Hello all. I have some questions concerning my Dell. I am currently running XP media center, but I would like to set up Vista maybe on a second hard drive. My question is, if I install a second hard drive, format it NTFS through XP, would I then be able to install Vista to that second drive with the MBR from my first drive not being changed? I ask that becuase the MBR contains the ctrl-F11 command to do the PC restore.

One more question, is when I set up that volume on the second hard drive is it ok to have that as C: or should I change it to something else since the volume on my 1st hard drive is C:

Thanks for any help yall can give me. Also my hard drives are SATA if anyone wants to know.

Hi realitytripz, welcome to the PCHF.

It is my understanding that the CTRL+F11 function is not actually in the MBR at a reachable level for most users. If you check C:\boot.ini in notepad, there won't be any mention of CTRL+F11 in there at all.

If you're really concerned about loosing that functionality, I'd suggest calling Dell support - it should be very easy for them to answer with a difinitive yes or no.

Alrighty thanks for the input!

I have another question, if I install the second hard drive, format it and put Vista on it. Will the MBR for the primary partition from my first hard drive for Windows XP have that Vista information on it? Is that how it works? Or will both hard drives have their own MBR? I understand that Vista boots a little differently with new components *bootmgr.exe* etc. I guess I don't really care that much about the PC restore, it was just a little more convenient that having to do a full reinstall.

Thanks for any help yall can give me.

If you edit your boot.ini on your XP partition, and tell it to give you an option between XP and Vista - this will work just fine. I used to do it a while back when Vista was still in Beta.

Hope that answers your question