How to dual boot Vista and XP (with Vista installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots

mehdi:

hi chuppy

i have pavilion dv 2530

i do the following instruction but when i logon into my
xp i dont have internet connection , no sound , no fingerprint .etc .

i hope so someone help me with this i hate vista please
help me to get hp pavilion 2530 drives for xp .
tanks
mehdiphpbb@gmail.com

slats:

Chuppy:
You are the man of the hour for many of us! I finally got dual boot to work on my Pavillion a1744x. I got drivers from HP but still do not have sound or internet. I think I can fix internet with my provider, but don't know how to get the sound up! Which driver controls audio?

BobMelbourne:

I have a new system with Vista Ultimate pre-installed by system builder. Wanting to add 200gig IDE Seagate HD already loaded with XP Pro. This was Master and only hard disk in a prior system. To date have changed BIOS boot sequence to boot into 2nd HD (with XP) instead of Vista. It goes thru POST etc then displays menu showing start up options..start windows normally.. start in safe mode etc. I choose normal start however it just restarts computer then displaying same start up menu screen again. What do I need to do to make 2nd drive boot up with XP? or suggest other way of allowing Vista and XP on separate drives to work.

martinSyd:

Great article - thank you!

One quick question: I have installed Vista on a new, larger disk that has been partitioned. XP was running on this machine prior to the Vista install and I would like to transfer my existing XP disk image to the second partition on the new disk.
In the article it mentions that the new partition will have the next available drive letter so I suspect that my plan is flawed as all my current programs and setting will try to access the "C:" drive.
Is there any way around this? After much config work I'd hate to re-install either OS everything again...

Thanks much, Martin

lp:

I almost 'completed' my bual boot but I'm still saddled with the hal.dll error when I try to start my windows XP.
I'm pretty sure it is because I can't find the boot.ini file. Copying the hal.dll file is a bad idea btw.
So, can somebody help my with configuring the right boot.ini file?
My Vista is (originally pre-installed) on my C: and my XP partition is on the F: partition. So vista is of course my primary OS. What should the boot.ini look like?
And where should this file be?
Thanks in advance!

nhall:

I am actually having the same problem right now... what did you do to solve the hal.dll issue?

Jason:

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
...oh and...THANK YOU!!

Honestly, this was wracking my brain and I'm so happy that you but together such a thorough how to...you are my SAVIOR!!!

Thanks again!

JG

Rockhound:

planning to get a new lappy(Vista home premium) and install xp pro into it..

well...since its preinstalled...can the given rescue/recovery disk be used to repair vista?

plus....the xp pro i have is with sp1...if i install sp2...would it be installed in the vista installed-drive or the xp installed-drive?

kmaiti:

I was trying to install XP on XPS410 which came preinstalled with Vista. The instruction on this website is absolutely the best to follow. It works perfectly. Two things I would like to add:
1. You can make partitions from Vista itself using drive management tool.
2. If you have one of the new systems with no IDE connections you need to install those drivers via a floppy drive and for me an external usb floppy drive did not work.

Abdeath:

Hi. i have vista home preinstalled. I wanted to install xp pro on it. it gives me the blue screen. what do i do? if i need to do something with drivers how do i do that?

Chiller:

I got passed my ntldr problem by copying the files from CD like what has been said, but now when i attempt to boot into xp im getting an error pointing to system32\ntokrnl.exe telling me it needs replacing. I got this far before and decided to reintall xp but its happening again.

ive googled it, and apparently it can be caused by a currupt boot.ini but i wouldnt know what one of them looks like so, here is my boot.ini(P.S. Location of boot.ini is F:\boot.ini)

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin /tutag=p55edn /kernel=tukernel.exe

Hagan Walker:

The problem with this is that when XP installs, it automatically installs to a C:\ drive. If Vista is on the C:\ drive, dont worry....it won't mess with it. Try this: In Vista, run easyBCD and go to Add remove entries...delete the windows XP entry and click SAVE. Now at the bottom where it says add an entry, add XP, but assign it to the drive C:\! click SAVE, and reboot to see what happens...this should solve your problem....and many others

kmaiti:

I had that same problem. You need to download the appropriate controllers and put them in a floppy drive. during XP install press F6 to specify their location in the floppy. Hope this helps!!

Anonymous$#:

What if I don't have a floppy to load RAID drivers from?

