XP & Vista install help

I currently have WinXP installed on one of my hard drives, it has DD10 and OSS10 currently installed. I have a spare hard drive that has nothing installed on it. What is the easiest way to get Vista installed on that secondary hard drive and recognized by OS selector without having any problems? Thanks for your help

 

Using the words easiest and without having any problems when referring to OSS is going to make this more difficult...

You might read through this post as it deals with installing XP on a second drive. Installing Vista on a second drive should be similar.
Need help with dual boot Vista & XP

If you have TI, make a backup image of your current setup so you can restore it if necessary.

 

So if I removed my Win XP hard drive and installed the blank hard drive and proceeded to install vista. I would have to connect both drives with the jumper set on cable select? And would I keep the OSS installed on the WinXP or install it on the Vista?

 

You should be able to just connect the blank drive and follow the instructions in the post I referenced above.

If you take out your XP drive, install the new drive, install Vista, then install DD and OSS from Vista. OSS will hopefully detect Vista and OSS will be installed onto the Vista drive.

When you reconnect the XP drive, OSS may have a problem because OSS was also installed on that drive (if you uninstall OSS prior to removing the XP drive, it may fix that problem).

Done this way, you'll still need to make sure that the Vista drive is first in the Disks list for the Vista menu entry and that the XP drive is first in the Disks list for the XP menu entry. Also you can hide the XP and Vista partitions from each other if you want (I recommend this).

 

I am having no luck in installing Vista on my second hardrive, I disabled OSS on the first hardrive that contains WinXP, I hid the drive in DD and when I attempt to install Vista on the second hardrive I get the following error. Windows could not assign a drive letter to a partion on disk 0. Any help on this

 

When following these instructions, you have to leave OSS installed. You also have to put "Disk #2" first in the list of disks for the Vista installation and for the Vista menu entry after it's created.

If you've uninstalled OSS, then you'll need to set the "Vista" drive to be the boot drive in the BIOS so it becomes drive number one. Leave the XP partition hidden and install Vista. Then install DD and OSS from Vista. It should find the previous OSS installation and update it. Edit your menu entries so that XP has the XP drive first in the Disks list and Vista as the Vista drive first in the Disks list. Also, if you don't want XP and Vista to see eachother's partitions, make sure to hide the Vista partition in XP's options and the XP partition in Vista's options.

Windows will install its bootcode to the FIRST DRIVE IT FINDS. That's why the drive has to be the BIOS boot drive or Disk #1 in the OSS Disk list. You have to "trick" Windows into thinking that Disk #2 is actually Disk #1.