twin systems

[[SCUM] knasher]

Hiya,

Does anyone know: Can you run two systems ie vista and xp on the same comp, I currently have vista 64 bit running , but it doesnt like my other games Age of empires, Empire at war ect, so I thought that I could run xp alongside vista and be able to play these games on the same comp.....

how would I do it???? Is it selectable at start up or do both run and one takes over or what??

Anyone know of any cheap xp available (cheapest I have found is approx £55)

Thanks for your support

Knash

[[SCUM] Speedy]

Yes you can run duel OS on a computer. It's actually really really easy now with vista and XP. but Make sure you have a decent sized HDD first though

[[SCUM] McPhil]

Yes.

If you are on Vista:

Control Panel (Classic View) > System

1. Click on "Advanced system settings" on the left column of the open window.
2. Now the System Properties window is open. Click on the Advanced tab.
3. Under the Startup and Recovery sub heading, click on the Settings button
4. Now the Startup and Recovery window is open.

You can see under the System startup sub heading your Default operating system. This is your OS that will load by default.

If you are on XP:

Start Menu > Settings > Control Panel (Classic View) > System

1. click on the Advanced tab
2. Under the Startup and Recovery sub heading, click on the Settings button
3. Now the Startup and Recovery window is open.

It's basically the same setup. You can select you default OS once you have both installed.

Now the task is installing another OS (XP) next to (not over) you current OS (Vista).

***WARNING*** There is a known issue with loading a x64-bit OS on the same hard drive with a x86 32-bit OS. Without getting into gross detail, please try to load a 32-bit XP with a 32-bit Vista or 64-bit XP with 64-bit Vista. If you have 64-bit Vista and 32-bit XP, I would have you consider, loading XP 32-bit on a different hard drive and configuring your bios for OS boot priority.

If you already have Vista installed. Put in your XP cd into your optical drive and have your PC boot from the Optical drive. You may have to set this in your BIOS to boot from CD. Once done, you'll need to press F6 if you require SATA or RAID drivers not already found on the install (this requires having your SATA and RAID drivers ready to go on a floppy drive). You will come to the XP load screen where you have to hit F8 to agree to the terms and conditions of Bill Gates. XP will then attempt to find existing OS's already loaded. With Vista, it will "probably" find it. If your copy of XP doesn't local your already loaded copy of Vista post back in this thread and don't load XP yet. Otherwise, if XP load screen detects your loaded copy of Vista, simply follow the on screen instructions and prompts to load XP for a dual boot computer. Depending on the service pack of your copy of XP, it may or may not ask you which to you want as your primary boot OS.

Vista takes up between 8GB to 12GB of disk space for optimal install and performance. XP Pro takes up between 3GB to 6GB of disk space for optimal install and performance. I have a few client computers running this set up fine on 80GB single hard drive drives; however with games and applications you may quickly run out of space. I generally recommend at least a 160GB of HDD space but a 250GB hard drive is a lot better for clean ups and defrags.

Post back your questions and good luck!