Vista & XP pro

Clarifications

I personally would not recomend using the USB option. I have several PC that are loaded with more then one OS. Personally I have had very view Probems. Keep in mind you do have some other options. You can Partition the drive with vista on it then load XP on the second half. This way when the PC boots up it will give you an option of what OS u want to use. Or if you board supports 2 hard disk I would recomend hooking it directly to the bard. You will have less problmes booting to the dievice that way.

Greg Shultz has an excellent post on TechRepublic (Feb'07) on dual booting (XP and Vista):

http://downloads.techrepublic.com.com/abstract.aspx?docid=281665

I followed his instructions meticulously, installing XP on Partition 'C' and Vista on Partition 'D'. One can select the 'default' OS and the boot screen display time to manually select XP or Vista.

Everything worked fine until I downloaded and installed SP1 in Vista - the Vista partition became inaccessible. Reformatting the 'D' partition and reinstalling Vista on the 'D' partition fixed that glitch.

Vista upgrades subseqently corrupted the XP operating system (!!). Is this the kind of enhanced functionality you are seeking from your laptop?

If you are eager to embrace frustration and misery, go ahead and follow Greg Shultz' instructions. Some have said that separate HDs are a 'better' solution, but I'm skeptical, because each partition is assigned a separate drive letter, so I cannot see how one is protected by separate HDs.

In summary, I recommend that you jettison your idea of dual booting with XP and Vista. Personally, I prefer XP (millions of folks who have tried Vista give Vista a 'thumbs down').

Rick/Portland, OR

If the external HDD wasn't loaded on that Compaq it is unlikely to boot as such as it doesn't have the correct drivers for the Computers Hardware. You may be able to get around this by using M$ directions for replacing the M'Board here

http://tinyurl.com/j9u7

Now for the potential problems as this wouldn't be a Dual Boot System per say you may not have the issues that Vista Introduces but you first need to look at the hardware used by the NB and see if there are XP Drivers for it. If there are not you can not use this NB with XP. If there are you need to remember that External HDD's setup like this are not really for Full Time use as the enclosures do not effectively cool the HDD correctly and it runs hot so it will have a shorter life than if it was fitted to a computer where the entire chassis acts as a heat sink to keep the HDD cool.

There may also be speed issues with a USB Drive not to mention the possibility of HDD Damage due to the fact that this is a NB and the external enclosure is easily moved.

Over all it would be better to research your Hardware and see if your particular NB can run XP and then wipe Vista off the system and load it with XP. That way when you move the NB around you will have your OS of choice and not be using different OS's.

Col