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

Punchey:

Can this procedure be accomplished using a Vista Ultimate Upgrade DVD? Or will this only work using a full version?

Tony Sarno:

no, the Vista upgrade would overwrite the existing XP installation. You would have to install another copy of XP (if on the same drive, repartition the drive to create another partition for the copy) then install Vista over the original XP installation. Presumably you would need a new licence for the second XP, as it's unlikely you would be able to re-register if the previous version has already been upgraded to Vista. Somebody who has done this might know for sure. 

joey:

so basically we have to buy the full version to have a dual boot xp and vista system? am i getting this correct?? i ordered an upgrade but i guess i have to take it back and spend the extra $70 for the full version for a dual boot system. has nayone used the upgrade version to dual boot XP and vista on the same hard drive??

SS_Camaro_SS:

Yes. I Have Windows xp Professional/32bit
And Windows Vista Ultimate /64bit (upgrade Version) Running Right Now
No Errors No Problems @ Bootscreen It Asks Which OS Do I Want To Boot To
Previous Version Of Windows Or
Windows Vista (THis Is Just The Upgrade )
Which Is The Exact Same Disk As The Full Version.
I Had Xp Pro Installed ,Updated Till It Couldnt Update Anymore.
Ran /Installed The Vista Advisory.
Shut Off Pc/rebooted From Disk (Which I Hear Isnt Supposed To Work) And It Installed Successfully.
So Yes Its Possible.

KLund1:

Will this work with Vista 32bit?
If so, how about a link to the 'exact' steps?
Also how to make sure my current XP key doesn't get killed by vista calling home?
Thanks in advnace
KLund1

Scott:

The instructions and screenshots above work perfectly with Win XP Pro and Vista 32 Upgrade. I just finished. Great posting!!!

Pete Davies:

Please can you or anyone explain in detail how you did this?

I have windows xp home and will be getting Vista home premium 32 (upgrade) and would like to dual boot.

Thanks.

Sam12342:

Of course it can work on vista 32bit.

Lawrence:

Hi I just wanted to know if that you can dual boot windows Vista 64 bit with XP 32 bit?

Terry:

Yes, this works fine.
That's what I've got.
(on x64 hardware of course)

duncan (New user):

i have windows vista home premium upgrade i have windows xp home edtion just now but cant get any sound in vista aeall its realtek hd audio manager i have thanks for your help

krishna:

Hi
I am having compatability problems with windows vista ULTIMATE.
Can I install XP keeping VISTA i mean both in one system.
Will that work.
Please let me know ASAP

DoHi:

What you ask is what Dual boot is. Two operating systems on one disk with the option to run either one.

chandraprakash:

Hi
I am having compatability problems with windows vista ULTIMATE.
Can I install XP keeping VISTA i mean both in one system.
Will that work.

Angel:

Hi! Sir,
I want to do what you did. I have Vista now but i like to install XP for some of my programs that i need that dont work well with Vista.
My question to you Sir. is, How to doit?
what are the steps to get it done?

Would you be able to tell me how, please!

bong (New user):

can i ask 1 question? my problem is everytime i turn on my pc is there's no display on the screen that asking me what OS do i want to boot, because of that, i cannot select my on choise which of the two OS i want to use, which is i have a two OS just like yours, XP and Vista,

Anonymous2:

Actually, if you have a copy of WinXP, you can install that on the other partition, then upgrade the new installation. The Vista Upgrade disc contains the full version of Vista, but it is "locked" away.

Patanjali:

I run a dual-boot XPso that I can use one for general computer stuff and one with minimal services for audio recording. As long as you haven't changed the System drive (as opposed to the Boot drive - running OS partition) between installs, the drive letters remain the same and the same Windows authentication codes will work for both.

However, if you swap the System partition between installs, the Boot partition will always be C: and the Windows authentication codes will be different (mainly because the System partition ID will be different).

