dv9500t dual-boot (yes, I saw the sticky)

I'm about to buy this computer and I just want to be sure that I'll be able to dual-boot vista and xp, or run xp alone. I know there's a sticky talking about how to do it but it was giving me a headache and I saw people saying that it can't be done, and I just can't take anymore, so can someone just tell me, if it works specifically with the dv9500t? And am I going to have to sort through all the pages of that sticky to find all the drivers I need?

Also, is there any way to get a full copy of xp sp2 that isn't like $200, and nothing illegal. Oooooo how I hate HP right now

Thanks everyone,
Gulliver

 

I dual booted mine and yeah it took a bit of reading through that sticky but its all there in black and white. The sticky actually has a driver pack specifically for the dv9500t so the drivers are pretty easy to find, its the dv2000 and dv6000 users that are whining the most about drivers.

As far as XP goes, I have an original XP Pro (legit) cd and license and what I did was simply slipstream SATA drivers, SP2, and XP Pro onto an new DVD to install XP Pro w/SP2 on my laptop (again the sticky explains how to do it). If you don't have an original XP license you will have to spend the money to buy XP (Please dont try and discuss any warez here, not saying you are/will, I just saying don't).

Do you really need XP? I think Vista works pretty well on my dv9500t and I like having the option to use XP so I dual booted it. If you don't have an absolute reason to go to XP I'd say try Vista and see what ya think. You'll want to tweak it a bit and there are plenty of guides here on these forums to walk you through it (ie disable UAC etc).

-Reby

 

Hey, thanks. I don't mind giving vista a try but I have some older independent programs I need that aren't going to work on vista. And no, I'm definitely not looking for warez, that's why I specifically said I'm not looking for anything illegal.

Dave