The shaun:

this 'how to' guide was helpful to say the least but, it had missed a few things. I got a hp pavilion 9205ca with vista home premi and no install dvd. the way i got around this for the dual boot is like someone commented above. one you get to the xp install step install .NET framework 2.0 and get easyBCD in there and use its reinstall vista bootloader and click write MBR. Then when you restart you should get your choices between xp and vista. Even better vista will boot up like a pro.

Much thanks to all who wrote this guide and who left comments. It was a great help.

Jared:

I received vista business through my school, online. I also have an inspiron e1705 and I partitioned the disk, but it only let me get 9 GB of free space on 100GB of memory (first problem), then I put my old xp media center version in and it says it won't install a system older then the new one which is vista, what do I do for both?

Abdeath:

For those of you who get the blue screen while booting xp cd, this might work.

I had the same problem. My computer which is new had SATA hard drive. all i needed to do was press F6 in the beginning of booting the xp cd, and specify the RAID-Controlled SATA driver that you get from your manufacturer drivers.

This worked with XP SP2 cd, not SP1 but that could just be my cd. Hope it helped.

jbo:

I guess you don't realize that EasyBCD is based on stolen program code. This is the only reason I can see why you choose to publicize a rip-off program in a respected magazine like yours.

neilgriffs:

great article,wish id read it before trying to instal xp on a free partition,lol

mat:

when i boot vista to repair it it doesnt find the hdd

Anonymous23456:

Everything seems to be fine for me until i need to repair Vista, when i boot from the Vista DVD, it doesnt give me the option to Rapair my computer. Any ideas?

killer675:

Thank you so much, this was such a big help:)

RPAUL:

First of, thanks for the great article and I am one of those stuck with Vista due to a new purchase and abs. must have XP for some of my business software that does not run on Vista.

When I install XP (following the steps above), I get the following error after I select the free partition
"Drive C is unformatted, damaged or formated with a file system that is incompatible with Windows XP. To continue installing XP, Setup needs to format this drive.
- To format this drive and continue Setup, press F1
- To return to previous screen without formating, press ESC"

The C drive is the Vista partition and I don't want to loose it, in the hope that someday, Vista will fly. Help !

Thanks in advance

Phil:

Hi guys,

Could anyone provide me some walkthroughs? I have a HP latop which came with the Vista OEM version on the 1st internal hard drive. I purchased and installed a 2nd internal hard drive on the laptop, as well as installed the XP retail on the second hard drive. However, all I have now is XP whenever I turn on the laptop. How could I fix the issue so that I could have dual OS on this laptop? By the way, if I physically take out the second hard drive, I will not be able to boot up the Vista.

Please provide me some steps here. Thank you, guys.

Roman:

Hi Phil,
I have exactly the same problem with Acer TravelMate laptop. Though I installed XP not on a separate HD but separate partition.

Roman

chuck:

I had followed the procedure above, and got vista and xp booting ok. I was working in xp and downloaded any update for windows xp installed it, i also had installed a few other things like a bluetooth adapter, nero, and some dvd coping software. As usual it prompted me to restart to finalize the updates. I restarted tried to go into vista and it would not let me. It flashes up an error screen for about 1/2 a second, something about if a new camera or other device was installed disconnect and reboot, and then it reboots automatically. I disconnected all my external devices and rebooted, did not help. I tried booting from the CD and repairing the startup and it said it was not able to fix problem. At long last i used my recovery cd and reset the vista partition to new, but when i go to my computer it doesn't show the xp partition. The vista partition is still shrunk. I used BCD and tried to re-add xp to the bootloader and it said that ntdlr was missing or corupt. Is there any way to get back to my xp partition, and what did i do wrong to cause vista not to boot up.

Chiller:

Has anyone got a fix for the system32\ntokrnl.exe problem im having? ive looked up and down the internet for a fix but nothing seems to work. I dont want to use the XP CD to repair my xp install just incase it trys repairing the vista install and kills that too.

Gurshaan:

The author of this article REALLY needs to include a fix for the ntldr message. He should also comment on the fact there are other ways to create partitions.

I had the ntldr error, the fix i used was:

Making sure bcdedit had my windows xp entry as C: (even though it was actually e: )which is the same place as my vista install.

