Installing Vista on a separate internal HDD?

[NewSc2]

(Forgive the basic question -- I did a search and couldn't find comprehensive answers -- most Google searches turned up OS86X stuff and most guides on here refer to partitioned HDD's)

I just bought a Mac Pro and stuck a 1TB WD Caviar Black HDD into it. I'm going to run OSX off this hard drive, and I want to install Vista on the 320gb stock drive OSX came with. I've been a longtime Mac and Windows user, but I've never ventured into Bootcamp, so I really don't know anything at this point.

From what I've been reading, you'd use Bootcamp to partition your hard drive -- something I don't need to do. I'm assuming I can just install Vista onto my secondary hard drive directly.

Before I take the plunge and start pulling out my hard drives, I wanted to shoot off what I think is the right way to go about installing Vista 64-bit on my Mac Pro.

1. Format the 320gb HDD in Disk Utility to FAT32.
2. Pull out the 1TB OSX HDD.
3. Slide the #2 drive sled (320gb) to the #1 slot (<- is this necessary?)
4. Boot using the Vista DVD.
5. Install Vista, yadda yadda.
6. Put drive #2 back into slot #2, and replace slot #1 with my 1TB OSX HD.

Questions:
-- How do I switch between startup disks upon booting? I've read to hold the Option key at startup -- does a dialogue pop up asking me which disk to boot from? By default would it boot to OSX?
-- Do I need to install the Bootcamp drivers? How would I do this (is it on my Mac Pro restore DVD)?

I figured I should know exactly what to do before finding myself stuck without a computer.

 

[JediMeister]

Nope, you still do need to partition it using BootCamp Assistant. Page 7 of the Installation/Setup guide @ http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/Boot_Camp_Install-Setup.pdf says so. You shouldn't need to do any actual switching of the placement of the drives on the hardware end. In regards to your questions: 1) you can set a default system for the system to boot into, you only need to hold down option if you want to switch it temporarily. When you do so it'll show two drives, Mac OS X or Windows, and you can click on the other one which it will boot into. 2) Yes, you will need to install the BootCamp drivers in order for your video card, Airport wireless card, Bluetooth, and other built-in devices to work correctly, and they are included on the first of the two restore discs. You just need to insert it after the installation of Windows is complete and you've gone through the initial setup. Make sure you print out a copy of that install guide and follow it to the letter.

 

[NewSc2]

I've read many places that you don't need Bootcamp, so I guess I'm confused now:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/502661/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/593612/ (last post)

The first thread I came across a couple weeks ago suggested to install Vista 64-bit on a separate PC and taking the drive over. Unfortunately I don't have a PC handy to do that.

I'll try your method, though... if Apple suggested it, it shouldn't go wrong with their own software..

 

[NewSc2]

Okay, well, looks like everything went through. Guess I should RTFM before searching =)

 

[JediMeister]

No problem. There are other methods to installing Windows, but they involve purchases of additional software like VMWare Fusion and Parallels to name alternatives. While they don't require you to reboot in order to access the other installed OS you can't play games (if that's what you're planning on doing) using those methods.