Thanks again Rick,

Extremely helpful information! I've found Restore Points essential, so want
to be sure I preserve them.

After 2 time consuming catastrophic crashes in the last year due to
defective HDDs (and Norton Ghost), and my frustrating and time consuming
experiences with Vista (in which I experienced flashbacks to the whole arc of
Windows gridlocks from the beginning) -- now I don't do anything without
first researching the issue.

You information leads have opened up new vistas (no pun intended). Lot more
reading to do before I proceed with the dual boot.

A few last questions:

1) In reading about the restore points issue, your helpful link led me to
the following in a post on Computer Haven in the restore issue thread:

"The problem is with XP. Windows XP automounts every disk it detects,
including external or removable hard disks. As part of the automounting
process, NTFS writes to the disk, and these writes are detected by the
volsnap.sys driver in Windows XP. Because this version of volsnap.sys does
not recognize the persistent shadow copies (also known as restore points)
made by the volsnap.sys driver in Windows Vista, Windows XP cannot maintain
the integrity of the shadow copy storage area and deletes the shadow copies
to avoid corrupting them . . .
When booting into Vista, restore points in XP are not affected."

My question -- I have 2 external USB HDDs, one for all documents, and 1 for
backups (use both Vista and Acronis). Plus I make a second backup on a
partition of my C (Vista) drive. Do I risk issues with accessing these
external HDDs after an appropriate dual boot configuration?

Also, I have a partition in C drive, where I do some program installs. Also
have some docs there. I assume this could be problematic also...?

2) Upon reading about Terabyte's BootItNG -- if I use that, do I also need
BootPro?

3) alternative option to use Virtual PC (MS Tech told me it works with
Home Premium) -- I've read that it requires a re-install of Vista?

a) Before I go there, do you know if this true? Any opinion about Virtual PC?
b) I assume that a Vista re-install wipes out all programs, as with other
Windows versions? Am I correct?

Thanks again,
Aaron



"Rick Rogers" wrote:

Hi,

That works, but then because you will have two different active sectors you
will have to continually change the booted hdd in the system BIOS. Better to
have just one and use VistaBootPro to manage the boot. Also, are you aware
of the issue regarding dual booting Vista/XP and Vista's restore points?
Booting into XP will erase them if the Vista volume is accessible. You can
read more on this, and ways to avoid it, he
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/dualboot.html

--
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

"Aaron" wrote in message
...
Thanks Rick.

I've read up, but did not know that XP will not install on a Vista
formatted
partition. Good call.

I've learned about the boot over-writing issue, and have been planning to
use Vista Boot Pro.

Some suggest that the Vista HDD be disconnected, while XP formats and
installs on the 2nd HDD. And then reconnect. Any opinion?

Thanks



"Rick Rogers" wrote:

Hi Aaron,

Don't preformat it, or even partition it. Partition and format it as part
of
XP setup. XP will not install on a Vista formatted partition. Boot files
for
XP will be installed to the existing system volume and will overwrite the
Vista boot files. This cannot be avoided without the use of a third party
boot manager. You will need to be able to repair this, and that's
normally
done from a Vista DVD, something not normally provided for in a
preinstalled
system.

--
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

"Aaron" wrote in message
...
Advice please:
I have installed 2nd 250 G HDD and plan to install XP on it, and then
do a
dual boot configuration with Vista Home Premium (which came installed
on
new
Dell E520). I've read up on the dual boot issues -- so my question is
not
about dual boot. It's about HDD formatting.

Any recommendations about the best way to pre-format the 2nd HDD to
provide
for:
1) boot partition
2) XP installation
3) and third partition for data

Thanks.