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

yahoogerard:

I have the same problem. XP istall first and then Vista. EasyBCD doesn't show XP at all ! Vista is installed on a principal partition and XP on a logic partition.
Can't find boot.ini in XP partition ?! Trying to place a boot.ini file (from another PC) plus ntldr in Vista partition and trying to modify boot.ini doesn't work as the boot.ini can't be registered in tne partition ?!
What to do ?? thanks.

Michaelt64:

I had the same exact issue with Vista loading, but EasyBCD not recognizing the XP boot.ini to enable the dual boot manager. Vista seems to corrupt any boot.ini’s.
What I done to resolve it is to copy the boot.ini from the original XP disc >Disc drive:>Explore CD. It now works for me and I can see both partition OS in EasyBCD.
Hope this will work for you.

nimos(swe):

Can you(or someone) explain where to copy the boot.ini file? I can find it on the XP cd but where should I put it?

Linkeloetje:

I've installer XP2 and Vista. Then sysprep xp2, works ok. than I try to sysprep the Vista volume D: from within Windows PE, but nothing happens. I'm using the standard sysprep parameters. I think there's a trick to it, because all the examples I saw sofar with syspreping Vista where with a single Vista installation and not with dual boot.

Please help me out.

Linke Loetje:

I tried to run sysprep from vista. It had an interface with which I could setup the same parameters, I used from within Win PE. But still no succes. After giving the OK to start syspreping, it gave a screen saying it was preparing the system. But Also, I told sysprep it should shotdown but it didn't. In the same directory as sysprep, it put a file "sysprep_succeeded.tag". So I expect sysprep completed succesfully. But when starting up Vista, it gave an error-message saying "The Systemregistry contains invalid filepaths. The Installation can't continue. This Systeminstallationcopy is done without a garanty that driveletters are the same on other computers." (translated from dutch).
So maybe I can disable the xp-parition including the bootpartition (dual boot) and than, use sysprep or startup after syspreping Vista.
Restoring the laptop after having this error takes about an hour so it takes a lot of time trying one ore the other thingie that comes to mind.

Bill:

XP loaded on C: used Partition Commander 10 to change C: to 97 gig. XP booted fine. Loaded Vista Hm Prm on the free 200 gig partition. all seemed well. I get the boot screen "Earlier Windows..." & Windows Vista. When I select Vista all is good. If I select Earlier Windows..." I get the Can't find hal.dll in \system....

Help Please....

reagards,
Bill

Bill:

Thought I would let you know how I solved my issue. Gateway creates a small recovery partition when they install windows XP. After shrinking the windows xp partition to 97 gig. I installed Windows vista. The install created the dual boot menu however the Boot.ini file had the wrong partition number in it. I used vista diskpart and determind my windows xp partition was really "2" instead of "1" which is what windows vista set up. I had to make the systems files visable in explorer and change the security permision for "user" to allow me to edit the boot.ini file on (in my case) drive D: to change the windows location partition to "2". This needed done in two places. default= and under [operating systems]

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="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

Eddie:

This tip fixed my system too !

Dual booted Vista on an existing XP Home edition but the install scrambled the drive assignments. Yikes ! I told the wife her XP would still run ! I unhid BOOT.INI made the same changes and volia !

Guilhas:

hello there!
I had windows XP previously installed on my hdd wich has two partitions. I installed Vista Ultimate on "D:/" ( XP is on C:/) and when I boot my PC it enters directly on XP. NO DUAL BOOT SCREEN...But if I have the Vista DVD on the drive it boots on Vista, again no dual boot screen =(
Anyone with the same problem? Any solution at all?
Thanks folks!

patrick:

it boots only to xp because if the which is the xp boot loader. xp boots and overrides the vista bootloader i used vistabootPRO v3.2 (free download) and you can configure the bcdedit to get both OS's to boot in a vista multi boot. it makes it so easy.

zhei:

i have a pre-installed vista in my laptop. i've learned from you that i have to use GParted to make the partition. just wanna ask. after i made the partition,should i restart my PC and boot off and start a normal installation of XP???won't there be any problem??

