I have an XP machine with two 500Gb drives.
XP is on C drive but I would like to install Vista on D drive which has some
saved programs.
My question is:
Does Vista reformat the drive its installing onto or will it install leaving
my other programs on D drive intact? TIA!

On Wed, 22 Oct 2008 14:31:26 -0600, "Luvrsmel" wrote:

I have an XP machine with two 500Gb drives.
XP is on C drive but I would like to install Vista on D drive which has some
saved programs.
My question is:
Does Vista reformat the drive its installing onto or will it install leaving
my other programs on D drive intact? TIA!

Get the stuff off of there or you'll lose it.


DDW
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Reply via this group
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I would recommend installing Vista to a clean partition and let it
format it.


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SCSIraidGURU

Michael A. McKenney
'www.SCSIraidGURU.com' (http://www.SCSIraidGURU.com)

I suggest that when you install vista on physical drive D that you
disconnect physical drive C. When I did this I did not loose any programs or
data and all my applications ran without any problems. I installed a Vista
32 upgrade and not Vista 64.
"Luvrsmel" wrote in message
...
I have an XP machine with two 500Gb drives.
XP is on C drive but I would like to install Vista on D drive which has
some saved programs.
My question is:
Does Vista reformat the drive its installing onto or will it install
leaving my other programs on D drive intact? TIA!

Are you saying you already had data on drive D when you installed Vista to
drive D?
Or are you saying you disconnected drive C and didn't lose any programs on
drive C when you installed Vista to drive D? erm, sorry hope that didnt
sound too confusing...

"Curious" wrote in message
...
I suggest that when you install vista on physical drive D that you
disconnect physical drive C. When I did this I did not loose any programs
or data and all my applications ran without any problems. I installed a
Vista 32 upgrade and not Vista 64.
"Luvrsmel" wrote in message
...
I have an XP machine with two 500Gb drives.
XP is on C drive but I would like to install Vista on D drive which has
some saved programs.
My question is:
Does Vista reformat the drive its installing onto or will it install
leaving my other programs on D drive intact? TIA!

"Curious" wrote in message
...
I suggest that when you install vista on physical drive D that you
disconnect physical drive C. When I did this I did not loose any programs
or
data and all my applications ran without any problems. I installed a
Vista
32 upgrade and not Vista 64.
"Luvrsmel" wrote in message
...
I have an XP machine with two 500Gb drives.
XP is on C drive but I would like to install Vista on D drive which has
some saved programs.
My question is:
Does Vista reformat the drive its installing onto or will it install
leaving my other programs on D drive intact? TIA!


Unless the bios can select which drive to boot from,
that option won't work as the boot loader needs to see both OS's

I am saying that I installed Vista 32 on the drive that had XP and that all
my programs and data were present when Vista 32 booted after the
installation.
"Luvrsmel" wrote in message
...
Are you saying you already had data on drive D when you installed Vista to
drive D?
Or are you saying you disconnected drive C and didn't lose any programs on
drive C when you installed Vista to drive D? erm, sorry hope that didnt
sound too confusing...

"Curious" wrote in message
...
I suggest that when you install vista on physical drive D that you
disconnect physical drive C. When I did this I did not loose any programs
or data and all my applications ran without any problems. I installed a
Vista 32 upgrade and not Vista 64.
"Luvrsmel" wrote in message
...
I have an XP machine with two 500Gb drives.
XP is on C drive but I would like to install Vista on D drive which has
some saved programs.
My question is:
Does Vista reformat the drive its installing onto or will it install
leaving my other programs on D drive intact? TIA!

When you install Vista it will overwrite whatever is on the drive/partition.
Are the programs simply backups? If so create two separate partition on your
D drive (thus creating drives D: and F (your CD/DVD is probably E) and move
the saved programs onto the F partition and then install Vista on D:

--

--
John Barnett MVP
Windows XP Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org
Web: http://www.silversurfer-guide.com

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..


"Luvrsmel" wrote in message
...
I have an XP machine with two 500Gb drives.
XP is on C drive but I would like to install Vista on D drive which has
some saved programs.
My question is:
Does Vista reformat the drive its installing onto or will it install
leaving my other programs on D drive intact? TIA!

Hi,

A Vista install does not format the drive unless you tell it to as long as
there is sufficient free space. As you are installing it to a non-system
drive, it should not affect any files you currently have there. Were you
installing to a system-designated volume, it would move the contents of
C:\Windows to a windows.old folder. It will, however, modify the boot files
on C:, replacing XP's with its own, creating the necessary dual boot in the
process.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"Luvrsmel" wrote in message
...
I have an XP machine with two 500Gb drives.
XP is on C drive but I would like to install Vista on D drive which has
some saved programs.
My question is:
Does Vista reformat the drive its installing onto or will it install
leaving my other programs on D drive intact? TIA!

Hi there and thank you very much for that educated answer.
I can now happily say that Vista does NOT format the drive even when there
are files and programs on that drive. All it does is require adequate
space. It kept all my files intact and I didn't have to copy all the old
ones back. I did, however, have to delete all the copied files off of C as
they were taking up 200Gbs of space...I'm just really glad Vista didn't
threaten all my installed programs...thanks MS for that one! :-)

"Rick Rogers" wrote in message
...
Hi,

A Vista install does not format the drive unless you tell it to as long as
there is sufficient free space. As you are installing it to a non-system
drive, it should not affect any files you currently have there. Were you
installing to a system-designated volume, it would move the contents of
C:\Windows to a windows.old folder. It will, however, modify the boot
files on C:, replacing XP's with its own, creating the necessary dual boot
in the process.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"Luvrsmel" wrote in message
...
I have an XP machine with two 500Gb drives.
XP is on C drive but I would like to install Vista on D drive which has
some saved programs.
My question is:
Does Vista reformat the drive its installing onto or will it install
leaving my other programs on D drive intact? TIA!