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

wkcheng2:

It is very helpful. Keep up the good work. Thanks.

Flavio:

Hi,

I insalled Vista 64 in a dual-boot configuration.
I followed a procedure very similar to this one with the following exceptions:
1) I used Acronis Disk Director to create a partition for Vista
2) Acronis Disk Director formats the new partition already so when I installed Vista was not on a "unallocated space" but on an already dedicated partition.

Everything went smooth and Vista ran beautifully but soon I found problems, which are currently unresolved. I don't know whether they are related to the cohabitating of the two OS.

Here are the problems:

First: the letters of the partition are different depending to wich OS are seen from. Vista Partition is L: in XP but is C: in Vista. And C: in XP becomes D: in Vista. This is not a problem, of course, but is fishy.

The problem is that that often both OS complain about disk corruption and they both run DSKCHK almost every other boot.

Now in Vista I start to have problem even to delete or access files, with the error of impossible to find the path or file that I just clicked and, systematically, if I right-click on the C: drive in Vista (its dedicated partition where it is running from (the L: partition in XP, created specifically for Vista)), I get a corruption error and a restart of the explorer.

I don't know what is cousing all this yet. I hope someone who had a similar problem can point me to the right direction.

I am running a Pentium-D 3GHz with 2GB RAM.
Both partitions are 100GB large.

Cheers,
/Flavio

cdavis:

I am dual booting Vista Ultimate x64 and XP x32 and I hae no problems with corrupt disks or file path problems. Sounds like something else is wrong.

Chris

mds:

i've got absolutely the same problem.

Diesel (New user):

What would be the procedure for doing this with 2 hard drives, with XP on one & Vista on the other?

bundat_0028 (New user):

yes 2 hard drives have use but it is depend to your primary IDE. check ur IDE first

Diesel (New user):

What would be the procedure for doing this with 2 hard drives, with XP on one & Vista on the other?

Anonymous:

Great post.
But my situation is a bit different: I have installed XP on a disk and Vista on another disk separatly. Now how can I link the two together via dual boot? I cannot modift XP boot.ini to boot Vista. But can I modify Vista BCD to include an existing XP on another disk?

Anonymous:

I did the same, ie installed xp and vista on two seperate hard dives with the other unplugged. To convert to a dual boot PC I followed instructions I found at:
http://lards.net/roj/blog.asp?topic=2

Anonymous_bk:

I followed the instructions but get a blue screen when Vista tries to boot. Anyone else have that issue? Unfortunately I flashes too quickly to see what the error is.

dsorel (New user):

i have 2 hard drives myself. and had a problem dual booting to OS on one hard driver so i have two 500GB harddrivers and one OS on each. just have to plug one in at a time. it solves my issue and on the XP drive i have dual booted linx. and it was so easy it installs aside of XP. it was much easier then doing the vista and xp. i don't care that i have to open the computer to change the hard drive cables to the other. save me a lot of hair. HA HA HA i need all OS for school so this is why i have done it this way.

santiaguito:

Thanks for the guide

Anonymous:

I have 2 SATA drives RAID 0 do I need to load extra RAID modules? And is this dual boot achievable with XP pro 64 bit edition.

John Park:

I'm building a system right now and I have the same question. For performance, I'm putting two 400gb Seagates in a Raid 0 config. But I want to know if it's possible to dual boot Windows XP and Vista on this config.

If you know, send me an e-mail at tenxtone@gmail.com

Marston:

Hi John saw your question on apcmag.com I have same question, did you receive any anwsers if so could you forward them on.
Thanks Marston

Frank:

It's possible to do, I just got finished myself. You just have to make sure you have a floppy disk with RAID drivers so the WinXP install can see the array properly. Vista won't need any additional steps, it can see the array by default.

