RE-INSTALLING XP ALONGSIDE EXISTING VISTA

G

Guest

I have a 250 GB Hard Drive divided into two partitions. Windows Vista Home
Basic is installed in my 'c' Drive and I am hoping to re-install Windows XP
Pro onto my 'j' Drive (my newly created and formatted partition).
Unfortunately, when Windows XP Setup detects the Vista, it aborts Setup owing
to the fact that I have a newer OS already installed.
Can anybody offer a solution allowing me to install XP Pro onto my 'j' Drive
without disturbing my existing Vista Home Basic located on my 'c' Drive?
I am not a novice but neither am I too confident about handling OS
installations.
 
L

LaRoux

I don't think there will be a way to install XP after Vista and still have
Vista function without using some sort of 3rd party boot manager.

XP will want to install it's boot loader and won't have any idea what to do
with the Vista boot loader that is already there.
 
T

Trini

Back up the content of your C:\ to other location.
Boot with XP cd and after installing XP and booting to windows first
time, copy bootsect.exe from your Windows Vista DVD to XP-s
Windows\system32 folder. Also copy the files, you did back up, back to
C:\ Start command prompt, point to C:\Windows\system32 and type:
bootsect /NT60 ALL
I have installed XP Pro this way myself after Vista, working perfectly :)
Good luck.
 
B

BTNewsGroups

LaRoux said:
I don't think there will be a way to install XP after Vista and still have
Vista function without using some sort of 3rd party boot manager.

XP will want to install it's boot loader and won't have any idea what to
do with the Vista boot loader that is already there.
I used this process last Saturday to do the same thing and it worked
perfectly...

http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp

HTH
Martin
 
G

GreenieLeBrun

I have a 250 GB Hard Drive divided into two partitions. Windows Vista Home
Basic is installed in my 'c' Drive and I am hoping to re-install Windows
XP
Pro onto my 'j' Drive (my newly created and formatted partition).
Unfortunately, when Windows XP Setup detects the Vista, it aborts Setup
owing
to the fact that I have a newer OS already installed.
Can anybody offer a solution allowing me to install XP Pro onto my 'j'
Drive
without disturbing my existing Vista Home Basic located on my 'c' Drive?
I am not a novice but neither am I too confident about handling OS
installations.

One thing to remember with an XP-Vista duel boot system is that each time
you boot up in XP it will destroy your Vista restore points.

You may like to consider Virtual PC to get around this problem.

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

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