Copied ntldr and ntdetect.com to the c:\ folder. I had to also make a boot.ini file in the same folder. Do this by opening up notepad and entering in


[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin /tutag=p55edn /kernel=tukernel.exe



Note partition(2) means xp is installe don the second partition of the drive, change this to whatever partition your xp install is on. Observe you must do this twice.
Then saving as boot.ini make sure this is the name of the file once saved.

chiller:

that sounds like something i would like to try however, my install of xp is on another HD rather than on another partition. does this boot.ini still apply for me, or do I have to do it another way?

creomortis:

If your xp is on another hard drive you need to modify the lines, so partition(2) would be partition(1) and disk(0) would be disk(whicheverhdnumber)
just google it, probably some kinds out there that will tell you exactly what you need to put, i cant say specifically because i dont know your exact setup.

SDG:

All above was really helpful and allowed me to get dual boot working perfectly - but only after tearing my hair out for a couple of hours!! Because ...

If your XP OS is on another drive, as mentioned above, you need to change the value of the RDISK() setting and NOT the DISK() setting (which should remain at 0)in boot.ini.

Then all should work ....

Zeeshan:

So i made a mistake at the Windows XP partition stage, and i was made to reboot...so when i tried booting to windows XP once more...it didn't let me. It sais "Error loading Operating system" can and one help me on this?

Karan:

Hi everyone. I tried this tutorial and was doing fine until I got to the stage of creating the unallocated space in the vista installation setup.
I followed the instructions and shrunk the drive however when i left the Windows PE 2.0 shortcut the unallocated space did not show up on the partition page even after refreshing.
So i rebooted the vista setup cd and the unallocated space still failed to show.
So I then decided to just boot up vista as normal and I noticed in My Computer that the the unallocated space appeared as a seperate drive even though i hadn't created a partion on the unallocated space yet.
This looked suspicious and so I double checked in Computer Management and found that the unallocted space actually exsisted as a partition and appeared as a seperate drive.
So then I booted up the XP installation setup and none of the partitions showed up.
Please help!
Thanks

WDonohue:

This is all great, of course, assuming you HAVE a vista DVD or an XP cd to boot from. Seeing as my system came w/vista preinstalled, and I don't have an XP disc.. it would appear there are no great options for me huh?

raindog:

Legally preinstalled OS's will generally have provision to create back-ups, but if you have erased or deleted these then you are on your own.

Why don't you have an XP disc and how do you end up with two preinstalled OS versions on one machine?

That said speak with your wallets people any machine not supplied with disc media is either illegal or unsuitable for intended purpose. Do not purchase a machine without Media for the installed OS. Your needs will likely change over time and you will save yourself a lot of future grief.

Lesley Hibbs:

get a life

John F. K.:

I have a pre-installed version of Vista on my new HP notebook. I also have the recovery disc that only allows you to restore the entire system to factory settings which installs vista for you and all of the software in one go. So I have no disk for Vista although I have my Vista serial number. I also am a student of UF (Gators) and we can download a free version of XP or Vista with our own individual license key. The download installs an .iso image file and so I have no XP disk either and everything is perfectly legal!

Anon:

Hey.

I was fine through the installation of xp, up until the first restart. The computer restarts, and gets to where it should continue with the xp installation, and right after it says press any key to boot into the cd/dvd it says "failed to boot into os." It hangs there until I restart or shut off. I couldn't get into xp or vista at that point. I managed to go back in and delete the xp partition and get back into vista fine.

If it matters I am using two harddrives trying to install the os'es on separate drives.

When I tried to repair the startup of vista, it asked if I recently plugged in a camara or mp3 player type device, and if I had disconnect it and restart hte computer. I checked the log and it found no errors and said it booted into vista fine.

Please help, I really appreciate it!

Tarek:

Thanks alotttt guys u made it working....

chrisp27:

I bought a new pc with Windows Xp home edition installed and i got a cd with Vista home premium upgrade.When i upgraded to Vista i got a msg saying my graphic card is unsuported, I got a Nvidia Gforce 7600 i downloaded the international Vista driver from Nvidias homepage and when i try to install it i get a msg saying " Ur not using Windows Vista"
That s why i want to install Xp too but i get the blue screen saying i have no discs available.Can someone tell me what i doing wrong?
p.s i splitted my hard disc to two parts already

lyle256:

Help pleasee
I want to add a separate hard drive onto my new system which has Vista on hd. I want the extra hd to have XP pro on it. Please tell me way/s of making this work having it as dual boot procedure. Vista is loaded currently. Thanks in advance for help on this.