In multi-HDD systems, to do multi-boot and have the boot partitions all on the same HDD, you will have to disconnect the 2nd, etc, HDDs. Without the disconnection, Windows would allocate drive letters to each drive first, then by partition, so that a two drive system with two partitions on each HDD would have default letter allocations of:
HDD 0:
Partition 1: C
Partition 2: E
HDD 1:
Partition 1: D
Partition 2: F

instead of (preferred?):
HDD0:
Partition 1: C
Partition 2: D
HDD 1:
Partition 1: E
Partition 2: F


While you can change drive letters of partitions, you do NOT want to do this to a Boot partition as the registry entries set at installation will then point to the wrong drive. Reletter partitions after OS install, but before installing applications to minimise reconfiguration of paths to data partitions.

gr8pom (New user):

Hi There can this setup work with a pc with a raid 0 configuration ?

adv3rsary:

yes, you can.
it isnt as easy but this is what you do...
start the vista install, when it gets to where u put in the key, put in nothing and select vista ultimate edition and continue with install, when its all done, from within vista launch vista installation again and this time put in the key... let it go through all the way again and ure done

u can also do this if ure not dual booting at all.. basically makes an upgrade disc into a full version disc if ure willing to install it twice

Kady (New user):

hi i have vista on my pc, i did not do the drive shrink, just booted my pc with xp disc and installed it opn a different partition. Now if i download the easy bcd and install it i get an error message. is there an alternate way to edit the boot in vista to enable the dual o/s boot

KaceyLauinger (New user):

I want to have both xp and vista on the same computer so i can swap between them for use of different software that only works so far on either one OR the other. Will this process let me do so? Becuase i noticed that it said "..but dont want to get rid of xp just yet." and i dont wanna get rid of it at all untill upgraded software comes out for 64 vista. Any help?

Buckskinpass:

Just a quick question about the Vista Boot Manager. If Vista is installed on a different drive than the XP Install, will the Vista Boot Manager see the original XP install and give the option to choose which OS to boot? I'm just afraid that I'll have to jump through the bios and change the drive in the boot priority section in order to change the OS.

Any help on this is greatly appreciated.

Mike:

I installed Home Premium Upgrade onto a second drive and the Option to boot to the other drive where XP was installed was setup by the Vista boot manager and it worked.

VTmuggle:

what about yhe other way around? If I have Vista installed already can I install a copy of XP on a second drive and expect everything to work right? I've got some issues with Vista's DRM features :(

Buckskinpass:

Every one that I've talked to says to make sure XP is installed first but I have no first hand experience with Vista being pre installed.

Anonymous94654:

I just purchased a new laptop from HP which cmae with Vista Business pre-installed. I also purchased the CD but instead of getting the full Vista install, it's just a DVD to re-image the hard drive to factory settings

If I install XP and then inert the DVD, I do not get any options on how to install, instead, the HD is re-imaged.

Is it possible to install XP after Vista becuase it seems there is no way for me to do it the other way?

Nina:

I am in the same situation with you. Did you get any solution? If so, please send the solution to me. Thanks.

Hagar:

Here's the link to how you can install XP after installing Vista - you just won't have to do the drive-shrink diskpart portion of the install because you have a second drive.

http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp

Leice:

Hi! Okay, first of all, I am using two hard drives to do my install of XP. I just got a new PC with Vista preloaded, but I have to keep XP to run programs that are not compatible with Vista. So, I reviewed your steps and the part where you show the XP install screen with the two partitions, on my screen, I get a list that says unidentified something and it says to use the arrows to select but when I do, it gives me an error blue screen. I need to find a way to get my hard drives to show up on this screen. What do I do to get my hard drives to show up on this screen? Please HELP. As long as some of my programs are not compatible with VISTA, I need XP! THANKS.

Zatt:

For the first you didn`t say anything if u have sata disk or ide, if u have sata it`s easy to find in bios and u dont have to juse jumper osv I think u have ide disk and i also think u are using only one cabel from HK and to both HD ?If u can use only one kabel to each of them and set jumper on HD1 to master and HD2 to slave .. Cd rom can use cabelselect. Then i think u will be able to find your HD.
When it`s so many hvo have trubble with dualboot i cant understand what u/they do wrong ??? Here are some good simple advice for dual boot :
1. Innstall XP first on one HD
2. Then Vista on another HD, whwn u do that Vista will take command over the boot section and u vill have a boot screen where u can choose XP or Vista... if u have old version of windows shoving up on the same bootscreen,u go to boot.ini in XP and remove it there.
And you MUST have Wista boot Pro there u go to "system bootloader" and choose WINDOVS WISTA BOOTLOADER and ALL DRIVES under system bootloader, and then remember to INNSTALL BOOTLOADER... Thats all if u do so u will have Vista bootloader with Vista as nr1 and XP as nr 2 on your bootscreen.
Hope`s this will help some of you, i had it for a loong time and still working perfekt.

gioggio82:

I am in the same situation too...
My computer is a brand new HP with Vista Home Premium preinstalled, I tried to follow the instructions, I make a 20Gb partition with Gparted but when insert the Xp Professional install-cd I receive a blue screen with this error "Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in you computer"
Can someone help me???

myshop:

Make sure that the "SATA Native Support" option is disabled in the BIOS settings. To install XP from XP bootable CD, you should either disable this option or load SATA drivers from bootable USB/Floppy.

