Upgrade XP to Vista

Dear group:

I have a HP DV9040us notebook with 2 SATA drives. It came with XP Media
Center Edition 2005. I want to install Vista on the second drive. I don't
want to dual boot or overlay the OS since I understand there are many
problems doing this. Correct?

I would like to set up 4 partitions as follows: XP; Vista: Programs; Data I
want to avoid duplicating all the programs and files on the new drive. My
plan is to physically remove the first hard drive, load Vista on the second,
and then reconnect both drives. I should technically be able to switch
drives through the BIOS.

My friends said that you need special software to do this and that I need to
flash the BIOS first. I'm confused
about the overall process. I just got an upgrade to Vista Home Premium kit
from HP and I'm not sure how to use it or
if I should. I have my data backed up.

Has anyone done this successfully? If so, please share this with everyone.

Thanks for all replies.
newguy

you can select which drive to boot from in your bios with out any special
software, just pick your boot drive.

you can unplug your second drive install vista and reconnect drive with out
problems, thats how i did it.

Since you have the upgrade version it will look for a XP install!!! But you
can get around this DO NOT input software key! when asked the first time
input key after vista is up and running!!

good luck

"newguy" wrote:

> Dear group:
>
> I have a HP DV9040us notebook with 2 SATA drives. It came with XP Media
> Center Edition 2005. I want to install Vista on the second drive. I don't
> want to dual boot or overlay the OS since I understand there are many
> problems doing this. Correct?
>
> I would like to set up 4 partitions as follows: XP; Vista: Programs; Data I
> want to avoid duplicating all the programs and files on the new drive. My
> plan is to physically remove the first hard drive, load Vista on the second,
> and then reconnect both drives. I should technically be able to switch
> drives through the BIOS.
>
> My friends said that you need special software to do this and that I need to
> flash the BIOS first. I'm confused
> about the overall process. I just got an upgrade to Vista Home Premium kit
> from HP and I'm not sure how to use it or
> if I should. I have my data backed up.
>
> Has anyone done this successfully? If so, please share this with everyone.
>
> Thanks for all replies.
> newguy
>
>
>
>