From what I read, it seems that XP is the one that has problems with a dual boot ??? If at this point and time I only care about the Vista drive. Will I be able to do a system restore in Vista without problems ?
I have to hardrives.. one with Xp.. the original drive and a second with a clean install of Vista..

So long as you don't boot to XP then you shouldn't have any problems with system restore and shadow copying on Vista. As I have suggested in other posts, if you really need XP then use virtual machine software such as VPC 2007 (free from Microsoft. I don't have the link so just Google for VPC 2007). Alternatively you could buy VMware workstation. Personally I prefer VMware because it has USB support (which VPC 2007 doesn't) and it also supports sound. VPC on my machine does support onboard sounds. All you need to make sure of is that you have enough RAM to run the two operating systems side by side. My system has 1.5GB of RAM 1GB is allocated to Vista while 512MB RAM is allocated to the XP virtual machine.
John Barnett MVP Associate Expert Windows - Shell/User
Web: xphelpandsupport.mvps.org Web: vistasupport.mvps.org
The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy, reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this mail/post..
"dwolf"

If you need to dualboot and access both OS's, I've read where you could disable the vista drive in XP and disable the XP drive in vista, thereby eliminating the destruction of restore points. This is an excerpt from that post:
"..... In XP totally disable the drive/partition that holds Vista. In Vista totally disable the drive/partition that holds XP. Now when you boot to XP it won't even recognize the Vista drive/partition as usable. XP will not interact with the Vista drive/partition. The same is true when you boot to Vista. Vista will not use the XP drive/partition. XP can not kill the Vista restore points as it doesn't even access the drive. This will also isolate the two boots and prevents the possible issue of things getting installed on the other OS's drive/partition due to drive lettering. It just can not happen. "
HTH....katy
"John Barnett MVP"

How?
"katy"

I have tried numerous ways of disabling both operating systems so that they don't see each other and, frankly none of them have worked. Bitlocker works fine, if you have Ultimate or Enterprise, otherwise I have found a satisfactory solution to the problem.
John Barnett MVP Associate Expert Windows - Shell/User
Web: xphelpandsupport.mvps.org Web: vistasupport.mvps.org
The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy, reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this mail/post..
"katy"

You could use third party partitioning software to hide the partitions - but they don't work. You could also use TweakUI from within XP - but again that doesn't work either. As I have explained to Katy I have tried numerous ways of hiding the partition(s) and none have been successful. That is one of the reasons why, now, if you don't have Ultimate or Enterprise editions, in which case you can use Bitlocker, MVPs are recommending using third party boot managers to solve the problem.
I have used bitlocker without any problems; however, of late I decided to wipe my hard drive, re-install Vista and then install Virtual machine software (VPC 2007 or VMWare Workstation) and then install XP onto the virtual machine software. You do need extra memory though. In my case 1GB of memory is allocated to Vista and 512MB is allocated to the virtual machine running XP. One advantage of virtual machine software is that you can boot to XP from within Vista, so there is not need to close down and reboot the machine and select from a dual boot menu. For preference I prefer VMWare. Unfortunately this is not free software, unlike VPC 2007, but at least with VMWare you do get USB support and sound. VPC 2007 doesn't support USB and I have never got the sound to work.
John Barnett MVP Associate Expert Windows - Shell/User
Web: xphelpandsupport.mvps.org Web: vistasupport.mvps.org
The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy, reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this mail/post..
"DanR"

Thanks John. What did you mean by "MVPs are recommending using third party boot managers to solve the problem"? I don't think you meant the lost restore point problem... did you? I'm a dual booter mainly because of Photoshop Elements and Premier Elements version 4 and some hardware issues. I go back and forth several times a day. Eventually my hardware issues will be resolved and I may spend the $150 to upgrade Elements. Till then I boot and reboot.
"John Barnett MVP"

While I haven't tried it myself many MVPs are recommending that, to get around the loss of system restore points, you use a third party boot manager. I think BootIt NG is the most recommended. Apparently by using this method the system restore points on Vista are not deleted.
I personally disable system restore and make sure I have an up to date image of the drive. It is also easier now, with VPC 2007 being free, to create a virtual machine and install XP; although, as I have said before I personally much prefer VMWare Workstation because of its USB support. Unfortunately, VMWare Workstation has to be purchased.
John Barnett MVP Associate Expert Windows - Shell/User
Web: xphelpandsupport.mvps.org Web: vistasupport.mvps.org
The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy, reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this mail/post..
"DanR"