How to dual boot Vista and XP (with

Vista installed first) -- the step-by-step

guide
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James Bannan29 May 2007350 days ago.

Related how-tos:

So you've discovered Vista isn't quite ready for prime-time and now you
want to put XP back on your PC. Here's how to dual-boot Vista and XP, if
Vista is already installed.Now updated with a new version of EasyBCD.

Updated 29 May 2007 with a new version of EasyBCD.

Scenario: You want to install Vista on your PC alongside your XP installation, on the
same drive. You have installed Vista already. (If you have XP installed first, check out our
earlier tutorial on how to dual boot Vista and XP with XP installed first.)

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 is an updated tutorial, based on our first Windows Vista/XP dual-booting workshop.
The main difference is that EasyBCD has been updated, but the processes are essentially
unchanged.

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 now”. (If Vista came preinstalled on your machine
and you don't have a Vista install DVD, you can use the Gnome Partition Editor Gparted
to do it. Our earlier tutorial on dual-booting XP and Vista if you've installed XP first
describes how to use it.)

Install Vista

Don’t type in your product key and untick “Automatically activate Windows when I’m
online”, then hit “Next”, and “No” when asked whether you want to enter the key.
 Vista Product 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 purchased” and hit “Next”.

Vista Version

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.
 Vista Partition

Press SHIFT + F10. This is a Windows PE 2.0 shortcut to open up a command window –
very useful trick.

Command Tool

Type in DISKPART and press Enter. This opens the Microsoft DiskPart application. You
need to select the active disk, so type in:

list disk

The primary disk is generally Disk 0, so type in:

select disk 0
 DISKPART Disk

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

DISKPART Volume

Now type in:

shrink

DISKPART 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.
 XP Partition

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 continue”. 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 now”,
select “Repair your computer”.

Repair Vista
The next screen searches for local Vista installations – there should only be one, so click
Next.

Choose Vista

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.

Startup Repair

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).
 Repair Diagnostics

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/2k3”.

Change the Drive to E:\ and the name to “Windows XP”, then click “Add Entry” and
“Save”.
 Vista & XP - EasyBCD

Reboot the system and you’ll have two entries in the Vista bootloader, and can boot into
either operating system.

Vista Bootloader

Removing Windows XP

If you eventually decide that dualbooting XP as the second OS isn’t all it’s cracked up to
be, it’s pretty easy to undo the changes made.

Use EasyBCD to remove the Windows XP boot entry, and then go into Computer
Management (right-click on Computer, Manage) and go to Disk Management.

Right-click E: drive (the Windows XP partition) and select Delete Volume.

Right-click the newly-created partition and select Delete Partition.

Then right-click the C: drive (the Vista system partition) and click Extend Volume – this
opens up the Extend Volume Wizard.
 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 details on using
EasyBCD, also see the section "Restoring Vista and Dualbooting".)

Other APC dual-booting tutorials:

The definitive dual-booting guide: Linux, Vista and XP step-by-step

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JR:

"Windows Vista is not ready for prime time."

That is the understatement of the century. Do you want to hear a very funny joke? I
bought Windows Vista Ultimate. The WOW starts NOW. Yeah sure. More like when hell
freezes over or when I finally buy a MAC.

report abuse reply

FireFly:

Couldn't have said it better myself

report abuse reply

bigphil:

Great. Couldn't have done it without the article. I had a couple different issues making it
work. After installing XP, the Vista startup repair did not work for me (several
unsuccessful attempts). So I installed SP2 for XP and EasyBCD. Running BCD from XP,
I ran Manage Bootloader and reinstalled the Vista bootloader. Then booted into Vista and
installed BCD and Added an entry for XP.

report abuse reply

Jigga:

Nice article... thanks a million.

report abuse reply

deryckw:

How come there are a couple of guides for installing Windows with Linux and Windows
with Windows, but there does not seem to be any on installing Windows with Mac OSX,
or is just too easy that a guide is not needed?

report abuse reply

Dan Warne:

On a Mac it's very easy with Apple Boot Camp, and on a PC, it's illegal :-)

report abuse reply

Nikander:

Our computer-genious incestly demanded on the Mac-based InDesign-program and wow

what happened; it falls at least three, or four times per day. Mac never falls, ou jee!

report abuse reply

Anonymous1:

you, sir are a mac zealot, so go to hell. Any pc can beat any mac performance wise.

report abuse reply

APC administrator:

That's a ludicrous assertion ... Macs ARE PCs these days. They use exactly the same
hardware. It's the software that is different on a Mac.

report abuse reply

Anonymous 77:

LOL. Sir, a pc is a "collection of parts". You cant say mac is a pc because it does not have
a collection of parts you f*****. Why dont you ponder this statement -All pc's are
personal computers but all computers are not pc's.
=)

report abuse reply

Anonymous78:

pc stands for personal computer so how is a mac not a personal computer if you use it for
personal use its a pc
if a pc was a collection of parts it would be called a cop not a pc ponder that

report abuse reply

Anonymous8889:

Great discussion, guys keep up the good work!

report abuse reply

stuffman:
You sir are pwned. How is a mac not a "collection of parts" like a PC is? Your statement
is baseless. The previous poster was 100% correct. Macs are just PCs these days,
especially since their departure from Motorola cpus. Apple PCs and notebooks all run out
of the production lines in pre-determined configurations, but so do Acer, HP and Dell pcs.
Apple's simply have a custom built case which makes them extremely difficult to upgrade
- they still source CPUs and chipsets from intel, videocards from ATI and nVidia, and
their other components like harddisks and RAM from various manufacturers. The only
thing that makes them different, is that the OSX operating system is built for this cut
down bundle of "PC" parts to make them "user friendly".

report abuse reply

Anonymous25:

Incorrect, the logic board is still built by Apple. And the logic board does not contain a
traditional PC "bios". Intel macs use EFI.

Which is 100% incompatible with most PC operating systems.

And in the Motorola days, they still used nVidia and ATI video cards and chipsets. So in
that you are also incorrect.

Macs are still not PC's. BootCamp actually activates a bios emulation routine in the EFI
chip.

report abuse reply

MacMan:

PCs havent been able to keep up with Macs for YEARS now! Do a little research before
you open your pie hole!

report abuse reply

GerryG:

Just curious, I haven't been interested in Macs for years since I quit having to maintain
them, but isn't OSX just their Unix installation? And how does it differ from Linux?
Gerry
report abuse reply

anon12182918 (New user):

Are you dumb? You can get a Mac Pro tower with 2 Intel Xeon 4-core CPUs, 8 slots of
RAM (up to 32 GB), up to 4 graphics cards, 4 hard drive slots, and even raid card
compatibility...you're way behind the times.

report abuse reply

NickNov80:

I dont have anything against Mac. The only advantage over a PC is the Mac OS. Other
than that, you get can heck of a lot better performing PC, lower price points and more
compatible with more software. Also, when was the last time you seen a Mac built for
extreme gaming with an Intel Extreme Quad Core, Three 768MB nVidia 8800GTX and a
PhisX Acc. You havent. If Mac is so much better and more secure, why does the
Government, NASA & Fortune 500 COs use PC?

report abuse reply

sagan:

I got this one. The government use PCs not because they are cheaper, but because the
government IT shops resist having to maintain two OS skill sets. Tell a Window admin
that he needs to learn howto a maintain Linux or Mac OS X, and he will whine. The first
thing a government manager will say is we don't have the resources to train people for a
multi-platform environment or there is not enough demand (how could there be). This
creates an IT pearl harbor scenario, and there is a general who is pushing for mixed
environments. Btw, the government ordered a PC for me that was twice cost of a good
Mac.

report abuse reply

YouGuysArguAlot (New user):

90+ percent of macs are not reasonably upgradeable. They are run on unix now. And i
spend lots of time rebooting them, just like a pc. I've seen my share of macs crash as well.
If you took 2/3 of the features (advanced options) out of XP or maybe even vista you
would have a very solid operating system. But then you might as well buy a mac.

report abuse reply

Boufont of Pc knowledge :

Well I would like to state that all the new macs are way faster than windows etc and your
not using alot of processing power and ram running virus software And VISTA RUNS
BETTER ON A MAC !!!!!!! So when you buy ur mac all you have to do is use bootcamp
and that runs Windows to so two machines in one. Ha ha your still game on your PC and
how many hard core (i mean all day) pc gamers are there. something like 2% acourding
to stats. Everyone uses consoles like PS3 and Xbox.
They are more secure hence the army is switching to them.

report abuse reply

yellan:

I'm a hardcore gamer... I don't play all day long, but all I have for a console is a ps2. and I
only use it for guitar hero XD PC's in general have much better hardware cababilities
than consoles. I play halo, halo 2, Enemy territory quake wars, and lost planet...
Hopefully I can get crysis soon... after I get my second 8800GTX :D you don't see two of
them babies in a console lol

report abuse reply

Someonelse:

Actually, my first computer, that i still have, is a commodore Pet 2001 from 1978
On the front it says in big letters "Personal Computer"
Commodore dropped this pc titling after the 2001 model, but was probably the first to use
that term for errr a personal computer.
It was quite some years after 1978 that Bill Gates got his deal with Ibm to make dos and
the term found new use.
Because of this fact and the fact that some (combined) words are unescapeably connected
to something there is -as far as im concerned- no copyright on the use.
The same applies to windows. There were windows (xerox > apple) long before MS
windows.

report abuse reply

harlz86 (New user):

Congratulations gentlemen on absolutely out-nerding any pc vs mac argument ever

entered into the world wide web. not only was it an argument about wether or not they
would install side by side, or which was better but the argument took a twist i have not
seen, is a mac a pc. dont get me wrong. im a techie, i hate macs and have mates who are
mac techs (if you could call them that) but never has an argument about what is better
ever been performed so well, so dramatically. you guys even managed to call an APC
ADMIN a f*****.. not to mention the guy who dribbled on about no viruses on a mac.
pfft thats because a mac aint worth hacking (p.s. they are out there...) all this aside i dont
see how loading xp and vista together turned into an argument that sounds more like a
"my dad could beat your dad in a fight" school playground sort of argument. but
gentlement well done and thankyou for showing me that most of the people online with
ennough time to research this sort of stuff are actually all keyboard warriors.

p.s. the only way this argument is ever going to be solved is if bill gates and that skinny
sixty year old from apple punch it out in a ring. nerd versus nerd. girly arms flailing, tears
rolling. thats the only way a winner will be found.

report abuse reply

Steve B.:

Hey, as a class exercise, in Computer Engineering, we took up this problem. My teacher

had bought a new Dell Inspiron, with Vista preinstalled. Of course, we decided XP was
much better, and went to install XP.

Having similar problems to everyone else, we were unable to boot up XP itself, and
forced onto vista. So we came here, tried most of the solutions using EasyBCD, and
failed.

We had tried using GParted to move some space, the Laptop came with 99 gig in a Vista
partition, 2 gig in an extended *unknown* partition, 45 meg or so in a FAT16 partition
(no idea what that is for), and a restore partition (forget the size, I think it was either 4 gig
or 10 gig). It now has 49 gig for Vista, 2 gig extended, same for FAT16, and the rest in
XP, which is a secondary partition underneath Extended. Rebooted, tried the whole thing
again, and failed. After a few more tries with various things, we found that the simple
solution in boot.ini was to change the part. # from 5 to 4 (Vista). Very simple solution,
that had been overlooked.

Might throw more up here on this later, especially if I missed a step. Hope this helps dell
users.

One last comment: Vista is not backwards compatible with XP, so do not transfer files
unless absolutely sure you want to. If your XP dies on a dual boot, as my friends did, you
can recover it to Vista, however if Vista dies, and it is not fixable, you are totally screwed.
Word to the wise.

Steve.

report abuse reply

iCorp:

it's a good comment Steve B., I'm facing the same problem as you are.

I have tried EasyBCD but it still doesn't work.

About the "boot.ini" as you've mentioned, could you please explain more about this...how
to fix this out?

Looking forward to your reply. Thank you.

report abuse reply

ana:

If EasyBCD can't work,you need to scrub your MBR. Basically, boot from a Windows
XP CD, enter the "recovery console" and type, delete the "Windows XP" entry, and add a
new entry, that will make XP boot. From there, use EBCD to add Vista. software review.

report abuse reply

Rich:

What do you need to type after entering the recovery console? I think you skipped a word
(the most important one).

report abuse reply

rOcKnRoLL:

I coppied the Vista's root folder the folder Boot, and the files bootmgr, boot.ini,
NTDETECT.COM and ntldr and pasted them to the root of my XP drive.
I am using Dell Inspiron laptop, didn't changed anything from the bios settings. I have
tried the Vista bootloader Pro to reisntall the vista bootloader from the bootloader tab.
Still I couldn't fint the word 'reinstall', the tab has 4 or more radio buttons and all i can do
is 'install' bootloader and as soon as i reboot my system it ends up in DOS prompting that
file is corrupted, I have installed vista boot loader by clicking on a radio button says
"All". Now my question is I have done the same trick in my bosses computer (desktop)
and nothing unusual happened. Why with my laptop then? I don't wanna uninstall vista
os, and i have another partition to install only xp os. But how can I get the bootmenu
where I can choose which os to select? i will appreciate your replies. forgive my bad
english i am international.

report abuse reply

bdon:

is this comment after following the direction from this page or is is prior to. Because now
im questioning if i should even do a dual boot on my inspiron 1505. when i go to disk
management i see 4 partition
1.is a 47 MB healthy
2.is 10 gig Drive D: (primary partition).
3 is C: 100 gig OS partion
4.is a random 2 gig (healthy partition)

so im guessing if i wanted to do a dual boot i would have to shrink the 100 gig OS?

report abuse reply

Jennifer:

I saw Steve's comment on problems with dual-booting Vista and XP on a notebook. I

would like to ask some advice.

