Home for Vista beta

[kelly]

I have copies of Vista beta 2 and Office beta 2 Kit 2007. I'm looking to put these in one of 2 machines and can't decide what to do.

Opt 1: My XP machine is an AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz with 512 RAM. If I install Vista on this machine, it will be to a separate hard drive so I can dual boot. I have basically no cost to do this as I have an 80G hard drive I can use.

Opt 2: The other option is to take an eMachine carcass and install a new mobo, RAM, and possibly power supply. Being a Crucial Memory reseller, I get RAM at pretty good prices. The cost here is the mobo, RAM, PSU. However, I could put in a 64-bit processor and SATA drive. This could be a newer, faster machine. But then again, my present machine in opt 1 is fast enought for what I do with it.

So I'm soliciting ideas from the group.

thanks - td

[kern]

I have copies of Vista beta 2 and Office beta 2 Kit 2007. I'm looking to put these in one of 2 machines and can't decide what to do.

Opt 1: My XP machine is an AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz with 512 RAM. If I install Vista on this machine, it will be to a separate hard drive so I can dual boot. I have basically no cost to do this as I have an 80G hard drive I can use.

Opt 2: The other option is to take an eMachine carcass and install a new mobo, RAM, and possibly power supply. Being a Crucial Memory reseller, I get RAM at pretty good prices. The cost here is the mobo, RAM, PSU. However, I could put in a 64-bit processor and SATA drive. This could be a newer, faster machine. But then again, my present machine in opt 1 is fast enought for what I do with it.

So I'm soliciting ideas from the group.

thanks - td



I'd hold off on new system till after Vista is officially released, and do option 1, but add another 512mb ram.

[Dan18960]

I have copies of Vista beta 2 and Office beta 2 Kit 2007. I'm looking to put these in one of 2 machines and can't decide what to do.

Opt 1: My XP machine is an AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz with 512 RAM. If I install Vista on this machine, it will be to a separate hard drive so I can dual boot. I have basically no cost to do this as I have an 80G hard drive I can use.

Opt 2: The other option is to take an eMachine carcass and install a new mobo, RAM, and possibly power supply. Being a Crucial Memory reseller, I get RAM at pretty good prices. The cost here is the mobo, RAM, PSU. However, I could put in a 64-bit processor and SATA drive. This could be a newer, faster machine. But then again, my present machine in opt 1 is fast enought for what I do with it.

So I'm soliciting ideas from the group.

thanks - td

I would go with opt 2 - IF your XP machine has a purpose, then it is NOT the machine to be experimenting with. I have setup my bench box with Vista (ran it about a week until I just got tired of all the hoops I had to jump through) and just imaged back my drive to XP.

But that is my bench box. It mostly just sits there waiting to fix someone else's hard drive. I don't use it for production, mission critical stuff, or even playing games.

Also - I found if you have 2 GB of RAM Vista is a nicer playmate. And don't even think of having anything slower than a 3.2 ghz processor - and if you can get a dual core EVEN better.

Remember you are looking at an operating system that wants 15 GIG OF FREE HARD DRIVE TO INSTALL! Got to have a clue there.

[kelly]

Thanks - now we have one vote for each option, both with valid points. Save $$ with option one, save present machine with option 2. Yes, my XP machine has a specific purpose. I need it to run some company proprietary applications for a customer.

At this point, I'm leaning toward option 1. I can install Vista on a hd that's just hanging around here. Then I can boot to XP to do customer work when I have to; boot to Vista when I want to play around.

I've never installed more than one OS in a single machine. I'm guessing that when it boots, it'll recognize there's 2 OSs installed and ask which I want to boot to. I'm also guessing that I'll have to reinstall all the apps on the volume with the 2nd OS.

-td

[mylanta]

Tony,
I like option 1 as well...dual boot is easy and you don't risk the XP hard drive by having another drive with Vista on it. Dan is right though this is a big heavy install and 2 gig of ram is almost necessary.

[Dan18960]

Yes, my XP machine has a specific purpose. I need it to run some company proprietary applications for a customer.
-td

Ok let me get this STRAIGHT - You want to take a machine that is used for a CLIENT PROPRIETARY APPLICATION and LOAD A BETA OPERATING SYSTEM ON THAT MACHINE

I just want to be clear here!