Amardeep Singh:

Dear

You have to download sata hdd drivers & then u have to put it in a floppy.then when u boot frm xp cd then u have to press F6 for giving the sata HDD Drivers.Then it will be installed

Nicholas-Computer Kid:

That's a reason why NOT to get WINDOWS VISTA! (go to top story's and click on 10 REASONS NOT TO GET WINDOWS VISTA!) PROBLEM! PROBLEM! PROBLEM!

wwilliam.klein (User):

did you get the solution for this? Would you like to share with us?

DONKEYBOY:

I have heard all versions of Vista are
on the Vista DVD so in theory just borrow
a retail version of a Vista DVD and use
your valid key from Vista oem sticker on
your laptop when you re-install after the XP
install.

Lost1 this is Lost3 r u lost2 (New user):

At the top of the page where the instructions are there is a link to a page that has instructions on how to dual boot if Vista is already installed and they talk about your situation of not havomg a copy of Vista just the recovery disk that came with your computer.

omas:

same proplem pl solve it to us
any body any body help
what about yhe other way around?
I have Vista installed already and I installed a copy of XP on a second partion drive and expect everything to work right?
only xp work
if i used recovery disk came with veas I loos Xp booting even it still on partion D

Angry user with same problem:

Hey, i had the same problem. All you need to do is:
1. Format your HDD(s).
2. Install Windows XP.
3. Install Windows Vista with dual-boot.
4. Throw you computer case through the window.
5. BE HAPPY =P

linosi:

I need to make a serious correction
I did not read the M$oft article
about dualbooting Vista + XP

Vista usses a totally diffderent bootmethod with the BCD so replacing
ntldr + netdetect does not work

look at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529/en-us
IT EXPLAINS THE CULPRIT

Nehal Ahmed Jony:

same proplem pl solve it to us
any body any body help
what about yhe other way around?
I have Vista installed already and I installed a copy of XP on a second partion drive and expect everything to work right?
only xp work
if i used recovery disk came with veas I loos Xp booting even it still on partion D

omas

Sarge:

Mike,
I too installed Home Premium Upgrade on a second drive,as a custom installation but I did not get any option to boot to my other drive with XP Pro on it. Is this something I can change, like a setting, or is this something that Vista does automagically or is supposed to do in a situation such as this? Any help would be great. Thanks.

Sargesilver:

Mike,
I too installed Home Premium Upgrade on a second drive,as a custom installation but I did not get any option to boot to my other drive with XP Pro on it. Is this something I can change, like a setting, or is this something that Vista does automagically or is supposed to do in a situation such as this? Any help would be great. Thanks.

Rema (New user):

i also did the same thing (before reading anythink on subject). And I can't also start my old OS ea XP. What is there to do? I have a lot of important programs on xp and first hard drive so this is a prob for me.

HP:

hey i just bought bran new computer with XP Ultimate and its got 2 hard drive 2 ga ram and 120 each hard drive so is there way i can install XP professional cuz vista isent that good with my work if u can give me step by step instruction it will be grate thanks

Ichigo_Bankai:

I know its been a while since you post this question and you have probably already did the dual boot. I can say install Vista was quite pain less in comparsion to a fresh XP install. I have XP on one drive and Vista on the other and they work fine.

David H H:

I have the same situation 2 hard drives 1 vista 2 XP. did you find a boot loader or other oprogram to load one or the other?

tbuzzard:

Is it possible to dual boot between the 32 bit edition of XP and the 64 bit edition of Vista? I want to move up to the 64 bit OS, but I need to keep my current XP as there are a couple of apps for my work that will not work under Vista.

Enok:

i really dont know...but when i try booting up a x64bit program on my Xp x32 it doesnt work. so i guess you should try it the other way around..but that might prove difficult for you..i have the same problem as you have.

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.

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?