Right now I'm torn between buying an Acer TravelMate 6592G which has a 15 inch
screen and XP pre-installed or an Acer TravelMate 7720G with a 17 inch screen and Vista
pre-installed. I prefer the 17 inch screen because I'm a graphic designer and this particular
model also has a better processor etc.

BUT, I use Adobe products that don't run (well) on Vista. My computer salesman said it's
possible with the 17 inch model to do a dual-boot for Vista and XP, the bonus is it has
two separate hard-drives so I wouldn't need partitions.

I am NOT a techie and would try dual-booting myself with the help of a tutorial, hoping
all will go smoothly. But is there any guarantee it will run properly, if I do everything
right? Can anyone give me some advice? I would really appreciate it!

report abuse reply

Anonymous2:

http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp

try this tutorial

and i would go with the 17in if that is what you really want
you can just dump vista and install Xp using this tutorial its for a Hp but its the best one
to learn how to intregrate the SATA drivers

www.nogodforme.com/HPDV6500T.htm

i am not that big of a techie and i got it.

report abuse reply

Oooooops!:

Ok, so I guess this stuff was a bit too much too chew. I got as far as creating the
unallocated space, 2nd partition, on my hard drive. XP install disk does not see any hard
drive and cannot continue.
(RETREAT!)... but now I can't even reclaim the 73gb hard drive space.
a point in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

report abuse reply

old noob (New user):

your not the only 1

when trying to install xp on a pre installed vista machine

I have made 43gig unallocated space but can not see the disk
WINDOWS XP PROFEEIONAL SETUP
Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer.

running sata drive on a rca410L/800-M2 MB

report abuse reply

dazednconfused (New user):

To reclaim the space to your vista partition, Go to computer from your start menu. Then
right click on computer. Click on manage discs. When you see the partition you want to
reclaim (usually marked as E)right click on it and choose delete.If it says it is in use force
it to delete by clicking yes again.Then right click on C partition and choose extend
volume. It will then reclaim the unallocated space from the deleted partition. Hope this
helps

report abuse reply

ChesterCopperpot:

Because you CANNOT install OSX on any generic motherboard.

You have to buy an Apple pc to install OSX. There has
never been a real case of somebody installing OSX on any ol'
motherboard! And by the way, it is not illegal to dual-boot 2 versions of Microsoft...read
the EULA one more time my friend...
report abuse reply

IndustrialG33k:

I have my Toshiba tri-booting with Fedora Core 6, Windows XP, and Mac OS 10.4.3.
This has been possible for a couple years now...

report abuse reply

The Dude:

Maybe because Macs are worthless pieces of crapola!

report abuse reply

Craig:

Nice article, exactly what I have been searching for. My problem is this PC only came
with a "restore" disk and so don't have the option of doing a repair install to fix the
corrupt bootloader. Anyone have any suggestions?

report abuse reply

drew:

I had the same problem with my Sony VAIO n250e.

You cannot do this without a vista install dvd. Don't even try or you will be pulling your
hair out. Even though theres other forums with information how to do this using vistaboot
pro, I could never get that program working. I suggest you have someone download you a
torrent of the dvd so you can get yourself an illegal copy. Your Vista key should be on the
bottom of your computer.

Good luck.

report abuse reply

Skippy:

You can do it from XP. Install SP2, .NET Framework 2.0, then EasyBCD. Run BCD,
click Manage Bootloader. Select Reinstall the Vista Bootloader, then click write. Reboot
and it should boot into Vista. From there you can install and run BCD. Click
ADD/Remove Entries, and add an entry for XP and save it. That should be it.

report abuse reply

Craig:

I couldn't boot into anything....Vista or XP.

Now I have a copy of Vista so I got the repair done so I can boot into Vista.
I downloaded EasyBCD and ran it per instructions. On reboot I get both options: Vista or
XP but when I try to boot to XP, I get another error blah, blah, "File: \ntdlr". XP never
finished setting up?!?!? How do I get past this?
Thanks

report abuse reply

Reuben:

I am having the same problem. The dual boot is set up. I can run vista fine. I keep getting
the "File: /ntdlr" is missing or corrupt. Any ideas?

report abuse reply

James:

copy ntdetect.com and ntdlr from the /i386 directory on the XP CD to your XP drive, eg,
copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\
and copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\
report abuse reply

Cally:

Just did that but I get the same error ??

report abuse reply

KWR:

Two issues...

EasyBCD did not set the boot drive properly after I added an entry for XP while running
Vista. So add your entry and then click on "Configure Boot". Select you Windows XP OS
under "Entry-Based Settings" and note the drive location. Make sure it's set to C:\.

Even though I installed to a D: drive, the ntldr, boot.ini etc, were written to the C: drive.
Since vista does not use these files I guess it's ok to put them in the same
directory...seems odd to me. At any rate, The boot entry has to be set to C:\ not D:\.

report abuse reply

DW:

Changing the drive letter to Point to C: worked (even though XP is installed on F:)
Thanx allot... I needed to get this fixed for work

report abuse reply

TheRealAnonymous:

1: BIG Help

>Changing the drive letter to Point to C: >worked (even though XP is installed on F:)
>Thanx allot... I needed to get this fixed >for work

You need to stop thanxing and alloting and learn to spell.

report abuse reply

cmoohasdfa:

Should the files bec opied to c:\ or f:\?

report abuse reply

Anton Donchev Donchev:

This was very, very, very helpfull information. I have no words to say THANK YOU !!!
cheers and from meee :)))

report abuse reply

raj shekhar:

Hurray,

Follow these step my problem is resolved right now i have dual boot system

very very thanks

report abuse reply

Canifrou:

Great! Thanx to all who helped. To get dualboot out of my new Toshiba laptop w/
VistaHP. I follow the steps of the article
(http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp?page=1) and the downloads
(EasyBCD). I got the Vista dualboot screen, Vista loaded ok, XP came with a error code
re: NTLDR. I used EzBCD redirected XP to C drive and PRESTO! Thank you all.
CHAU!

report abuse reply

Kevin:

I would just like to thank you for that wonderful bit of information. I have been searching
all over the web for over 5 hours trying to sort my dual boot system out, and eventually i
come across your post about copying the files from the xp disc onto the harddrive and
now all is well. YIPPPEEE im so happy now im off to bed. Cheers once again.

report abuse reply

ping182nz:

Great tips from Skippy....this works great

report abuse reply

Heath:

Top Tip, running OEM Vista Business with an asus recovery disc, only thing I had to do
different was install .net framework 3.0...2.0 didnt work??? after that install easy BCD
into XP repair MBR jump back into Vista install easy bcd there too and use as
described...BEST TIP EVER!!!

report abuse reply

Intrepidman:

Thank you so much. Your suggestion worked like a champ!

report abuse reply

RickD43:

Thank you, you are a lifesaver. :D

Need XP as can't get SQL Server running on bloody F%*ing Vista for some reason.

report abuse reply

ThomasLHS:

Thank you very much, Skippy! You've saved me a lot of trouble. Just spent the past 8
hours re-installing all my programs on XP only to discover I couldn't boot into Vista!
Followed your advise and it worked perfectly. Thanks again! Now I can finally get some
rest... :)

report abuse reply

dicko:

Or you could just install MS Virtual Workstation 2007 which seems to run ok under Vista
and is free.

report abuse reply

Mayclone:

According to the MS website, virtual PC will not run with Vista Home Premium or Basic
as host!

report abuse reply

The17thsailor:
HA!

report abuse reply

Callak:

This is incorrect. I'm running a 64 bit version of microsoft virtual machine on windows
vista ultimate 64 bit, but that doesn't help me with my issue since I don't reccomend using
a virtual machine to run 3d graphics intensive programs.

report abuse reply

Nemo:

I unsuccessfully tried to dual boot with my HP Pavillion Notebook which came with pre-
installed Vista Ultimate.

I desparately needed to have XP on my machine as I wanted to connect to my work via

VPN.

Nothing worked ... then came trying this with MS Virtual PC 2007... gave me exacly
what I was looking for. I can now run Visa as the Host OS and XP as Guest OS. Enjoying
best of both worlds..
MS Virtial PC 2007 is highly recommended if you need both OS running in the same
machine...

report abuse reply

Jazza:

I do same on hp dv6589us and works okay but on vpc 2007 cannot use actual video
driver, e.g., on a desktop with samsung 22" monitor.
but on laptop even though one reason I bought new one was for vista and dual core, etc.,
with vpc 2007 and xp I can make it look like my old laptop. BTW my new laptop has
4GB RAM so I allocate 2 to xp and could probably do more even.

report abuse reply

Luis:

I installed MS Virtual PC 2007 and it is working fine with guess XP Pro, I have Windows
Vista Business with 2 Gigas of Ram, and 256 of video ram, but virtual xp only reconize 4
megas !!, but i need more, since i run programas like photohop and corel draw..do you
know a way to solve this problem.

thank you in advance.

report abuse reply

Amit:

Hi,

My Laptop is preinstalled with Windows Vista Business. Now, I badly need to have XP
on my laptop so that I can install a specific software that does not work with vista.

Kindly guide me with detailed steps of how can I have Vista as the Host OS and XP as
Guest OS using the MS Virtual PC 2007?

Appreciate your immediate reply.

report abuse reply

rikis:

hello,

I have (finally) successfully installed (triboot) Ubuntu "Gutsy", Vista "Home Basic" and
XP in my Compaq Presario C700. The key here is that Hp does not ship the vista cd's and
instead uses a "Recovery partition" so once you install Xp (needles to say that the box
came with Vista installed) there was no way to boot back into Vista. At this point there
are two options:

1.- Boot into Xp, download and install Easy BCD and fix the Vista Bootloader with the
option under the "Diagnostics Center" tab.
Or

2.- Dowload and Burn a "Vista recovery CD iso image" and use it instead of the Vista
DVD (the one that actually installs the operating system).

I had some problem with the first option so I had to use the second...

In case you guys are willing to try here is a link

http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Repairing+the+Windows+Vista+Bootloader

Regars,

report abuse reply

wilkie:

i don't get why you need to boot with vista disc just to shrink the drive. can't you just do it
within vista's disk management as detailed below?

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial133.html#shrink

report abuse reply

James Bannan:

You can use the embedded tool or the DVD - there's no actual requirement to do it either
way. I was just demonstrating the DVD method because it uses DISKPART from within
Windows PE 2.0 and is just rather nifty.

