Extending the life or functionality of computers often leads to the installation of secondary drives or D drives. External hard drives cannot be used to access your Windows operating system. However, as long as your D drive is an internal disk drive, accessing the installation copy of your Windows Vista operating system can be easily accomplished.
The first step is to make sure that your computer recognizes the D drive once you boot up. If it does and you have installed a copy of Windows Vista on the D drive, you should be able to access it easily enough. You can check both of these scenarios by accessing or opening “My Computer” and looking for the D drive first, opening it, and then searching for the copy of the Vista installation. Okay, now you are ready to begin.
First, back up all existing files so that you don’t lose any important data when you reinstall Windows Vista. Open the installation copy that is located on your D drive. Follow any instructions that appear. Next, you need to locate and click on the phrase “install now.”
I highly recommend accessing any updates for installation from the “Get important updates for installation” page. The updates are the best method for protecting your computer’s security as well as for dealing with bugs. Obviously, you need to be connected to the Internet at the time that you attempt to access the updates.
You need to type your 25-character product key when you arrive at the “Type your product key for activation” page. Even though you previously installed Windows Vista, it is important to type the key in to reinstall Vista to minimize potential problems.
When the “Please read the license terms” page appears, it is important to read these terms. Before you will be able to continue, you need to click on the “I accept the license terms” box if you agree to them. Continue to follow the instructions as they appear with each new page.
Once you select to install Vista, you will receive a prompt to select the drive where you want to have it installed. If you are keeping more than one version of Windows on your computer, it is vital that each version is stored on a separate hard drive. This strategy of using more than one operating system is referred to as dual-boot or multiboot configuration. Clicking on the word “next” will begin the installation. Continue to follow the instructions as they appear with each new page.
Since a compatibility issue exists with anti-virus software, you should disable any existing software until after the installation is complete. It’s also important to install any drivers that you want to use on both versions of Windows if you intend to operate from both of them.
