repartitioning Vista to dual boot with 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

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Matt,

Have you considered using Virtual PC for your XP installlation? You won't
need an extra partition for it, just the free software:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/virtualpc/default.mspx

An alternative, compatible partitioning utility would be BootIT NG from
terabyteunlimited.com.

As to your other question, you'd need a retail or generic OEM Vista install
disk. The Dell recovery set, whether run from disk or recovery volume, just
wipes out what's there and slaps the image down. There'd be no opportunity
to set up a dual boot.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[John Barnett MVP]

You could back up the contents of your Data partition and then delete it.
Vista, by default, can create 3 primary partitions. The fourth will usually
turn into an extended partition which can be subdivided into logical
partitions. Third party partitioning software gives you more control over
partitioning than Vista own disk management, so I would tend to use
something like Paragon Hard Disk Manager suite 2008 or even Acronis Disk
Director. Of course there are others, but I favour these two.

If you don't want to go that far then a suitable alternative is using
Virtualisation software. I run my copy of XP on virtual machine software and
it works just fine for me. In my case I use VMware Workstation, however,
this is rather expensive just for casual use. An alternative is Microsoft
Virtual PC 2007 which is free.


--

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[Timothy Daniels]

You could back up the contents of your Data partition and then delete it.
Vista, by default, can create 3 primary partitions. The fourth will usually
turn into an extended partition which can be subdivided into logical
partitions. Third party partitioning software gives you more control over
partitioning than Vista own disk management, so I would tend to use something
like Paragon Hard Disk Manager suite 2008 or even Acronis
Disk Director. Of course there are others, but I favour these two.

Read http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931760 and
http://www.multibooters.co.uk/partitions.html .
Mixing Vista/WinPE/Win2008 Server partitioning
and pre-Vista (and 3rd party) partitioning is dangerous.

*TimDaniels*

 

[John Barnett MVP]

3rd party partitioning software work far better than anything that Microsoft
has included in Vista. Any problems I have had have been quickly sorted
using a 3rd party application whereas Vista's own disk management hit a
brick wall and couldn't even partition properly.

--

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[Timothy Daniels]

The Linux partition editor, Gparted, works well as both a live CD and
as a live USB stick (if you have a recent system that can boot from USB
devices). If you're going to be doing a lot of partition-creating/deleting,
image or clone the Vista installed OS to CD or external HD or 2nd internal
HD, delete the Vista partition, remake the Vista partition with Gparted,
then copy the archived Vista OS back into the newly made partition and
run "bootrec /rebuildbcd" using the command prompt on the Vista
Recovery Console (in the Vista installation DVD) to fix up the BCD. Then
proceed, using Gparted in place of Vista's Disk Management for partition
management. You'd be amazed at how well Gparted works. You can
start here to reach the download pages for Gparted live CD and live USB:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/ . For my Dell XPS M1330 laptop, I had to
select "1" (for "Medium Experienced User"), and then I selected "No" for
"Allow automatic video detection" to make the graphics card work with
the live USB. All the rest of the options can be the default.

*TimDaniels*