install windows vista beta 2 smart way

The number one smart way to install Windows Vista Beta 2 is on a separate test machine. Take one of your secondary computer systems and do a couple of upgrades, if necessary, to make it Vista capable.
I took an older P3 system which I occasionally brought up to run BitTorrent. I put in a new micro ATX motherboard with the Intel 945G chipset, a dual core CPU (2.66 GHz), and one gig of DDR2 667 memory. The upgrade cost was about $300. I installed Vista Beta 2 on this test system and it's working great. The money is not wasted since this will eventually become my primary Windows Vista computer.
The second smart way to install the Vista Beta 2 is on a completely separate hard drive and use the BIOS as your boot manager.
The not-so-smart way is to install to a separate partition on your XP drive and hope the boot manager doesn't get screwed up making your XP partition unavailable.
I won't even go into other possible options, like an upgrade install, because it does not even remotely fall into the smart install category.

Excellent advice wgd but i've been running Vista on a seperate partition without any boot problems since it was first released to beta testers. I've also run it on a seperate hard drive too.
-- John Barnett MVP Associate Expert http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
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"wgd" wrote in message

The number one smart way to install Windows Vista Beta 2 is on a separate test machine. Take one of your secondary computer systems and do a couple of upgrades, if necessary, to make it Vista capable.
I took an older P3 system which I occasionally brought up to run BitTorrent. I put in a new micro ATX motherboard with the Intel 945G chipset, a dual core CPU (2.66 GHz), and one gig of DDR2 667 memory. The upgrade cost was about $300. I installed Vista Beta 2 on this test system and it's working great. The money is not wasted since this will eventually become my primary Windows Vista computer.
The second smart way to install the Vista Beta 2 is on a completely separate hard drive and use the BIOS as your boot manager.
The not-so-smart way is to install to a separate partition on your XP drive and hope the boot manager doesn't get screwed up making your XP partition unavailable.
I won't even go into other possible options, like an upgrade install, because it does not even remotely fall into the smart install category.

Nothing wrong with installing on a separate partition-- works fine. You can restore your XP if need be. It has been said many times not to install the Beta on your drive if you can't afford to lose the data.
"wgd" wrote:

The not-so-smart way is to install to a separate partition on your XP drive and hope the boot manager doesn't get screwed up making your XP partition unavailable.
I won't even go into other possible options, like an upgrade install, because it does not even remotely fall into the smart install category.

I agree. I use a boot manager to hide each from each other, and presto bingo, each thinks it's the only O/S in my life.
"stardis" wrote in message Nothing wrong with installing on a separate partition-- works fine. You can restore your XP if need be. It has been said many times not to install the Beta on your drive if you can't afford to lose the data.
"wgd" wrote:

The not-so-smart way is to install to a separate partition on your XP drive and hope the boot manager doesn't get screwed up making your XP partition unavailable.
I won't even go into other possible options, like an upgrade install, because it does not even remotely fall into the smart install category.