BleepingComputer.com: Dual boot and run same programs

Hello all,

I am in the process of setting up a xp pro & vista home prem dual boot system. I have a 320GB HDD and I set up the partitions. I have (2) 50GB and (2) 100GB partitions. (1) 50GB will be used for XP and the other for Vista. I am planing on using (1) 100GB for programs and files and the other for data storage. Lets say I install MS Office 2007 on XP can i then set it up and install it on vista without having to do two separate installs?

Thanks in advance for your help

JP

in short, no.

Because of the fact that when you install something like ms office, it:
writes registry entries
creates symbolic links
installs new files in the windows dir.

you will have to do seperat installs.


also, say you have a drive partitioned into three partitions.
Operating System
program files
data files

everytime you open a data file, you need to access all three partitions:

the windows partition to find out which program opens the file
the programs partition to open the program that opens the file
the data partition for the actual file itself.

A harddrive head can only read/write to one place at any given time, so this would drastically slow down your computer.

On the flipside, if you had three different physical drives, and decided to do something like this, it may, actually speed up your system (depending on a couple of factors)