vista beta 2 pre install advice

Is there a best practice process, or primer available to the fledgling beta tester on the safest method for install that covers all details needed to install beta 2 as a multi boot option ensuring (as much as reasonably possible) the continued viability of my XP install, or do I just <gasp> follow the prompts.
I'll admit it, reading some install horror stories here and elsewhere has me spooked a wee bit. And yes I know the old saying "If you can't stand the heat,...get out of the kitchen". I know there's never "zero risk". But it can be minimized. I'm just trying to do everything I can on the front end to get the most out of the beta testing of the interface,...and not spend days and weeks setting it up properly to get to that point. A reasonable approach, no?
OK,...I'll be installing on a Dell 8300 P4 1.25GIG RAM, I've got 2 physical internal drives totaling 400 GB (320 SATA, 80 IDE) with plenty of space over 6 partitions, and an 80 GB USB drive (2 partitions) with more free space
Anyway, a couple of starter questions: Should Vista go on a Primary partition only,say on my IDE HDD ( my drive 0, I've got "C:\" and XP residing on the 320GB SATA) or is that no big deal?
Seeing as I have it, would executing Partition Magic 8's (Powerquest's version) wizard on preparation for "2nd operating system" be a practical thing to do prior to install?

First things first, "backup" any important data on the drive, I think Colin Barnhorst said it best, Murphy use to be a beta tester. I have Vista BETA 2 installed in a multi-boot configuration on a logical partition which I think is the best approach especially for beta software, I don't have any interest or desire to make Vista my primary operating system because I don't believe its at that level where I would want to use it every single day and night.
So, I would simply create a logical partition in Partition Magic with at least 20 more GBs of hard disk space. Launch Windows Vista setup from within Windows XP, type in your product key, accept the End User License Agreement, click "Custom" > select the logical partition you created for Vista, click Next and Vista will do the rest, Copy files to the hard disk, (restarts at 27%), continues setup, expands files and restarts a couple times, install features, installs updates and Completes setup.
After setup completes, you are taken to the Out of Box Experience . The first page configures your keyboard, I defaulted to US English, Next is User account information, and selecting a nice profile picture, next a nice wallpaper and you are ready to start using Windows Vista. -- -- Andre Windows Connected | http://www.windowsconnected.com Extended64 | http://www.extended64.com Blog | http://www.extended64.com/blogs/andre http://spaces.msn.com/members/adacosta
"DJ Bjorklund" wrote in message

Is there a best practice process, or primer available to the fledgling beta tester on the safest method for install that covers all details needed to install beta 2 as a multi boot option ensuring (as much as reasonably possible) the continued viability of my XP install, or do I just <gasp> follow the prompts.
I'll admit it, reading some install horror stories here and elsewhere has me spooked a wee bit. And yes I know the old saying "If you can't stand the heat,...get out of the kitchen". I know there's never "zero risk". But it can be minimized. I'm just trying to do everything I can on the front end to get the most out of the beta testing of the interface,...and not spend days and weeks setting it up properly to get to that point. A reasonable approach, no?
OK,...I'll be installing on a Dell 8300 P4 1.25GIG RAM, I've got 2 physical internal drives totaling 400 GB (320 SATA, 80 IDE) with plenty of space over 6 partitions, and an 80 GB USB drive (2 partitions) with more free space
Anyway, a couple of starter questions: Should Vista go on a Primary partition only,say on my IDE HDD ( my drive 0, I've got "C:\" and XP residing on the 320GB SATA) or is that no big deal?
Seeing as I have it, would executing Partition Magic 8's (Powerquest's version) wizard on preparation for "2nd operating system" be a practical thing to do prior to install?

On Mon, 05 Jun 2006 11:27:54 -0500, DJ Bjorklund wrote:

Is there a best practice process, or primer available to the fledgling beta tester on the safest method for install that covers all details needed to install beta 2 as a multi boot option ensuring (as much as reasonably possible) the continued viability of my XP install, or do I just <gasp> follow the prompts.
I'll admit it, reading some install horror stories here and elsewhere has me spooked a wee bit. And yes I know the old saying "If you can't stand the heat,...get out of the kitchen". I know there's never "zero risk". But it can be minimized. I'm just trying to do everything I can on the front end to get the most out of the beta testing of the interface,...and not spend days and weeks setting it up properly to get to that point. A reasonable approach, no?
OK,...I'll be installing on a Dell 8300 P4 1.25GIG RAM, I've got 2 physical internal drives totaling 400 GB (320 SATA, 80 IDE) with plenty of space over 6 partitions, and an 80 GB USB drive (2 partitions) with more free space
Anyway, a couple of starter questions: Should Vista go on a Primary partition only,say on my IDE HDD ( my drive 0, I've got "C:\" and XP residing on the 320GB SATA) or is that no big deal?
Seeing as I have it, would executing Partition Magic 8's (Powerquest's version) wizard on preparation for "2nd operating system" be a practical thing to do prior to install?
I think the safest way to test Vista Beta is to have a clean test PC