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.

zafopc:

i have done this it is very easy but now i want to format the partition that i have the xp and keep only the vista is this posible?

metalmuscle:

i can't do this shrinking thing.... ive done everything that these instructions have said to do, and some things aren't working. First, when i use GParted, when the main GUI loads, i can't choose my main XP NTFS partition because it does not show up... only an unallocated space shows up and i can't do anything with that. i also tried using the DISKPART from the command line of the vista dvd, and when i get to the part where i have to type SHRINK... nothing happens... it just brings up a menu of things i CAN type and "shrink" is not one of them! what can i do here guys!?

fog:

the express version doesn't included shrink.. (I now have both.. full + express) . so just use gparted instead to shrink the drive..
use make a new partition in computer admin .. off control panel.. worked for me, using a very well known partitioner messed up the MFT tables. so avoid using them =)

fog:

I had nothing but trouble installing vista (express upgrade), because I was using a 3rd party HDD partition manager to install the express upgrade, would install then gave me MFT errors, it's coz how the drive was paritioned!! AVOID using them.. I used Gpart as mentioned here (resized the drive), and the proper windows partitioner, under control panel, computer admin. NOW it works.. as for where you select the drive, if your running xp. you can partition the drive under xp in the background, then go back to the install page. press F5 and it will refresh the drive list. If the drive won't boot xp after install "ntldr missing" use vistabootpro and set the xp drive to boot off the xp drive. all should be well. Oh and the express upgrade doesn't have the "shrink" command, so just make a cd of "gpart" and boot into that, if it don't work graphically , set it to "vesa mode" and it will work. =)

Adam treadwell:

hi iwas wondering do you haft to leave easy bcd installed on vista when u have chaged the name or if u remove stuff evre thing up

richard (New user):

hi i have a new hp with vista basic and really need my xp for older programs i have gparted live booted from cd but the program detects no drives or partitions and of course thats where im stuck

richard (New user):

hi i have a new hp with vista basic and really need my xp for older programs i have gparted live booted from cd but the program detects no drives or partitions and of course thats where im stuck

richard (New user):

hi i have a new hp with vista basic and really need my xp for older programs i have gparted live booted from cd but the program detects no drives or partitions and of course thats where im stuck

Michael Matthews (New user):

I tried all of the above and it works !!! Un-did it in the end because Vista does not do what I need it to do and I shot myself in the foot by not allowing enough space in the Vista Partition. Should have at least 20 GB to allow for a few Vista updates and a few programs.
Thanks you. Very effective.

Michael (New user):

I pulled up this web site because I'm in the process of buying a new computer. I know it will come pre installed with Vista so I am already checking out what the process will be to dual boot.

The question I want to ask which is better dual booting the way it comes and add XP, or formatting the hard drive installing XP Pro as my main partition then putting Vista as the second partition? I don't mind doing it if it's something that will make a difference.

I read both guides (partitioning Vista to XP and this one, partitioning XP to Vista), I've scanned through most of every ones comments on both pages and haven't seen anyone ask this yet.

I've dual booted many drives in the past with 2000 and XP (even tri booted before with Linux for someone) But I have no experience with Vista at all besides hearing all the horror stories of how many problems people are having. So any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mychael

Michael (New user):

I pulled up this web site because I'm in the process of buying a new computer. I know it will come pre installed with Vista so I am already checking out what the process will be to dual boot.

The question I want to ask which is better dual booting the way it comes and add XP, or formatting the hard drive installing XP Pro as my main partition then putting Vista as the second partition? I don't mind doing it if it's something that will make a difference.

I read both guides (partitioning Vista to XP and this one, partitioning XP to Vista), I've scanned through most of every ones comments on both pages and haven't seen anyone ask this yet.

I've dual booted many drives in the past with 2000 and XP (even tri booted before with Linux for someone) But I have no experience with Vista at all besides hearing all the horror stories of how many problems people are having. So any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Mychael

Michael (New user):

Sorry for the double post, site seems to be running slow (also the reason i'm buying a new computer)

Harry (New user):

How could i triple boot?

Kamidan (New user):

I have Windows XP Pro SP2 installed on my primary C drive. I bought Windows Vista premium 32bit. I wish to dual boot, I know that when I go too install Vista it tells me that it can't upgrade the existing XP installation and that I would have to buy the Vista Business edition to do that and so it wants to make a fresh installation but it also wants to rename all kinds of existing windows xp folders like th program files and the my documents etc.

How do I go about getting a dual boot system set up with an existing XP Pro SP2 already installed and wanting to install Vista home premium to dual boot?

