question though - I have ordered a 120-Gb Toshiba hdd - and plan to install it if and when HP Parts ships the SATA adaptor kit. Will I be able to install XP on the second HDD - then boot into either Vista or XP upon startup? I know how to edit boot.ini on XP but I'm not sure about Vista. Second part of this question - would I be able to safely defrag the "C:" drive for XP when I'm booted in Vista - and vice versa - understanding that XP's C: would likely appear as E: or higher in Vista. TIA!

 

defragging shouldnt be a problem, not sure if they've found an easy way to modify the boot sequence/options in Vista, last I heard it was quite complicated. you may have to end up choosing boot options in the bios or HP startup screen

 

Ok, I'm just going from memory here because my lappy is at home but I could swear my bios messages at boot time allow a selection to choose the boot from? Jump into the bios and increase the delay to 5 seconds. You should see one for esc and one for F10. Check it out. I have two drives and thought about doing this very thing but maybe with a linus derivative instead.

 

yeah they do, all new bioses should have that option either in teh bios itself or just on the HP logo screen

 

Ooh - Good point and thanks for the input - I was too busy (being senile) worrying about editing boot.ini or something when the solution should be via the BIOS since its two different drives. Busy loading XP Pro on the 120-Gb - HP Parts says my SATA adaptor should ship tomorrow. Wish me luck on that!!

 

heh yeah good luck, only hope they send you the right part, some end up getting a PATA adapter from what i heard.