"DavidG" wrote in message
...
Just following up on your reply,
I do have sata drives. I don't have a floppy but I assume the drives are
already there? Or I can download them.
The last part,

On booting you use the Bios options shortcut to select which drive to
boot
from

Do I need to go into the BIOS everytime? I was kinda hoping I could
create
a menu choice there, so I could simply select what OS I was booting up, is
that possible?

Getting a menu choice for which OS to boot into is the default dual/multi
boot scenario when you do a normal 2nd OS install. Using separate
harddrives or switching boot drives in BIOS isn't required, it's just the
way some people like to operate. Usually you would create a partition for
your second OS and install it from its disc while your first OS is running.
There's no difference between installing to a 2nd harddrive or to a new
partition as far as the bootloader is concerned. The dual boot startup menu
works the same either way.

The only tricky part comes if you want to install an older OS (XP) after
newer operating systems (eg. VISTA) are already installed. Each new OS adds
an entry to the boot manager start up menu but the XP boot manager will mess
up the existing Vista boot manager and some remedial repairs will be
necessary to be able to boot anything at all. If the instructions you've
already received aren't sufficiently clear there are some others at the site
below that might be helpful. Remember, 2nd harddrive or a new partition on a
single drive is irrelevant to the installation. There is a second link
explaining how to edit the XP registry in order to protect Vista's system
restore points from being deleted every time you boot into XP.

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_v...step_guide.htm


http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926185 -- Method 1 is the appropriate
choice. Bitlocker isn't available in all versions of Vista.