Dual boot 32 & 64bit Vista

[raydun]

Hi, first post, and looking for some guidance please. I recently purchased a new Dell with Vista 32 Home Premium (OEM). I would really like to try out 64bit Home Premim. If I purchased a 64bit OEM disk could I install it on a partition on Drive C and still retain a fully functional 32bit Vista.

Note : My system has 2 x 640 gb Sata Drives, but the way it has been configured, in windows explorer I see only a c: drive (1.15Tb) and a d: drive which is only 10gb, this is a recovery drive.

Could someone please tell me the detailed steps involved in such a process, also would I have to set up a partition first and if so is that a simple process.


XPS 730
QX9770 @ 3.8ghz
2 x 9800GX2 (Quad SLI)
4 gig DDR3 1.3ghz
2 x 640g SATA
X-Fi Extreme Music
Dell 2408WFP Ultrasharp
Vista 32 Home Premium SP1

 

[sidney1st]

but the way it has been configured, in windows explorer I see only a c: drive (1.15Tb) and a d: drive which is only 10gb, this is a recovery drive.

How are configured your drives ?

 

[Axon]

You can make partitions in Disk Management (Right click My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management), just do a good defrag and afterwards you can split your HD in 2 partitions, one with Vista x32 and one empty, then install your x64 on the empty one.

 

[raydun]

Many thanks for the reply, do you have any links to a step by step guide, or info on how to make a partition within Disk Management, any assistance greatly appreciated.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello raydun, welcome to Vista forums!

Have a look at these ...

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/95398-disk-management-shrink-partition.html

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/95418-disk-management-delete-extend.html

Keep us informed.





Later Ted

 

[sidney1st]

step by step guide, or info on how to make a partition within Disk Management, any assistance greatly appreciated.

Yep, but apparentely your drives are configured in raid 0 (stripeset), so if you partition in raid 0, do not forget that you won't be able to dismount the second drive.
So in fact with your 2 drives, the configuration will depend of your wishes (speed, security, ....)

 

[raydun]

Sidney1st, thanks a lot for the reply, could you explain that in a little more detail please as I do not have a lot of knowledge in this area, thanks,

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello again.

Until sidney1st returns have a look at this ...

RAID - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Keep us informed!







Later Ted

 

[echrada]

I dual booted x86 and x64 so that i could update my bios - i have an acer laptop and can only update bios in x86 .

After shrinking the original volume and adding another partition I booted up with x86 and installed - - flashed my bios successfully and then extended my volume again.

Worked a charm!