Help required Creating a dual boot

[T5]

Ok guys thx for all of the help and advice you gave me in my previous post
now I'll give you the current configaration of my machine and see if one of
you can give me an idiots guide to creating a partition and installing vista
to that partition (without losing any of my current setup/files/progs etc
etc)

win XP Pro on C drive all setup and working fine on a 300gb HDD with 265 GB
freespace
2gb Ram
Athlon 64 dualcore 3800+

 

[Chad Harris]

T5--

1) Do you have the HD already partitioned into anything other than C:\ Do
you have C:\50GB and D:\ or whichever drive letter the other 250GB?

If so just boot up XP and insert your DVD and run setup from XP and you'll
get the option to direct to your other presummably 250GB partition.

On the previous thread you were told clearly to get 3rd party software to
get this done. You can put Vista on the remaining space and then if you
decide to make partitions out of that, you will need 3rd party as you were
told by Mark Vandenberg in order not to lose what is on C:\ and I'll call
your remaing space D:\ since you didn't name it.

2) You can't use diskpart from cmd or diskmgmt.msc from the run box to make
a partition with fault tolerance, i.e. you need 3rd party software like
Symantec's Partition Magic to make a partition and retain your XP Pro on
C:\ unless you've already partitioned when you installed XP Pro and I'm
guessing with the 265 GB of the 300GB HD left you haven't.

3) On the previous thread Richard Urban, Colin, I and others told you how
to do this. Richard Urban's post was crystal clear and to the point. Mark
told you that you needed 3rd party software. Why is this cycle repeating?

Richard Urban posted:

Vista setup does not create anything. It gets installed where YOU tell it to
install to.

Prepare before you install. Use a third party program, such as Partition
Magic 8.01 (or later) to shrink your current partition. You will need 20 gig
of free space to create another primary partition used for the Vista
install. Then create the new partition.

Getting another hard drive would be even better. Use it exclusively for your
Vista experiment.

During setup, be certain to direct the installer to the correct
drive/partition.

I posted:
After you burn the Iso, while you are in XP, the setup for Vista will pop
up on your screen. You get the chance to direct to the partition you want.

You can make partitions with Diskmanager; but it is not fault tolerant and
so if you want to extend them or make new ones without losing things you can
1) Backup 2) Use 3rd party.

I don't think you'll be successful in getting MSFT to build it in. It'd be
great and you can try.

CH

 

[Chad Harris]

Not sure what help is required that we didn't give you already on the first
thread you started.

Correction: I assume you have C:\ 15GB with XP Pro and the other space is
265GB not 250GB as I typed in the first sentence. Put the DVD in after you
boot to XP Pro on C:\ and setup will pop up on your XP desktop. Run the
Vista setup from there and it will retain whatever drive letter you have
assigned the other space.

Any further partitioning will have to be done by 3rd party like PM or
Acronis if you want to retain what you have while you parcel up that 265 GB.

CH

 

[T5]

thx Chad, but as you yourself have acknowledged through your correction it
is not as crystal clear as you first said. It appears that vista beta
installs itself alongside xp as when I boot after I have installed vista it
gives me the option to boot into vista or to another os (which I presume is
xp pro although I havent tried this yet) is this correct? I do know that
when I first installed vista and booted to the desktop the old windows was
in a folder called windows.old

 

[Chad Harris]

The only thing the correction pointed out is that I didn't type 265GB and
typed 250GB by mistake as to what you have left over. You learn to need to
read what we give you the first time and do it.

Then if you have more questions ask them. Say explicitly what you infer
that you have two partitions right now--one that is 15 GB and one that is
265GB. Whatever they are:

1) Boot into XP.
2) Insert the Vista DVD.
3) Run setup that will appear on your XP desktop.
4) It will ask you where you want Vista and you tell it as Richard said and
I said where you want it--that partition that isn't XP whatever letter it
is --I called it D but whatever it is that's where Vista goes.

If now you want to make further "divisions" --partitions of that big other
space, you are going to have to get 3rd party software in order not to lose
what is on the drive.

Do you have any further specific questions? If not as Nike says finally
"Just Do It."

Good luck,

CH

 

[John Barnes]

It would appear he is doing an upgrade of his XP or he wouldn't have a .old
file. At least I did when I upgraded and didn't when I did a clean install.

