Partitioning New Hard Drive in Vista (want XP)

You could setup a dual boot, but in all honesty I don't see why.

I've ran FarCry and Halo on Vista 64. I can't comment on RE4 since I never played the game nor had interest in it. In fact, feel free to look over my game collection list (see if this link works for you). At least 75% of the games I own on that list I have successfully installed and played on Vista 64; the other 25% are games I haven't played in years. This includes playing games like Baldur's Gate II, Deus Ex, Fallout 1 and 2, Gothic 1-3, Half Life games, Halo: Combat Evolved, Never Winter Nights 1&2, Painkiller, Star Wars KOTOR 1&2, Warcraft II....what I'm getting at is Vista 64 can run pretty much any game you throw at it.

Only one game that I've tried to run on Vista 64 (uncertain about XP or Win 7, never tried the game on those OSs), wouldn't install and run:Gods: Lands of Infinity

Not like I really cared about playing that game anyways, I only paid about $5 for it from GameStop. I just keep it in my collection.

I haven't ran a dual boot before so I'm not sure on the exacts of how to, other then you need to partition your HDD.

Try installing the games, and see what happens. They should work with Vista as there not that old. If they work with Vista then they stand a good chance of working in windows 7.

To Neatfeatguy: your game list - I plan to get Bioshock soon (needed to recheck OS requirements but it probly plays) Still want Riddick - Butcher's Bay Have Crysis Max Pack, bought it the day before I lost my computer, couldn't play yet :/ Want both F.E.A.R. games Still want Fallout 3 Want Far Cry 2 (hear it sux tho - will get it cheap) Want Gears of War Want STALKER - Churnobyl My old PC couldn't play newer games but now it can so I can start getting the new ones. I'm dying to play RE5 & Red Faction Guerrilla (but gamers say pc version of RFG sux & to wait for patches first. Looked on Red Faction Underground official site & the troubleshooting is full of angry customers). :/ Maybe I won't do the partition after all?? I'd rather not have to since I'm tech challengedLatebloomer9

Recent games run as good on Vista as on XP. If you still want XP after Vista is already installed,

you need to create a new partition or use a 2nd HD. Go to my computer>Manage >disk management. Vista allows you to reduce the partition size (as long as there is enough free space left) if your system partition already spans the entire disk. Create a new partition (primary partition/NTFS format) with the remaining space (foresee at least 30 GB for the OS and common programs).

Boot with the XP CD and install XP on the 2nd partition/drive

Once installed, Windows Vista will no longer boot (XP overwrite the boot manager and doesn't reciognize Vista) so boot with the Vista DVD in the drive and do a repair install.

Use a boot manager utility like EasyBCD to configure which OS to boot by default (Vista or XP).

vista > xp