I have a HP Personal Media drive , 160 GB NFTS system, and I plug it into my pc via USB 2.0 . Now I want to install Vista business on it. Will there be a problem? Does Vista support installs on external harddrives?
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Greg recommended separate internal HDs or a partitioned HD for 2 operating systems. I followed his recommendations using a single partitioned HD with XP MCE on 'C' partition and Vista Home Premium on 'D' partition.
Windows displays a boot screen, and you can edit the 'default' OS, as well as the duration of the boot screen display.
After installing SP1 on Vista, I could no longer boot with Vista. Upon reinstalling Vista into 'D' partition, it booted OK. Perhaps this was a glitch with SP1 (which had plenty of 'issues') that is now resolved. Beware.
While in Vista, I downloaded and installed Microsoft posted patches. These corrupted XP in the 'C' partition. Apparently there is a way to isolate the downloads to prevent cross-partition installation, but this is beyond the scope of your query.
In summary, I advise against it. However, if you are determined to try it, I recommend that you read 'Using Windows XP Professional' (Que Publishing, 3rd ed. 2005), ch. 3 (Installing Windows XP Professional), pp. 81-86 (Dual Booting); also ch. 31 (Multibooting Windows XP with Other Operating Systems), pp. 1207-1244. ISBN 0-7897-3280-7
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Install Vista on a external harddrive
I have a HP Personal Media drive , 160 GB NFTS system, and I plug it into my pc via USB 2.0 .
Now I want to install Vista business on it.
Will there be a problem? Does Vista support installs on external harddrives?