JOKID:

I previously bought 2 laptops.Both came with Vista already installed on them.Im not a Vista fan so please tell me how to delete Vista completely and install a fresh Windows XP.Thank you very much

GaryGeneral:

OK, I'm wanting to give this a go.. existing XP install , Vista diual boot. However, I want to use office on BOTH OS, sharing files, esp PST for outlook.
Assume i can simply point XP partition's my docs/outlook location to the vista partition and away we go? Anyone see any issues with that?

Bodhi:

I cant understand why people is not asking about sharing files between both operating systems in the same computer! Anyway, everytime I want to edit a file in the XPs HD I cant because I dont have "permissions" to do it. I have tried to get them, but even when the explorer says I have them I cant edit files.

It would be a waste of time to copy all my files to the Vista's HD because I have TONS of stuff (about half a therabyte).

How can I share the files between the two OS so no matter which I boot on my files are editable?

rei:

in windows vista, try disabling User Account Control (UAC)... see this website.

Ken:

i realize somebody had already asked this question but received no answer.

ive had windows xp on c drive. and later installed vista on d drive (same HD). after deciding vista is the one....i decided to uninstall xp. now how do i do a clean uninstall of xp.

thinking a clean drive is the way to go...i deleted the c: drive partition. and now xp wont boot. if im not wrong some boot program is left on c drive and thus i cannot delete the whole partition of c drive and still expect vista to boot normally. btw dont have a vista install/boot disc but its one of those beta vista programs that work via an installation file (requires a working OS to install...cant do a fresh install).

Jethro:

This tutorial was awesome. XP and Vista are both set up and all is well. Originally I had XP. Then, I decided to move to Vista only. Well, that was a terrible idea because NOTHING. NOTHING worked well. Needed all new hardware because no drivers existed or were planned. So, now I have them both going and its great!

People who are trying this: don't be afraid because they tell you to back up your data. It IS a good idea, but it seems like everyone is having pretty good luck with this whole process (me included)

Troy:

Here is my problem. I have two hard drives Maxtor 250GB which is already partition to 58.4GB(C:) and 175GB(E:), and another Maxtor 300GB(D:)drive. When I booted GParted it showed the main partition as 233GB which is the total of the first drive, my question how I can just partition the 58.4 GB drive so I can install Windows Vista, already installed Windows XP on it.

Sajid:

Hi guys,

I have installed XP on C and Vista on D drives of same harddisk. When setup copies the file and restarts my notebook I CAN load the OS means XP I installed previously but CAN'T load the OS I just installed means Vista. Same case I'm having if I install Windows 2000 on C and Windows XP on D.

Any help will highly be appreciated. Thanks

linosi:

Hello


I think its the same problem with installing NT after win 2000 the
system files NTdetect.com , ntldr
from the 2000 installation get
overwritten with the NT NTLDR + NTdectect
so only NT boots, you will get a dualboot
situatiion if you overwrite the NTLDR +
ntdetect drom NT with the files from
Win 2000 the same applies when you
install XP after vista they are just
older versions of the same file
and M$soft made better/newer versions
so overwrite the NTLDR, netdetect
with the Vista versions of them

also check boot.ini if the right
partitions are used for booting

Sajid:

Hi guys,

I have installed XP on C and going to install Vista on D drive of same harddisk. When setup copies the files and restarts my notebook for setup to be completed, I CAN load the OS means XP I installed previously but CAN'T load the OS I just installed means Vista. Same case I'm having if I install Windows 2000 on C and Windows XP on D.

Any help will highly be appreciated. Thanks

Brian:

well let me explain my situation, installed windows xp (fresh install, needed a format anyway), then i installed Vista after, as per instructions. i restarted a few times while installing drivers and software. it rebooted to the vista boot loader just fine after saying press any key to boot from CD or DVD......(at this point in the bios, dvd-rom drive first to boot, then hard drive)

So at this point i figured o.k. time to switch the boot order so it goes straight to the hard drive, so i changed it in the bois. on the next reboot all i get is that semi-narrow white bar (that shows vista is loading kinda like the resuming from hibernate in xp bar)across the bottom of the screen, and it sits there without loading the bootloader, so i changed it back to dvd-rom first, hard drive second and took the windows Vista DVD out of the drive. Same white bar appeared on next reboot, so i figured what the heck i tossed the Vista DVD back in the drive and restarted, it again asked me if i wanted to boot from CD or DVD....and i didn't hit any buttons, and immediately following that, the vista boot loader loads and i was back in vista.

thanks community

if screen shots are necessary i will get some for you guys.

