Another Dual Boot XP/Vista Post...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Frank Bright
  • Start date Start date
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Frank Bright

Hi,
I'm trying to set up a dual boot with XP Pro and Vista (Home Premium
32-bit). And I know you're supposed to start from the older OS and go to
the new one. But...Since I already had Vista installed AND,
since Vista's Disk Management is superior to XP's, allowing me to set up the
partitions ahead of time, I tried it that way instead.

Maybe that's why this failed, but what happened is that XP began to freeze
during the install. The first freeze came when it tried to do a standard
setup-restart. So I finally manually restarted and it got to where it was
"Installing Devices" and it froze at '34 Minutes remaining...'

I tried switching my XP install CD to my other Rom and I did get a message
that "Amcs file is missing" (not sure of the file name there??). It seemed
to be linked to a Microsoft XP PRO file and my HP was a Windows Media Center
XP OEM computer, when I bought it.

I appreciate any help or assistance anyone could give me, although I do feel
that because of MS Office activation concerns, I would not want to start
again clean with XP here. Vista is running well; it's just that there are
3rd party applications XP would allow me to run, and that would be nice.

Thanks, Frank
 
Frank said:
Hi,
I'm trying to set up a dual boot with XP Pro and Vista (Home Premium
32-bit). And I know you're supposed to start from the older OS and go
to the new one. But...Since I already had Vista installed AND,
since Vista's Disk Management is superior to XP's, allowing me to set up
the partitions ahead of time, I tried it that way instead.

Maybe that's why this failed, but what happened is that XP began to
freeze during the install. The first freeze came when it tried to do a
standard setup-restart. So I finally manually restarted and it got to
where it was "Installing Devices" and it froze at '34 Minutes remaining...'

I tried switching my XP install CD to my other Rom and I did get a
message that "Amcs file is missing" (not sure of the file name there??).
It seemed to be linked to a Microsoft XP PRO file and my HP was a
Windows Media Center XP OEM computer, when I bought it.

I appreciate any help or assistance anyone could give me, although I do
feel that because of MS Office activation concerns, I would not want to
start again clean with XP here. Vista is running well; it's just that
there are 3rd party applications XP would allow me to run, and that
would be nice.

Thanks, Frank
Click to expand...

Have you tried running the 3rd party apps in compatibility mode?
Frank (the other one)
 
Have you tried installing XP to unallocated space by booting with the XP Pro full cd allowing XP to create the partition and the ntfs file system.

Where does MsOffice activation fit in..you still need a licensed and activated version on each o/s ?


..winston

: Hi,
: I'm trying to set up a dual boot with XP Pro and Vista (Home Premium
: 32-bit). And I know you're supposed to start from the older OS and go to
: the new one. But...Since I already had Vista installed AND,
: since Vista's Disk Management is superior to XP's, allowing me to set up the
: partitions ahead of time, I tried it that way instead.
:
: Maybe that's why this failed, but what happened is that XP began to freeze
: during the install. The first freeze came when it tried to do a standard
: setup-restart. So I finally manually restarted and it got to where it was
: "Installing Devices" and it froze at '34 Minutes remaining...'
:
: I tried switching my XP install CD to my other Rom and I did get a message
: that "Amcs file is missing" (not sure of the file name there??). It seemed
: to be linked to a Microsoft XP PRO file and my HP was a Windows Media Center
: XP OEM computer, when I bought it.
:
: I appreciate any help or assistance anyone could give me, although I do feel
: that because of MS Office activation concerns, I would not want to start
: again clean with XP here. Vista is running well; it's just that there are
: 3rd party applications XP would allow me to run, and that would be nice.
:
: Thanks, Frank
:
 
I appreciate any help or assistance anyone could give me, although I do
feel that because of MS Office activation concerns, I would not want to
start again clean with XP here. Vista is running well; it's just that
there are 3rd party applications XP would allow me to run, and that would
be nice.
Click to expand...

Why even go through some kind of dual boot? Why don't you set up a virtual
machine and put XP there?

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx

However, Premium doesn't support PC 2007. You'll have to upgrade Vista.
 
Have you tried running the 3rd party apps in compatibility mode?
Frank (the other one)
Click to expand...

Actually yes. One of them - Adobe Acrobat 7.0.9 - is known to have issues
with Vista. Acrobat 8 (which I have) will be putting out an update,
supposedly sometime within the next 3 months, that will make it compatible
with Vista. This way, I wouldn't have to wait.

Also, the other software is Finale Notation software which involves an
M-Audio driver and I'm not sure when or if this driver will ever get a Vista
version. I suppose I could try it in Vista with a System Restore in mind if
it fails. But I've also had System Restore fail me several times in Vista -
it's not just a Vista thing; it has failed to work for me in XP too.
Sometimes, the System Restore has worked fine, but it's just that I can
never tell if it's going to succeed on a particular restore attempt or not.
Have you tried installing XP to unallocated space by booting with the XP
Pro full cd allowing XP to create the partition and the ntfs file system.
Where does MsOffice activation fit in..you still need a licensed and
activated version on each o/s ?
Click to expand...

As for MS Office, actually I am running '07 and you're right! I really don't
need 2 of them running. I think your suggestion is the best one - to simply
make a segment as unallocated space, and have XP Pro partition it and format
it itself.

Although if I remember correctly, I did have XP format the partition on this
last attempt during the install. That is, I had already had Vista format it
as NTFS and I merely had XP do that again during the install. It was already
set as a partition, however, so that would go differently on this next round
like you suggested with having it as merely unallocated space. At least XP
could also create the partition. I may give that a try.

Thanks for responding, Frank
 
NTFS is slightly different from Vista to XP and don't forget that your will
lose your Vista restore points when you boot into XP, unless hidden or
encrypted
 
Frank Bright said:
Hi,
I'm trying to set up a dual boot with XP Pro and Vista (Home Premium
32-bit). And I know you're supposed to start from the older OS and go to
the new one. But...Since I already had Vista installed AND,
since Vista's Disk Management is superior to XP's, allowing me to set up
the partitions ahead of time, I tried it that way instead.
Click to expand...

You can have a look here...
http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp
might help you out.
 
Ditto on the restore points..thanks for adding that caveat, John.

I use Tweak UI in XP to hide the Vista partition(its also on the slave
drive rather than a partition on the master drive) and so far that seems to
work.

All partitions on the both drives(all are NTFS) with the exception of the
Vista partition were created with PM8 or XP's Disk Managment. Vista was
installed to unallocated space at the beginning of the slave drive. I don't
know if it modified anything on the slave drives other NTFS partitions.

I prefer to run XP without System Restore turned on and use Ghost to
maintain the XP image. For the Vista drive I leave System Restore on(its
come in handy on one occasion) and also use Acronis 10 for the Vista
image(s).

Interestingly enough.. I've created images of both drives with Ghost 10,
Acronis 10, and even Ghost 2003(created a bootable cd with Ghost.exe
instead of the floppy) and restored those images successfully. Note. all
successful images and restores were not done through the XP or Vista GUI.
If using the Windows GUI the images only work on the drive the software
resides. There may be other combinations that might work, but so far
keeping things separate seems to work best in this setup.

...winston
 
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