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

William:

ok i have win xp on my c drive i only have one drive so i created a second primary partition for vista beta 2 installation went good the problem is i get to the boot manager menu and i choose one if i choose xp it loads it and it say its gots to cheek my vista partition for consisitys i cancel it befor it can do it then when i boot in to vista it loads then it says it has to cheek my xp partition for consisitys is there n e way to stop the conflic please help me e-mail me at horsedentalcarbide@msn.com thank you

Paul:

I am about to setup a dual boot system as described here. I will repartition my c: drive (currently with XP) and add Vista as a second partition on the same physical drive.

All of my data (My Documents) sits on a physically separate drive, so sharing files between the two OS's shouldn't be a problem.

My question is whether I can share applications between the two OS's. Can I somehow run applications that sit today on the XP parition by pointing Vista to the existing app on C:, or do I need to re-install the applications again under Vista on the new D: partition?

Oesman:

I just burned GParted to a CD, booted it an followed the steps. But after i selected the language, it says a few files is missing in the log, then a critical error: Not enough cache
it continues for a second
Then stops, displaying: Kernel panic - not syncing: Attemped to kill init

And nothing more happens.

If i choose no chache mode i don't get the cache error, but all the other problems. How come?

Ps: The burning went perfectly with CloneCd, no errors.

Josh:

I have a problem, I have dual booted successfully,(xp first installed then vista) but vista doesn't have internet,can anyone help me.

jeffro:

I followed directions step by step with xp installed first, used Gparted to break 40g's off my 160 for a vista install, installed vista on the "unallocated space" partition, on reboot it completely bypasses (perhaps flashes by) the bootloader screen described and goes straight into vista. I downloaded the bootloader tool and the only entry is vista on drive C, when i try to add an entry for xp on drive D it shows up at bootloader screen, however choosing xp gets a cant find Bootloader Path: \ntldr error. And is it normal that my D drive while in vista (what should be my xp partition) is shown as completely empty with only a 1 8kb boot related file in it? I know the 110gig xp partition is still there as i made sure with partdisk but vista wont see it!! argh..

Anonymous1111:

is it possible dual booting pre installed vista with server 2k3..? i got some info that server 2k3 is almost d same as xp..

Jeff R:

Removable hard drives. No pain at all. Just un-plug the one and pop in the other. :)

Geoffrey Smith:

This is probably a naive question(s) but I'll ask it anyway. I'm weighing upgrading my XP Media Center 2005 to Vista but want to dual boot with the old XP to preserve some apps that otherwise won't run under Vista without a significant investment. I want to upgrade rather than perform a clean install to carry over all of my family's settings and files and not have to reinstall the apps under Vista that will run...most of them.
Here's the question? if Vista is installed on the same drive as XP, diff partitions of course, and I follow the dual boot instructions here, and I have apps and files on other drives, (1) will I have to hand-edit all the logical drive references from the old apps moved over to Vista (like drive refs in registry to E: that may now be F:) and will I be able to access my files on all my drives from each OS without running into access issues due to diff. security settings being misunderstood by one OS or the other?

vincent:

This my problem, I have a pc with 2 sata HD first I have installed Vista ultimate 32bit and in the first partition of c drive disk0, then I installed xp on the first partition of e drive disk1, then I wanted to install vista64 thinking that it was going to override my first installation of vista32 and would ask me in which drive to install vista64 , instead it installed in the second partition of disk 0 (d).
So at the end I ended up with 3 OS , at startup w.boot manager was showing 3 options, XP,Vista32, Vista64 so far so good , but one day, vista 32 refused to boot, i tryed to repair with Vista DVD but no joy, so I decide to remove the option of Vista32 in window boot manager , so I di it with Vista boot pro.
But i did not delete the partition. Now because not all driver are available for vista64, I want to get vista 32 working without going through the installation process because i did install quiet a lot of software already.
So how do I get this sorted to fix or repair the boot manager .
Please someone help

Regards,

Vince

Yazfan:

I'm scoping out a dual boot XP Media Center/Vista after an upgrade to Vista and have the following 2 questions so far. I want to upgrade, not fresh install, to preserve the apps installed under XP (most) and the hardware/documents/other settngs for me and my family. After using Laplink to go from one PC to another running XP, I'm a big fan of not spending days reloading and seeing that anxious family stare.Anyway, will the Vista upgrade with a dual boot require me to do quite a bit of hand-editing of registry settings ref. drive locations that have changed and the like because the logical drives will be moved up a letter or is the upgrade "smart" in that sense (I have two hdd's with three partitions now) and (2) will I be able to access stuff, like multimedia edited under XP that I want to access from Vista, on the XP partition while booted to Vista-- and vice versa --without running into access issues from the one OS complaining about the other?
This is probably stupid but I thought I'd ask anyway

Erwin P:

Followed every bit of instructions. Perfect the first time I tried it. Thanks!

LahLahSr:

I've done my setup just the way it's described here and achieved two fine OS setups that both work just great.

