Dual boot XP Pro on ext eSATA HDD with Vista 32 bit preinstalled on internal HDD?

Thanks, Mak; will check out the newer CZ version as you suggest as it'll be pretty soon.

Also do totally agree one could ditch the Ultimate for an easier/reliable image backup/restore solution. It may just be interesting to see it the complete backup/restore w/in Ultimate holds up though. It is partially appealing as it is w/in the OS itself.

Also I do intend to migrate from XP Pro if Vista overall can handle my needs. Currently from what little I have seen playing around with Vista, it is incredibly bloated in size and resource (RAM) consumption; just wish it was a lot leaner. All the extra RAMs on my new PC could be chewed up forcing RAM upgrade and a reluctant move to the 64 bit version needlessly.

Just wonder if Windows 7 (now about a year away?) will prove a better replacement for XP Pro? More importantly, will there be enough applications out there that can run on the new OS?
 
Lucky you! Having lots of fun with Beta testing, mate?

I presume this will be 64 bit only, any idea on minum RAM yet? Presume at least 2GB? Is this going to rely on Intel's i7 or equivalent processor? Presumably it would not be realistic to expect the new OS to be as lean as XP Pro. But is it leaner than Vista?

On the applications side, would one need a new Office suite (I currently use the Office 2007 Pro Plus and fully rely on Outlook as my mail client getting it to automatically fetch all my various email a/c's from different providers). Is the IE8 performing any better than IE7?

What's your overall conclusion at the moment (I know it is almost a year for this to totally change from what you're playing with)? Do you think this will be an improvement on XP Pro?

I have heard some experts say that the best way to make a transition to Windows 7 is to jump to the 64 bit XP Pro now. Is that how you see it?

Thanks for sharing your experience.
 
No it is 32 and 64 Bit. Right now if you run Vista you can run this. That is all they said.

Office 2007 works. IE8 Beta is in there.
 
I never even use the backup feature that Home Premium does offer here. I created a "reinstall Vista" folder on the external drive here for all updates and downloads like utilies so I can literally wipe the primary drive at any time and simply copy everything back on. I download updates to identical folders on the OS drive as well as to the external for ready access.

I looked at getting Ultimate when VIsta was first out and all copies were sold out in a heart beat! I've been running the HP edition ever since without regret here with XP running on a second drive for older softwares there. For Windows 7 when finally out I'll most likely be choosing a 64bit edition there.
 
I don't back-up the OS at all. I figure with the dual-boot and my old PC still available with XP, I can always stay connected, and if the OS ever breaks, system restore will fix most things and the DVD can reinstall it.
My user data however is another matter. I keep a daily mirror (no not the newspaper !) on a second internal HDD, and monthly archives on a 500G external HDD.
I use a freeware program called EZBackitup, which is just 2 clicks a day (shortcut then "go") to archive copies of any of my data that changed.
It's amazingly fast, and unlike the MS backup which we lost with Vista HP, the mirror is not in some obscure format. Mirrored files can just be dragged right back to replace a broken original.
 
PC eye said:
I never even use the backup feature that Home Premium does offer here. I created a "reinstall Vista" folder on the external drive here for all updates and downloads like utilies so I can literally wipe the primary drive at any time and simply copy everything back on. I download updates to identical folders on the OS drive as well as to the external for ready access.

I looked at getting Ultimate when VIsta was first out and all copies were sold out in a heart beat! I've been running the HP edition ever since without regret here with XP running on a second drive for older softwares there. For Windows 7 when finally out I'll most likely be choosing a 64bit edition there.
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Hi PC eye

I have never used the backup feature w/in the OS, relying instead on image restore to hole me out of problems, usually within minutes (less than half an hour max). This obviously saves having to rebuild the OS, loading SPs + updates and reinstalling/reconfiguring a whole horde of protection (AV etc) and application software plus IE and mailbox (w/in Outlook). The full image restore allows one to resume almost instantly. Through habit I now routinely backup the full image every 2/3 days on an external HDD. Somehow I now depend on this 'insurance' and feel exposed without it! Should the internal HDD fail one would not bat an eyelid as one could replace the HDD and restore from backup and be back in business very quickly. Neat! It's just a pity that my preferred image backup/restore application has problems with my new hardware.

