IgNiTeD SoUL

On a typical PC with two hard drives or partitions, one dedicated to Windows XP, and

one dedicated to Windows Vista, you will typically end up with XP on the C: drive

and Windows Vista on the D: drive when you initiate Windows Vista’s Setup routine

from within Windows XP. But when you reboot the system and boot with the

Windows Vista Setup DVD, something magical occurs. After both operating systems

are installed, Windows XP will be on C: and Windows Vista will be on D: while you’re

using Windows XP. But when you’re using Windows Vista, the system will report that

Windows Vista is on C: and Windows XP is on D:. This is vastly preferable to the former

method, because most people are used to seeing the operating system partition

located on the C: drive. For this very simple reason, we recommend that you always

install Windows Vista in a dual-boot scenario by booting the system with the Vista

Setup DVD and launching Setup from there.

I’ve been referring to Windows Vista’s dual-boot capabilities throughout this chapter,

but the reality is that Windows Vista (and previous NT-based Windows versions

like Windows 2000 and XP) support multi-booting. That’s right: With the right partitioning

scheme, gobs of hard drive space, and plenty of time on your hands, you

can configure your PC to boot between two, three, four, or more operating systems.

Such a setup is conceptually interesting but of little use in the real world, at least for

most people. As the saying goes, people who are dual-booting aren’t getting anything

done.