Thanks

Kamidan (New user):

I have Windows XP Pro SP2 installed on my primary C drive. I bought Windows Vista premium 32bit. I wish to dual boot, I know that when I go too install Vista it tells me that it can't upgrade the existing XP installation and that I would have to buy the Vista Business edition to do that and so it wants to make a fresh installation but it also wants to rename all kinds of existing windows xp folders like th program files and the my documents etc.

How do I go about getting a dual boot system set up with an existing XP Pro SP2 already installed and wanting to install Vista home premium to dual boot?

Thanks

Kamidan (New user):

We have windows xp pro sp2 installed and I bought Windows vista premium upgrade. I wish to dual boot, but the last time I tried to install vista with xp still there it renamed the program files, and it renamed the my documents etc. Can they coexist on one partition, I assume not and that I will have to make a new partition on my primary physical hard drive.

Can I dual boot if I have xp pro sp2 installed and wish to install vista home premium? I know it won't let me upgrade my current version of xp as it tells me I must buy Business to be able to upgrade xp pro.

Flukez (New user):

Now I have a perfect dual boot XP/Vista sytsem but I have loads of applications in XP: Can I get Vista to see them without re-instaling them all. If I need to re-instal can I put them in the original location and have only one physical copy but both XP and Vista able to see it or do I need double the disk space?

VIthe3RD (New user):

Is there a way to Quad boot? I have Home, Pro, Ultimate, Business on 2 seprate HDD's 2 per drive in my machine. Would like to know if there is a way to select one of the four OS's at start up in stead of 2 at a time after going through the Bios to switch which disk boots first.

Sprint6 (User):

Try using vista boot pro

Sprint6 (User):

Try using Vista Boot Pro

moniran (New user):

I have some problem in my computer
I have XP and VISTA on my compuetr same time.
thay have similar name and when I change my Operating system from vista to xp , other users in network cant access me in network ! why must I do?

Sprint6 (User):

try Vista Boot Pro

Sprint6 (User):

try Vista Boot Pro

Kamidan (New user):

Is there anyway to install Windows XP AFTER Windows Vista has been installed, if so how?

Thank you

behdad (New user):

Hi all.
I have combed all the comments here and other forums elsewhere on the Net to get an answer to my problem but it seems that my problem is unique to me and my computer in regard to dual booting Vista and XP:
I have two hard disks: One has three partitions (one for XP, one for Vista and the last one for the software I use) and the second disk is for my games with no operating system installed on it.
I have recently installed a full version of Vista Ultimate on first disk (on one of three partitions); I used the available instructions on Net to do so. I also used EasyBCD to try to make dual booting work on my PC.
Now the problem is: If I select the partition that XP is installed as my “Active” partition I will not get any dual booting option. Well, that’s fine with me up to here. But if I select the partition that has Vista on it as my “Active” drive I do get the dual booting option screen but if I select XP as my preferred operating system my computer restarts itself without loading up XP although my Vista works fine if I select it as my preferred operating system. For your information, depending on which partition is my “Active” drive I get different letters assigned to different partitions/disks. I am sure I am selecting the right drive for XP when using EasyBCD but, as I said earlier, my computer restarts each time I select XP as my operating system.
I’d greatly appreciate any help resolving the problem….
Many thanks

Kamidan (New user):

We are all so hopeful, Since I posted my question a couple months ago all I've seen is a new post every couple days from someone else asking about how to set their particular setup for XP and vista. We the people keep asking, but we the people only keep asking, theres little point to keep asking when nobody actively monitors and responds to the masses of questioners.

John Brines (New user):

Hi There,

I have tried to print this and it will only print the first two pages.

John.

rwood (New user):

I have tried to print this article and it will only print page 1. What gives ?

nam207 (New user):

I followed exactly what the guide said here. However, when I tried to boot using "earlier version of windows" before using neosmart software, I got a blank screen. Right now I can't only boot into Vista. I've heard that I have to fix some MBR for WinXP? Could anyone please help me on this? Both XP and Ultimate are clean installation.

nam207 (New user):

Please delete - duplicated post as above.