Russell:

Can you go to safe mode? There is a way to boot from vista dvd and use the repair feature to fix start up and boot problems. Somewhat like fixboot and fixmbr in xp. Id give that a whack first. Other than that have you had the OS installed already successfully or is this the first attempt. It is also entirely possible that one of those drivers you are installing or a MS update has got you sideways. Good luck.

Sajid:

I have installed XP. While installing Vista after XP when it restarts my notebook during vista installation I'm unable to boot into vista. I have XP on C: and Vista on D: Could any body of you please solve my problem. I am unable t figure out why its happening. I can load XP but Can't load Vista.

Steve L:

So I currently have two drives. Drive C has XP and files on it. Drive D has files on it. I want to keep the files on drive D, but i would like to install Vista on that drive. So, can I shrink the partition on D and then install Vista? If I do do that, when I boot from XP will I be able to access the files on Drive D? Also, when i put from Vista, can you access the files that were on the drive before (or from Drive A)?

Thanks!

90025309:

Just a small problem that i noticed.

I just got vista, and decided to dual boot it with my current xp pro install.

It worked fine the first time, but then i turned off my computer for a couple of hours.

Upon restarting vista, i was greeted with a BSOD screen, saying there was a problem with
memory_manager.

Anyone know how to fix this, because most of my work is on xp which is running specially designed propriatry software.

Any help would be great

jess1:

I bought a computer with XP pre installed and recently upgraded to Vista Home Premium before realising that I actually still need XP to run some programs. Is there anyway I can go back, XP was pre installed and I only have an upgrade CD for Vista

deepak:

i have installed xp as well as vista on two seperate drives but at the time of boot up there is no option available to choose from the two windows.
vista starts by itself.
please help i will be greatly thankful

Michael:

I believe the reason why Vista simply starts by itself is because each OS installation is located on a separate drive, and when your system boots up, it checks the first drive (with Vista on it) and load that operating system and never gets to the second drive. Not too sure how to fix the problem, but try reallocating which hard drive boots up, possibly switching the two in their sequence and that might possibly work. As far as I know, you pretty much have to have both installations on the same drive for your system to recognize them both and then give you the option of choosing which OS to boot.

Mario:

this is the link to dual boot windows xp onto a windows vista preinstall machine....


http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/about88231.html

ferrari91169:

Well I'm guessing you already know this, as you posted a question about 90 days ago, but the way you convert back is to use the discs you created. If you used the upgrade disc shipped out around May of 2007 for free, then when you install it tells you before installing Vista to create back-up discs in case you do not like Vista, or have other problems and need to revert back to XP. If you made the discs, just put in disc 1, turn the computer off, and then back on. It will bring up the reformat screen, and follow the instructions putting in each disc as it asks for them.

RB:

Excellent article. The Boot Utility is fantastic. I've done dual boots before and uninstalling one OS can lead to boot problems. The BCDEDIT program looks like it takes care of that situation.
Thanks for the great tutorial.

Erluiz:

I did the dual instalation on mi laptop, but now i need more space on my xp vertion so i ereased all data on the partition which vista run, now i have an ntfs partition for my xp (90g) and another ntfs which is empty... my probles is to rezice my 90g to the original 100g... partition magic inform that the partitions arent the same ntfs, i supose that i need to convert the ntfs partition to xp format... but i dont know how..

Regards

pyaver:

I'm building a new system and am putting XP Pro on first. Using RAID 5. How would one install Vista on this system so as achieve the dual boot scenario? Please respond to pyaver@hotmail.com

KingM:

When uninstalling vista, you have to run EasyBCD from XP... right? or do you do it from vista?

Anonymous (2):

I ran it from within Vista. :)

JoblessPunk:

Thank you soooo much for writing this tutorial up.

I had a few hick ups along the way but your tutorial helped me out a lot!!