However, for some reason my USB keyboard is not recognized at the time the character-based Vista Boot screen pops up. This means I can't select which OS to use on start up.

It's a bummer to have to start up with the default, then go in and change the default and then reboot.

Has anyone worked around this issue before?

daygillison:

I have the same issue w/ usb keyboard. Initial setup was fine then I decided to change my dual Intel processor to a quad core. That is when the usb keyboard stopped responding to choose OS to boot. It worked fine before. Any ideas??!!

Vikas:

Hi Everybody,

I have Windows XP and Windows Vista on the same machine configured as a dual boot. Now, I installed certain softwares in Windows XP mode which are Vista compatible. Now, when I log on to Windows Vista mode, am unable to work on the software which I installed in Windows XP mode. Does this mean that I have to install the same software twice? Please advice.

Mike:

Whay du i have to shrink my Windows XP before i install Vista, cant i just make 2 partitions and then install Xp and then install Vista

AnonymousPoster123:

Yes, that should work. I would install XP and then Vista to make sure that you can edit the bootloader w/ EasyBCD.

Turon Caldwell:

Now can these steps be used on a notebook as well,
Its a Acer Aspire T2080 Notebook

AnonymousPoster123:

Yes, I just performed these steps on an HP 6515b notebook. I'm posting from it right now. This is a great guide!

David P:

I have a new HP dv6500T with Vista 64-bit and SATA hard drive.
-- how did you get around the "not recognizing hard drive" error that everyone talks about? (I don't have a floppy drive).
-- where did you get drivers for the hardware so you can run them under the XP boot configuration?

thanks so much!

reallypissed:

this worked for SHIT... I've spent all day undoing your half-assed project. Thanks for something considerably less than nothing...

Nivek:

guess you never heard of a ghost image rofl

Laptop owner:

HI
I have read something in a magazine where it says that there is one big disadvantage with dual booting XP and Vista. Ever time you boot to XP, This wipes out all of Vista's restore points as well as all shadow copies. Firstly what are restore points and shadow copies and is there a problem?

I am also confused about buying a Vista Home Premium upgrade academic edition (I am a student). Will I be able to still dual boot using the vista I am thinking of?

Also when I install programs will they run on both operating system or just the operating system I installed them on.

Lastly, what about the programs on XP already, will the move over to vista (mainly talking about Itunes and my music collection of 300 songs.)

Can someone please help me I am very confused.

Thanks

MichaelP:

Yes, there are apparently issues with dual-boot scenarios. See MS KB 926185.

"This problem occurs when you start the computer by using the earlier operating system, such as Microsoft Windows XP or Microsoft Windows Server 2003. In this situation, the earlier operating system deletes all the restore points that were created in Windows Vista. The earlier operating system also deletes all Complete PC Backup files except the most recent version of these backup files."

"This behavior occurs because the earlier Windows operating systems do not recognize the new disk structures."

So, it seems to me that dual-boot boot isn't a viable option for anything but testing scenarios.

JT:

i'm thinking of dual booting, but i'm buying another 500gb HDD, so i can put Vista in that, would it be easier if i unplugged the HDD with XP and then install Vista, then plug both back in? Will dual boot still work?

peter laga:

No, it won't work as a standard dual boot. You will have to enter the bios and change the disk boot order each time you wish to change operating systems.

timothycashin@hotmail.com:

guys i installed vista first and cracked it no problem. i then installed xp by turningit off and installing it on a DIFFERENT hard drive
it now always opens windows xp
how do i get back into vista?
do i have to stat all over?

Anon:

I'm not sure if this has been asked, but can this dual-boot work using an external hard drive?

AleXBerg:

Does anyone had problems installing video drivers. I installed my 8800GTS drivers on xp, and then tried to load vista, but it was kinda of screwed up... said that some hardware installation wasnt compatible with it. My set up is 2 150gb raptors in raid 0 with two partition, one for each OS. Thx for your replies!

Amy:

Dual boot with vista home and xp pro is working. I am using external hard drive for all data. Imported all Outlook data into new pst file using Vista (xp wouldn't do it). On old compuyter, exported to csv (dos) files from archive.pst (office xp version). Imported csv (dos) into outlook.pst (office 2003 version). Everything looks fine. When I open the file using xp, all the one day events become 2 day events. When I reopen using vista, everything still reads as 2 day events. How to fix?

interested:

Hello.

Gparted lastest 0.3.4-7 and 0.3.4-8 do not appear to work on my machine.

I have also tried Parted Magic which loads fine and has Gparted 0.3.4 but it too does not work.

Gparted will just lock up at boot with some linux-initrd error.
Parted Magic, will load however it sees my RAID0 drive as two seperate drives and only shows unallocated space.

So does anyone know of any other Free Partition software that can do this??

I need to free up my one large RAID0 Partition so i can install vista for dual boot.

My motherboard is a Asus P5B deluxe, which uses intel P965 chipset, and RAID 0 is running off the chipsets ICH8 raid controller. My guess is that Gparted dosent like this for some reason?

Any help is appreciated.

