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Geek Culture / Dualbooting vista?

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Mr X
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Posted: 9th Aug 2007 18:14
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Hi all.

I'm thinking about getting an extern hard drive, and was thinking about 500 GB. My laptop has XP installed, but does not have that much memory left (about 12 GB), which is why I need more memory. Would it be possible to install Vista on the extern hard drive (so I would get 250 GB Vista and 250 GB XP)? And would it be bad for the performence (when running Vista compared to if I had installed it on the internal one)?
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bitJericho
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Posted: 9th Aug 2007 18:17
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It would be possible, but because of the limit on speed for usb, it'll be pretty slow. Make sure you place your swap file on your main hdd and I bet it would be fine.

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Dazzag
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Posted: 9th Aug 2007 18:42
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Not possible. Not if it's USB. I looked into it and instead went with another internal drive just incase.

Apparently the reason is the USB ports get refreshed or something on bootup, which obviously would cock you up if the drive itself is on USB. I read of one guy buying a 1TB external before finding out this problem.

There is probably a work around (stop the USB refresh), but I wouldn't want to muck around too much with my OS.

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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bitJericho
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Posted: 9th Aug 2007 18:49 Edited at: 9th Aug 2007 18:50
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Really? Is that a vista only issue? Cuz I know you can do this with linux or xp, (i guess ive never tried putting vista on a usb device).

Here's a link that may help:
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=174858

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Dazzag
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Posted: 9th Aug 2007 19:06
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I guess so. All I know is I looked into it a few weeks back and there is a load of stuff about how dual booting Vista on an external USB drive doesn't work.

And yeah, thats one of the links, of many, that I read. If you notice you get a lot of stuff about it isn't supposed to work, and possible workarounds, with one guy getting it to work after major hassle but still getting cock ups such as freezes.

Personally for the small price of an internal hard drive (although I do have quite a few external ones laying about) then I would rather do that than muck around with a potentially unstable OS. Just remember to also order the cables though. Mine didn't come with any and it turns out my bleeding edge rig (at the time) only has one SATA2 power connector and data cable. And the drive didn't come with any either. Doh.

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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Dazzag
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Posted: 9th Aug 2007 19:07
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The other option, of course, is to take the drive out of the external and plonk it internally into the computer. For ever. They are normally the same thing under the skin.

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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Mr X
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Posted: 10th Aug 2007 10:06
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Thanks guys.

Jerico2day

Will look in to that link.

Dazzag

That's to bad. And about not getting an internal one, I'm talking about my laptop. It does not have that much HD memory at all (40 - 50 GB internal) and now I got only about 12 left. I'm also perfectly satesfied with xp. Have never ever seen an blue screen of death on it. That's why I won't install vista on my internal HD.

Another solution may be to install vista on the internal HD, place the swap file there, and then store every thing else on the external one (I take 15 GB, or whatever space vista takes, on my internal for vista with the rest for xp, and only that much, and then I devide the external one up so I get 250 GB xp and 250 GB vista). Would that be possible?

Anyway, I would prefer to have vista on the external one, so if anyone knows how to do this, please tell me.

And one thing more. I haven't gotten the external HD or vista yet. Will get the external in a coupple of days/weeks, and vista some month after that (have an very limited economy). So this is just speculations about dual booting vista and xp on my laptop.
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Dazzag
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Posted: 10th Aug 2007 13:41
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Or look into a larger laptop drive and then partition it. You will be able to dualboot Vista and XP in that scenario. You can get 2.5" drives upto about 300gb now I believe. I once upgraded a hard drive in a HP laptop. Not designed to be as easy as the memory, but still pretty straight forward. Basically you detach the keyboard (pretty easy) and the hard drive is underneath. Only problem I had was I snapped off one of the pins on the motherboard. Turns out is a right angle adapter (think about it) so I had to find another one. Well annoying trying to find one. So I ordered 3 just incase (only about 2 or 3 quid each).

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
Current fave quote : "She was like a candle in the wind.... unreliable...."
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