Marina (New user):

Hello,
I bought a Laptop with Vista on it. I formatted everything, created 3 partitions so that in the first (20GB) I have Vista, second (20 GB) with XP and the third (120 GB) for me to save my data.
I have already installed XP on the second partition and now I am trying to follow this tutorial. The problem is that I have a recovery DVD to install Vista, and it's not necessary to put the product key. So I couldn't find the moment for me to press SHIFT+F10 and the Vista was installed normally. Now when I start my computer I don't get the options page for choosing the operational system, it starts directly with Vista. What can I do to choose it when starting my computer? Or if it is not possible and I need to install Vista again, in what time do I need to press SHIFT+10?

Thanks a lot,
Marina

ohnala (New user):

I've both WinXP (C drive) & Vista (D drive) installed. The problem now is when i boot into WinXP it's the C drive but when i boot into Vista it is D drive. Shouldn't the drive letter be change automatically? Would appreciate it if you can advise me on how to rectify this problem. Lastly how should i hide the OS from each other?

Sprint6 (User):

c:\ drive is always the drive name given to the currant running Os, all others are adjusted accordingly by defult. Do not think this action can be easily changed.

Sprint6 (User):

WinXP (C drive)when booting the os is the first drive in the list,then all others are found and names in order of priority/Type of drive.
When you boot to another OS, the boot file tels it to boot to vista (C:) and then looks for the other drives in order, so it is normal to get rearanged depending on boot OS.

no need to make any changes, You can use the User files from ether drive, program and windows files should not be used interchangably.

Ankit (New user):

can dual booting be done b/w xp sp2 and xp sp3????

how????

tesla77 (New user):

Ok, so I have decided to keep Vista and do away with XP.

How do I get back the other half of my hardrive and loose the XP partition?

Brandon (New user):

Hey there. When I try to do this using Gparted I end up getting a blank monitor screen that says mode not supported. And when I try to do it using Diskpart, the command shrink is not regonized...any help?

bartz101 (New user):

-

bartz101 (New user):

Hello everybody.
(I am not English or American, so sorry for my English!)

I have a problem; here it is:

I have three partitions: C:, D: and E:.
- On C: I have installed WIN Vista (first installed!)
- On D: I have installed many programms
- On E: This partition is empty. Here I want to install XP.

So I rebooted, and booted from the WIN XP DVD. After the first "loading" install (you know, the blue screen where you can format partitions; in this case I did E), the PC rebooted but then when the screen appeared: "press any key if you want to reboot from the cd", my PC just didn't pass this and hanged. Also on the screen 3 blocks appeared. It looked like a crash or something... Each block had another colour and each had another letter. And so I waited and waited and rebooted again and tried the whole procedure again but without any result. Does somebody know how to install XP correctly? I have tried to install XP with another DVD (maybe the first DVD was damaged) but also without any result.
Please help!!

Greetings,

B.

bartz101 (New user):

Hello!

I have a problem:

I have three partitions: C, D and E.

- On C I have installed WIN Vista (first installed).
- On D I have installed some other programs (when Vista was running).
- Partition E is empty. Here I want to install XP.

But the problem is:

After I had rebooted and booted from the XP (SP2) CD, I got a blue screen. Here I could format partitions etc. *you know*. After formatting partition E the PC rebooted again, and then normally I would go to the installation of WIN XP. When I got the screen with the message "Press any key if you want to boot from the CD" you must wait (to got to the installation procedure) but the screen hanged and there 3 blocks appeared (on the black screen under the above mentioned sentence). Each block has antoher colour and letter. It looked like a crash or something. So I rebooted and did the whole procedure again, but without any result. I have also tried with another CD of XP, but I got the same thing (here the 3 blocks were somewhere else on the screen, with another letters in).

Could somebody help me with installing XP?

Sprint6 (User):

I think that you need to go into the Bios and set the order of hard drives propriety to the disk that XP will be installed as the first hard drive to boot from(may need to change back after installation is done ), and the boot order to CD “First” and hard drives “Second”, then try the reinstallation of XP. Hoping that the BIOS will allow for this configuration.

Aeon Psych (New user):

I encountered a problem that has not been listed or identified:
diskpart does not give me the option to "shrink", it only brings up the command help for diskpart when I type in "shrink", and when i go through the command help, shrink is not listed as a command.

also, I ignored trying to partition the drive, just to see what the installer would prompt instead, but it gave me an error saying I must unistall "Zune" in order to continue installation.

anyone got some pointers or tips?

