Trying to Partition My "C" Drive

[silkunicorn]

Hi, I am new to Vista. I have just bought a Dell Inspiron 1525 with
Vista Home pre-installed and with 250GB.. I would like to install
Windows XP also so I can dual boot my laptop. I went to an intensive
search and read a lot of articles on this. And the 1st step I have to
do is to partition my "C" drive so I can install Windows XP on it.

When I open my Disk Management, I saw two partitions, one is for the
"Restore CD" while the other one is for my Vista. I could not find any
"Unallocated Space" partition which allows me to install XP. And I try
to shrink the "C" volume but the size I could shrink is only "658MB".
I called Dell and they were not able to help me because all I got are
people from India and most of them have no idea how to do it. I went
to several forum and found that I can use a 3rd party software to
partition my drive, which is "Parted-Magic-LiveCD". I download it but
it is in "iso" format. I burned it onto a CD and got four files, but I
am new on "iso" format and have no idea how to open the file and
installed the program.

So now I have several questions:

1. How can I access to the "Unallocated Space" on my "C" drive
without using a 3rd party "Partition software"?

2. How can I shrink my "C" drive so I can set up another partition
with at least 20GB for my XP?

3. If I have to use "Parted-Magic-LiveCD", could someone tell me how
to install it from the files I installed (which are on my HD now as I
copied them from my CD).

Any kind assistance is much appreciated.

PS: Another question, is there a way I can complete wipe out my Hard
Drive and install XP on it instead? I really don't want Vista!

Thank you.

Thomas

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

PS: Another question, is there a way I can complete wipe out my Hard
Drive and install XP on it instead? I really don't want Vista!

Yes, simply boot with an XP CD, remove both partitions and create a new one
from the free space. Format and proceed with installation. Before doing so,
ensure that Dell has XP drivers available for your model.

1. How can I access to the "Unallocated Space" on my "C" drive
without using a 3rd party "Partition software"?

It's not access, it's the ability to create it. Vista's drive tool cannot
shrink the volume if there is an unmovable file in the way. You would need
to use third party software. There are many besides the one you tried.

2. How can I shrink my "C" drive so I can set up another partition
with at least 20GB for my XP?

Same answer as above.

3. If I have to use "Parted-Magic-LiveCD", could someone tell me how
to install it from the files I installed (which are on my HD now as I
copied them from my CD).

An .iso file is a disk image. You don't copy it to CD/DVD, you create a disk
from an image file. Most third-party burning software can do this, though
the stuff included with Vista cannot. This bit of freeware, BurnCDCC, can do
this for you:
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/downloads-free-software.htm

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

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

Hi, I am new to Vista. I have just bought a Dell Inspiron 1525 with
Vista Home pre-installed and with 250GB.. I would like to install
Windows XP also so I can dual boot my laptop. I went to an intensive
search and read a lot of articles on this. And the 1st step I have to
do is to partition my "C" drive so I can install Windows XP on it.

When I open my Disk Management, I saw two partitions, one is for the
"Restore CD" while the other one is for my Vista. I could not find any
"Unallocated Space" partition which allows me to install XP. And I try
to shrink the "C" volume but the size I could shrink is only "658MB".
I called Dell and they were not able to help me because all I got are
people from India and most of them have no idea how to do it. I went
to several forum and found that I can use a 3rd party software to
partition my drive, which is "Parted-Magic-LiveCD". I download it but
it is in "iso" format. I burned it onto a CD and got four files, but I
am new on "iso" format and have no idea how to open the file and
installed the program.

So now I have several questions:

 

[silkunicorn]

I was able to create a new partition in my hard drive which is
titled : "E" and is a Logical Drive. After I booted from Windows XP
disk, the Setup said "It could not find any hard disk drives installed
in your computer" and could not continue the setup. There's no
partition listed underneath the Setup Menu (where I choose to Install
or Repair". Could someone tells me what went wrong? Does my new
partition has to be a "Primary Partition" as well? If so, how do I
change "E" to become a "Primary".

Any kind assistance is much appreciated.

Thank you.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi,

Your new partition would need to be a primary. However, I suspect that your
problem stems from the type of drive. XP does not natively support the newer
sata drives, and you would need to add a driver via floppy as part of the
initial setup (you should see a prompt to hit F6 to do so). Without this
driver, XP setup will not be able to see any volumes on sata drives in your
system. You'll have to check with Dell to see if these are available.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

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

 

[silkunicorn]

Hi,

Your newpartitionwould need to be a primary. However, I suspect that your
problem stems from the type of drive. XP does not natively support the newer
sata drives, and you would need to add a driver via floppy as part of the
initial setup (you should see a prompt to hit F6 to do so). Without this
driver, XP setup will not be able to see any volumes on sata drives in your
system. You'll have to check with Dell to see if these are available.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVPhttp://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help -www.rickrogers.org
My thoughtshttp://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

Thank you, Rick for all of your kind assistance. I was able to install
XP onto the new partition. I tried to do a dual-boot with
"vistabootpro". I was able to get the option of choosing either Vista
or XP at startup. But I kept getting a "/ntldr" and "oxc000000F" error
and will not let me boot from XP. So I reinstall XP onto the new
partition and made it as the primary boot disk. Now I can only boot
into XP and not Vista anymore though Vista is still there. I have
changed different settings in vistabootpro and still no effect. I
might just forget Vista and boot into XP only. Unless someone here has
any suggestion. Thank you a a lot.