On Windows 7 I also plan to opt for the 64 bit; prior to that I do hope to migrate to XP Pro 64 bit which I also have but have not tried yet. In reality it is probably not easy to migrate to Windows 7 without hiccups from any of the two existing OSs . We'll simply have to wait and see!

Addendum:

Terry60 said:
I don't back-up the OS at all. I figure with the dual-boot and my old PC still available with XP, I can always stay connected, and if the OS ever breaks, system restore will fix most things and the DVD can reinstall it.
My user data however is another matter. I keep a daily mirror (no not the newspaper !) on a second internal HDD, and monthly archives on a 500G external HDD.
I use a freeware program called EZBackitup, which is just 2 clicks a day (shortcut then "go") to archive copies of any of my data that changed.
It's amazingly fast, and unlike the MS backup which we lost with Vista HP, the mirror is not in some obscure format. Mirrored files can just be dragged right back to replace a broken original.
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Hi Terry

You'll see from my reply to PC eye that my approach has saved my butt on countless occasions. It seems we all approach this area slightly differently but in essence certain discipline is needed to do a regular enough backup to fall back upon in a disaster recovery situation. I still know too may people spending precious time reinstalling their OS etc and panic when they cannot locate their precious application disks or back up data media when they face a disaster!
 
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I wouldn't waste time at this point with XP Pro 64 since most found the only drivers available were intended for Server 2003 since that lacked any real support. Vista however has now seen far more drivers and updates readily available at different support sites. I simply passed up one oem copy of XP Pro 64 found a year ago for only $50 at amazon.com.

I'll wait for either a buy on an oem copy of Vista 64 or the next version 7 being supposedly the last to be seeing any 32bit editions there. But that was only seen in an online magazine article not anything direct from Microsoft yet.
 
PC eye said:
I wouldn't waste time at this point with XP Pro 64 since most found the only drivers available were intended for Server 2003 since that lacked any real support. Vista however has now seen far more drivers and updates readily available at different support sites. I simply passed up one oem copy of XP Pro 64 found a year ago for only $50 at amazon.com.

I'll wait for either a buy on an oem copy of Vista 64 or the next version 7 being supposedly the last to be seeing any 32bit editions there. But that was only seen in an online magazine article not anything direct from Microsoft yet.
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Thanks for that, PC eye. My new desktop came with 32 bit Vista HP preinstalled but also 64 bit full OEM on disk! So I may as well skip the 64 bit XP Pro in favour of this. Nice one!
 
I would! It will far easier getting all the drivers needed for Vista over the 64bit edition of Pro. That's kind of been labeled the ME II flop there before Vista was even out. But Microsoft at the time still had to have a 64bit edition of Windows since all new cpus were now seeing 64bit support.
 
Indigo said:
Is the IE8 performing any better than IE7?

What's your overall conclusion at the moment (I know it is almost a year for this to totally change from what you're playing with)? Do you think this will be an improvement on XP Pro?

I have heard some experts say that the best way to make a transition to Windows 7 is to jump to the 64 bit XP Pro now. Is that how you see it?

Thanks for sharing your experience.
Click to expand...

Right now i would say that IE8 is better. Cause at least it is trying to follow teh standards that Firefox, Opera and Safari are. IE8 at least passes Acid2. Which is a major improvement over IE7. So yes in my eyes IE8 is a big step forward cause they are trying not to force people to follow what they think people should see on sites and trying to go with some sort of online standard that is being setup.

At the moment Win7 is good. Better than XP Pro. But for me so was Vista.

I dont think the transition would be helped by going from XP X64 to Win7. XP X64 was based on teh Server 2003 kernel. Which is more toward Win7 than XP 32 Bit. But at the same time going to Vista is the much wiser decision.
 
The one thing that urks me about IE8 however is no longer seeing the add to favorites but add to links bar instead when going to run it on Vista here. I only keep certain places in the links folder while keeping various links saved in the IE favorites. It seems IE8 has a few things reversed in that area.
 
Is that the one on the right? The thing noticed right off was seeing the first link on the bar moved over when adding any new item. Other then that the beta version ran smoother in Vista then when the previous release was tried out on XP.