Thanks!
JoblessPunk

Brad1232143:

Hey I'm just about to install vista on a seperate hard drive to xp. I want to know if i will still be able to run programs installed on the hard drive with xp whilst in vista, or will i have to reinstall them all on the hard drive with vista on it?

Ruben Gonzalez:

My computer, an XP Windows Media Center, will not work with the burnt cd. I can boot up and everything but in the end it says that there is an error and i need to enter Forcevideo i believe?. . .then all it gives me its a whole bunch of input lines. Can someone help me?!?!?! rubenyamigos(at)hotmail(dot)com

Glowing Moose:

I think that the best way to share files across a dual-boot system is to have two separate drives for each OS(Disk 1,2). Then have a separate drive for the files that you want to share (disk 3). Before you dual load install that "shared Disk"(disk 3) as a regular disk and copy your My document "type" folders over to it. Then install "Vista" on drive 2 with XP Pro on Drive 1 then you won't have either OS fighting about whether it wants the other OS to have access to "it's" drive.

Vista has a protection feature that gets picky about you touching the hard drive that it's installed on. Not recommended that you try giving another OS access to a drive that Vista is residing on. Vista actually has the power to "cook" (destroy beyond repair, annihilate, non-recoverable, cause you to need to buy a new drive kind of damage, if you get my drift.) the hard drive. At all costs find alternatives to avoid this. I work at a very large retailer and Microsoft went so far as to send us leaflets to give people to warn them that if they weren't careful that this would happen and that Microsoft would not be accountable for it.

Sorry to sound so Scare tactic-ish I just wanted to get the word out.

solomani:

Did anyone have any trouble doing this?

I setup a 100gig partition for Vista but vista, being the fracken dandy it is, keeps saying “the selected drive does not meet the minimum requirements”.

I deleted, recreated, formatted, changed type from primary to logical and back to no avail.

Any ideas?

solomani:

no one? Thanks.

neeeeeewbie:

I was just wondering...
you see im a newbie so i wouldnt know this but,
to actually dual boot vista and Xp do i need more that 1 harddrive?

mstomaso:

Nope. Read the tutorial and you will note that what you need is more than one partition. A hard drive can have any number of partitions, but you have to create an extra to house your additional OS.

MICHAEL_LOWRY:

After Having problems with HP Customer Service for over 4 months I decided to chase up how many other people have the same problem as me.

I checked on Google and came up with 44,600,000 entries re HP Vista Windows XP.

Most of these people have all had problems with Vista and with HP, so I have now established a site where you can all have your say.

And yes I have told HP and Vista that I am establishing this site and their head Technician Patrick told me to go ahead so have your say now at

http://hpvistacrap.lowry.id.au/index.htm

Anonymous1000:

I already had xp on my hd (2 sata drives)
I left about 200GB on a separate partition designated for vista. Installed vista over xp, now I get no choice screen. Can't log in to xp anymore. I read in Games for windows mag that's all I have to do. Install xp, install vista, and dual boot it will take care of itself. I checked in vista settings start>computer>properties> >advanced system settings> start up & recovery>settings> under default operating system there is only vista, no xp.
When I check D: drive (xp partition) I see bootsect.bak when checked with notepad, among gibberish I see:
A disk read error occurred
NTLDR is missing
NTLDR is compressed
Can't find any pages with "what if" scenarios if anything goes wrong then what? Every web page so far only assumes everything will go just fine.

Anonymousj============:

You can't install OVER xp... you have to install on another partition

jeffro:

im having the exact same problem and as for the other comment here we DID install vista on a different partition what he means by vista over xp is vista *after* xp and yes i created seperate partition for vista, installed on this newly created "unallocated space", and im having the exact same problem with no xp in bootloader and nothing but bootsect.bak in my D drive.

_-_-_:

I'm trying to dual boot vista and xp on different drives. Now I've gotten it to recognize both drives but when I try and launch the one that has xp it starts with the xp logo and looks like it's going to work but then it goes to a blue screen saying windows has stop and check for viruses, remove recently installed hard drives, etc. When I boot vista it works perfectly accept that it asks me to format my F drive (the one with xp). How can I get this all to work

curious :

Is it recommended that you back up your entire hardrive? I have a 320Gb HDD with XP installed, but have only used like 50Gb. So is it necessary to backup?