OK, what am I getting myself into?

Santa finally brought a new computer. Very nice -- but SSToolbox is built around a creaky old ArcView core. Designed to run on a 16-bit OS, it will stretch to 32-bit, but not 64-bit (so they say).

I want to partition the drive anyhow and after-market software, like Paragon's Hard Disk Manager, is much more capable than Vista's utility (so they say).

So...before the HD gets crammed full of stuff, partition with HDM. Install new copy of Windows XP on one partition. I haven't even uncrated the computer yet, so I don't know whether it has a partition to isolate the OS. In any case, I imagine it is setup to boot from C: first. OK...so C: for OS and program files; D: for data, to make backups easier; E: for a small "shared resource" drive when I connect to a server; and F: for the out-of-pocket-purchased-XP-for-the-miserably-outdated-GIS-core drive.

Well, now hang on a minute. Experience shows that Toolbox "assumes" it is installed in C: and keeps forgetting that you store data somewhere else. Guess I could change the boot order in Vista and leave C: for XP and Toolbox. Problem is, some other software also assumes it has been installed on C: drive. The dual-boot setups I've read about (never have seen one) have a default boot drive, but give you a choice at startup. So long as it know that V-64 is now on D: or whatever, it shouldn't hang up on me. Right?

Other than some lost drive space (and otherwise-unneeded expense) a dual-boot works OK, from what I hear. There shouldn't be a performance hit, so far as I know, and no additional security threat. It will be a minor PITA but should keep Toolbox running until SST decides what they are going to do about the ArcView problem.

What other problems am I likely to encounter?