partitioning hard drive from vista to dual boot xp

[MATT]

Hi,

I've got a Dell laptop, with Vista Home Premium, and I love it.

I need to install XP as well, and make it a dual boot system, because I want
to run some audio software using XP.

Right now, my ~300GB drive is partitioned as follows:

78MB: Healthy EISA partition, which I cannot delete using Disk Management.
RECOVERY: 10GB.
C: (Vista), using 12 out of 80 GB, haven't been able to shrink it further.
80GB unallocated - this used to be in C:, then I shrank C:
DATA: 90GB
FREE SPACE: 40GB

I want to create a new partition to install XP on, but cannot do so b/c I
have four partitions already. I cannot delete the EISI partition - I would,
but am unable to.

What's my best approach here?

Should I get a good disk partition software (Disk Magic isn't (yet)
Vista-ready), move & resize my partitions as I want them, then install XP
(and fix the MBR)? If so, any recommendations?

Or should I backup everything and wipe the whole disk clean, then install
XP, partitioning the drive into four parts (Recovery, VISTA, XP & DATA)? If
I do that, I don't know if I can install Vista - Dell didn't include
installation disks, they included recovery disks. Would I be able to use
those disks to install Vista on a specific partition, or would they just
wipe my disk clean and return it to factory install state?

Many thanks!

Matthew

 

[Ed Light]

bootitng could do what you need. I ran the Vista demo along side XP with
that. It's a little challenging to figure out, but the newsgroup is
very responsive.

You can have 4 primary partitions working together at a time, but lots
of them on the disk. I put all my data partitions as volumes in one
extended partition. While you have more than 4 primaries you have to use
"bing" as the partition manager. It can manage them from its HD
installation, or a floppy, or a CD.
---
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[Yousuf Khan]

I want to create a new partition to install XP on, but cannot do so b/c
I have four partitions already. I cannot delete the EISI partition - I
would, but am unable to.

Do you know what's on the EISI partition? Do you ever use it?

What's my best approach here?

Should I get a good disk partition software (Disk Magic isn't (yet)
Vista-ready), move & resize my partitions as I want them, then install
XP (and fix the MBR)? If so, any recommendations?

As someone else has mentioned, BootItNextGeneration (BING), is a good
shareware utility that runs off of a CD that can resize, recreate
partitions. Don't know why your Vista Disk Management can't delete the
EISI partition, but if it can't, then BING can. But you better make sure
you know what is on that EISI partition before you do it. It could be
something essential to the operation of your laptop, or maybe not.

Or should I backup everything and wipe the whole disk clean, then
install XP, partitioning the drive into four parts (Recovery, VISTA, XP
& DATA)? If I do that, I don't know if I can install Vista - Dell
didn't include installation disks, they included recovery disks. Would
I be able to use those disks to install Vista on a specific partition,
or would they just wipe my disk clean and return it to factory install
state?

The OEM "recovery disks" will wipe everything clean and return them to
the factory defaults.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Arno Wagner]

bootitng could do what you need. I ran the Vista demo along side XP with
that. It's a little challenging to figure out, but the newsgroup is
very responsive.

You can have 4 primary partitions working together at a time, but lots
of them on the disk. I put all my data partitions as volumes in one
extended partition. While you have more than 4 primaries you have to use
"bing" as the partition manager. It can manage them from its HD
installation, or a floppy, or a CD.

You cannot have more than 4 primary partitions, as there is
only space for 4 partitions in the main partition table. You
can, however, have a bootmanager that changes your partitioning
on request during boot. The others are then free space while
not ''swapped into'' the primary (and with 4 primary partitions,
only) partition table. If you want an extended partition,
you have to sacrifice one of the entries for it and can only have
3 primary partitions at any one time. I wouls suspect that ''bing''
keeps some meta partition information for itself to be able to
change the partitioning when you use 4 primaries.

Incidentially, this capability of ''bing'' sounds very neat when
you want to have several independent Windows installations.

Arno

 

[Ed Light]

Arno, yes, that's what I thought I said! Also, I *think* the extended is
a primary.
---
Ed Light

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http://couragetoresist.org

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[Rod Speed]

Arno, yes, that's what I thought I said!

Also, I *think* the extended is a primary.

Nope, its an extended.

 

[Arno Wagner]

Arno, yes, that's what I thought I said! Also, I *think* the extended is
a primary.

I was referring to "lots of _them_ on disk". If "them" is
partitions and not primary partitions, then I agree.

The extended is a primary, but it is not really a partition.
Instead it is a pointer to an additional partition table.

Arno

Better World News TV Channel:
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Bring the Troops Home:
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[Ed Light]

I was referring to "lots of _them_ on disk". If "them" is
partitions and not primary partitions, then I agree.

Are you saying that there can be lots of potential primaries on the disk
waiting for their chance but only four can really be primaries at any
one time? I thought they were all primaries but only four can be in a
boot menu item (due to only 4 can be in an MBR). bootitng - aka BING -
creates an "EMBR" - extended master boot record - if you want to have
more than 4 primaries on the disk. You then have to use only BING as a
partition manager.

Anyhow, the BING home page says "create over 200 primary partitions if
desired."

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm

The page has a link to the Manual:

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads/bootitng.pdf
---
Ed Light

Better World News TV Channel:
http://realnews.com

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http://antiwar.com

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http://couragetoresist.org

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[Arno Wagner]

Arno Wagner wrote:

Are you saying that there can be lots of potential primaries on the disk
waiting for their chance but only four can really be primaries at any
one time?

There are exactly 4 entries in the primary partition
table. Whatever is in there is a primary partition.
Nothing else is.

I thought they were all primaries but only four can be in a
boot menu item (due to only 4 can be in an MBR). bootitng - aka BING -
creates an "EMBR" - extended master boot record - if you want to have
more than 4 primaries on the disk. You then have to use only BING as a
partition manager.

Anyhow, the BING home page says "create over 200 primary partitions if
desired."

It cannot. However it can likely change what is in the
primary partition table at boot.

Arno

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm

The page has a link to the Manual:

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads/bootitng.pdf

Better World News TV Channel:
http://realnews.com

Bring the Troops Home:
http://bringthemhomenow.org
http://antiwar.com

 

[Ed Light]

It cannot. However it can likely change what is in the
primary partition table at boot.

Yeah. I guess BING considers them primaries whether they're in the table
or not, and you consider them latent, or waiting to be primaries.

---
Ed Light

Better World News TV Channel:
http://realnews.com

Bring the Troops Home:
http://bringthemhomenow.org
http://antiwar.com

Iraq Veterans Against the War:
http://ivaw.org
http://couragetoresist.org

Send spam to the FTC at
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Thanks, robots.

 

[Squeeze]

Arno Wagner wrote in news:[email protected]

There are exactly 4 entries in the primary partition table.

Whatever is in there is a primary partition.
Nothing else is.

Babblebot, clueless as always.