 

[T5]

Thanks John,
Chad is getting really angry with me why? You seem to realise that I have xp
installed and no seperate partition just a c drive so why is it that Chad
seems to think that I have another partition D, E or whatever? I have never
inferred that I have anything other than a C drive with win xp pro installed
so why is he getting so tetchy? Ok I am not an expert but I am not stupid
either. I said that I have a 300gb hdd with 265gb remaining after xp, office
pro etc etc is installed so it is all on c drive, there is no D drive is
that clear enough?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

No, windows.old means that he did NOT do an upgrade. It means he did a
custom (clean) installation to the same partition as his old operating
system and did not format the partition.

 

[John Barnes]

I stand corrected.

No, windows.old means that he did NOT do an upgrade. It means he did a
custom (clean) installation to the same partition as his old operating
system and did not format the partition.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

No, you are correct and I blew it. (I tried to cancel my reply).

 

[John Barnes]

You should have an option of creating a partition from the free space to
install Vista on during the install.

 

[Todd]

Chad has asked you some reasonable questions and you have not answered them.
Do you understand the questions?

I'm going to try to ask them a different way.

Do you know what disk partitions are?

If you do not, you need to do some reading to find out.

Your latest post says that you have one partition, your C: drive. How much
disk space is allocated to your C: partition? is it the entire 300GB of
your drive?

If not, create a new partition out of the unpartitioned space on your drive.

If it is you are going to need to repartition your drive. If you use your
XP Disk Manager, or the Vista install DVD, you will have to delete the
current partition in order to create new partitions. If you do this you
will lose your current XP install and all your data. If you have another
drive with enough space you can copy your drive image there, and then after
repartitioning you can copy it back. But this will take software that you
probably don't have such as Ghost or Acronis. It is possible to screw up
making the image, sometimes when you reinstall it, you just can't make it
work, so back up your data before attempting this.

You can use third party software such as Partition Magic to repartition your
drive without losing XP or your data (in most cases, backup before you start
just in case). This is what I recommend, and what other posters have
recommended.

At this point you need to start answering questions and start making
decisions, or go somewhere else for help.

Todd

 

[T5]

Todd , why are you starting on me now? Read the whole thread, which part
haven't I answered?
I repeat
XP Pro on C drive

NO PARTITION (Yes I do know what a partition is)

Jeez, I hope a newbie doesn't ask you guys a question coz he for sure won't
come back

Thanks to all who have tried to help, I'll google it and do it myself

END OF POST

 

[John Barnes]

I answered your question in a previous post, so calm down.
When you chose to do a clean install you will have the opportunity to create
and format a partition in your free space. Terms are a little different in
Vista and you may have to click on an advanced button, but it is all there.
Be observant when you install it.

 

[Chad Harris]

John--

I may have missed that T5 is doing an upgrade and I think a lot of us would
be quick to discourage that if he is, given the experience that a number of
people who want to "recover" their XP after an upgrade install can't. Also I
like the idea that with a dual boot, people can quickly go to the XP desktop
without booting to it, (and they also don't have to spend time moving a lot
of files and folders from XP to Vista or use the space on Vista to do that),
and I frequently go from Vista profile to Vista profile by just typing in
the file path of each profile.

I was doing everything I could to pull detail out of T5 so we can get him
set up; but of course if you are just doing a straight dual boot and you
leave files on the target partition where you plan to install Vista, they
are going to end up in Windows.old file or files in my experience and that's
not unique to Vista.

As each build has gotten more capable, and I have installed more on them and
used them all as production boxes, when I'm getting ready to install a new
Vista build, I have tended to gather my files and shortcuts into a folder
and put them on another drive and then just format the Vista drive and then
drag them (the files, folders and shortcuts over). My experience with
moving programs from drive to drive is that some of them make the move well,
and some of them don't (Office for example may require a detect and repair)
so I don't try to move programs as much. I did transfer a few hundred apps
from C:\ and E:\ to another drive in making room for Vista, and all but a
few ( about 10 ) made the move intact. One of the few was Office--but it
fixed in a minute via Detect and Repair. I wish it were always that easy
when Office has a problem.

CH

 

[Chad Harris]

Not angry at all. But I'm puzzled as to what the holdup for you is. It
doesn't matter whether that 265 GB is on D:\ or what you call it. What
matters is that you tell us 1, 2, 3 simply what we can do to help you at
this point which as far as I know is simply setup Vista from your XP pro.
Put the Vista DVD in while you're on that XP Pro desktop and you're on your
way.