Also, if you have any additional HDDs, make sure your two RAID disks are on HDD connectors 0 and 1, as Windows installs will put the MBR on the first physical drive. After that, it's just partitioning the array like a normal drive in Win setup.

colombo187 (New user):

I did the exact same thing. Fixed it by booting my XP cd and selected repair when prompted, logged into my XP partition then issued the commands fixmbr then fixboot . Worked perfectly for me.

colombo187 (New user):

I did the exact same thing. Fixed it by booting my XP cd and selected repair when prompted, logged into my XP partition then issued the commands fixmbr then fixboot . Worked perfectly for me.

mikezoe65:

I installed Vista in a new partition on Disk1 and on booting was presented with the dual Boot screen offering Vista or "old" OS (XP). On deciding to kick Vista out I deleted the partition (currently unused space) but surprisingly on rebooting I still am presented with the dual boot screen (as above) but only the old OS (of course) does anything. How can I get back to the original situation (before trying Vista) where this screen will not be presented. Is it now written into the MBR? How can I get rid of this screen on booting up into XP in future?
The current boot.ini file in XP shows

;
;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[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" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

PaulC:

http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

you can try neosmart's EasyBCD 1.52 where it can manage the vista boot manager.

or you can visit http://vista-uninstall-bootloader.freeware-alternative.uni.cc/ which describes the procedures for removing the vista boot manager with VistaBoot Pro http://www.vistabootpro.org/track/click.php?id=3 and the windows xp recovery console.

Cheers
Paul

mikezoe65:

First idea not usable as my Vista installation is no longer and EasyBCD 1.52 will not install in XP!
However the second steer worked- repairing the XP installation via the original setup disk. Worked a treat and now problem solved. Thanks a million!
Mike

colombo187 (New user):

Mike, I got myself into the same problem and able to fix the issue by booting from my XP cd, selecting repair, logging into my XP partition and issuing the fixmbr then fixboot commands.

Thomas:

Can someone please tell me if Vista Ultimate upgrade can be installed onto a logical drive or must it be to unallocated space when setting up a dual boot scenario with XP and Vista. Or are they the same thing? Any help appreciated

OzBoy:

Is it correct to assume that I can use any partition manager to make the required partition?

Groovy:

I installed Vista Ultimate 32bit to a new partition on my XB boot disk.

All was working fine but now I cannot boot into XP.

Whilst booting into XP it gets to the "Loading settings" screen then changes to "Saving Settings" and reboots and just repeats the whole process over and over.

Is this due to Vista or is this another problem, and will EasyBCD help in any way?

Thanks

Adam

James Bannan:

If XP is loading from its own partition then you're past the bootloader, so no I don't think it's due to Vista and I doubt that EasyBCD will help.  It just sorts out which OS is on which partition...

To be honest it sounds like something has gone a bit wrong with the XP installation, and a repair install might be necessary.

Sam:

Can you do this with a different partioning program?

mstomaso:

I used Acronis' Disk Director and it worked like a charm. Made a primary partition and left it free for Vista 64 to use

StuMcBill:

How much space do I need to carry this out, as my partitions on my hard drive are 37.2 (WIN XP) and 47.9 (Misc Files)

Is there enough space on my WIN XP partition to install vista alongside?

Stewart

aszavai:

Ok, i followed all the steps described in the article, but the dual boot doesn't work. I installed xp in a second partition(not C:)m then i ran the recovery disc with vista(my asus came preinstalled with vista, and i repaired the bootloader in vista. Then in the command prompt, i changed the letter of xp os, from C: to F:, which is where xp is. Also i have installed EasyBCD, but still xp won't boot...what i get is missing or corupt /ntldr...Vista, though is working fine...Have anybody run into the same problems?

Athor:

Yea i have exactly the same problem. My vista install is on C. My xp install is on E. The boot loader shows both vista and xp, but xp wont continue the installation. It when i select it i get the /ntldr error. I noticed in EasyBCD it says under the windows xp entry, bootloader: ntldr. Can anyone help?

jason lee:

i also have this problem i boot up and i have an option to choose but xp will not load. vista works fine though c: is vista in vista with D: for xp. i dont know about xp because i cant boot it up

Katie:

I am having the same problem, I cannot run XP, its up on the dual boot screen, but it says the XP bootloader is bad. Anyone know how to fix it?

d:

I have them both loaded (vista came with hp on c:, added xp to d: drive) and xp was working fine until I changed the bootloader (vistabootpro), now if I select xp I get an error /ntldr path or file missing. How can I fix this (I cannot find edit options in vistabootpro, and the boot.ini when viewed as 'legacy' in the vistabootpro looks fine.

Patanjali:

During installation, the registry gets set with driver paths pointing to the installation letter. Relettering the partition will not change these and the boot up will fail due to missing drivers.

If you want the OS partitions to have sequential letters on the same HDD, disconnect all other HDDs until the OS installations are done (after ensuring that their letters are after all the intended OS letters).

