HDD partitioning, Vista versions, OEM upgrade

Hiya chaps, --

It's been a couple of months since purchase of Sony Vaio FZ11E for me as well and the notebook works perfectly so far: it is well built, quiet, runs rather fast and smooth.. However the laptop seen a light use yet cause I'm still doing bulk of the job on my desktop (which is ATHLON XP 2800+ based system running XP Pro btw).

Anyway, as much as I was desperate for XP installation in the very beginning, I somehow grew to accept Vista even without reinstall (just removed some of bloatware through Control Panel and did some interface configuration). Vista runs fast enough and stable even with my 1GB of RAM although I've had some compatibility issues, most of which were actually solvable.

However, I'd still like to do a clean install of Vista (just have to start from scratch and also be in control and the know of the OS from the very beginning) as well as getting it double boot with a secondary partition reserved for XP (I will still occasionally be using it).


So I've got few questions in relation to the matter:

1) Which version of Vista would be the best choice for my T7100 / 1GB RAM / GeForce 8400 GT machine? Same "Home Premium" I got on the recovery partition?
2) How much space should I reserve for the Vista partition? I am going to install quite few large audio/gfx applications which would still not use more than 20-30 GB -- perhaps less cause of incompatibility problems..
3) Would it be better to partition HDD in 3 separate volumes: one for Vista, one for XP and one for data or just two for the OSes?
4) Is it a big hassle to get both OSes working independently, any special cautions?
5) Is there a way I can purchase full install version of Vista for a reduced fee using my OEM key? I've got "Upgrade Your Windows Vista Experience" DVD but it appears I can only download updates to what I've already installed..


Thanks a bunch in advance,
~~~zee

 

1. Business premium or Ultimate.
2. That's a tough thing to judge, without knowing how much space those apps will need. My Windows directory is at about 9 gb right now. My pagefile is NOT on the C: drive so add in another 2 gig for that. And another 2 gb for a hibernation file and your are at 13 gb with no apps.
3. Abso-freakin' loutely!!! You really want three partitions and want to redirect the My Documents, Favorites, Outlook and all other data files to the third partition.
4. Can't answer that directly I have not tried, but I understand other folks have done so.
5. Check out egghead, I believe folks have picked up the Vista OEM DVD there.
6. One more thing, even though you didn't ask about it, get MORE memory. You really want 2 gigs. Trust me. You REALLY want it!

Gary

 

1. Agreed, Business, Premium, or Ultimate.
2. XP will be fine with 20GB, I'd say 30-40 for Vista; a fresh installation of Vista Business took up 15GB without any apps!
3. Yep.
4. Install XP first. XP boot thing won't detect Vista.
5. Don't know.
6. Seconded. Though Vista does runs on my desktop (With Aero and everything) with 1GB without too much problem...

 

. drivers, drivers, drivers -> especially if u want to dual boot - make sure they are on hand first before anything!

cheers ...

 

Thanks for the insight, everyone.

In relation to Vista version, I'll most likely keep Home Premium as my budget is rather limited at the moment.. besides, I'll still be into XP halftime, so for the start Home Premium should be OK. The only thing I would really prefer is to get a hold of a clean install for a low cost of media/shipping, however after a little online research this seems to be no option.


I've found a couple of apparently valuable guides concerning double-booting Vista and XP here:

* How to dual boot Vista and XP (with Vista installed first)
* How to dual-boot Vista with XP (with XP installed first)


As about RAM upgrade, could anyone please point out a good shop where I could buy an appropriate module? Sony is rather reserved about in-detail tech specs, so I really don't know where to look. I guess I should also open back of the laptop to see if I got one 1GB module or two 512MB modules, and the latter case would mean I'd have to buy two modules for an upgrade (pray God not!).


~~~

 

Oh no, I've opened the RAM tray and it appears I've got 2x512MB RAM (2Rx16 DDR2-667MHz-CL5). I bet it would be extremely difficult to sell those modules, so I'm not sure my budget can justify acquisition of 2x1GB..