Windows 7 Dual Boot: Which OS First?

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I have a new hard drive for my laptop so i have the opportunity to dual boot Vista and Win 7. I want to use Win 7 as my primary use OS and Vista for all the applications that don't run on Win7. The question is which OS do I load first? I'm inclined to install the old OS first. Thanks.
 
If you have Vista already installed then install Windows 7 beta into a separate partition or separate HD while in Vista. So in Vista pop in the Windows 7 beta DVD and choose complete install and choose the 2nd HD or other partition and install the operating system there.
 
I'm starting from a clean slate. I'm leaning toward creating a small partition and installing Vista first. I will use the majority of the disk space for Windows 7.
 
Need a little direction! I have made the big mistake of downloading Win7 over the top of Vista Premium. I have the Recovery Disks ready to go but I went to Circuit City and bought 500GB,My Book USB HD. Should I dowload of my C drive to it as I only have 81GB being used out of 400Gb? I have the Recovery disks for Vista Premium so that is not a problem and I do I switch back and forth from Vista to Win7? I know these are some stupid questions but I have got to learn sometime so why not now if you have the time.
 
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If i am reading your post correctly, you installed Win7 on your C: and now want to copy that to your USB drive so you install Vista?

If this is the case, you can do it, but you won't be able to dual boot unless you manually modify the boot.ini file (not recommened for amatures. Whatever you copy the to USB drive will just be there as data, nothing else.

When dual booting, always remember to install the oldest OS first and then the newer OS.

What you will need to do is install WinVista on your C: and then install Win7 on another drive or partition. Unless you are going to keep the USB drive on all the time, I would not recommend using it.

Generally external USB drives are for backup and storage only, not installation of an OS so I highly recommend not using it for your Win7 install.
 
I did the same thing...installed W7 over Vista 64x (not by choice) on the C:/ drive.I made a partiton for W7 of 60GB and thought I downloaded it to that drive. Now,when I boot,I have no choice but to boot into W7. The machine is super slow. I have no idea how to fix the problem,only to wipe the HDD and start over fresh.At this point there is only one OS to choose from when booting (W7) and that won't work for me.
 
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