XP Pro x64 / Win7 dual question
 

WOOT ! First post!

OK, I've been reading up on the posts regarding dual boot issues, etc. I can't seem to find a lot (if any) posts here regarding XP x64 bit version. I'm interested in Win 7 that is coming out and wanted to try this by setting up a Dual boot system - the main partition on the drive is XP x64, and the other partition will be Win 7 x64. (I am using XP x64 and not Vista because of software that I use which runs more stable under this platform.)

If I do this, is it safe to assume that similar issues will have to be addressed in making this install happen?

Here's my configuration - custom built, btw:

AMD Phenom X4 9600 quad core @ 2.31 mHz
8 GB Patriot DDR2 1066 memory Dual channel - unganged
(reading as 800 due to processor limits-grrrr)
Gigabyte GA-MA-790 FX-DS5 motherboard (F6 bios)
Asus ATI HD 3870 PCI-Express video w/ 1GB ram (crossfire capable)
HanssG 28" HDMI LCD + BenQ 22" LCD
750w PS
Drives:
Disk 0: C: 500 GB / 75% free - OS drive
Disk 1: D: 200 GB / 30% free - Data drive
Disk 2: F: 250GB / 32% free - Data drive
Disk 3: E: 1 TB / 98% free - Data drive - external eSATA MyBook
CD 1: DVD/RW-Asus-Lightscribe - SATA
CD 2: DVD/RW-Pioneer - PATA

Thoughts? Your assistance is greatly appreciated!
Kyle

Bump - Hmm - a couple of weeks and no comments? No one has any comments/help? please?

Was also wondering if there is one partitioning software that works better than another. I've seen quite a few mentioned, but.... thoughts?

Thank you,
Kyle

1) Dual booting any operating systems is a risky operation. To minimize the risk use a third party boot manager to set up and install the operating systems. This allows the Master Boot records to be controlled and hidden from each separate OS other than having them over-written by the windows boot manager to a single master boot sector.

I use BootIt NG from terabyte International as my boot manager. It is not free. A free one that is becoming very popular is GAG.

2) BootItNG and GAG both have built in partitioning capabilities and are recommended to use for more than the 4 partitions that microsoft restricts to, There are plenty of other applications such as partition magic. Google would be your best bet as each one is different and requires a higher technical background as the next one.