How To Partition for Dual Boot with Vista ?

I have got a new P4 D 3.0 GHz system with 250 GB hard disk & 2 GB DDR2.

It has only one 20 GB primary partition with XP Pro.

I would like to make it a dual boot with at least 7 partitions.

Currrently I would like to use Win XP Pro as my primary OS but also would like to keep an extra partition for the new OS Vista when it is available as a Beta or Final version.

I have Partition Magic V.8.0 software.

Is it possible to do this ? How should I format & partition this drive ?

If I don't set it up for Vista now, then can I do it later & if yes how ?

Thanks

 

Yes it is possible; but I wouldn't use Partition Magic to do what you want.

Download 'Knoppix Live'; use QtParted to reduce the size of the XP partiton, then create any additional partitions.

From personal experience there is a very high probabilty that Partiton Magic will corrupt the Partion Table of the boot partition. Which, is your XP partition.

 

Thank you for the warning.

What if I just wanted to make the XP partition larger than what it is right now, a 20 GB ?

I definitely need a large OS partition even if I just keep only XP in there because I have too many programs that I want to install ?

I need at least a 30 GB primary OS partition. Should I use Partition Magic in that case or not ?

If not then how should I go about enlarging that partition to 30 GB or more ?

Thanks.

 

If you are just wanting to increase the size of the XP partition and there is available drive space, then you should be able to use Partition Magic to increase the size of the partition without problems.

As I have indicated; I have had problems with Partition Magic in the past and no longer trust the product.

 

If you have nothing else but XP on there then you can create partitions as you please with XP's Disk Management tool. Vista would work best with a 15GB partition.

 

Is Vista Beta available right now ?

If not, are you saying that the max size of Vista Partition should be no more than 15 GB or can I have it bigger ?

Can I leave that Vista partition blank now if it is not available now ?

Thanks

 

Vista 5270 is available if you have a MSDN account. The public beta should be out in two months or so.

15GB is a minimum.

Yes, you can have empty partitions.

 

Thank You all guys.