John J. Spikes Jr.:

I followed all of your directions to a "T", though I have two 250Gb hard drives so I set up an OS on each. It allowed me to completely setup my XP installation on the D: drive, but now when I boot into XP, I can't use my Logitech mouse or keyboard. Both are cordless and connect to the PC through a sender unit plugged into a USB port. As soon as XP starts booting the lights go out on my sender unit. XP recognized both just fine throughout the entire installation. Any ideas?

hoffman:

i was doing the duel boot and i made the second partion
and went on to install xp i loox and it showed there was no unusued space i went back into vista and the 60 gigs i was going to use for xp are gone

Scotty:

I installed Network 2.0 and then did the BCD thing from XP to get Vista working and it succefully loaded up. I then installed this in Vista and added XP in the bootup section and now when I load up the comp, I get the choice between XP and Vista, and both work fine. Just make sure you set both OS's to drive C.

Geoff123456:

I get to the step where you switch to the XP disc, but XP doesn't see the unallocated space, which shows up fine in the Vista install, 22 GB unallocated on Drive 0, 211 or something on the first partition. XP just sees the reduced amount of partion 1, no unallocated space. The only differences I can think of between this article and my situation is I'm trying to use my original XP Home upgrade CD, so I have to put the Windows ME upgrade CD in first to unlock it. Do I have to use XP Pro? Does it have to be a full CD version, not an upgrade? Does it have to be SP2, not an original XP CD?

Towtol:

I initially had Vista Ultimate installed with Bitlocker encryption enabled using a USB flashdrive (C:\ and S:\ on the hdd).

I created a partition (X:\)and loaded XP onto it.

I found your guide after I realized that I didn't have the ability to dual boot.

I get to the Systems Recovery Options part of your guide and there isn't an OS to select from. I decided to click on "next" anyway.

When I rebooted I got "a disk read error has occurred - press ctrl+alt+del" error message. Pressing ctrl+alt+del reboots my system and takes me back to the same error message.

At this point I can't access Vista or XP.

Using my Vista DVD, I tried to reinstall Vista but the software won't let me install to the same partition I had it on previously (it recognizes that it is encrypted with Bitlocker).

I was able to reinstall XP to the partition I had originally created for it.
I have tried EasyBCD and VistaBootPro from inside XP but neither recognizes that Vista is installed on my hdd in order to reinstall the Vista bootloader.

I would like to gain access back to my original installation of Vista instead of having to delete that partition from inside XP.


I have 2 gut feelings:

1. This problem has something to do with the original S:\ being created by enabling Bitlocker and my USB flashdrive.
2. I get to use Patition Magic and reinstall Vista.

I intially wanted to have XP as part of a dual boot for the sole purpose of gaming.

If there is anything anyone can think of to help with this situation, I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

DaKhaa:

"Boot from the Vista DVD and on the screen where you’re prompted to “Install now”, select “Repair your computer”."
I got my new PC today, with Vista pre-installed.
No Retail DVD, just a "recovery disc".
Can I dual boot with this too?

Towtol:

You might be able to if your recovery disk has the files on it mentioned in this Mcrosoft article - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529.

AppleBag:

I have Vista Premium (installed first) on my main system SATA drive. And I have XP on a second IDE drive.

I have copied the Boot folder and the file bootmgr from Vista to the XP root drive, as well as copied ntldr, boot.ini and ntdetect.com from my XP (SP2) installation to the root of my Vista drive.

After restarting, I can get into Vista fine. I restart and select XP, and I just hang forever at a black screen?


Once I hit the restart button on the computer after that and try to login to Vista, Startup Repair kicks in sayig it didn't start right last time and ask's me to repair (doesn't mention what it's going to do). I click cancel, it does some other "attempting repair" progressbar for ages, then I end up with a Send Error or Don't Send Error screen. I click don't send and then Continue, and I boot up just fine into Vista again.

Another interesting note: If I boot the pc with my patched to SP2 XP install disk, it will load into XP.

Anyone know what to do?

Thanks in advance for any help!

AppleBag:

Thought I would post what I did to fix my particular issue, in case someone else has this problem down the road and comes here:

What I did was, I edited the boot.ini on both roots from rdisk(0) to rdisk(1) (4 instances) and now both Vista and XP load up fine from the bootloader.