KaceyLauinger (New user):

Crap...i just made a long comment but i dont think it went through cuz i didnt have an account just yet. SO here it is again...I work at a company called Harper Houf Peterson Righellis. We use many different softwares. I have a computer that is well equiped for basically anything. I am curious to know that if i complete these steps, then i will be able to swap back and forth between xp 32 bit and vista 64 bit at the boot screen? Which would allow me to run the software that corresponds to each opperating system? If so then that is exactly what i want, but i read and it says "...but dont want to get rid of xp just yet" this is true, i dont wanne get rid of xp just yet. Not untill the upgraded software that can only run on 32 bit xp comes out for 64 bit vista. Anyone out there that can comfirm for me?

KaceyLauinger (New user):

Another question...I have a five hundred gig harddrive that is brand new. If i were to load xp first and then us the GParted software to shrink the partition so there is enough room for vista...will the GParted cuz the five hundred in half or will it leave more on the xp side of the drive???

Gregorius (New user):

Anybody know how to change the boot partition number in Vista?

in XP, I would change the following:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

(partition(3) to partition(4))

Basically, i currently have 2 partitions. Vista is on the last partition. I will be splitting my first partition into 2 (its currently all allocated to OSX, i want to split it so i can have some Fat32 space to share between Vista and OSx)... but once i split it, vista won't know where it is installed.. how can i tell it??

Gregorius (New user):

Anybody know how to change the boot partition number in Vista?

in XP, I would change the following:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

(partition(3) to partition(4))

Basically, i currently have 2 partitions. Vista is on the last partition. I will be splitting my first partition into 2 (its currently all allocated to OSX, i want to split it so i can have some Fat32 space to share between Vista and OSx)... but once i split it, vista won't know where it is installed.. how can i tell it??

Gregorius (New user):

Does anybody know how to change the boot partition number in Vista? Seems it no longer has a boot.ini file, and i need to change the number as i'm adding a new partition before the vista partition, so need to tell vista where to boot from... anybody?

(Sorry for double post.. thought the first one hadn't worked)

Lazor (New user):

I have a fresh machine just about done with assembly, and want todo a dual boot. My question is witch operating system first Xp of Vista.
Thanks

Doh_Not_Again (New user):

I hear you have to put xp on first

marie (New user):

is this safe to do on laptops? what if i just want to replace my xp os with vista? i'm using an IBM R51e model

Doh_Not_Again (New user):

I see that there is alot of comments on loading Vista on a pre installed Windows XP Pro 32 Bit machine on same drive different partitions. What I need help with is installing Windows XP Pro 32 bit and Vista Ultimate 64bit on 2 separate SATA drives to make them Dual Boot... Can anyone email me what or how I am suppose to do this. It is a brand new built machine no OS on it yet. Any help will greatly be appreciated as I have been stumped.

TIA,
Doh!

KaceyLauinger (New user):

I think you are gonna need this?...or something like it http://www.computerpoweruser.com/images/smartcomputing/fullsize/00733173.jpg

But i am not sure that this specific card or any card will let you swap between Operating Systems as if it were one hard drive? Do some more research on SIIG Serial ATA cards and see what they can do, ill do the same and get back to you on it. What sizes are your two hard drives?

wbatie (New user):

Would like to have XP Pro64 which is installed now and Ultimate on a second drive instead of both on the same drive.
Is this possible and will the upgrade version work

mrtodd (New user):

If I purchased my new pc with xp on it and partitioned 50/50 from dell do I need to use GParted program at all? Are there certain steps of this I can skip or not?

KaceyLauinger (New user):

ya mrtodd, you do not need to use the stupid gparted thing. its pointless. when you use the vista cd it will have the option to split the partition in half. just follow the steps it gives. ask me if you still cant figure it out...

thomas1 (New user):

I installed xp on c drive, went under my computer-manage and partitioned the drive. Installed vista on second partition. Had an error on xp partition, re-installed xp and now can not see the vista partition. The size of the xp partition is same, half of the drive. How do I get the second partition to show when double clicking my c drive?

AM (New user):

Hi,
I bought Sony VAIO with Vista Home Premium. They don't provide CD-ROM Media and after I installed XP , I can't repair Vista Boot loader because I dont' have media. I believe that there must be a way to do it.
Could you help me ? Many thanks.

AM (New user):

Thanks.

specialist (New user):

Check out this article on dual booting XP and Vista, which assures safeguarding of Vista’s system restore points when XP boots up.

http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=2591

dcary3 (New user):

I burnt the Gparted to a disc and tried to boot my Toshiba Satellite A205-S5831 laptop and it would not boot. Any suggestions?

