Vista install on a laptop

hello,

i am trying to figure out if this will work.

i can install a second internal hard drive on my laptop.
can i install vista and office 2007 on that hard drive and only that drive?
i don't want to take the risk of anything being installed or changing
anything on my C drive.

if this is possible, will i be prompted to pick a drive or something like
that when i turn the laptop on?
if so, can i set xp to be the default.
i only need vista for testing purposes (surprise, surprise)

are there any external devices (that are reasonably priced) that i could
install vista and office on?


i also don't understand the requirements for aero. is what i have
sufficient?

my laptop has the following:
video card is mobility radeon 9600 series agp - i know i purchased 128 mb of
video ram, but i can't find an option that states that
1 gig of ram
P4 3.0 ghz
max screen resolution 1440 x 900
the second hard drive would be 60 gig. i wouldn't install any other software
on that drive unless you say it's ok.

any help would be greatly appreciated.
thank you.

ps. going forward would it be a good idea to buy laptops with 2 internal
hard drives, so that when something like this comes along, i won't have to
panic?

--
Indera
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Don't just live life.
Live life well.