Are dual os or multi-boot os safe?

Are dual OS or Multi-boot OS safe?... I want to try using two operating system in one pc... it is possible if one is Vista and the other one is XP sp2

I think the one that appear 5 seconds is a software called magic boot?.. what software your son used to set it up?

If you install something like 'ootcamp' it's possible to run 2 operation systems. I don't understand why you'd want to run 2 copies of windows though- it's more common for running windows and either linux or Mac OSX.

 
I've got XP and 98 on the same computer. During startup I have a window that pops up for about 5 seconds that gives me a chance to open 98 rather than the default XP.

They are even on the same hard drive because I have it partitioned. My son set it all up for me a few years ago. Very handy.

 
I don't know. I'll ask him later today when he wakes up.

Safety is relative. Assuming you install Vista and XP on different partitions there is still some danger in one operating system clobering the other. A malfunctioning operating system can easily wipe out the entire disk (seen it happen though I've seen disks wiped out by human error a lot more often!).

If you want to be able to boot both operating systems with no danger one system corrupting the other than you have to use separate removable hard disks. There are kits to make your hard drive removeable so you can change hard drives between boots. A hard drive that isn't installed can not be corrupted.

Another option is virtual machines. VMware server is available for free now and you can run a guest operating system in a virtual machine. Since I use VMware I no longer dual-boot. You will need sufficient RAM, hard disk, and fast enough a CPU but this is probably the best solution to needing to run multiple operating systems. A virtual maching crashing generally does not take down the entire system and in theory anyway a guest VM will not be able to corrupt the parent operating system

yes I had windows vista ultimate and widnows xp on the same hard drive, but on different partitions, and I've also had xp and vista on 2 different hard drives.

yes I had windows vista ultimate and widnows xp on the same hard drive, but on different partitions, and I've also had xp and vista on 2 different hard drives.