You could certainly use the GUI or DISKPART from within the OS.

report abuse reply

Baggy52:
One question, how can I use the repair option without a disk? I have a laptop that came
with the OS installed, and I am wondering how to get the the boot repaired without a
disk.

report abuse reply

JL:

I was wondering this myself

report abuse reply

Frank vd Horst:

You don't need the DVD, and you don't need to reboot.
Just type diskpart in an cmd prompt and follow the guidelines as described.
things will work fine, your system will automaticly reboot, and there you have your new
space :-)

report abuse reply

Wes:

I think this is a good step by step guide but I cannot understand why there would be a
need to dual boot Vista with XP. If you have installed Vista and for some reason you need
XP then you can have that XP install in a virtual environment instead without going the
dual boot way.

report abuse reply

Hagar:

Virtual environments have come a long, long way, but the more you work with them, you
realize there are some things you just can't expect to do. Especially for a gamer like
myself - there's no way you can run a game that won't run under Vista (and there's a
bunch at this point) - in a virtual environment. Dual-booting gives you full native access
to either O/S with no simulation layers and problems to get in the way. I've been doing it
this way since Windows 95 and NT 3.51 - and there's no better way to go!

report abuse reply

JimmyConga:

Gaming under Vista is pretty bad at the moment. That is one excellent reason to keep a
native partition of XP on hand...

report abuse reply

Nigel:

Vista's support for WPA Enterprise wireless support is broken, and I don't think XP would
be able to associate to APs from within a VM.

report abuse reply

stevecaseyo:

because if a hardware device doesnt work in vista, you can not get it to work through
virtual machine in vista.

report abuse reply

Robert C.:

I have been trying to dual boot for about 2 weeks now. i bought a windows vista
computer and i wanted to put xp on the 2nd partiioned hard drive. i have been able to
install XP but never knew how to get back. i ended up having to reinstall vista a few
times. without this guide i would be racking my brain still. i just wanted to say thank you
for the guide. It is very well done and very informative.

report abuse reply

gandhammadhav:

I have window vista in my system.Now i want to install the XP on the same

system.Could you please guide how to install it.

report abuse reply

rivencole:

um you could try READING the above article

report abuse reply

mansart:

I bought a brand new Vista system and installed a second drive with the intention of
installing XP on the second drive for dual boot. However, I can't even get the XP
installation started. When I try to boot to the XP DVD it gets past all the loading of files
and right up to "starting windows" and then I get a blue screen that says "A problem has
been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer...".
The only English in the "technical information" part of the message is "pci.sys". Has
anyone encountered a problem like this? Any suggestions for getting past it?

report abuse reply

Anonymous89095:

yes. i have this problem as well, at least the "blue screen" with a message about "pci.sys"
on a new Dell Inspiron 9400 with Vista Home Basic preinstalled when trying to boot
from an XPPro CD (trying to setup a dual boot Vista / XP installation) not from the
installation DVD. Dell support is kind of sketchy on the answer. The actually advised me
to look for Internet articles like this ?!? and seemed to indicate this is Vista protecting
itself from low-level viruses - but that seems odd that it would do it this way. i really hate
microsoft products and only keep this OS because i am sure i will have a bunch of
problems with the hardware and my favorite linux distro.
report abuse reply

kblade:

hey did you ever figure out the solution to your problems loading xp pro on to your
system with vista pre-installed already? i am still having the same problem with the
pci.sys error

report abuse reply

imbobbychild:

i had the same problem on a new dimension 9200 but the answer is simple, xp doesnt
come with SATA drivers.
i got the drivers from dell's website, put them on a flopy and during the initial xp set up
presed F6 to enable me to load the drivers and it then worked fine. hope it helps you.

report abuse reply

Ales:

So... What do you do if you don't have a floppy drive? I think I'm stuck.

report abuse reply

John:

I got around this by "borrowing" the floppy drive from any other PC, connecting it to my
machine. Then go into Bios at bootup by pressing F2 or Del, and enable the floppy drive,
save and exit. When all this works you can return the FDD to its mother machine. You
should disable the FDD in Bios on your PC so it doesn't hang up trying to boot from a
non-existent drive. This worked for me. Just don't turn on the donor PC while the FDD is
missing.

report abuse reply

Ales:

I don't have another computer to borrow a floppy drive from, so I'm still stuck in that
case. BUT I stumbled across something that *might* work in its stead:
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ I'll have to give it a go this weekend when I have time to
kill.

report abuse reply

nsz:

Hi, I had the same issue on my T60. The solution is either to have and usb floppy drive or
to look in the bios for an option to change SATA settings. In T60's bios there was an
option to change SATA from AHCI to Compatible mode - after changing to compatible
then the XP recognized the HDD.

report abuse reply

makdaddy:

HELP !!!! ...im having the sata issues with my FSC Amilo Xi2528.. nothing i have tried
has worked so far.

I have tried the Nlite boot disk including the sata drivers from my drivers support disk ..
the xp install still see's no Hdd

I have tried changing the Bios setting.. bs default they were set to compatible ( and there
wasnt an option to change this, it was greyed out )

I dont have a floppy drive

I found some intel sata drivers for my notebook on the FSC website but they are wrapped
up in an exe file.

I really need to get xp running as Vista home premium is utterly useless to me at the
moment

report abuse reply

HakonBingen:

I could not get xp installed on a brand new inspiron 9400. Kept getting the BSOD with
complaints about the pci.sys driver. So I made a SP2 cd from my old one using this link.
That solved my problem.

report abuse reply

anandsmailbox:

Hi,

I am exactly facing the very same issue. Any solutions found for this problem ? . My HP
DV2000 laptop is pre-installed with Vista home premium, and I use the shrink option to
create an additional partition. Then, when I try to install WIN XP, after the "starting
windows" point, a a blue screen appears with the words "A problem has been detected
and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer...". Can anyone
help me to fix this ?

report abuse reply

lionhead:

fixed!

i have a hp pavillion a1740n.

i didnt like vista, reinstalling with xp.
apparently the problem is that the computer is newer than the xp. change bios to boot
from dvd/cdrom. do a fresh install. it will ask to install raid/scsi drivers, press f6. but
since the hp 1740n was made for vista, there is no support for thr xp drivers. to bypass
this, you need and ide hard drive & ide cdrom. detached cable from serial hd & serial
cdrom. then go to bios settings and disable the serial controller. use only the ide controller
for now. xp will now install without the blue error screen. xp will install but missing
drivers. use temporary pci nic with availble xp drivers to get online. once online, use
driver magician v3.19+ to update drivers. now update remaining drivers with device
manager, update online. restart, reattch serial drives & serial controller, reenable serial
controller in bios, update drivers in windows. and then use the windows update( will
authenticate) to update rest of drivers.

only downside is now your xp is on an ide drive. and serial drive is a secondary drive. but
that was fine for me, i just removed the serial hard drive altogether and used it in my
other faster computer. also removed the temporary pci nic & ide cdrom. the hp a1740n
now consists of: winxp, 1 ide hd, 1 serial dvdrom.

report abuse reply

engo:

Hello there, does it works on XP 64? im ok with the vista boot recover and with
easyBCD but xp just wont load (blank screen) after selecting boot. Playing arround with
BCD I noticed (in the view settings TAB) entry #2 this:

Name: Windows XP
BCD ID: {2c82aa72-cb94-11db-8660-0015f2e6ae3c}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \ntldr
Windows Directory:

Although i put D when creating the entry it's still on C, so I changed the drive to D:\( in
configure Boot TAb)which is the xp64 boot drive, but nothing happens.
Is there a problem with NLTDR? or the blank windows directory (I was unable to change
it on easyBCD).
THANKS!!!

report abuse reply

Joao C.:

I bought a computer with the Windows Vista Premium Home OS (Portuguese version)
already installed. However I have programs that run only in Windows XP. I used this
tutorial to install a dual booting, starting with the Gparted to create a new partition. When
I finished installing Windows XP (English version) I noticed that I only see a C:, which I
believe has the Windows XP OS. This is not what I read in the tutorial, as they mentioned
that after rebooting I should see the two partitions, one with the Vista and the other with
the XP. Any suggestion? The "Fixing the corrupt bootloader" will be enough to fix this?
Thank you so much for any help.
João

report abuse reply

Weirdbiz:

I've tried to follow the instructions here and I'm getting caught up in XP install... it
doesn't seem to be recognizing any of my drives and then it gives me a blue screen of
death and the following error : Setupdd.Sys - Page_Fault_in_nonpaged_Area ... I looked
up this error and it seems to all be RAM problems... but since my computer runs perfectly
fine with Vista... why would this be? Here's some of my back story: I'm trying to install
Windows XP Home... my vista version is Home Premium... I'm trying to create a dual
boot for XP because some of my hardware/software isn't compatiable with Vista (I've
tried the Virtual thing, it doesnt work for what I'm trying to do) ... my computer is a brand
new Gateway 5408.. 320 GB harddrive, intel core 2 duo processor (1.8 Ghz), 3 GB ram (I
added 2 GB .. Vista is recognizing all of it and running smoothly) ... the guy that sold me
XP Home said that XP Home would only recognize 2 GB ram... could this be my
problem?

report abuse reply

Slaphappy:

Try taking out the 2GB RAM and trying again to see if that's the problem.

report abuse reply

gioggio82:

I am in the same situation too...

My computer is a brand new HP, 2Gb ram, 160Gb Hd, Intel Core 2 Duo with Vista Home
Premium preinstalled, I tried to follow the instructions, I make a 20Gb partition with
Gparted but when insert the Xp Professional install-cd I receive a blue screen with this
error "Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in you computer"
Can someone help me???
report abuse reply

Atif Azhar:

Hi,

Just go to your BIOS setup and disable the SATA Native support. Disable this option and
windows XP will detect your hard drive.

CHEERS!

report abuse reply

DSchwa:

I'm having the same problem, once I get the hardrive partitioned and insert the XP cd I
get a blue screen that says Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your
computer, could I please get some detailed help how to fix this thanks.

report abuse reply

eryka:

Running a brand new Gateway laptop

went through the tutorial up tot he installing of XP... I get the whole HD not detected
error as well, and I do haev a SATA HD..... here is my issue... I do not have a floppy
drive, obviously becuase it's a laptop, so I cannot use the F6 feature to install the sata
drivers, which I currently have on CD... any ideas? Please help. I bought this laptop
because i will be in the hospital for a while and I need to work, but my work VPN doesn't
work with Vista...

report abuse reply

Dennis:
I just got onto this site, so this may be really late...
I got around the issue of XP not finding my hard drive by creating a custom windows XP
install CD using nLite freeware (nliteos.com) Download or locate hard drive drivers and
use nLite to add these drivers to the XP install software. Then boot using new custom
CD. All worked after this.

report abuse reply

metttin:

so if i have a wd hd all i have to do is fint drives for wd and add them to the xp installer
like u said?

report abuse reply

susu:

In the BIOS settings u have to disable the SATA support for the Hard disk. Then u will be
able to install XP.

report abuse reply

Bill:

I had a similar problem --go to BIOS and make sure sata hard drive is disabled---it can't
see XP with SATA enabled

report abuse reply

Weirdbiz:

I did some more research on my problem and I found some people saying that XP doesn't
have the driver for SATA II and that I would need to press F6 at the beginning and load
the driver for my harddrive... if so I'm not quite sure how to go about doing that... anyone
have any suggestions?
report abuse reply

Weirdbiz:

I thought of another possible solution to my problem and I wanted to ask some of the
experts here if it's possible before I go to the trouble of doing it (because it would be
some trouble) ... What if I add another harddrive to my system that I know windows XP
can recognize? I have a 250 GB western digital IDE harddrive sitting around - could I
just add that to my system and then install windows xp on it? Or can I not have different
harddrive types on the same system?

report abuse reply

CJ:

That's never worked for me. But you can put a new hard drive in and make it your master,
then partition it with two partitions. Then install XP FIRST and Vista second. You end up
with an easy clean dual boot without all the hassle. The format the original HD, that
you've made a slave, for storage. Or just leave Vista on it, for sometime down the line
when you want to only run Vista. You'll alredy have clean installation. Just make the HD
your master.

report abuse reply

Pula:

If you already have XP installed and want Vista also you need Dual boot. For Dual boot
you need to partition your C: drive first and then install Vista over XP and select partition
different than where your XP installation is.

report abuse reply

waswas:

installing XP and Vista onto different drives is possible as I have done this myself. I did
however install XP first onto one drive and then Vista on the other drive. Vista created it's
own duel boot.
When you look at the drive lettering, the XP is labled D with a (C) beside it eg D:(C)and
Vista has C:(D). I think that when the Vista duel boots into the operating system, the one
you pick will always show up in explorer as C drive and the other system shows up as D
drive

report abuse reply

Jack:

This has all worked for me up until the point where I need to select which operating
system I want to boot in. I get the options Vista and XP, vista loads fine but XP will not
load.

See the following link which is a picture of what I am trying to say!

My Picture

Please help! It must be something easy? I am nearly there!

Thanks alot guys, jack.

report abuse reply

Jack:

In my picture above, which windows disk does it mean will fix it? The XP disk or the
Vista disk?

Thanks guys.

report abuse reply

mansart:

I get the same screen when I try to boot into XP, but my situation is even worse because
Vista won't load either. If I choose Vista the computer just reboots and then goes into
Windows Error Recovery. I try using the repair tool but it says it is unable to repair the
system. I assume it's just a problem with the bootloader but I don't know how to fix it at
this point. Can anyone help?

report abuse reply

mansart:

I was able to find a solution to the XP \ntldr error. Fortunately it's very simple. You can
find the solution here:

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000465.htm#b

Now if I can just get Vista booting again I'll be a happy camper....suggestions anyone?

report abuse reply

Paul:

this tutorial was great i now have my dual boot up and running but wondered could i do
another shrink on the
original vista held drive it has too much space for what i need and i would like to
partition again

report abuse reply

Randyharv:

I have a new dell notebook with vista preinstalled, I need to dual-boot xp so i can use
Rockwell software. My disk 0 is as follows: -:Partition1 [fat] 47mb, d:partition2 (backup)
[NTFS] 10gb, c:Patition3 [NTFS], unpartioned space (followed instructions from above),
F:partition4 [unknown] 2gb. When i got to the part of the xp install that asked, "to setup
winxp on the selected item, press ENTER" i chose the unpartitioned space and hit enter,
then i get this message that reads, "Setup cannot create a new partions in the space you
selected because the maximum number of partions already exists on the disk" I hit enter
again and it takes me back to the previous page. I don't know what to do now.

report abuse reply

CJ:

Format your hard drive with two partition 3/5 and 2/5. Install XP first, on the slightly
smaller partition. Then install Vista on the remaining partition. It's very simple. If you
need extra storage space, install a second hard drive. You'll have a nice clean system, that
should last you for years, without doing anything else to your O/S.
Doing it this way will add years to your life, and avoid premature graying. If your system
didn't come with a O/S recovery DVD, you can obtain one from the manufacturer. I
suggest that, for many reasons, but mostly the added years and premature graying.

report abuse reply

laurens:

At first I want to thank you for this great tutorial. I was lucky to find it because it was
exactly what i needed...
Now I have my 2 operating systems installed with the vista bootloader showing
"windows vista" (1) and "windows XP" (2) Unfortunatly when choosing "Windows XP" I
get an '/ntldr' error. Vista works fine.
Can somebody help me out? Thanks in advance

report abuse reply

laurens:

First, thanks a lot for the tutorial, it is exactly what I needed..