If there is anything that worries you or confuses you just say what it is
and someone will help you with it.

I just want you to take the clear directions you've been given Day 2 now and
setup Vista You have two threads going on the same subject--why I don't
know. Before you do, I'd back up XP just as common sense.

1) state clearly what you are doing- I thought dual boot--I wouldn't do an
upgrade. This group is full of threads where people want to get back XP
after an upgrade--didn't backup and can't.
2) You don't need to keep starting threads to get the same thing done which
I thought was Dual boot Vista with XP. You have two threads going now and
haven't taken any suggestions. Why?

No it's not clear.

"said that I have a 300gb hdd with 265gb remaining after xp, office

pro etc etc is installed so it is all on c drive, there is no D drive is
that clear enough?"

I have acknowledged that from the get go. What's not clear is why you
continue to be the world champ at futzing around????

I know this much. You have XP on part of this HD. You have a remaining 265
GB--let's call it "J-Lo/Star Jones/Condi Rice's and Rosie O'Donald's Old
Fashioned Friday Night Mud Wrestle Keg Party." I clearly said I don't know
if it's called "D" and it doesn't matter what it's called. You have the real
estate; why in the world haven't you setup Vista on it?????

You want to put Vista on a dual boot. You have two opportunities to resize
or partition that remaining 265GB. 1) During Vista setup 2) Using
diskmgmt.msc in the Vista run box--Diskmanagement in Vista. DM in Vista is
now fault tolerant--meaning you won't lose information when you resize
partitions with it (expand/shrink) See:

http://www.tweakvista.com/Article38991.aspx
Windows Vista Windows Vista Tips & Tricks: Resize Partitions
http://www.tweakvista.com/Article38991.aspx

Thanks John Barnes for alerting me that Diskmanagement in Vista will expand
or shrink to resize partitions.--I did not know. Now I do. That means T5
can either resize that 265 GB space in Vista setup or he/she can do it with
Vista Dis Management.


Why don't you take the Vista DVD *already* while you are booted into XP and
run Vista setup. What can be stopping you all this time for more than a
day? No one here who helps (we all get plenty of help from different
sources) is hung up on childish things like "stupid" or "expert". Anyone
who has the advantage of access to a computer and the web has the world by
the tail as far as the ability to learn very quickly. A lot of people are
going all out to put up Vista help sites who do an excellent job just as
they have done during XP. They have better screenshots and illustrations
than ever. It's easy to learn from them.

Ball would seem to be in your hands now T5 with no one between you and the
end zone.

CH

 

[T5]

Do you have high blood pressure Chad? I hope everybody that accesses the
newsgroups is as proficient as you, then, hey, nobody will need to be here
and ask any dumb questions (what a relief).
I have never used disk managment tool ever (never needed to) so you just
summise that I know how to, but no bother. I'll thank you for your efforts
in trying to educate me and just take what you say as gospel and stick the
iso disk into the drive and install vista, I will forget all of the posts
that advise me to use 3rd party partition progs etc etc and just hit the
button to install, is that correct?

 

[T5]

Hey guys thanks for your help really, I do appreciate it but it does get a
little confusing at times. I have also noticed that it is also taking a lot
longer to reinstall everything if things go pear shaped.
OS
AV
Updates
Drivers
Office
it goes on.

It recently took me 3 days to reinstall an OS and all of my necessary progs

 

[Chad Harris]

T5 posted:

"I will forget all of the posts that advise me to use 3rd party partition
progs etc etc and just hit the
button to install, is that correct?"

Yes that's correct. And setup will allow you to have a choice of where you
want to install Vista. It will allow you to select that 265GB space you
have as I've told you several times today--this being the last. Be prepared
that setup will take a while depending entirely on your hardware. It could
be as fast as close to 30 minutes or it could take longer.

***********T5 you don't need third party*********** Again that's you don't
need third party. However I'm sure that Partition Magic, and the rest of
the usual suspect have features that Disk Management doesn't have but it
sure now has the main one you need.

