Dual Booting - HELP !!!

[mikey8684]

Sorry guys dont know if this has been covered or not but Im thinking of installing Vista but Im worried that its gonna screw up ......

Basically Ive posted before that when I try installing Vista on an older 20GB HDD it shuts down my pc ... now some of you guys suggested that its my onboard LAN or could be the fact that I was leaving my web cam, printer and network cable plugged in.

I havent tried unplugging them and reintstalling Vista yet but if for some reason I try dual booting on my main 250GB HDD and it shuts down will it F**K my pc up and will I lose important stuff like pics of my son and stuff ... awww lol

Like I said sorry if its been covered but im just worried.

 

[freaksavior]

i don't quite follow you, but if your trying to dual boot vista and xp
http://apcmag.com/5023/dual_booting_xp_with_vista

also this is very usefull http://lifehacker.com/software/top/...lboot-windows-xp-and-windows-vista-179906.php

 

[mikey8684]

Thanks dude

Ive already check out the first link and the second is very similar but I tried doing it anyway and it still shuts down when "Expanding Files" its really annoying ....

All I have plugged in is the monitor mouse and keyboard and I left the network in to check for updates .... maybe I should try again with it unplugged and say no to checking for updates and just do it later IF IT INSTALLS

I thought I was getting somewhere coz it was chuugging along nicely then it got to THAT point and died on me .... dam mofo

oh well 8th time lucky aye LOL

 

[freaksavior]

When i put vista on my computer, it would hang at 79% expanding the files for hours, it ended up being my hdd!

 

[Oliver_FF]

Here's a small lesson about dual booting. if you've got windows XP on your system and want to dual boot Vista, it overwrites the master boot record telling the pc to boot to the boot loader, which is where you get to pick your OS you want to play with.

If you mess up at some point with your dual booting, if you whack your XP recovery disc in your PC, enter the recovery console and type "fixmbr" it will overwrite the master boot record back to boot XP again, so when you next boot it'll go straight back to XP.

 

[mikey8684]

thanks guys

I got it working but I had to bum another 2 gig ram off a mate (so I had 4 gig) BUT because I couldnt have the extra ram I uninstalled Vista .... I think I'll use XP until I can afford to go all out like Heavy(dollar dollar bill ya'll)H20 ... LOL sorry .... then I'll crank up Vista Ultimate 64-Bit and by that time comes around most things should be supported in Vista