I installed both OS and the vista bootloader displays "windows vista" and "windows XP"
but when choosing "windows XP" I get a '/ntldr' error
Vista works fine (luckily). Anybody can help me out? Thanks a lot in advance!

report abuse reply

laurens:
First, thanks a lot for the tutorial, it is exactly what I needed..
I installed both OS and the vista bootloader displays "windows vista" and "windows XP"
but when choosing "windows XP" I get a '/ntldr' error
Vista works fine (luckily). Anybody can help me out? Thanks a lot in advance!

report abuse reply

laurens:

I'm sorry for the triple post (please remove the first 2)
I have found this tutorial above with the following steps but I wonder if this will affect
my vista installation, which is the most important of course...
Or is there an other way to solve the ntldr error...? Advice appeciated.

Windows XP users

1.Insert the Windows XP bootable CD into the computer.

2.When prompted to press any key to boot from the CD, press any key.
3.Once in the Windows XP setup menu press the "R" key to repair Windows.
4.Log into your Windows installation by pressing the "1" key and pressing enter.
You will then be prompted for your administrator password, enter that password.
5.Copy the below two files to the root directory of the primary hard disk. In the below
example we are copying these files from the CD-ROM drive letter "E". This letter may be
different on your computer.

copy e:\i386\ntldr c:\

copy e:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\

6.Once both of these files have been successfully copied, remove the CD from the
computer and reboot.

report abuse reply

James:

I have tried the steps outlined to dual boot Vista Ultimate and XP Professional. However,
I soon get errors from Vista that the file system is corrupt and chkdsk should be run.
When I run chkdsk for Vista, it eventually will not complete -- saying that there is not
enough space to rewrite the MFT. Vista will still boot, but the file system appears to
become more corrupt until eventually Vista will not boot at all and running the Vista
repair utility reports that the problem cannot be repaired.

report abuse reply

laurens:

update:
When trying the tutorial above, windows XP setup loads but then I got a
blue screen . "Windows setup closed..." Vista's still ok, XP, no clue. Who can help me
out...? Thanks

report abuse reply

Primus:

I had also ntldr error. Then I copied ntldr and ntdetect.com on c:\ drive. Than I got hall.dll
error, when tryed to access windows XP. Here is solution:
Put windows Xp CD in. Choose "r" for repair, choose number where you have windows
XP and type admin password(when not, yust press enter). Now type
"attrib /scan"
You see now, where is your XP installed(on my computer was [3] d:\WINDOWS). Then
type
"attrib /rebuild"
and for numbers, where are no XP installed choose
"no"
On number, where is windows XP choose "yes"
and that's it. Type
"exit"

That works for me:)))

report abuse reply

laurens:
Thanks a lot Primus...
I'll try that but I had a blue screen when xp setup was loading from cd... Is there a
solution maybe via Vista

report abuse reply

demarcheur:

I think the command you used was bootcfg /scan

and bootcfg /rebuild

report abuse reply

Beniled:

Yep it was bootcfg /scan and bootcfg /rebuild. And it worked like a charm. If you get an
error about hal.dll this is the fix.

type bootcfg /scan

then
type bootcfg /rebuild
type y next to the correct installation
then hit enter twice when asked about loader options

voila XP installation should resume on next reboot.

report abuse reply

wittles371:

i have one of those acers that has disk to disk recovery and i cant go into repair for vista
is there any other way i canr epair vista or is there any where i can get a illegal copy of
vista that i wont fully install just use to repair the boot sector??? i dont want an illegal
copy of vista i just need it to repair my boot.

report abuse reply

laurens:

You just have to download a copy of vista (torrents, newsgroups, limewire, whatever) or
loan it from smb else, preferably in your only language. Write this as an image on a dvd
and boot from that.

report abuse reply

StanyD:

Excellent guide to dual booting Vista and XP with Vista installed first.

However I too had the missing /ntldr error. To fix it firstly I copied ntdetect.com and ntdlr
from the /i386 directory on my XP CD to the root of the drive where XP is installed.

This still gave the same error message. Then I checked the settings (Overview) in
EasyBCD and noticed that it didn't specify the Drive. Therefore the XP bootloader didn't
know where to look for ntldr!

I then clicked on Configure Boot and clicked on the dropdown for Entry Based Settings
and selected "Microsoft Windows XP Professional". The Drive had the entry "Deleted
partition" I changed this to my XP drive letter which is G:\ and saved settings.

This allowed XP to boot successfully.

report abuse reply

Tjompen:

I installed Vista Build 6000 on first partition, XP on the second from a Ghost-image (had
it on partition 2 on the drive I copied it from therefore no need to edit the boot.ini file),
used this guide and the EasyBCD 1.52 and made my Windows XP entry, putting the drive
letter to C: for both. Then the Ntldr error came, googleed and tried every trick on the net,
changed the C: to D: etc but the solution for me was to copy the files ntldr, boot.ini and
ntdetect.com from the XP-partition to the Vista-partition. You will have make the system
files visible to find them. Now the problem is no more. Now both Vista AND XP boots
perfectly.

Hope this helps all you out there with the same problem.

report abuse reply

wie (New user):

Where did you put the ntldr boot.ini and ntdetect.com files on the Vista partition?

report abuse reply

Tjompen:

I cant get it to work, still gets the ntldr error. XP is working because when I go to the disc
utility and set, in my case D:, as active partition (D:=XP) and then restart my XP loads
without problem and when I want to return to Vista I do the same in XP´s disc utility,
setting Vista as active partition. How to get the loader to find the ntldr... tried everything I
have found on the internet...

report abuse reply

RayBlane:

I managed to successfully dual-boot Vista and XP. My Laptop was supplied with Vista
pre-installed but I have 2 hard-drives and installed XP on the second. I used OSL2000 to
manage booting.
This worked well for over a month and then for no apparent reason when I booted into
Vista one day it ran the diskchecking utility (chkdsk). It found some errors on my D drive
(XP drive) and proceeded to repair them. Some four and a half hours later (after replacing
"invalid" security descriptors) Vista booted. But the D drive was inaccessible and was
reprted as having 0 bytes free of 0 bytes. Sure enough when I tried to boot into XP it
failed.
Has anyone experienced a similar problem?
Does anyone know why chkdsk should do this?

report abuse reply

Jacques:

Hi everyone. I tried to use this article to create a dual boot on my computer. The first part
went good. The second partition has been created but when it came to restart the system
afer installing XP, I got the message Erro to load operating system.

System in not loading vista either. I tried to repair the boot sector usig repair start up with
Vista DVD but it reports no problem to repair.

No longer able to boot my system...still gettin error to load operating system and nothing
happens.

SOmebody can help? Ill be very happy to get help. Thousands of thanks.

JC

report abuse reply

Sam:

I installed xp fine. When I put in the vista dvd to repair the bootloader for vista, after
running startup repair, vista says it found nothing. Now I cant get into vista anymore. Is
there another way to get into vista? from the command prompt maybe?

HELP!!!

report abuse reply

fgfhgdfghdfbndfgbndfyfdgnb:

i haev the same problem, now it says, error laoding operating sustem, adn NEITHER
work, please help

report abuse reply

Jeremy:

Very good tutorial, except I might suggest that the author go back and add the bit about
the ntldr. Kind of a critical step for most users. Especially seeing how the replies to this
article keep asking about how to solve the issues.

To do the job manually (entering XP into your Vista boot record), Microsoft has a page
on it's support site: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529

report abuse reply

seawyfe:

I followed your instr. but XP only shows one part. Drive 0 If I select it it wants to format
it. I don't want to format it if Vista is on that partition and I can't find out. It indicates all
of lthe bites are free.
Please advise.

report abuse reply

Jacques:

Hi everyone. I just want to say that the solution to the problem when we get the error
message
ERROR LOADING OPERATING SYSTEM is to remove Vista from drive, reinstall XP
and than follow the procedure for Dual boot when XP is installed first. To remove VISTA
boot from DVD, go to install proceedure and when you see the partitions use disk options
and delete all partitions shut down and reinstall XP. Make sure to do a back up before.
Good luck.

JC

report abuse reply

gfdghdytfhbdfghdxfythd:
i fixed it. if u had the problem, 'error loading operating system'. i fixed it by installing
vista on the other partition, OVER the XP one. it told me xp will go in a folder called
windows.old and that i cant sue it, go ok, now in the load screen it says would u like to
load vista or vista? try one and if it asks about making log in names, reset ur computer,
and go to the other one. it should log in fine and everything should be as it was before.
from there since ur in there now, u should back up ur files before u try formatting that
partition with the new vista and old xp 'what i am currently doing right now' im only
doing the format thing right now so dunno if itll not making everything die again, but do
what i said up top to get back INTO vista so u can backup everything

report abuse reply

up the creek w/o OS:

I am getting "error loading operating system" when trying to boot Vista and the startup
repair isn't finding an error.

I canceled the install of XP because I couldn't see the 50gig partition I shrunk for it.

report abuse reply

Tjompen:

I installed Vista Build 6000 on first partition, XP on the second from a Ghost-image (had
it on partition 2 on the drive I copied it from therefore no need to edit the boot.ini file),
used this guide and the EasyBCD 1.52 and made my Windows XP entry, putting the drive
letter to C: for both. Then the Ntldr error came, googleed and tried every trick on the net,
changed the C: to D: etc but the solution for me was to copy the files ntldr, boot.ini and
ntdetect.com from the XP-partition to the Vista-partition. You will have make the system
files visible to find them. Now the problem is no more. Now both Vista AND XP boots
perfectly from the Vista boot loader.

Hope this helps all you out there with the same problem.

report abuse reply

lp:
I can't find the files; ntldr, boot.ini and ntdetect.com on the XP partition but I do see them
on my Vista drive. Because those files are always installed on your primary drive, and
this is vista for me. So did you meant copy it from the vista drive(C:) to the XP drive
(D:)?! If not what can I do then?
Thanks

report abuse reply

Tjompen:

Well, since I had a ghost image and did not install XP the normal way (I installed the
Vista normaly) The NTLDR ended up in the XP-partition as it should. If the ntldr and the
other files are found on the vista partition copy those to the xp as well.(Read my post for
what three files) Think this should work. I have the three files on both partitions. A
warning though, when I today updated my XP with IE7 the installation connected the
Vista-partition with the XP and I ended up with a mix and the next time I opened Vista
there was trouble. Suddenly the C-drive in Vista was the XP-partition...well my computer
got fucked up...To the question if I put C: on both Vista and XP, Yes I did. Why this
happened I dont know, my skills end right there...for now.

report abuse reply

lp:

Ok, thanks a lot Tjompen, but as you say your computer got f*cked up i'd be better not
try the 'copy-the-3-files-trick'? Or wasn't that the reason, was it because you have pointed
for both OS to C:\? I just really don't wont my vista installation to get messed up!
Torenada, how have you done it? Or didn't you had the ntldr error?

report abuse reply

Tjompen:

The reason for the f*** up was the installation of IE7 when I was in XP-mode. But since
I had backed up my partitions with the Vista backup found on Ultimate I could save most
of my work...

report abuse reply

lp:

I have copied the files (ntdetect and ntldr to the XP partition) but now I get the hal.dll
error! I'm almost there... Who can help me out? Thanks in advance

report abuse reply

Tjompen:

You need to copy the boot.ini-file as well AND make sure that it is pointing to the
position of the XP-partition. I have read that a faulty boot.ini gives the Hal.dll error

report abuse reply

lp:

Thanks. I thought it had to be because it didn't copied/find the boot.ini file. Anyway, I
don't find this file on my Vista nor XP partition.
After all I read/heard/experienced I start to doubt the use of this dual boot. As you said
some installations copy their files to the vista partition program files folder, often over
vista files. Also there is more chance of screwing up your OS/software/hardware or
eventually loose your files. For me personally, i don't like messing up my brand new
(pretty expensive) system...
Would you rather recommend the dual boot experience or advice me to delete the XP
partition and forget about it now no harm has been done yet...?
Cheers

report abuse reply

Tjompen:

Well, I find it impossible to have only Vista due to lack of drivers for my tv-card,
graphic-card etc. I have now run my dualboot for a few days without the problems I had
earlier so I am happy to be able to have them both. The importent thing is to make a
backup of the XP with Ghost or Acronis or whatever program you prefer for imaging you
drive and then use the backup in Vista to make a image for Vista. If something goes
wrong it does not take that long time to restore. For me it took less than 40 minutes to
restore the computer. Now that I know how it shouldnt take more than 25 minutes but I
do not expect more hassle...

report abuse reply

lp:

I thought I was saved (maybe I am) but I can't find the files anywhere! Where did you
find them? (the system files are set visible) And you just copied them from your D: XP to
your C: Vista drive?
For the bootloader you have also vista pointing to your C: and XP to your D: (or also to
C:?) Thanks in advance!

report abuse reply

Oppy:

Just got my new Gateway NX570X Laptop in the mail yesterday and have spent atleast
12 hours trying to get this thing to dual boot, the problem is it doesn't reconize any
harddrives when getting to the screen of which harddrive to install it on. Iread about
changing the settings BIOS setup and disable the SATA Native support and I can't seam
to find it, I would assume you were talking about the Bios settings when you hit F2 on
start up but not seeing where you can disable it if anyone could please help it would be
appreciative, I did partition the hard drive and I want to load xp pro with my vista.

report abuse reply

Torenada:

After many many days of working on this, I finally got my dual boot of Vista and XP to
work. However, now when I am logged into XP, it does not see a network connection, so
I have no internet. I have tried to ping the router and do ipconfig but it does nothing. Any
ideas on how I can get internet back on xp?

report abuse reply

Brad99:

I am having the same problem... Have you found anything

report abuse reply

lucas2007:

I haven't found any solutions on the internet to solve this?

report abuse reply

trouble getter:

i get same problem!!!help!!!!

report abuse reply

sjd:

I had the same problem. I put XP Pro on a SONY VAIO with Vista Business pre-
installed. In XP everything looked fine except I had no Network Adaptors showing in the
Device Manager. Therefore I couldn’t get onto the internet or connect to any networks
using XP.