Fernando:

Hi i have missing boot.ini and hal.dll problem. i made a boot.ini using txt editor and set the partition to 2 and saved the on D:boot.ini and D:windows/boot.ini

but still the same problem when booting win XP

Should i put boot in drive c:? if yes can you pls explain why?

Thanks in advance

eemeli:

Where it says to press enter on the load keymap bit, it wont let me press enter.. or any key.. any help?

andrew:

i had vista installed and then i wanted xp on it as well but wat i didnt no was to put them on different partitions. so i installed xp on the same drive as vista in a sub folder but it doesnt giv me a choice to boot up vista it goes strait into xp and i want to no how to boot up xp please help

andrew:

i mean how to boot up vista again

Mike:

How can i install to XP partitions and a Vista partition with a boot loader

Ruler:

i have windows xp pro installed on Fat32 c drive now i need to install vista too i am totally new to vista and its installation system i wont both working on my pc i can install it in another drive or watever way it will work tell me which tutorial to follow to install it.
all drives on my pc are fat32 but i can format any other drive to ntfs if needed

Gaz:

Please Can anyone help???
I was dual booting Vista + XP without any problem, Vista was partition C, cd drive was D, and XP was partition E.
Then I had an issue with Vista so decided to format partition C and reinstall it. After installation of Vista, I dont have the option to boot into XP anymore, and the partition with XP on changed to D and the cd drive changed to E!! I changed them back but I still cant boot into XP!
Is There anything I can do to make it possible to dual boot again other than reinstalling XP???
Many Thanx In Advance !
Gaz!!

124F:

on my laptop i have xp installed, and i have a c drive and a d drive, the d drive is empty and is where i used to save my files, i.e pictures etc. and the c drive is usualy where all the programes are installed, do i need to still sepearte drives?

email me rizwan_kash@yahoo.co.uk help apprecaited :)

Chaos Maker:

You can use the D drive to install vista and Multiboot

coollob:

Hi everyone,

i used the boot load changing program to make a linux entery(it dint work tho) and then i installed xp on to the Partition, xp auto installed its self.

Liam

phsyco:

hey dude,
i have vista home premiuim. i tried for dual booting with vista and xp professional n edition mui. but it tells me that it can't be installed in this platform. can anyone suggest me what to do??

keiz:

Shrink is not a known command, anyone know how to do it without GParted?

Anonymous2345678901:

How to dual boot when I started with Vista?
I try to insert the XP installation CD, but the window tell me that the CD can't read my computer software (vga card, ..., etc).

nemesis:

i bought pc with preinstalled VISTA which already has 2 partitions
i installed xp pro on the other partition as what iv heard with VISTA properties w dual boot

i started having probs booting to VISTA

my XP wont allow me to install vistaBOOTpro and
even the EasyBCD wont install > ERROr: cant run application
sometimes error: no 2.0 later .net framework

*i tried installing 2.0 .net framewor, XP wont allo it to install> no specific error
*i then tried 3.0 .net framework still no go

what do i do?

nate_T:

i have a fujitsu tablet (not my choice, but the engineering department requires it) which came with xp preinstalled. a few months ago i decided to upgrade to vista since we got it for free. i really like it and it works fine, but i decided id like to be able to dual boot with xp installed as well. i partitioned my hdd using the gnome gparted live cd leaving vista on a 60 gig partition and having an empty 30 gig partition. Vista works perfectly fine, but when i try and install xp it does not recognize me having any hdd whatsoever. anyone have any ideas? many thanks, nate

farmer ganj:

Find out what hard drive you have. You can download a program through majorgeeks.com called everest home edition that will give you all kinds of useful information. After that, download the driver for that particular hard drive. When the XP install starts after inserting the disk, you will see the instructions to press F6 if you need to install any third party drivers. If you have saved the driver to a floppy disk beforehand, you can load it into the XP installation when prompted.

danny:

I am a total newb to duel booting and have not got a clue do you have a step by step guide for duel booting using 2 hdd's with vista pre installed on the first.. ie i have no disk for vist

ksukat:

Greetings.
New Dell Notebook with XP Pro installed on hard drive (120GB).

Downloaded and used newest version of GParted LiveCD to shrink the XP partition.

Created another partititon to use later for data.

Took Business Vista CD and followed the remainder of steps to install.

Vista installed and booted fine. Installed EasyBCD 1.71 and made recommended changes.

Vista boots fine, but when I select XP Pro from boot loader, the screen goes black and nothing occurs. Screen still on, laptop still on, just nothing.

Anybody have a solution to this issue ?

thanks.

Al:

I used gparted to do a partition on vista Hd every partition went well but I can install my win2000pro.I tried to boot with the win2000 pro cd after the gparted was done but I got a message that said win 2000 system 32\ntoskrnl.exe missing.Any help here would be great thanks.

Al

MOCCOR:

Would this work if I have Windows XP SP2 and Windows XP Professional x64 already dual-booting? What I want to do is Win XP SP2 + Win XP Pro x64 + Vista. would that work? I have the space.