dual booting on 80GB?

[Dubb]

trying to decide between the 80GB and the 160GB intel SSDs

I'm in the process of upgrading HDs and to win7, and I figure I'll have to dual boot for a bit while I test compatibility / performance vs. XP-x64.

Right now my xp-x64 OS is on a 38GB partition of a larger drive, with about 6GB free (which could probably be improved with some maintenance). Win7pro-x64 looks like it's around 13GB from the install alone. Adding in applications (x2) and disabling system restore looks like I might be close to using up 80GB if I dual boot.

Just wondering if anybody's been down the same path and has any insight. Is it crazy to dual boot on an 80GB drive? what else could I do to pare things down?

 

[lxskllr]

I'd skip the dual boot, go with Win7 alone, and hope for the best. I've dual booted Vista and XP since Vista's release, and I only use XP for scanning since there's no 64bit drivers. I have a scanner I could use, but I don't scan much so I just reboot when needed.

You /can/ dual boot on 80gb, but it'll be a PITA, and going with 1 O/S is the way to imo.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Another option is to P2V your current install into a VM then run 7 and run your XP stuff in VMware server (free) or workstation (costs money but more options like USB passthrough etc)

 

[Blazer]

dual booting xp and vista using a wd 160, i wouldnt suggest a dual boot with a 80.

 

[Dubb]

I'd skip the dual boot, go with Win7 alone, and hope for the best. I've dual booted Vista and XP since Vista's release, and I only use XP for scanning since there's no 64bit drivers. I have a scanner I could use, but I don't scan much so I just reboot when needed.

You /can/ dual boot on 80gb, but it'll be a PITA, and going with 1 O/S is the way to imo.

yeah, that's the plan eventually, but I've got to run some tests on openGL viewport performance on Win7 (I haven't seen anything that clarifies whether vista's issues are taken care of) in addition to making sure the the various odds and ends (nikon camera software, EAC, sketchup/rhino plugins, etc) are working properly.

looks like the 160 is probably the way to go...but damn, I don't want to spend that much.

 

[lxskllr]

yeah, that's the plan eventually, but I've got to run some tests on openGL viewport performance on Win7 (I haven't seen anything that clarifies whether vista's issues are taken care of) in addition to making sure the the various odds and ends (nikon camera software, EAC, sketchup/rhino plugins, etc) are working properly.

looks like the 160 is probably the way to go...but damn, I don't want to spend that much.

Why not get the 80, put 1 O/S on that, and put the other O/S on a standard HD. That'll make it easier to wipe an O/S if you don't need both.

Edit:
You can then turn the standard HD into a data drive.