Dual boot feedback

I currently have XP home on my rig. I just picked up vista and was wanting to know should I just do a fresh install over the whole drive or dual boot them. The only thing I will have to do is partition the drive cause the whole drive is designated for xp right now. I have some stuff on my xp side that I want to keep. Just not real sure that they are compatible for vista yet. Any input would be appreciated. Also if I partition it which program would be good for me to partition the drive.

Download Partition Logic ( a free HDD partitioning and data management tool ) from here...

http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads8.html

... whereas you can use it to resize your existing volume in order to install Vista. The Vista install will set up a dual boot scenario for you, so you'll have a choice of which OS to boot from.

dual booting is a good idea, i have vista dual booted on this work computer. it is a good way to test out vista and see if it is for you/your computer. having it on a seperate partition makes it easier to remove from your system if you decide to go back to xp. i usually use partition magic to manage my partitions.

I also agree to duel boot . Vista takes some getting used to and there are still some quirks to be ironed out .
From a gamer stand point I still use XP x64 95% of the time , but when BioShock (w/DX10) arrives in 11 days , I'll finally be giving Vista x64 a real work out . If all goes well with Vista and Bioshock , I may just start using Vista on a regular basis . Till then , duel booting will stay on my main rig .

I have a question. I have never tried this duel boot thing but have been wanting to try Vista. But I have also wanted to have a pristine install of XP-Pro to do things like benching. I am thinking of maybe doing a tri-boot setup if it is possible. I am thinking along the lines as this.
1. Set up another partition on my Raptor and install another XP but only have needed drivers installed and benching programs
2. Set up another partition on my Seagate and then install Vista (this may not work as I think about it because I would then have to change the boot order in bios, am I right?).
3. Leave my existing XP install as is for everyday use.

One other question. Do you have to reinstall all your programs again from the Vista install in order to use them in both XP and Vista?

I told you I am a newb when it comes to this, I have no clue about it.

I just did a tri-boot install now: XP, 2003 Server, and Vista.

XP is on one drive, Vista and 2003 Server are on another.

I just disconnected the XP drive and booted into 2003 Serverl From there Vista wouldn't even let me "upgrade" so I had to install it on a seperate partition anyway... Which I already had a storage partition with no O.S. on there. Installed there and it automatically detected 2003 server. Reconnected the other drive and set the bios to boot to XP. Now I'm in XP.

I'll boot to 2003 server next and see what happens