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Scenario: You want to install Vista on your PC alongside your XP
installation, on the same drive. You have installed Vista already.
Tutorial Summary: We're going to use the DISKPART on the Vista DVD to shrink
the Vista partition on the hard disk and create enough space for an
installation of Vista. We'll then install XP, repair the Vista bootloader
which will be overwritten during the XP installation, and then use the
EasyBCD utility to configure Vista's bootloader to boot the XP partition.
This tutorial was tested on a VMWare 6 Workstation and an AcerPower SK50
system.
Prepare Windows Vista
This tutorial assumes that Vista has been installed on a partition which
takes up 100% of the hard drive, so we need to create some space. Boot off
the Vista DVD. Hit Next from the start screen and then select “Install nowâ€.
Don’t type in your product key and untick “Automatically activate Windows
when I’m onlineâ€, then hit “Nextâ€, and “No†when asked whether you want to
enter the key.
When prompted to choose the edition of Vista you’re installing you can
actually select any of them as we’re not doing a Vista install at this
point. Also tick “I have selected the edition of Windows that I purchasedâ€
and hit “Nextâ€.
Accept the license terms and hit “Next†again, then choose a Custom
installation.
On the screen where you’re asked where you want to install Windows, you
should see a single large partition marked Primary – this is where Vista is
already installed.
Press SHIFT + F10. This is a Windows PE 2.0 shortcut to open up a command
window – very useful trick.
Type in DISKPART and press Enter. This opens the Microsoft DiskPart
application. You need to select the active disk, so type in:
The primary disk is generally Disk 0, so type in:
select disk 0
Now we need a list of volumes on this disk, so type in:
list volume
In this case Volume 0 is the one we want, so type in:
select volume 0
Now type in:
shrink
DiskPart will go off and reclaim as much of the drive as it can – you should
get at least 50% of the space back.
Now type
EXIT
and
EXIT (again)
to quit the command window and get back to the install screen. Click Refresh
and the partition window will update – you should now see the original
Primary partition plus a brand new partition.
New Partitions
This is where we will install Windows XP. Eject the DVD, restart the machine
(just hit the reset button) and boot off the Windows XP CD.
Now, install Windows XP
When the Windows XP setup reaches the point where you’re prompted where it
is to be installed, you’ll see that while XP can see the space we created
earlier, it can also see the partition with Vista on it.
You should be able to see the space you reclaimed on the disk earlier which
has become "unallocated space".
Create a second partition using the Windows XP installer screen above by
selecting the free space on the drive and pressing "C" to create a partition
(if prompted, choose NTFS as the file system.)
Irritatingly, XP assigns a drive letter to this partition (C
which means
that it will use the next available drive letter after all the other
physical drives have been taken into account.
This means that the system drive of the XP installation won’t be C:.
From XP’s perspective this isn’t really a problem – it’s smart enough to
figure out where everything should go – but some applications make
assumptions about where they should install to, and can’t cope with a
non-standard Windows configuration.
This was also the case with our tutorial on dualbooting Ubuntu and XP, where
Ubuntu had been installed first. However in that scenario, even though the
XP system drive had a non-standard drive letter, it couldn’t read the Linux
partitions so there was no danger of the two systems overlapping. This is
not the case with Vista/XP.
Nonetheless, install XP as normal – there’s no need to do anything
differently.
IMPORTANT NOTE – after the initial file copy, Windows XP reboots and loads
up the GUI-based component of the install. You may get the following error:
“A disk read error occurred – press Ctrl-Alt-Del to continueâ€. This is
caused by a corrupt bootloader – click here to see how to fix this problem.
When the system reboots it won’t bring up a boot menu. Although XP
recognises the Vista partition it doesn’t recognise Vista itself.
The Windows XP bootloader gets installed to the MBR and Vista can no longer
boot.
When XP loads, open up Windows Explorer and you’ll see something
interesting – a C: and (in this case) an E: drive.
The C: drive contains Windows Vista, and as Windows XP can read NTFS
partitions, it can browse and modify Vista’s file structure.
More importantly, applications which have installation paths hard-coded into
their install scripts rather than using Windows system parameter variables
could easily dump files into C: when they should be installing to E:. This
isn’t such a great situation.
Two Drives
Restoring Vista and dual booting
Because you can’t use the Windows XP bootloader to boot Vista, we have to
reinstate Vista’s bootloader to the MBR and configure it to manage both
operating systems.
Compared with scenarios involving Ubuntu where you have to reinstall the
GRUB bootloader, getting Vista up and operational again is very easy.
Boot from the Vista DVD and on the screen where you’re prompted to “Install
nowâ€, select “Repair your computerâ€.
The next screen searches for local Vista installations – there should only
be one, so click Next.
This loads the System Recovery Options screen. Select the first option –
Startup Repair. This looks for problems which would prevent Vista from
loading (like a missing bootloader) and automatically fixes them.
If you click on “Click here for diagnostic and repair details†and scroll to
the bottom of the list, it shows that the problem detected and repaired was
a corrupt boot sector (according to Vista, anyway).
Click Close and then Finish, and the system will restart and boot into
Vista.
Now we need to enable dualbooting with XP, and EasyBCD is the best
application to achieve this.
Download and install EasyBCD.
Launch the app and go to Add/Remove Entries.
Under “Add an Entry†and under the Windows tab and select in the Version
drop-down list “Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3â€.
Change the Drive to E:\ and the name to “Windows XPâ€, then click “Add Entryâ€
and “Saveâ€.
Reboot the system and you’ll have two entries in the Vista bootloader, and
can boot into either operating system.
Vista Bootloader
Extend Volume Wizard
The wizard gives you a readout on how much space is actually available to
extend the partition – enter in how much you want to use and press Next.
Vista will extend the system partition to reclaim the disk and Windows is
well and truly gone.
Fixing the corrupt bootloader
If the Windows XP bootload corrupts during the install, performing a
reinstall won’t fix it, nor will going into the XP Recovery Mode and
attempting to repair the MBR.
Luckily, the install was up to the stage where all you need to do is be able
to boot from the Windows XP partition, and the install will pick up from
where it left off.
To achieve this, follow the procedure outlined above to restore the Vista
bootloader (under "Restoring Vista and Dualbooting").
This allows the system to boot into Vista, and then you can use EasyBCD to
create an XP boot entry and boot into that to continue on with XP's
installation. (
for any enquiries, feel free to contact
(e-mail address removed)
