Dual-Boot XP & Vista

[Timothy J. Trace]

Greetings,

I'm looking for information on how to configure my Vista Ultimate
system to dual-boot XP. I'm concerned about the validity of the
information I've found, most of which was written months prior to the
RTM of Vista.

Vista is installed on the only partition on the only hard disk in my
system. It was a clean install onto a completely blank drive. I'd
like to keep this installation intact.

If necessary, I have access to any number of partitioning tools -
Partition Magic, Disk Manager, etc - to help me shrink the Vista
partition and split the disk.

Any information/horror stories that you can share will be very much
appreciated.

Best regards,

Timothy J. Trace ==
TC Systems STL MO USA

(substitute 'tcsys.com' for 'nospam.co.uk')

 

[Armin Heinlein]

Timothy,

It runs fine. I have a dual boot set up (XP on drive C and run Vista
Ultimate (on drive V. Actually I use some progams on my XP partition to
run under Vista. However, this is not recommended.

You create a second primary partition with a NTFS file system (I created it
with Partition Magic) before you install Vista from within XP. Vista will
ask you on what drive you want to install it and then you select drive the
new Vista drive (in my case V.

Of course before you do anything back up is strongly recommended (I used
Acronis 10.0).

Armin

 

[Guest]

if you go to command prompt{type cmd then right click on cmd and select run
as administrator}
type diskpart
list volume
then select the desired volume
now type shrink desired=40000(example for the sixe)
reboot now u have second partition
install xp

but my understanding u got to install xp first then vista

 

[Timothy J. Trace]

You create a second primary partition with a NTFS file system (I created it
with Partition Magic) before you install Vista from within XP.

Thanks, Armin. I understand your suggestion completely.

Pease let me restate my question: starting with Vista as the only OS
on a disk, how can I configure my system to dual-boot into XP without
damaging the extant Vista installation?

Best regards,

Timothy J. Trace ==
TC Systems STL MO USA

(substitute 'tcsys.com' for 'nospam.co.uk')

 

[Timothy J. Trace]

but my understanding u got to install xp first then vista

Thanks, Analai. I've found information to support your statement -
but, most of it is months old, from before Vista RTM. I'm hoping that
things have changed, or that some enterprising soul has crafted a
workaround. Heard anything?

Best regards,

Timothy J. Trace ==
TC Systems STL MO USA

(substitute 'tcsys.com' for 'nospam.co.uk')

 

[Martin Stein]

I'm looking for information on how to configure my Vista Ultimate
system to dual-boot XP. I'm concerned about the validity of the
information I've found, most of which was written months prior to the
RTM of Vista.

Vista is installed on the only partition on the only hard disk in my
system. It was a clean install onto a completely blank drive. I'd
like to keep this installation intact.

I'd buy another harddisk - a 160GB drive would give you plenty of space.
Then unplug your XP disk and install Vista on the new drive. Once Vista is
up and running plug the XP drive back in.
Then you can select which OS to boot in the BIOS when booting. For me I have
to press F8 in the BIOS screen and select the XP drive as boot drive if I
want to use XP - I set the BIOS to boot Vista first.
This way you don't have to partition your XP drive and you can switch back
at any time.

 

[Richard Urban]

Just because what you read is months old doesn't necessarily invalidate it.

I used the same methodology to set up a tri boot between Vista (1st
partition), Windows XP (2nd partition) and DOS 6.22 (3rd partition) that I
have been using since 1993. I am using the same 3rd party boot manager that
I have been using since 1999, and it works also.

A good approach and methodology always works.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Timothy J. Trace]

I used the same methodology to set up a tri boot between Vista (1st
partition), Windows XP (2nd partition) and DOS 6.22 (3rd partition) that I
have been using since 1993. I am using the same 3rd party boot manager that
I have been using since 1999, and it works also.

I'd love to hear the details.

Best regards,

Timothy J. Trace ==
TC Systems STL MO USA

(substitute 'tcsys.com' for 'nospam.co.uk')

 

[Timothy J. Trace]

I'd buy another harddisk - a 160GB drive would give you plenty of space.
Then unplug your XP disk and install Vista on the new drive. Once Vista is
up and running plug the XP drive back in.
Then you can select which OS to boot in the BIOS when booting.

Yup, thanks, Martin. Since this is a notebook computer, I'm hoping
for a solution that doesn't rely on external hardware. But, I've got
a 2.5" bus-powered USB disk standing by.