Given that as we've said that Disk Management in Vista (I put up three
links on this) will allow you to do it later. The posts that advised you to
use third party on the first thread, mine included were well meaning, but
because this is new in Vista, many of us had not tried Disk Management to
learn it is now able to expand and shrink partitions without losing
material. ***Now we know.***

But as far as I know setup in Vista that will now allow you to partition is
***not*** going to preserve old material. That would be nice but it isn't.
So just go into setup from your XP Pro and you'll have Vista. running and
on the second screen you will get a chance right on the bottom of that
screen to choose putting Vista on the space *other than XP Pro is on** 15
GB if I remember is the other space that XP Pro occupies on your pc. You
don't want to try resizing partitions in setup because setup, unless I'm
wrong won't save your XP. ***It isn't "fault tolerant" but now Disk
Management is.*** Fault Tolerant can mean a lot of things, but in respect
to file systems, it is just the ITesque term that means your material, data,
ect. on the drive will be preserved as opposed to erased.

I typed this on a prior post, and did not assume you knew how
diskmanagement worked--whether it was reasd or not is a whole other
situation:

You want to put Vista on a dual boot. You have two opportunities to resize
or partition that remaining 265GB. 1) During Vista setup 2) Using
diskmgmt.msc in the Vista run box--Diskmanagement in Vista. DM in Vista is
now fault tolerant--meaning you won't lose information when you resize
partitions with it (expand/shrink) See:

http://www.tweakvista.com/Article38991.aspx
Windows Vista Windows Vista Tips & Tricks: Resize Partitions
http://www.tweakvista.com/Article38991.aspx

Let's Do It:

***Simply get to your XP desktop. Then put in the Vista DVD. You are going
to see the blue Vista setup screen. You will have the option to put it on
that space (Condi Mud Wrestles Star Jones--isn't that it's name?)*** Give
yourself some time to enjoy Vista. Then later when you decide for whatever
reasons you want to carve up that generous space of 265GB--perhaps you will
want to put a later version of Vista on it--perhaps you will want to put a
64 bit version of it besides an X86 version if you have the hardware--you
can take your time and think about how you want to use Disk Management to
divide that space.

It's time for you to stop kvetching and just enjoy Vista. Believe me those
of us who have used it for months are discovering new features we didn't
know existed. I've seen features discussed in the new books out on Vista
that haven't had a letter typed on them in the Beta groups because the TBTs
aren't aware they exist. I've seen features discussed at ISV meetings that
haven't had a scintilla of mention on the Beta groups.So get workin' on your
Vista. I don't understand why you aren't enjoying it by now.

If you take your time, as John Barnes said and think about the simple facts
that are the components of your problem--then post them--you'd save yourself
ane everyone else a lot of time and confusion. You have a ton of talent up
here at your disposal who will do all they can to help you who have a lot of
MSFT resources at their fingertips but making them guess what your doing
just wastes time.

You were simply asked to clarify. I supose you had this good sized HD and
wanted to dual boot but to this moment I'm not sure. When it's not clear,
we're reduced to hypothesizing likely scenarios to solve your problem which
has spanned two threads and (34) thirty-four counting this one, posts.

At no time would any reader of the posts other than yourself perceive from
them that I "summised" that you knew how to use Disk Manager and if you
didn't, why didn't you post the unique question "How does disk management"
work. I must have posted 3 links on how it works with screenshots and
psssst T5 have you ever heard of

1) clicking Help on Diskmgmt 2) going to Window XP Help and Support by
typing helpctr.exe in run or clicking Help and Support and typing in Disk
Management 3) Going to http://support.microsoft.com and typing Disk
Management in search.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308424/en-us

Frankly some of the MSKBs are written in the least user friendly way
possible; some aren't. It depends on the writer on the team's grasp
sometimes of the world that awaits him or her when they pull their care off
the Redmond campus.

The very important point is that once you put Vista on that big space you
have besides XP Diskmanagement in Vista now allows you to resize partitions
and make them without losing your data. That's a big plus and a nice
improvement over XP. You should have it made in the shade now.

CH

P.S. I have never made a statement about proficiency or whether questions
are "dumb." But you need to learn to say "I want to dual boot Vista and I
have XP Pro on C:\ or whatever drive that is 15GB and I have remaining space
of 265GB, Can you show me the steps to get this done?" That simple
sentence would have been all you needed.

 

[T5]

Chad, Thanks again for your marathon efforts to get me up and running. Have
a look at the following screen print of my current setup and tell me that
just by inserting the vista disk I will be able to direct the install to C
drive without loosing my xp Pro setup. So when I get the option to do an
upgrade or clean install, do I do an upgrade and loose the xp pro (because
it creates a windows.old file or do i do an upgrade and loose everything?