Through the Device Manager on Vista I found that I had the following Network
Adaptors:

Intel® PRO/Wireless 394ABG Network Connection and Marvell Yukon 88E8036 PCI-E
Fast Ethernet Controller.

I just did a web search on both of them. The Marvell Yukon search gave me a link to a
site where I could download their setup software. I installed the software on XP and it
created an entry in Network Adaptors in the Device Manager. I plugged in my network
cable and it worked.
The Intel search took me straight to a download page on the Intel site. I loaded the
software on XP and it also created an entry in the Network Adaptors in the Device
Manager. Through Network Connections I created my wireless connection and it worked
as well.

report abuse reply

Myth:

Hello, I currently am on the windows xp portion of my pc. What i did wrong was not
search for info on dual-booting before i fell into my problem. What i did wrong was not
partition my drive before i installed windows xp professions sp2 over my windows vista
ultimate. I just left filesystem intact and created a new windows folder for example my
windows vista is under C:/Windows and xp is under C:/Windows2 . Ok and now the
problem. When i boot up the computer, both of the OS boot's say windows xp. I choose
the first one it takes me to the windows xp just installed. And when i choose the second
one it just leaves me at either a black screen or an error saying file is missing or corrupt.
File is hal.dll. How can i fix this problem. I read all the sites on that boot up for vista is
different than boot.ini. and i dont know how to work vista's boot up. Currently I am on
xp, and dont know what to do. Please help. Thanks.

P.S. I download windows vista from microsoft's live marketplace so it wont load up my
DVD when i burn the install files to it during boot. What should I do. I can easily
reformat and end all the problems, but i have too much important files and information on
my vista part that i need. thanks again.

report abuse reply

Chuppy:

These instructions worked perfectly for me, thanks! After I made the dual boot and
logged into Windows XP, I found that I needed drivers for this brand new HP Pavillion.
They were not readily available on the HP website. I had to log into their live chat and
wait while the person doled them out to me one at a time (via FTP link) over the course
of about an hour. Seems like they would have a better solution, but I have my drivers and
all seems to be well.

report abuse reply

George:

Hey Chuppy,
I was wondering what type of HP Pavilion you had purchased. I myself have the HP
Pavilion a1740n...
I've successfully dual opp'd my rig except I don't have the drivers for XP. I have no
sound, no internet connection,...etc on XP..I was wondering if you could possibly help me
out.

msn: nightfallfx@hotmail.com
Cheers buddy!

report abuse reply

Infopumper:

DV 9000 Laptop DV9208NR Preinstalled with Vista Home Premium..

Went through other older models within the DV9000 series.. Located all drivers I needed
for XP from there..
Make sure the Model you select is within the same series, and have the same Hardware
(all the way down to the Processor).. Should be fine from there to aquire the drivers..

BTW.. I want to thank the makers of this page..

report abuse reply

Elvi:

Hi Chuppy
I bought a HP Pavilion dv6560us notebook and i cant install Xp becouse i havent the
HDD drivers.
Please can you send them to my email: elvikeco2006@yahoo.com?
Thanks, Elvi

report abuse reply

mehdi:

hi chuppy

i have pavilion dv 2530

i do the following instruction but when i logon into my

xp i dont have internet connection , no sound , no fingerprint .etc .

i hope so someone help me with this i hate vista please

help me to get hp pavilion 2530 drives for xp .
tanks
mehdiphpbb@gmail.com

report abuse reply

slats:

Chuppy:
You are the man of the hour for many of us! I finally got dual boot to work on my
Pavillion a1744x. I got drivers from HP but still do not have sound or internet. I think I
can fix internet with my provider, but don't know how to get the sound up! Which driver
controls audio?

report abuse reply

BobMelbourne:

I have a new system with Vista Ultimate pre-installed by system builder. Wanting to add
200gig IDE Seagate HD already loaded with XP Pro. This was Master and only hard disk
in a prior system. To date have changed BIOS boot sequence to boot into 2nd HD (with
XP) instead of Vista. It goes thru POST etc then displays menu showing start up
options..start windows normally.. start in safe mode etc. I choose normal start however it
just restarts computer then displaying same start up menu screen again. What do I need to
do to make 2nd drive boot up with XP? or suggest other way of allowing Vista and XP on
separate drives to work.

report abuse reply

martinSyd:

Great article - thank you!

One quick question: I have installed Vista on a new, larger disk that has been partitioned.
XP was running on this machine prior to the Vista install and I would like to transfer my
existing XP disk image to the second partition on the new disk.
In the article it mentions that the new partition will have the next available drive letter so
I suspect that my plan is flawed as all my current programs and setting will try to access
the "C:" drive.
Is there any way around this? After much config work I'd hate to re-install either OS
everything again...

Thanks much, Martin

report abuse reply

lp:

I almost 'completed' my bual boot but I'm still saddled with the hal.dll error when I try to
start my windows XP.
I'm pretty sure it is because I can't find the boot.ini file. Copying the hal.dll file is a bad
idea btw.
So, can somebody help my with configuring the right boot.ini file?
My Vista is (originally pre-installed) on my C: and my XP partition is on the F: partition.
So vista is of course my primary OS. What should the boot.ini look like?
And where should this file be?
Thanks in advance!

report abuse reply

nhall:

I am actually having the same problem right now... what did you do to solve the hal.dll
issue?

report abuse reply

Jason:

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK
YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK
YOU THANK YOU
...oh and...THANK YOU!!

Honestly, this was wracking my brain and I'm so happy that you but together such a
thorough how to...you are my SAVIOR!!!

Thanks again!

JG

report abuse reply

Rockhound:

planning to get a new lappy(Vista home premium) and install xp pro into it..

well...since its preinstalled...can the given rescue/recovery disk be used to repair vista?

plus....the xp pro i have is with sp1...if i install sp2...would it be installed in the vista
installed-drive or the xp installed-drive?

report abuse reply

kmaiti:

I was trying to install XP on XPS410 which came preinstalled with Vista. The instruction
on this website is absolutely the best to follow. It works perfectly. Two things I would like
to add:
1. You can make partitions from Vista itself using drive management tool.
2. If you have one of the new systems with no IDE connections you need to install those
drivers via a floppy drive and for me an external usb floppy drive did not work.

report abuse reply

Abdeath:

Hi. i have vista home preinstalled. I wanted to install xp pro on it. it gives me the blue
screen. what do i do? if i need to do something with drivers how do i do that?

report abuse reply

Chiller:

I got passed my ntldr problem by copying the files from CD like what has been said, but
now when i attempt to boot into xp im getting an error pointing to system32\ntokrnl.exe
telling me it needs replacing. I got this far before and decided to reintall xp but its
happening again.

ive googled it, and apparently it can be caused by a currupt boot.ini but i wouldnt know
what one of them looks like so, here is my boot.ini(P.S. Location of boot.ini is
F:\boot.ini)

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"
/fastdetect /noexecute=optin /tutag=p55edn /kernel=tukernel.exe

report abuse reply

Hagan Walker:

The problem with this is that when XP installs, it automatically installs to a C:\ drive. If
Vista is on the C:\ drive, dont worry....it won't mess with it. Try this: In Vista, run
easyBCD and go to Add remove entries...delete the windows XP entry and click SAVE.
Now at the bottom where it says add an entry, add XP, but assign it to the drive C:\! click
SAVE, and reboot to see what happens...this should solve your problem....and many
others

report abuse reply

kmaiti:

I had that same problem. You need to download the appropriate controllers and put them
in a floppy drive. during XP install press F6 to specify their location in the floppy. Hope
this helps!!

report abuse reply

Anonymous$#:

What if I don't have a floppy to load RAID drivers from?

report abuse reply

The shaun:

this 'how to' guide was helpful to say the least but, it had missed a few things. I got a hp
pavilion 9205ca with vista home premi and no install dvd. the way i got around this for
the dual boot is like someone commented above. one you get to the xp install step install
.NET framework 2.0 and get easyBCD in there and use its reinstall vista bootloader and
click write MBR. Then when you restart you should get your choices between xp and
vista. Even better vista will boot up like a pro.

Much thanks to all who wrote this guide and who left comments. It was a great help.

report abuse reply

Jared:

I received vista business through my school, online. I also have an inspiron e1705 and I
partitioned the disk, but it only let me get 9 GB of free space on 100GB of memory (first
problem), then I put my old xp media center version in and it says it won't install a
system older then the new one which is vista, what do I do for both?
report abuse reply

Abdeath:

For those of you who get the blue screen while booting xp cd, this might work.

I had the same problem. My computer which is new had SATA hard drive. all i needed to
do was press F6 in the beginning of booting the xp cd, and specify the RAID-Controlled
SATA driver that you get from your manufacturer drivers.

This worked with XP SP2 cd, not SP1 but that could just be my cd. Hope it helped.

report abuse reply

jbo:

I guess you don't realize that EasyBCD is based on stolen program code. This is the only
reason I can see why you choose to publicize a rip-off program in a respected magazine
like yours.

report abuse reply

neilgriffs:

great article,wish id read it before trying to instal xp on a free partition,lol

report abuse reply

mat:

when i boot vista to repair it it doesnt find the hdd

report abuse reply

Anonymous23456:

Everything seems to be fine for me until i need to repair Vista, when i boot from the Vista
DVD, it doesnt give me the option to Rapair my computer. Any ideas?

report abuse reply

killer675:

Thank you so much, this was such a big help:)

report abuse reply

RPAUL:

First of, thanks for the great article and I am one of those stuck with Vista due to a new
purchase and abs. must have XP for some of my business software that does not run on
Vista.

When I install XP (following the steps above), I get the following error after I select the
free partition
"Drive C is unformatted, damaged or formated with a file system that is incompatible
with Windows XP. To continue installing XP, Setup needs to format this drive.
- To format this drive and continue Setup, press F1
- To return to previous screen without formating, press ESC"

The C drive is the Vista partition and I don't want to loose it, in the hope that someday,
Vista will fly. Help !

Thanks in advance

report abuse reply

Phil:

Hi guys,

Could anyone provide me some walkthroughs? I have a HP latop which came with the
Vista OEM version on the 1st internal hard drive. I purchased and installed a 2nd internal
hard drive on the laptop, as well as installed the XP retail on the second hard drive.
However, all I have now is XP whenever I turn on the laptop. How could I fix the issue so
that I could have dual OS on this laptop? By the way, if I physically take out the second
hard drive, I will not be able to boot up the Vista.

Please provide me some steps here. Thank you, guys.

report abuse reply

Roman:

Hi Phil,
I have exactly the same problem with Acer TravelMate laptop. Though I installed XP not
on a separate HD but separate partition.

Roman

report abuse reply

chuck:

I had followed the procedure above, and got vista and xp booting ok. I was working in xp
and downloaded any update for windows xp installed it, i also had installed a few other
things like a bluetooth adapter, nero, and some dvd coping software. As usual it prompted
me to restart to finalize the updates. I restarted tried to go into vista and it would not let
me. It flashes up an error screen for about 1/2 a second, something about if a new camera
or other device was installed disconnect and reboot, and then it reboots automatically. I
disconnected all my external devices and rebooted, did not help. I tried booting from the
CD and repairing the startup and it said it was not able to fix problem. At long last i used
my recovery cd and reset the vista partition to new, but when i go to my computer it
doesn't show the xp partition. The vista partition is still shrunk. I used BCD and tried to
re-add xp to the bootloader and it said that ntdlr was missing or corupt. Is there any way
to get back to my xp partition, and what did i do wrong to cause vista not to boot up.

report abuse reply

Chiller:

Has anyone got a fix for the system32\ntokrnl.exe problem im having? ive looked up and
down the internet for a fix but nothing seems to work. I dont want to use the XP CD to
repair my xp install just incase it trys repairing the vista install and kills that too.

report abuse reply

Gurshaan:

The author of this article REALLY needs to include a fix for the ntldr message. He should
also comment on the fact there are other ways to create partitions.