By the way I hope the client is YOU - because I WOULD NEVER PUT MY CLIENT'S BUSINESS BEFORE MY PERSONAL WHIM TO JUST TEST AN OPERATING SYSTEM or anything else for the matter. My client's are NOT test cases.

Tony, I can't believe someone in the business would even think of anything like this.

And Rich - correct me if you think I am wrong here - you KNOW my client's are FIRST! And I have had some of them over 10 years now.

[mylanta]

Dan,
It's an OS on another hard drive and a dual boot. What on earth can happen????? If it becomes screwed up you unplug the drive and put it in
the closet and it goes away.

[kern]

Tony, I can't believe someone in the business would even think of anything like this.

And Rich - correct me if you think I am wrong here...

Dan,
Tony said he would be using a spare drive to install Vista - no problems there as far as I'm concerned.

[Dan18960]

You guys just don't get it.

DUAL boot puts a loader on the DRIVES that designates that a dual layer is available to access more than one operating system.

I (and this is ONLY my experience) have NEVER had a dual divorce go nicely into the night. There is always something lingering that causes more headache than pleasure - and I have resorted to the "Whack-n-Load" method more than once to get a computer back to correctness.

And Vista being a BETA product is NOT SUPPORTED! What happens in even the REMOTEST chance that Vista trashes XP or the Proprietary Client Application.

ARE YOU going to be responsible? Are you going to know how to resolve the problems? ARE you going to be FINANCIALLY responsible for the lost of productivity, business, or lawsuit that may result?

I personally would NEVER do business again with a consultant that lost my business because HE wanted to PLAY with a beta software!

But then hey it isn't my client do what you want. After all, RichM says it's safe. BUT I hope you have your Errors and Ommissions Insurance paid up to day and have enough coverage so IF anything happens you still have a house to come home to.

What we do on OUR own machines (and I mean OUR OWN MACHINES) is different than what we do on a CLIENTS system. And Tony IF you have been "authorized" to install a client's proprietary application, are expected to provide reports or service BECAUSE of that application, then that client OWNS a portion of that computer and relates to it NOT being solely your computer system.

But like I said - hey it's your client, it's your choice, it's your head that will roll (and make no mistake about it - you trash that client's application just in the least bit AND your head will roll!).

[kelly]

Dan - good points. However, it's no big deal if this machine crashes. I'll simply reload XP and the apps. Yeah - it'll be a pain, but it's a risk I'm willing to deal with. I will make an Acronis TI beforehand. The data files aren't needed once they're delivered to the customer, so I really don't have any data to worry about.

Thanks for your thoughts,
-td

[Dan18960]

Dan - good points. However, it's no big deal if this machine crashes. I'll simply reload XP and the apps. Yeah - it'll be a pain, but it's a risk I'm willing to deal with. I will make an Acronis TI beforehand. The data files aren't needed once they're delivered to the customer, so I really don't have any data to worry about.

Thanks for your thoughts,
-td

Tony,

I am guessing you saw Dudeking's delima that he can no longer get to his XP partition and he has 2 years of work that "may" be in jeodary.

I would still opt for option #2 and just be on the safe side. The building of a new system would be way cheaper than having to recreate a crashed system.

I have seen posts on here where Acronis didn't restore (I have had the same thing happen with Ghost). So you might want to get a spare drive and do an image restore to it first before you make the leap into the dual boot of Vista.

[kelly]

Dan, thanks - I did see Dudeking's post. I'd like to do opt 2. But weighing the cost/benefit/risk. I'm willing to take the risk. I like your idea about doing a TI restore on a separate hd beforehand. I'll definately do that, especially after seeing Dudeking's post.

-td

[mylanta]

Dan, thanks - I did see Dudeking's post. I'd like to do opt 2. But weighing the cost/benefit/risk. I'm willing to take the risk. I like your idea about doing a TI restore on a separate hd beforehand. I'll definately do that, especially after seeing Dudeking's post.

-td

As a matter of record Tony, I have exactly what you are describing oin my bench machine with a dual boot to XP and Vista and I never begin such a move without first making an image file of XP disk, because I have been known to format the wrong disk in the past too damn often!
But once again with Vista on a second drive, I cannot imagine what kind of trouble you could really get into.