to install it on, putting it on a critical PC and dual booting could lead to the loss of your existing OS, IMHO this is not worth the risk.
If you really want to dual boot it on an existing PC either clone your existing HDDs first, or do a full drive image of both your HDDs using Ghost or Acronis 9.0 and make sure you have a proper XP installation CD not a "rescue" disk and ensure you back up all the drivers you can find to CD.
I have beta 5384.4 on a clean test PC and so far I have had no problems in fact I think this latest version is pretty damn good but I dual booted an earlier version with XP and got into all sorts of trouble ending up with a disk wipe. Being a test PC and having a clone of the original XP setup it was not too much of a problem.
My test PC is no high end beast its a cheap Motherboard, built in soound and video, old 250 watt PSU, AMD 2.6 processor with 1GB of cheap RAM and a 80GB sata HDD but its enough to run Vista reasonably enough and play about with it and much safer.
Jonah

Did just as you said Andre,...and I'm now a Vista Beta 2 tester I'm very happy I did it this way instead of going the way of the "upgrade" right out of the box.
So far,...it looks pretty cool I guess. Windows Mail is a little weak, and IE 7.0 a bit non-intuitive, but hey, its a Beta.

On Mon, 5 Jun 2006 11:06:02 -0700, "Andre Da Costa [Extended64]" wrote:

First things first, "backup" any important data on the drive, I think Colin Barnhorst said it best, Murphy use to be a beta tester. I have Vista BETA 2 installed in a multi-boot configuration on a logical partition which I think is the best approach especially for beta software, I don't have any interest or desire to make Vista my primary operating system because I don't believe its at that level where I would want to use it every single day and night.
So, I would simply create a logical partition in Partition Magic with at least 20 more GBs of hard disk space. Launch Windows Vista setup from within Windows XP, type in your product key, accept the End User License Agreement, click "Custom" > select the logical partition you created for Vista, click Next and Vista will do the rest, Copy files to the hard disk, (restarts at 27%), continues setup, expands files and restarts a couple times, install features, installs updates and Completes setup.
After setup completes, you are taken to the Out of Box Experience . The first page configures your keyboard, I defaulted to US English, Next is User account information, and selecting a nice profile picture, next a nice wallpaper and you are ready to start using Windows Vista. --

Question for Andre (or anyone else, for that matter):
I notice you advocate installing to a Logical as opposed to a Primary partition. I am not well versed in this area and simply followed the instructions of PartitionMagic. I have a boot manager at the front of the physicall drive in a Primary partition, FAT format. Next on the drive is XP in a Primary partition, NTFS format. Then is Vista in a third Primary partition, also NTFS format. Finally is a "misc." partition for data storage and the like, in a FAT32 format.
My question is, would having the second (or all subsequent) OS's in a Logical instead of a Primary partition be of any advantage from a safety or performance standpoint or is your choice simply that of personal preferance or philosophy?
"DJ Bjorklund" wrote:

Did just as you said Andre,...and I'm now a Vista Beta 2 tester I'm very happy I did it this way instead of going the way of the "upgrade" right out of the box.
So far,...it looks pretty cool I guess. Windows Mail is a little weak, and IE 7.0 a bit non-intuitive, but hey, its a Beta.

On Mon, 5 Jun 2006 11:06:02 -0700, "Andre Da Costa [Extended64]" andred25@hotmail.com> wrote:
First things first, "backup" any important data on the drive, I think Colin Barnhorst said it best, Murphy use to be a beta tester. I have Vista BETA 2 installed in a multi-boot configuration on a logical partition which I think is the best approach especially for beta software, I don't have any interest or desire to make Vista my primary operating system because I don't believe its at that level where I would want to use it every single day and night.
So, I would simply create a logical partition in Partition Magic with at least 20 more GBs of hard disk space. Launch Windows Vista setup from within Windows XP, type in your product key, accept the End User License Agreement, click "Custom" > select the logical partition you created for Vista, click Next and Vista will do the rest, Copy files to the hard disk, (restarts at 27%), continues setup, expands files and restarts a couple times, install features, installs updates and Completes setup.
After setup completes, you are taken to the Out of Box Experience . The first page configures your keyboard, I defaulted to US English, Next is User account information, and selecting a nice profile picture, next a nice wallpaper and you are ready to start using Windows Vista. --