I had the ntldr error, the fix i used was:

Making sure bcdedit had my windows xp entry as C: (even though it was actually e: )
which is the same place as my vista install.

Copied ntldr and ntdetect.com to the c:\ folder. I had to also make a boot.ini file in the
same folder. Do this by opening up notepad and entering in

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"
/fastdetect /noexecute=optin /tutag=p55edn /kernel=tukernel.exe

Note partition(2) means xp is installe don the second partition of the drive, change this to
whatever partition your xp install is on. Observe you must do this twice.
Then saving as boot.ini make sure this is the name of the file once saved.

report abuse reply

chiller:
that sounds like something i would like to try however, my install of xp is on another HD
rather than on another partition. does this boot.ini still apply for me, or do I have to do it
another way?

report abuse reply

creomortis:

If your xp is on another hard drive you need to modify the lines, so partition(2) would be
partition(1) and disk(0) would be disk(whicheverhdnumber)
just google it, probably some kinds out there that will tell you exactly what you need to
put, i cant say specifically because i dont know your exact setup.

report abuse reply

SDG:

All above was really helpful and allowed me to get dual boot working perfectly - but only
after tearing my hair out for a couple of hours!! Because ...

If your XP OS is on another drive, as mentioned above, you need to change the value of
the RDISK() setting and NOT the DISK() setting (which should remain at 0)in boot.ini.

Then all should work ....

report abuse reply

Zeeshan:

So i made a mistake at the Windows XP partition stage, and i was made to reboot...so
when i tried booting to windows XP once more...it didn't let me. It sais "Error loading
Operating system" can and one help me on this?

report abuse reply

Karan:

Hi everyone. I tried this tutorial and was doing fine until I got to the stage of creating the
unallocated space in the vista installation setup.
I followed the instructions and shrunk the drive however when i left the Windows PE 2.0
shortcut the unallocated space did not show up on the partition page even after refreshing.
So i rebooted the vista setup cd and the unallocated space still failed to show.
So I then decided to just boot up vista as normal and I noticed in My Computer that the
the unallocated space appeared as a seperate drive even though i hadn't created a partion
on the unallocated space yet.
This looked suspicious and so I double checked in Computer Management and found that
the unallocted space actually exsisted as a partition and appeared as a seperate drive.
So then I booted up the XP installation setup and none of the partitions showed up.
Please help!
Thanks

report abuse reply

WDonohue:

This is all great, of course, assuming you HAVE a vista DVD or an XP cd to boot from.
Seeing as my system came w/vista preinstalled, and I don't have an XP disc.. it would
appear there are no great options for me huh?

report abuse reply

raindog:

Legally preinstalled OS's will generally have provision to create back-ups, but if you
have erased or deleted these then you are on your own.

Why don't you have an XP disc and how do you end up with two preinstalled OS versions
on one machine?

That said speak with your wallets people any machine not supplied with disc media is
either illegal or unsuitable for intended purpose. Do not purchase a machine without
Media for the installed OS. Your needs will likely change over time and you will save
yourself a lot of future grief.
report abuse reply

Lesley Hibbs:

get a life

report abuse reply

John F. K.:

I have a pre-installed version of Vista on my new HP notebook. I also have the recovery
disc that only allows you to restore the entire system to factory settings which installs
vista for you and all of the software in one go. So I have no disk for Vista although I have
my Vista serial number. I also am a student of UF (Gators) and we can download a free
version of XP or Vista with our own individual license key. The download installs an .iso
image file and so I have no XP disk either and everything is perfectly legal!

report abuse reply

Anon:

Hey.

I was fine through the installation of xp, up until the first restart. The computer restarts,
and gets to where it should continue with the xp installation, and right after it says press
any key to boot into the cd/dvd it says "failed to boot into os." It hangs there until I restart
or shut off. I couldn't get into xp or vista at that point. I managed to go back in and delete
the xp partition and get back into vista fine.

If it matters I am using two harddrives trying to install the os'es on separate drives.

When I tried to repair the startup of vista, it asked if I recently plugged in a camara or
mp3 player type device, and if I had disconnect it and restart hte computer. I checked the
log and it found no errors and said it booted into vista fine.

Please help, I really appreciate it!

report abuse reply

Tarek:

Thanks alotttt guys u made it working....

report abuse reply

chrisp27:

I bought a new pc with Windows Xp home edition installed and i got a cd with Vista
home premium upgrade.When i upgraded to Vista i got a msg saying my graphic card is
unsuported, I got a Nvidia Gforce 7600 i downloaded the international Vista driver from
Nvidias homepage and when i try to install it i get a msg saying " Ur not using Windows
Vista"
That s why i want to install Xp too but i get the blue screen saying i have no discs
available.Can someone tell me what i doing wrong?
p.s i splitted my hard disc to two parts already

report abuse reply

lyle256:

Help pleasee
I want to add a separate hard drive onto my new system which has Vista on hd. I want the
extra hd to have XP pro on it. Please tell me way/s of making this work having it as dual
boot procedure. Vista is loaded currently. Thanks in advance for help on this.

report abuse reply

John J. Spikes Jr.:

I followed all of your directions to a "T", though I have two 250Gb hard drives so I set up
an OS on each. It allowed me to completely setup my XP installation on the D: drive, but
now when I boot into XP, I can't use my Logitech mouse or keyboard. Both are cordless
and connect to the PC through a sender unit plugged into a USB port. As soon as XP
starts booting the lights go out on my sender unit. XP recognized both just fine
throughout the entire installation. Any ideas?

report abuse reply

hoffman:

i was doing the duel boot and i made the second partion
and went on to install xp i loox and it showed there was no unusued space i went back
into vista and the 60 gigs i was going to use for xp are gone

report abuse reply

Scotty:

I installed Network 2.0 and then did the BCD thing from XP to get Vista working and it
succefully loaded up. I then installed this in Vista and added XP in the bootup section and
now when I load up the comp, I get the choice between XP and Vista, and both work fine.
Just make sure you set both OS's to drive C.

report abuse reply

Geoff123456:

I get to the step where you switch to the XP disc, but XP doesn't see the unallocated
space, which shows up fine in the Vista install, 22 GB unallocated on Drive 0, 211 or
something on the first partition. XP just sees the reduced amount of partion 1, no
unallocated space. The only differences I can think of between this article and my
situation is I'm trying to use my original XP Home upgrade CD, so I have to put the
Windows ME upgrade CD in first to unlock it. Do I have to use XP Pro? Does it have to
be a full CD version, not an upgrade? Does it have to be SP2, not an original XP CD?

report abuse reply

Towtol:
I initially had Vista Ultimate installed with Bitlocker encryption enabled using a USB
flashdrive (C:\ and S:\ on the hdd).

I created a partition (X:\)and loaded XP onto it.

I found your guide after I realized that I didn't have the ability to dual boot.

I get to the Systems Recovery Options part of your guide and there isn't an OS to select
from. I decided to click on "next" anyway.

When I rebooted I got "a disk read error has occurred - press ctrl+alt+del" error message.
Pressing ctrl+alt+del reboots my system and takes me back to the same error message.

At this point I can't access Vista or XP.

Using my Vista DVD, I tried to reinstall Vista but the software won't let me install to the
same partition I had it on previously (it recognizes that it is encrypted with Bitlocker).

I was able to reinstall XP to the partition I had originally created for it.
I have tried EasyBCD and VistaBootPro from inside XP but neither recognizes that Vista
is installed on my hdd in order to reinstall the Vista bootloader.

I would like to gain access back to my original installation of Vista instead of having to
delete that partition from inside XP.

I have 2 gut feelings:

1. This problem has something to do with the original S:\ being created by enabling
Bitlocker and my USB flashdrive.
2. I get to use Patition Magic and reinstall Vista.

I intially wanted to have XP as part of a dual boot for the sole purpose of gaming.

If there is anything anyone can think of to help with this situation, I would greatly
appreciate it. Thanks!

report abuse reply

DaKhaa:
"Boot from the Vista DVD and on the screen where you’re prompted to “Install now”,
select “Repair your computer”."
I got my new PC today, with Vista pre-installed.
No Retail DVD, just a "recovery disc".
Can I dual boot with this too?

report abuse reply

Towtol:

You might be able to if your recovery disk has the files on it mentioned in this Mcrosoft
article - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529.

report abuse reply

AppleBag:

I have Vista Premium (installed first) on my main system SATA drive. And I have XP on
a second IDE drive.

I have copied the Boot folder and the file bootmgr from Vista to the XP root drive, as
well as copied ntldr, boot.ini and ntdetect.com from my XP (SP2) installation to the root
of my Vista drive.

After restarting, I can get into Vista fine. I restart and select XP, and I just hang forever
at a black screen?

Once I hit the restart button on the computer after that and try to login to Vista, Startup
Repair kicks in sayig it didn't start right last time and ask's me to repair (doesn't mention
what it's going to do). I click cancel, it does some other "attempting repair" progressbar
for ages, then I end up with a Send Error or Don't Send Error screen. I click don't send
and then Continue, and I boot up just fine into Vista again.

Another interesting note: If I boot the pc with my patched to SP2 XP install disk, it will
load into XP.

Anyone know what to do?

Thanks in advance for any help!

report abuse reply

AppleBag:

Thought I would post what I did to fix my particular issue, in case someone else has this
problem down the road and comes here:

What I did was, I edited the boot.ini on both roots from rdisk(0) to rdisk(1) (4 instances)
and now both Vista and XP load up fine from the bootloader.

report abuse reply

ihpsn:

i was wondering if there was a way to extend the xp partition after it is installed. i kinda
want more space on my xp partition now =p

report abuse reply

HaiiiIii:

hmm the situtation that am in has mayby nothing to do with the boot.

anyway here it goes.

the trouble is when i start Vista
my resolution is like the lowest so i need to change it for my own settings

and when i boot Xp its the same setting as last time.

does anybody know what am doing wrong or what the probleem is,

thanks in advance

report abuse reply

Bill Irwin:
Hi - great article. Built a new PC, installed Vista Home Prem, had issues with old
sw/peripherals, so installed XP Pro on another drive, set up dual boot as described here
with BCD. Works brilliantly.

Now have decided I can do without Vista completely, would like to delete the partition it
is in. I have BCD in the Vista partition though, so want to know if there are any traps if I:
1. disable dual booting via bcd in vista (C)
2. boot to XP in D:/ and use disk management to delete Vista (c:/)
I'm hoping that the XP part will now become c:/ - is it that simple? i suspect there could
be a big stuff up!

Any pointers appreciated, Bill

report abuse reply

Applebag:

I would just use an Imaging tool like Acronis True Image, make an image of your XP
partition. Then just put it on top of Vista (it will completely overwrite it sector for sector).

Just need to make sure you have the Vista drive set as the system boot drive in the Bios.

After that (if necessary) just use the /fixmbr feature of the XP boot disk, and format your
first XP drive for the extra space or whatever you want to do with it.

report abuse reply

Bill Irwin:

hey thanks, that sounds like a simpler option. I'm using Ghost for backups so *should* be
able to restore my XP partition to the Vista one right? The only thing that worries me is
all the paths set to D:/ by various software installed... might be a bit of tidying up to do
afterwards.

Bill

report abuse reply

David Provost:

Just took delivery of a new Dell XPS 410, and prepping to make this system dual boot.
One thing I notice is that the system currently has a D: drive that is set as the recovery
partition. Is there a way to designate space on the C: drive for this purpose so I can use D:
as my XP boot partition? Between the partitions on the hard drive, a second hard drive
and two optical drives, its just alot of drive letters to be shuffling with. Any thoughts or
suggestions from the other readers of this forum are greatly appreciated.

report abuse reply

Applebag:

There should be some program that came with the Dell to make a recovery cd out of the
recovery partition. You could try making the cd to be safe, and then just formatting that
partition for your double boot.

report abuse reply

David Provost:

That would be a good idea, since everything I'm reading tells me that partition takes you
back to INITIAL state, no need to keep it on the hard drive when a CD copy will do,
thanks. I'll look to see if there's a utility that came with the machine.

report abuse reply

Troy:

I just scanned through the previous comments and didn't see anything about something I
have been considering. What I was thinking of doing was installing XP onto a second HD
but first I was thinking about disconnecting the current HD with Vista then connect new
HD, install XP then plug Vista drive in. Can anybody tell me if this will work and what I
may need to do to make it work.
report abuse reply

chhuck12:

I tried this. I installed Vista on a SATA drive, disconnected it. Plugged an IDE drive in,
installed XP. This method worked perfectly, but NO boot menu/manager, when you boot
you always have to change the hard drives priority to choose which OS you want to use.
After days trying to find an issue, nothing worked.