DualBoot (New user):

I have tried everythin but i cant Boot the "GParted LiveCD" software.

I downloaded the version Mentioned here, used Nero 7 to burn it onto a CD, restart windows, chose to boot from CD then i get to a screen that says hardware recovery or something.

It says "profile 1" and when i select it all it does is boot up XP like normall.

I have also tried newer version of the software and still same problem.

Anyone got any ideas?

DualBoot (New user):

I have tried everything but i cant Boot the "GParted LiveCD" software.

I downloaded the version Mentioned here, used Nero 7 to burn it onto a CD, restart windows, chose to boot from CD then i get to a screen that says hardware recovery or something.

It says "profile 1" and when i select it all it does is boot up XP like normall.

I have also tried newer version of the software and still same problem.

Anyone got any ideas?

Sprint6 (User):

can windows read the disk,as normal windows files from the disk. are you set to boot from CD.

Sprint6 (User):

can windows read the disk,as normal windows files from the disk. are you set to boot from CD.

Sprint6 (User):

did you burn as an .iso or was it converted to normal windows files. if its an .ISO it will not boot. if windows can read the cd. make sure you are set to boot from CD, in the Bios.

Misaki (New user):

Can you install Vista on an existing dual boot system (ie Win ME & XP)?
Therefore making a triple boot possible?

Moose4185 (New user):

With an existing dual boot, I want to remove the hard drive with XP on it, but when I do, I get an error about no boot device being seen, though I still have Vista installed. What can I do to fix this? Thanks.

Moose4185 (New user):

I've got a dual boot with XP and Vista on two hard drives. I want to replace the XP one with a new HD, but when I do and then reboot, I get an error message saying that no boot device was found, even though Vista is still installed on the second HD. Anyone know what I can do to fix this? Thanks.

chodes (New user):

Hi guys. I currently run an XP (SP2)/Vista Home Premium dual boot rig with no big issues. I'd like to get both SP3 (XP) and SP1 (Vista). Was thinking of doing this:

1) Install XP (SP2 version on disk)
2) Update to SP3
3) Install Vista Home Prem. in other partition (as I have now)
4) Install Vista SP1

Biggest concern is the Vista SP1 and what it may do to the boot sector. If anyone has tried the above, would really like to hear your experience!

skycowboy (New user):

Does this procedure work with XP Pro 64 bit? I am getting ready to install Win Vista Ultimate 64 bit with service pack 1 as a dual boot. I have a 250gb drive with 150gb free. Should I make 3 drives (2 ea. 100 and 1 50gb)to allow for common files? Do all programs (i.e. Office, etc.) have to be reinstalled on for Vista?

Thanks for the forum!

Jim

Garry (New user):

Hi I have a Toshiba Laptop Sattelite Pro , came with XP Pro and Vista Business. I have been using Xp installed and write music . Ive been told performance will be better if I dual boot.1 fo0r net and games and 1 for music Can I use the Vista DVD
to shrink and install a second partition with a clean XP, while not losing all the music software and files.?
Cheers GArry

Munchie (New user):

PLEASE HELP! I have windows xp SP2 on drive C:, my Files on D:, and empty E: partition. can i just install Vista on E: without data loss, and without removing XP? if not, can I delete that empty E: partition and install Vista on that unallocated space without data loss, and without removing XP?

Munchie (New user):

PLEASE HELP! I have windows xp SP2 on drive C:, my Files on D:, and empty E: partition. can i just install Vista on E: without data loss, and without removing XP? if not, can I delete that empty E: partition and install Vista on that unallocated space without data loss, and without removing XP?

Munchie (New user):

PLEASE HELP! I have windows xp SP2 on drive C:, my Files on D:, and empty E: partition. can i just install Vista on E: without data loss, and without removing XP? OR, can I delete that empty E: partition and install Vista on unallocated space without data loss, and without removing XP?

snarley25 (New user):

You can do all this with a Vista upgrade DVD. Assuming you have a SATA drive, buy another one. Then build a SATA switch. Go to www.thesataswitch.com for directions on how to build one. Then you can do whatever you want to either drive, completely independent of each other!

tsianos1 (New user):

sorry but i dont understand how i open GParted?i have windows xp home premium and want do that dual boot may you help me??

tsianos1 (New user):

help i have windows xp home premium and my question is how i open GPARTED live????