Best regards,

Timothy J. Trace ==
TC Systems STL MO USA

(substitute 'tcsys.com' for 'nospam.co.uk')

 

[Ron Sommer]

This is for installing XP after Vista.
http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=88231

--
Ronald Sommer

: On Sun, 18 Feb 2007 10:35:05 -0800, analai
:
: >but my understanding u got to install xp first then vista
:
: Thanks, Analai. I've found information to support your statement -
: but, most of it is months old, from before Vista RTM. I'm hoping that
: things have changed, or that some enterprising soul has crafted a
: workaround. Heard anything?
:
: Best regards,
:
: Timothy J. Trace ==
: TC Systems STL MO USA
:
: (substitute 'tcsys.com' for 'nospam.co.uk')

 

[Timothy J. Trace]

This is for installing XP after Vista.
http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=88231

Thank you, Ron!

Best regards,

Timothy J. Trace ==
TC Systems STL MO USA

(substitute 'tcsys.com' for 'nospam.co.uk')

 

[Hugh Wyn Griffith]

 But, I've got a 2.5" bus-powered USB disk standing by.

Many laptops will not boot from external USB drives and I'm not sure if
Windows itself will boot up from an external drive -- earlier than
VISTA do not, is my understanding, but I don't know about VISTA and
externals.

I understand the problem is installing XP after VISTA, just as there
was a problem installing say WIN98 after XP. However if you can find a
boot manager that will hide the unused partition then it might become
much easier since it would be the equivalent of two drives and starting
with one removed.

People here, when I've asked, have referred to BootIt™ NG which you can
find at http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html but I remember
someone who said he was part of their development team saying "Why
would anyone want to?" and adding that he would find out if it could be
done which implied that it did not hide the unused partition.

I see there is a version 1.80 dated Feb 8 2007 so you may want to
download that to have a look at it. It is a zip file and there is a PDF
copy of the manual. I just downloaded it, opened it in WINZIP and did
View on the pdf file to bring it up for reading. It does contain some
references to Hide on pp 18-19 and it does have instructions on how to
carry out different kinds of installations so you may find what you
want there.

It's shareware so you can try before you buy -- $35 I think.

You may also want to have a look at what they say about VISTA:

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/category.php?id=61

 

[Timothy J. Trace]

This is for installing XP after Vista.
http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=88231

This worked a treat. Thank you!

 

[Guest]

I purchased windows vista ultimate and installed a new 160gb harddrive. I
kept windows xp and all my old files on the replaced drive, put it in mobile
disk with 2.0 interface and plugged it in afterwards. All worked fine until
I tried to access files under administrator on the now USB externial. It is
a permission issue that i can not find a way to work around. Without making
this a dual boot disk is there a way to get access to my old files under
administrator?

 

[Guest]

Hi everyone,
Thank you for this helpful guide to enable to run both OSs. Just one
question, before I found this article, I already installed Virtual PC 2007.
Should I just continue with this install and add XP or uninstall and go this
route?
Thank you,
Joan

 

[John Butler]

Shinj

The twin disk method works fine in my experience with couple of caveats

1 Be careful with your page file settings. If you can, set the pagefile in a
third drive at a fixed size for each OS.

2 If you have utilities that would normally scan all drives be careful to
make sure they are not doing this. You must restrict those installed in
Vista to the Vista drive and vice versa for the XP drive.You can check for
this problem by seeing whether there are open handles on your reserve OS
when you are working in the primary OS.

 

[Guest]

hello sir,
i have the laptop dv6276ea, in which vista home premium is preinstalled on
the whole hard disk-----
but i want to install linux in the same machine.....
is it possible.....
plz reply

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

I'd suggest asking that question in a Linux forum.

 

[Guest]

I have a desk top with XP Pro and Office 2003 and a laptop with Vista Home
Premium and Works 8.5. Would it be possible to buy and install XP onto an
external HD and use it via a USB on my laptop? The only thing I like about
Works is the easy database and Office word and Works word won't interchange
between computers. I am a technophobe who desperately needs advice

 

[DanR]

I'd buy another harddisk - a 160GB drive would give you plenty of
Will this approach work with the "upgrade" version of Vista Home Premium"?

I have installed VHP over XP MCE and have many problems. I would like to use
my Dell restore partition to go back to XP. Then my plan would be to buy a
new 2nd hard drive and re-install VHP on that drive. Per the above post I
could then choose which OS to boot into from my BIOS.

Would one drive be C: and the other D: in this scenario? If so ... would one
OS have paths like C:\*\*.* and the other D:\*\*.*? In other words is that a
problem? I would eventually want to use VHP as my one and only OS after
driver and software issues have been resolved. Do I need to make sure my
Vista hard drive is C: to avoid long term issues?

Because I have already activated Vista I know I will have issues there and
would have to phone MS and plead my case.

I have been fighting Vista compatibility issues since my Feb 3 installation
and am desperate to find some solution.