How do I do a dual boot with xp for my vista computer?

Can anyone tell me how to set my computer to dual boot Vista/Xp?

• The hard drive that came with the computer has vista(basic). Later I installed a second hard drive and would like to put Xp on that one. Does someone know how to install Xp and run it from the second hard drive? The second hard drive is already installed and working.

• Answer:

  It's not a trivial task. I've been dual-booting for years. If you _really_ want to understand what you're going to do, you actually need to understand these concepts: 1. active/hidden partitions 2. primary, extended, logical partitions. 3. editing the boot.ini file 4. setting partitions 5. how windows assigns drive letters. 6. understanding Windows system drive and boot drive http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022 Your best bet is to pickup an Exam Cram book about Windows XP MCSE and read about these topics. I can't explain it clearly enough here with space limitations. I can summarize what you should do: a. editi the 1st hdd's boot.ini to enter extra entries to more clearly identify which hard drive and partition is being used. b. wipe out the 2nd hdd - make it unformatted. c. boot from a windows xp cd d. follow instructions to install on the 2nd hdd FYI, once you're done, when booting XP, the first hard drive is going to be c: and the 2nd hard drive is going to be d: