What do you think would be best?

[ingeborgdot]

I have vista 64 as my main os.  Would it be best to run a dual boot using xp pro or to make a virtual machine and add xp pro that way?

[ingeborgdot]

I have dual booted and all seems to be working fine but I have a question.  On my xp side my drives are different then on my vista side.  I loaded xp first so c: was xp.  Then I loaded vista later and when I was on my vista side vista became c: at least on vista side.  I then formatted E: and my other hdd F.  I looked at my drives on vista and here is what they are-
C: Vista
D: XP
E: Music and documents
F: Pictures, videos and programs files

When I go to my xp side the drives are arranged differently.
C: XP
D: Music and documents
E: Vista
F: Pictures, videos, and program files
It seems to be working fine but is this the norm.  I tried to arrange it right but this is how it turned out.  Anyone care to explain?  Thanks.

[Buffalo2102]

It is the norm.  I can't really explain how they came to be in that order but you can change one or the other if you like using Administrative Tools-->Computer Management-->Disk Management.

I am running Vista x64 and was running a dual-boot with XP until recently.  I was using XP so little that I am now running it in a VM.  The only time I really need it is when I need to access a VPN - Cisco have not released a Vista x64 compatible VPN client.  Running XP in a VM is much quicker and more convenient than dual booting.

[ingeborgdot]

Does it run slowly?  When you deleted XP out of the dual boot what did you do with the partition it was in?  Also, if I decide to make my vista partition larger in 64 bit will there be a problem?  I made my vista partition 50GB but already have 22Gb used and it keeps going up.  I am putting my programs on F drive but for some reason there seems to be little fragments getting added here and there.

[Buffalo2102]

The dual boot I had was with separate installations on separate hard drives.  I had to select which HDD to boot from during POST - I couldn't find a decent boot manager to do this for me as all guides/blogs I read dealt with installing the two OS's on different partitions on the same drive.  It was good since both OS's are kept completely separate but it was a pain to have to reboot every time I wanted to change OS, even though it didn't happen often.  Of course, even with a boot manager I would still have had to reboot to change OS.  When I got rid of XP I just removed the HDD.

Now, going into Windows XP is just like starting another application.  It is very quick and does everything I need.  I can now have both OS's running and just tab between them.

Expanding your Vista partition shouldn't be a problem (providing there is some free space on the drive).  It can be done from within Vista using the Disk Management I pointed out previously.  Having said that, there is always a risk when carrying out this sort of operation and would always recommend a backup prior to starting.

If you want to try out using XP in a VM then Microsoft Virtual PC is now free. 
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx
Download it and install it and follow the simple instructions to install Windows XP.  Then see how it runs on your PC.

Microsoft Virtual PC is very good if you don't need access to any USB devices as these aren't supported.  However, if like me, you want to be able to access a USB scanner, printer or storage device then you will need to use a different VM such as VM Ware or Parallels.

Hope this helps.

Buff.

[jameslarry]

Thanks for raising this question ? i am also having this dout.

[ingeborgdot]

I am dual booting but I am also trying the virtual pc (vmware) and using ubuntu.  The thing is I have not gone into my xp once and used ubuntu only once because vista 64 is so fast and stable that I don't like anything else any more.  I will probably be deleting my dual boot xp and maybe putting it in the virtual pc side sometime.  As for now vista ultimate 64 bit is the best thing I have ever used.

[Buffalo2102]

I quite agree.  I even noticed an improvement using Vista x64 after having used Vista x86 for about a year.

As I said above, I only run XP in a VM and rarely use it now, except when I want to use my legacy scanner (no 64-bit drivers for it) or access my work VPN (no 64-bit compatible Cisco VPN client).

[pat]

I'll go along with the general consensus here, I also like Vista. I'm using the 32bit version presently but plan on trying out 64 brfore too long.

I still use XP regularly though on my other system which I dual boot with Ubuntu.