I uninstalled all my OS, reinstalled XP first on my IDE (because SATA is not comptatible
with it first versions of XP). When the XP finished installing, booted from de Vista CD
without changing the hard drive priority. Let your second hard drive without any partition
until you're in the vista install menu, let Vista partition its own way. Remind that your
hard drive priority have to stay the same...the XP first and Vista second.

report abuse reply

David Provost:

following these instructions worked like a charm. Just a couple anomolies. The first was
that even though I created a new partition on the primary hard drive (using vista) and set
up the D: drive for XP, that partition was seen as F: by the XP install. Now my XP has
system installed on F: (not really a big deal) Second issue, I may have selected the wrong
option when update the SATA BIOS. Now when I reboot, the bios waits about 20 seconds
for me to hit CTRL-I to set up the RAID on my two sata drives. I dont want run these as
raid, so I just let it time out. Anyone have thoughts on who I can revert this BIOS setting
(I *think* its a bios issue anyway)

report abuse reply

David Provost:

Figured out my last problem, it was the boot order of devices, I had put the SATA/RAID
controller ahead of the system disk, which caused the long pause before booting.
Changed those around and all is well. Also had to download drivers from the dell website
for the Intel chipset, sound card (integrated) and modem.

report abuse reply

CDIZZLE:

so in theory i could do the whole dual boot thing to put xp on there with vista, then
remove vista because it sux, keep the xp, and not lose all the stuff i have on my hard
drive? if so, how would i remove vista?

report abuse reply

David Provost:

why not back up all the DATA (not programs, OS) on your vista machine to
CD/DVD/USB drive then reformat your drive and install XP from scratch?

report abuse reply

ptownprinc:

Thanks for your great article, I was able to install both,

they are up and running, and I am a happy camper again!

KUDOS!

ptownprince

report abuse reply

burritobrother:

Argh, help!
When I tell it to shrink (using that shift+F10 thingy), it gives me this message: "Virtual
Disk Service error: The specified shrink size is less than the minimum shrink size
allowed. The arguments you specified for this command are not valid."
Cheers in advance.
report abuse reply

thanks:

the informatic need people like you...

thanks.

report abuse reply

wutdlandish:

after reading this:

"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."

i notice you don't actually offer any solution to the problem, or explain why you are
giving us advice on this dual boot when infact it could mess things up. why?

report abuse reply

Grum:

I followed the above instructions to the pin point until realising that the vista disk i have
was actually a recovery disk that came with my Asus lap-top and not the install dvd.
Right, as you've probably presumed i carried on probably out of stupidity but i like to
think i was just being adventurous!
As it stands i have installed vista (c:) and XP (e:), the EasyBCD was already installed
from when i tried before and it simply didn't work (which when i tried to install again i
noticed Vista recovery had actually deleted the XP partition).
Well now i want out and would settle with W2K!

I have a toaster as far as my knowledge takes me, when i boot up i get the 'Asus' welcome
page and it just sits there, if i reboot and press F2 for BIOS i get the system specs and
'entering SETUP...' followed by auto detecting the USB, IDE Hard Disk, ATAPI CDROM
then Pri Master details but it just sits there.
Anyone any ideas? Please, please, please!

report abuse reply

dbplists:

Basic overview on how to get back to square 1:

1. Get a boot cd and use it to re-format your hard drive (there are many freely available,
e.g. gparted)
2. Use the recovery dvd to re-install vista.

Your system will be perfectly fine. If you want more details, e-mail me at dbplists-at-
gmail-dot-com

report abuse reply

granny52:

Hi all I had all the above problems, too (Vista on drive C, XP installed second on D:) The
solution for me was to reinstall XP (it asked if I wanted to install into same directory as
before, I said yes, & it kept all my files & settings) I was then able to boot into XP & run
VistabootPRO from within XP & it set up the dual boot perfectly. hth.

report abuse reply

Guy:

We followed all the instructions and finally got the duelbooting to work but when ever we
go onto XP there is no sound devices available for some reason when they still work
perfectly fine on Vista what would we have to do to get the sound to work on XP aswell?

report abuse reply

V15T4:

I had the same issue after installing XP today to dualboot with Vista Ultimate. For me it
was simply a matter of having individual driver packages for each OS. In comparison of
Vista Ultimate and XP, I have found that in most cases you DO NEED OS specific
drivers, depending on the hardware.

eg.

ATI Drivers are OS Specific, A few sound cards I have tested are also.

You can usually download OS Specific Drivers from your OEM's website.

Good Luck.

report abuse reply

DavidB:

I was able to do the dual boot install with XP and Vista. I still use XP as my main work
environment and boot into Vista to play and slowly install programs there to see what
works and what doesn't. I installed office 2003 OK on Vista (It was already installed on
XP). Now, I would like to share the "My Documents" folder of XP so that I can
read/write that folder and any documents within it from Vista. How do I do this? I don't
want to allow "everyone" access to the "My Documents" folder -- only my userid from
my Vista boot and my userid from my XP boot. I am afraid to try to take ownership of
"My Documents" from Vista because I'm afraid that I will no longer be able to access the
files from XP. Is it possible to set permissions so that both XP and Vista can have r/w
access to the same files but yet not open up the directory to everyone? (I know that I
could do this with a separate server but that's not the question).

Thanks,
David

report abuse reply

xyz:

excellent

report abuse reply

Roger:

I have upgraded my Notebook from XP Media to Vista Home Premium and have
difficulty running some applications. Rather than partition my disc I thought it might be
easier to use an external USB HD and then setup the notebook to boot from the external
USB first in the bios. Is this a good approach, as I have read there can be issues which I
thought this might negate them. Thanks Roger

report abuse reply

Tjmax:

Not really,

See you have an issue trying to boot XP from usb. When XP starts booting, it will load
the USB drivers and effectivly disconnect the boot drive from the system. The only way
around it is complicated and messy.

report abuse reply

Slats:

I have been attempting to do this in vain.

I have the following HDDs: 320 GB ATA drive in NTFS format with Vista. Old hard
drive is 40 GB IDE in Fat 32 format with XP. To get around the booting problem can I
install the old hard drive as slave to the new hard drive? Or are the two incompatible?

report abuse reply

slats:

Refer to my previous comment #195. Had more tough experience with this: Found out
that the SATA and IDE were incompatible so I got an IDE to SATA converter that works
just fine with everything but a dual boot! The system recognizes the slave drive and all its
files, but it still will not boot into XP! Anyone, anyone have any ideas about this? I have
set up dual boot systems in the past but never with this much trouble. I am at the point of
suggesting a new motto for microsoft: If it's Microsoft it suks!

report abuse reply

Mike:

I wasted some hours trying to get my Vista to recognize the newly installed XP last night.
This morning I found this site and tried what was suggested, ... voilà it worked. Thanks
guys.

report abuse reply

Marsh:

Hi,

I bought a new Toshi laptop w/ Vista installed and am trying to make it dual boot. I
installed XP Pro OK, but things got screwed up with the ntldr issue (I wish I'd read all the
comments). So, I tried reinstalling XP Pro. During the install, instead of an EULA and the
option to select a partition, I got a message saying there's already a \WINDOWS folder
on the drive. Thinking this was the existing XP folder, I went ahead and used it. I was
wrong, it was on the Vista partition and broke Vista. So I reinstalled Vista and deleted the
XP partition. Now, whenever I try to install XP, I have the same problem: no EULA, no
partition choice, just the option of wiping out Vista's \Windows folder or aborting the
install.

Can any of you geniuses suggest a way around this?

report abuse reply

Marsh:

I too had the dreaded ntldr problem and have a few points that may help others. (1) If you
follow the tutorial, chances are boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com ARE installed on your
system. Make sure your viewing options are set to allow you to see system files and go to
C:\. The files were there for me: no need to copy them from the XP installation CD. (2)
You really have two options on how to configure the system to access these files properly.
In my case, the problem was that the files were in C:\, but the BCD was set to boot off of
D:\ (which is where I have XP). You can either (a) copy the files from C:\ to D:\ (i.e.,
wherever you have XP), OR you can change the BCD to point to where these files are
(C:\). Since boot.ini points to the partition where XP resides, STARTING the boot
process from somewhere else works fine. The advantage of copying the files is that if one
of the partitions becomes corrupted, the other one may still work. The disadvantage is
that you have duplicate files taking up space; if one copy changes, you have to locate and
fix the others; and it's less elegant. (3) I used VistaBootPro to fix the BCD. It worked
fine. Don't worry about its need to have .NET installed. Vista has .NET. Just install
VistaBootPro under Vista and run it there.

report abuse reply

mark:

i have done everything as said and it works

but now i wish to give xp more space as it only has

2gb left where as vista has 25gb free space how do i
give xp an extra 15gbs of vista's space now that the
dual boot has already been made?

report abuse reply

John:

Hi,

I used this guide to add an XP installation next to an existing Vista installation, with the
difference that I used a second hard disk for XP.

This is what I did:

- Add second hard disk as slave and boot Vista. Vista boots (from primary) and
recognizes the second hard disk and I can browse the files on it.
- Boot with XP cd-rom and install XP on the second hard disk (which it calls D:). The XP
installation copies its files and reboots. Then I get a boot error.
- Boot with Vista cd-rom and repair the MBR. Vista recognizes the (one) Vista
installation, I choose to repair the MBR and it reports that it found an error and fixed it.
- Reboot Vista -> boot error!

And there I get the standard boot error message at the command prompt. I disconnected
the second hard disk (with half-way XP install) and set the DVD player on that cable
back to primary. Still the same error.

Now I can only boot with the Vista cd-rom. It still finds the (one) Vista install, when I try
to repair it it reports there was nothing to repair. But still I can't boot it...

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Regards,

- John

report abuse reply

Chown:

I installed xp after vista but i dont have a vista install cd, in gparted i can see the drives, i
want to boot to vista to repair the bootloader but i cant even though the vista partition is
flagged for boot, the extended partition for xp is flagged lba but it boots into xp and not
vista. please help me out =]

report abuse reply

Doug Hynes:

The following method has been working for me to add an XP boot to an existing Vista. It
has the advantages of not needing to repair the Vista boot AND of having the XP system
drive installed as C:

1. Create the available space as described in the article

2. Using Disk Manager from Vista, create a new partition in that unallocated space --
don't use the XP install to do that.

3. Still in Disk Manager, set that new partition as Active. WARNING: That means that
the machine will now be trying to boot from the empty partition. That's OK because the
next thing you're going to do is install XP from a bootable CD. If you restart and then
change your mind, you'll have to have some bootable utility to change the active partition
again.

4. Boot from the XP installation CD and start the install. When you get to the step where
you select the XP partition, you'll notice that your new target partition is C! That's
because the active partition is always assigned that letter at this point. So your new
partition will show as C and the existing Vista will show up as some other letter. So XP
WILL be installed as C. Vista will remain C, too. Finish the install.

5. Once XP is running, copy NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, and BOOT.ini from the XP

partition to the Vista partition. This is required because the Vista partition will soon be the
boot partition again .

6. Still from XP, use Disk Manager to change the Active partition back to the original
Vista partition. The Vista partition's letter will show up as something other than C, doesn't
matter, it will be C when booting Vista. Since the XP install never touched the Vista
partition, NO repair is needed -- reboot and Vista will startup again.

7. Use EasyBCP as described to add the XP boot.

I can vouch from experience that this works very well. In fact you can have any number
of Windows OSes all running as C using this method. You can also adjust drive letters
using the HKLM/System/MountedDevices registry key. I've used this method to have 5
or 10 OSes installed in different partitions all at one time, and to restore various images to
any partition and then fix the drive letters.

report abuse reply

OzzY:

Works good .. thanks guys

report abuse reply

jim:

Your variation looks attractive since Vista is untouched. I would like to have the two OS's
on physically separate drives. Can your method apply to to this case also?

If so please detail the differences in procedure.

report abuse reply

Doug Hynes:

This is trickier but possible. You can still use this basic method, but you have to create, at
least temporarily, a small empty partition on drive 0.

Windows has the concept of the "system partition" where the actual OS is, and the "boot
partition" where boot sector and loader are located. While the system partition can be on
any partition on any drive, the boot partition has to be the active partition on drive 0.

Why my method works without modifying Vista is because by changing the active
partition, the Vista boot partition isn't mucked with. The article's method requires the
repair because XP, not knowing about Vista, wipes the Vista boot information with its
own. In either case, the last step is teaching the Vista partition to also act as the XP boot
partition.

So, just as in the instructions above, create an empty partition on drive 0 and set it to
active. The difference is, this partition can be tiny because it's just going to hold the boot
files. Then boot from the XP cd and install to any drive and partition you want. Then
follow the rest of the instructions, except you'll need to copy the XP files from the boot
partition and not from the main XP partition.

When you're done and have reset the active partition to the Vista partition, you can delete
the other partition on drive 0 -- it's no longer in play.

This still has the advantage of not touching Vista BUT your resulting XP will NOT have
drive C as the system drive.

