xp-vista dual boot

[Super304]

i know there's probably threads asking similar questions to mine but i just wanted to double check for my situation.

I have 2x500gb HDD's. I want RAID 0. I Want Xp for everyday use, and i want Vista for DX10 and gaming. I also want to have common files between both xp n vista (music, videos, etc.)

(not that im a greedy bugger:)

just wondering what the best plan of attack would be? i was thinking:

-Install RAID0 through mobo's raid controllor (Asus P5Q-E btw.)
-Create 3 partitions (250gb XP, 250gb Vista, 500GB shared)
-Install XP
-Install Vista

Am i on right track? any suggestions or improvements? Thanks very much in advance :)

[jonwoad]

Why do you want RAID0? If one drive dies you lose both...

[Monkey]

Speed Jon?

But seriously, how often to drive die?

[nft99]

is it that much quicker raid0?

seems like the right order to install :) all i know is make sure u install xp first messes with bootloader or something if you put vista on first.

[Monkey]

is it that much quicker raid0?

seems like the right order to install :) all i know is make sure u install xp first messes with bootloader or something if you put vista on first.
Thats what i tried to tell someone yesterday

think of it this way

3 partitions whatever size you like
1 for xp
1 for vista
1 for your documents

And in each OS you just point your documents folder to the 3rd partition, dont do what most idiots do and just create a new folder called my documents

[jonwoad]

Speed Jon?

But seriously, how often to drive die?

Ive seen enough dead hard drives for me to believe that there is NO point whatsoever doing RAID0...

[nft99]

if you want speed get a raptor :thumbsup: or SSD ;)

[jonwoad]

or even just a samsung f1

[nft99]

or even just a samsung f1

why get a drive that wont last :O

[jonwoad]

good point

[coiler]

RAID 0 = baaaaaaaaaaaaad idea. A drive doesn't have to die, a simple crash which upsets the file integrity on one drive can lose EVERYTHING. as the data is spread accross both drives.

I lost the lot after simple BSOD on a RAID 0 - the speed wasn't worth it, so use a Raptor now.

Surely shouldn't Vista be for everyday use and XP for gaming? (apart from dx10), XP a lot slicker for games.

Don't bother with partitions, go for x2 drives , one XP, one Vista. Simple and Efficient.

[wonderlust]

+1 and most bios now have a boot menu option.

[jonwoad]

I have XP and Vista on two hard drives, Vista is on primary with XP on secondary for the programs that dont work in Vista. I just select the drive I want on boot.

[wonderlust]

I got vista64 on one, Vista32 on one and Xp32 on another, Ubuntu dual booting between 32 and 64 bit versions on a 4th :D

Best of all worlds

[jonwoad]

I would have had Mac OS X on there too if it had bloody well worked! :(

[wonderlust]

lol I can't get it to work on my main system either! but it does work well on my PVR system

[jonwoad]

Grrrr!

My laptop didnt even want to load the DVD :(

[coiler]

I have 3 x HDD's.

Mine boots into Vista by default for browsing net etc, or if I hit F8 on boot screen I can choose my XP harddrive for gaming, got another XP harddrive for downloading. :thumbsup:

[jonwoad]

What happens if you're downloading something and want to play a game?

[coiler]

What happens if you're downloading something and want to play a game?


Boot into gaming harddrive, running something like Vuze in background when playing a game would kill FPS :p

[wonderlust]

lol I have a Windows 2003 server for my downloading :)

[Super304]

tyvm for your quick and slightly conflicting answers:lol:

forgot to mention in orig post that the 2 HDD's are 500gb seagate barracudas (32mb chace and 7200RPM), so they should be quite fast anyway.

I am leaning towards installing xp on one of them and vista on the other, but if i do this will i be avle to access files between the 2? (e.g. music in My Documents in XP - can i play them in Vista?)

if i can then its probably the right way to go if raid 0 is unreliable.....

thanks for speedy (as always) help :)

[wonderlust]

yes you will have no problems accessing the data across either os

[Super304]

cool :) sounds like a plan then :D