OzBoy:

OK don't use the new Live CD which is 3.4 you need to use the 3.2.

So I get to the partitioning part ok but then I get an error message which I can't save so I am now back to square one.

Can someone advise if I can use another partitioning manager?

Avi Karpel:

I had windows xp installed and I add windows vista on a second partition, now i want to uninstall windows xp, how do i do that?

RNA:

I found a great article about installing a clean copy of an upgrade version of Vista and not having to upgrade XP.

http://www.lockergnome.com/nexus/gwhicks/2007/02/16/use-vista-upgrade-cd-for-a-clean-install-then-extend-the-30-day-limit-to-120/

tassas:

I have a dual boot Vista\XP system. Vista was installed on separate primary partition using Dell Vista Upgrade Disk.

Brian Livingston of Windows Secrets has details in his online newsletter.

https://windowssecrets.com/info/

StingrayFL:

Thanks for all the info, the comments are as helpful as the article!

I am about to attempt to convert my existing Windows XP machine into a dual boot system by adding Vista Home Premium. I have purchased, installed, and formatted a brand new SATA drive just for this purpose. The XP drive is currently C:, and the new HDD is currently D:

My plan is to install vista by booting from the upgrade disc, not entering the product key, then when vista boots, re-installing cleanly and entering my product key. Hopefully this will then give me a dual boot option, which I can customize with vistabootpro or EasyBCD.

Would it be safe to unplug my C: drive while installing Vista to ensure that XP is not corrupted? Or should I leave it on and cross my fingers?

StingrayFL:

I decided NOT to unplug my primary XP hard drive, but otherwise followed the process I outlined above, and the default "DOS" dual boot screen appeared upon first reboot of vista. I successfully booted up in both OS's a few times and I'm glad it's working. Now onto configuring Vista....

GlennD:

I want to install Windows XP on one SATA HARD DRIVE and Windows Vista on the other SATA HARD DRIVE.
Should these two be in the SATA RAID 1 and SATA RAID 2 hookup or to the regular SATA 1 and SATA 2 plugins? Or does it matter?
I intend to dual boot them when needed.
I HAVE FOUR SEAGATE SATA DRIVES ALL TOGTHER. My Motherboard is ASUS P4P800-E Deluxe.
Any help given will be greatly appreciated.

sostenib:

Hi,

I have a new computer with Vista using the full HDD.

I have added a second HDD, from my previous computer, that had XP and Ubuntu installed on it (with Grub as the boot).

How can I recover Grub so it allows to boot any of the three OS (Vista, XP or Ubuntu)?

Thanks in advance.

Kraig Roche:

This is the best site with instructions on how to do this. I will be recommending these to other people. Thanks a bunch APC and all who commented, lots of helpful hints and ideas!!

geo:

All other computer magazines provide a printer-friendly (a special formatting for printing) version of each article.
Why doesn't apcmag.com offer links to printer-friendly version of its articles?

bardie:

I have 3 partitions on my hard drive. 1st is for XP 2nd is for Vista. The 3rd I had planned to use as a shared (My) Documents for XP and Vista. But Vista doesn't seem to want to share.

Is it possible to share Documents folder for XP and Vista?

Douglas:

Just out of curiosity, did you take the pictures using a camera? They aren't the best quality.

Michael:

I have a 250 GB H.D with XP on it. In order to preserve the
to preserve the XP , can I partition the
drive , install the Xp in the second par-
tition then use Vista upgrade. Will this
preserve the Xp on the first parti.?
without Vista over writing it?
Michael

TBG:

I did the whole dual-boot installation with XP on my PC first, and then Vista. Now, Vista runs, but XP won't even start up -- I'll choose "Earlier Version of Windows" and then the screen goes blank. It doesn't say any files are missing; it doesn't show any errors...it doesn't show anything. Is there a way to fix this without erasing/formatting the partition with XP on it? I also notices that one partition should be "secondary". Within the "Computer Management" that comes with Vista it says that both the C: and D: partitions are Primary. Does that matter?

Bjorn:

Hi!

I had the same problem and the strange thing is that i have 2 monitors and when i unplug the secondary monitor, then XP starts fine, but not with 2 monitors. But i can plug in the monitor when XP has loaded, but i dont want to do this every time the computer starts though.