The SP2 Beta 2 release went right on without a hitch there. So far the Windows side of things have proven themselves better with Vista then seem with XP Pro or Home editions. 7 will be seeing the Vista kernel there as well. Plus you may start seeing 64bit games and desktop applications becoming more available since the trend seems to be focused in that direction.
 
PC eye said:
I would! It will far easier getting all the drivers needed for Vista over the 64bit edition of Pro. That's kind of been labeled the ME II flop there before Vista was even out. But Microsoft at the time still had to have a 64bit edition of Windows since all new cpus were now seeing 64bit support.
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Hi PC eye

I am lucky they've shipped both the 32 and 64 bit drivers for XP (as well as Vista) mercifully on my new PC (handy that!); however I must concede it is a matter of time before chipset manufacturers stop supplying the XP drivers on newer MoBos. So you are right.

Incidentally, when I did experiment with dual booting XP Pro (32 bit) on my new PC as covered in my earlier posts I was able to use the supplied drivers to slipstream XP Pro SP3 using nLite and it all worked OK on my first go. Although I have heard of people struggling to get working 32 bit XP drivers on their newer hardware let alone 64 bit!

Addendum:

Makaveli213 said:
Right now i would say that IE8 is better. Cause at least it is trying to follow teh standards that Firefox, Opera and Safari are. IE8 at least passes Acid2. Which is a major improvement over IE7. So yes in my eyes IE8 is a big step forward cause they are trying not to force people to follow what they think people should see on sites and trying to go with some sort of online standard that is being setup.

At the moment Win7 is good. Better than XP Pro. But for me so was Vista.

I dont think the transition would be helped by going from XP X64 to Win7. XP X64 was based on teh Server 2003 kernel. Which is more toward Win7 than XP 32 Bit. But at the same time going to Vista is the much wiser decision.
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Hi Mak

Sounds good on the IE8 front. Can anyone download and test W7? Or is it a privilege reserved for the few?

As an investment banker (US bank) I spend more time abroad than at home; despite this, at some stage, I really wouldn't mind getting my hands dirty putting the Beta through its paces!

Pls do keep us posted on how your experience with the Beta trial goes. They do have a year or less to make this thing really dazzle! Fingers crossed!
 
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To test Windows 7 you have to be invited by Microsoft. So it is only a select group. There are other ways to get it but they are not all that legit.

But without a doubt i will be keeping everyone updated as to how things are going.
 
Makaveli213 said:
To test Windows 7 you have to be invited by Microsoft. So it is only a select group. There are other ways to get it but they are not all that legit.

But without a doubt i will be keeping everyone updated as to how things are going.
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No matter, Mak. We shall count on you folks to keep us posted.
 
Indigo said:
No matter, Mak. We shall count on you folks to keep us posted.
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Mak will keep us updated on things as he can. :brows: right Mak? :tongueout: You have to be pretty much already signed up with MS in order just to get an invite there. Plus some signed agreements for non disclosure until MS makes anything public.
 
Not true. With the Beta you dont have to be a part of them. Guru got a invite. I know several others on different forums as well that have gotten in as well. Not a single one of them is tied to Microsoft like i am. The only thing they have is the fact they Beta tested Vista.

You have to be a active Beta tester thru Connect. From there getting into betas and doing what a beta tester does (filling bugs, testing out every aspect they can and giving back input to Microsoft) will help you to get into Betas like this.

Signing up and asking for a OS Beta with no previous Beta testing experience will always get you over looked. The OS is the main one. You have to prove yourself with the smaller betas first. Then you can start to get bigger ones.

My first Beta tested was WLM 8.0 and from there i got OneCare, Office 12 and moved up from there to things like XP SP3, Vista SP2 and so on with having involvement in many betas inbetween along the way.

The NDA is only part of my MVP package. Not many Betas have NDA stuff. Some do but only for a period of time. Like till a announcement is made. then you are free to talk and say what you want.
 
Obviously once MS published anything publicly the detauls are already public. But for someone who more or less walks in off of the street for sake you wouldn't see them simply downloading and testing the beta releases on their own. That would be taking a giant leap before you showed you could perform baby steps in that sense.
 
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