It is possible to have the XP partition end up as C but it's more work, potentially a lot
more. What you do is initially install XP on the active partition, then use Norton, Acronis,
or some other imaging utility to copy the partition to where you want it, then modify the
MountedDevices registry to tell XP to see the partition as C.

I used this method to build lots of test boxes off the same images so the effort was worth
it, but may not be worth it to you for one setup. OTH I just find a system drive letter
that's not C always eventually causes headaches.

report abuse reply

BobN:

Hi Doug,

Excellent posting! You have now given us the definitive solution. It should solve
everyone's NTLDR, HAL.DLL etc problems. I wiped my XP partition and reinstalled XP
with your system. XP installed perfectly and dual booted correctly with Vista. The trick is
clearly to make each partition active as required.

During my previous XP installation, the PC rebooted several times (as normal) but could
not find the HAL.DLL file each time. I worked round this, but ended up with the system
files installed in a BOOT directory rather than a WINDOWS directory. XP did run, but I
was never happy with the installation.

My problem is now to find XP drivers for my HP Pavilion DV6200 laptop. The ones I
have downloaded from the HP FTP site do not appear to install correctly. If you can offer
any help in this direction I should be most grateful. In the meantime,I shall email HP
technical support!

report abuse reply

Vanya:

Where do I find NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, and BOOT.ini in the XP partition?

report abuse reply

Joe Searfoss:

Doug,
This is what I was looking for. I want to keep the drive letter for Vista and XP the same
(C). One question before I dive into it. Do you have to go in and change the active
partition each time you want to switch between Vista and XP to keep the drive letter to C,
or does installing it this way and then using the Vista boot manager still keep the drives
the same ?

Thanks

report abuse reply

Sipa:

I setted the new patition as Active and boot it from XP CD but I only see C: drive with
full disk space. I dont see an other drive which should be Vista per your doc. Please help!
Thanks!
report abuse reply

David P:

Others believe your system works well. I wanted to dbl-chk a couple things before i try it.
My system: HP dv6500t CTO new laptop with Vista Ultimate 64-bit and SATA drives.
No system disk; it's OEM only with a recovery disk.
What I want: a dual-boot with Xp Pro SP2 as the other OS.
Questions:
1) No floppy. How get SATA drives in there so XP will recognize it and boot off it?
Where find and how to get into machine?
2) Will the recovery disk work (don't have system disk for Vista)?
3) Is Vista/64 a problem if I want to put on XP/32-bit?

Thank you so much in advance for taking the time to share your thoughts!

report abuse reply

Razher:

I have same problem and i don't have any drivers! I know that you can use nlite program
to integrate sata drivers to winXP installation. Can you send me those drivers? If you
need, i can send you nlite
Thanks

report abuse reply

Arthas:

So, how can you dual-boot Vista / XP, with Vista being pre-installed and I don't have the
Vista DVD. 'Cause as I follow the HOW TO, it mentions to repair the MBR using Vista
DVD.

report abuse reply

Sonny:
This is a much needed issue that needs attention. Perhaps the generous author of these
articles could create one for just this situation?

Hard to derive meaningful steps to follow from all of the various posts found herein.

My experience thus far has been painful in trying to follow these steps with pre-installed
Vista.

I used Gnome to resize partition. Then tried to load up XP. But, continue to get hit with
.psi problem and corrupted boot files.

I can load Linux but computer won't even load Vista any longer, XPPro can't load either.

Any assistance for those of us with these pre-installed systems without disks would be
greatly appreciated.

THANKS! Sonny

report abuse reply

sjd:

Before I started all this I created VISTA recovery disks. If you boot up using the recovery
disk you will get the same screen as is shown in the turorial. ie - repair your computer,
etc.

report abuse reply

Esoteric:

This guide look real good and I will certainly be using it to install XP OS but I have a
little question:
I have Vista that was pre installed and I will install XP as a second OS but I also wish to
install Linux so my question is witch guide do I follow after installing XP to then install
Linux?? Or is it a case of any will do??
Thanx in advance for help.

report abuse reply

bw_william:

Can anyone please tell me, after I installed dual boot system. Do I need to reinstall the
driver? I have got other softwares installed on Vista, am I able to use them under XP or I
need to reinstall them?
Thanks.

report abuse reply

Rj:

Does anyone know how i can get this to work for a ACER aspire 5610 laptop?

report abuse reply

Trigio:

Hi,
My laptop doesn't have a floppy drive to install the sata driver when i boot from the XP
CD.
Yesterday i got me an external USB drive, formatted a floppy, put on the RAID SATA
drivers,
boot from the XP CD,
F6,
Loaded the drivers,
Setup sees the unformatted partition and formats it,
windows tries to install on that partition and asks again for the RAID drivers on A:
So i press 'enter' but nothing happens???
It just stays there and does not look at the floppy or the install CD.
The only option left is F3 = quit install.
Anyone got some ideas?
TNX, T.

report abuse reply

Bane:
Alright, I decided I wanted a dual boot. My laptop came w/ Vista Premium install on the
C: drive and a second partition that I named as my B: drive. I wanted to splitt B: into
another partition lets say K: and i wanted to make K: my XP pro partition. Well... I didnt
think anything of messing anything up..so I just pop in my XP disk and went to my B:
partition and reformat it and make it into two more partitions. Well when I started I
choose the wrong option and choose to Install keeping files. So installing XP on my full
B: partition instead of making an K partition.

I couldnt get out so I just held the power button down to restart the Computer when it
restarted and w/ the disk out I keep getting a Error loading operating system.

So at this very moment I have put the XP disc back in and Formating the B: partition.

As soon as that has finished should I put in my Vista disc and try to recover or should I
go ahead and make a K: and install XP, and then do the the Vista repair. Or is my Vista
completely trashed and I have to make a complete new install.

Please let me know if you have any answers or suggestions.

Thanks before hand.

report abuse reply

Bane:

Well it doesnt seem like I hurt my computer there....after that I got Vista to run again with
the repair. Then I went and made two partitions and went to install XP. After the
formatting and everything and when it went to restart into the GUI it said Error loading
operating system...so i tried do the Vista repair and so that way I could do the
EasyBCD...but Vista would never repair and I couldn't get booted back on to do that. So
now I am kinda stuck as it wont repair and it wont boot in either operating system. Please
help.

report abuse reply

Bane:

Ok I got my system back to somewhat normal. Since I couldnt run any restore points or
system what I did was Install a clean version of Vista on the second partition. After it
finished and rebooted I restarted and I had the option of booting a different Vista (my
orginal) and it work..no error...so I went and deleted and formated the new Vista partition
and I can now use my original. I dont know if I am going to try and do a dual boot again
any time soon but there was also an option of on the start up, to start w/ an earlier version
of Windows..if anyone knows how I can get rid of this option please let me know...I sorry
for all the posts that I ended up fixing myself...I just didnt want to have to sit here for a
day or two without my main computer, so I just fooled around with it a bit.

Also it seems my highspeed USB ports are no longer highspeed? I plugged in my

external hdd and it said this device can perform at a higher speed blah blah blah...and I
left one of my external hdd plugged in during all this and i think it got messed up because
it isnt opening on my Vista computer and on my xp computer it says that it is currupted.
But it is still being recognized on both systems. Anyone know what I should do about the
3 things.

report abuse reply

Cowboy:

I have the same problem....I get Error Loading Operating System and I cant get into
vista.....any idea's please.

Thanks

report abuse reply

Alex M:

Thanks for the article. I will be reformatting my computer in the next few weeks and this
is exactly what I was looking for. I already have Vista installed on a separate drive, so I
imagine the steps to format my XP drive and reinstall it are much the same as described
here.

report abuse reply

Todd F:

Thanks for the great post. I ran into one other problem that I had to fix and I'm not sure if
anyone posted yet (although there are about 150 replies). After shrinking my first
partition the windows xp installer would not find the free space I created. The reason was
that my hard drive is about 250gigabytes and Windows XP Pro as released without any
service packs will only recognize 150 gigs of space before it stops. So the installer would
only look so far into my hard drive before deciding there was only one partition. I was
forced to slipstream windowsXP service Pack 2 into an install disk. See this great article
for how to do that:
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp

Also while doing that I couldn't find a version of nero6 that would work properly (the
demo for 7 kept failing, and don't try Nero in vista!) so I found an online download here
with the cd key at the bottom of this page under Radderz post:
http://www.soft32.com/download_263.html
Thanks again!

report abuse reply

Jack:

I have a new HP desktop with Vista Home Premium pre-installed, and am trying to install
XP in a dual-booting configuration. I don't have a Vista install disk, so I'm using Gparted
to shrink the existing drive and create a new partition. I've download Gparted 3.4-7 to a
CD, but the computer won't boot to it. What am I doing wrong?

report abuse reply

Soapy:

I think I have the same laptop as mentioned in post #48- an HP Pavilion with Vista Home
Premium preloaded. No disk, but an HP recovery disk.
HD is a Hitachi HTS541616J9SA00 ATA 160GB.

I have the partition, but when booting from an XP CD I get the "Cannot find any hard
drives " error.

In post 49, it is suggested that SATA support be turned off in the BIOS- but there is no
ability to do this in the Phoenix BIOS. Shutting off DMA support does not help.

Any ideas?

report abuse reply

CheeseREX:

2 questions

Do I back up my files as a precaution, or am I doing it because they will be reformatted?

and
How would I go about the Vista repair process if Vista came pre-installed(I have no Vista
dvd to boot to the repair startup)?

report abuse reply

Tom:

I was sent this article.

http://bertk.mvps.org/html/dualboot.html

Anyone experiencing this with Vista dual boot?

report abuse reply

evilkidbuu:

Hello. I haven't done this dual boot yet, because i am unsure if it works or not and i have
some questions. I have the Windows Xp Boot disc with a serial number. However that
serial number is used for my laptop.

Do i need a new serial or not, or i don't need a serial at all?

After all these instructions, do windows vista make a backup on the hard disk?

Is this really works without any problems?

Please answer me by emailing me at: evilkidbuu@hotmail.com

report abuse reply

woodlander:

ok, so i see that my previous comment was either deleted or not added at all. hmmm...

anway, it questioned the fact that, under the situation you advocate, xp is installed to
drive D instead of drive C. you yourself point out the possible problems involved in this
and i won't go into it futher.

but, i have just installed windows 2000. i used the 2000 boot disk to create 2 partitions
when i was installing it. i installed 2000 to the primary partition. then i installed vista to
the second one. vista has automatically dual booted me with 2000. it gives me the option
from the vista boot screen of "previous version of windows" or vista. this is obviously
from a clean install, your guide aims for an existing installation with a disk shink.

but, what this has done for me is that vista and 2000 both think they are installed on the
drive called C. ie, when you boot up with 2000, drive C has the 2000 installation on it.
but when you boot vista, it does exactly the same. and this is not either installation using
eachothers partition either. i know this because of verifying the size of the drive.
whenever you boot up vista, the D drive switches its name to drive C. how cool is that?
this is very smart behaviour for both operating systems. and one i would advocated if you
were wanting a dual boot.

report abuse reply

kiko:

hi guys. i am dentist that actually really stupid in computing.looolz.i installed vista after
xp and everything was going so fine and i got dual booting between both with no any
problems.meanwhile after some time i inserted xp cd to do some repairs in the
system.after finishing this step i did restart and suddenly the dual boot page didnt appear
on startup and everytime directs me immediately to xp and no vista anymore.plz guys if
anyone have anyidea about me mess.plz reply.thnx alot

report abuse reply

newdell:

Hi everyone I bought a dual core from dell with vista already on it. I tried to install xp. It
would crash after booting from the "xp install cd" and would only let me reboot. It would
state that there was a problem and windows was shutting down to prevent problems and I
should run check disk and virus scan to see if the drive is still ok. I tried several things
from reading posts. I tried to format everything using the vista cd and then putting the xp
cd in. It would load but right before the "agree to terms" part it would shut down and
show a blue screen. I also tried to install vista first and then partition the hard drive using
the shrink tool in vista and then I booted with the xp cd and it still did the same thing and
gave me the blue screen letting me know that it was going to stop and I should check my
hard drive. PLEASE HELP. I tried everything I could from forums and I still cannot load
xp on. I would actually rather just have xp than have a dual boot but will take a dual boot
if it is the only way to have xp. Thank you in advance!

report abuse reply

Appleman:

I am having the same problem as you on a new quad core dell dimension 9200. I am
looking for some help on this

report abuse reply

woodlander:

hey kiko, the xp boot cd has viewed the vista bootloader as something to be 'repaired' and
got rid of it, then replaced it with it's own. since xp bootloader cannot recognize vista,
you wouldn't be able to dual boot.

i think you just need to use this bdsm piece of software these guys write about in the
article

report abuse reply

kiko:

dear wood lander.thanx alot man for ur care conserning my mess.but fortunately i dunno
the software that u r talking about plz if u can tell me about it or type its link again so as
to help me as i am really disappointed from what happened by the xp cd.thnx

report abuse reply

janderman:

OK - So I have both a partition with XP (15G ) and one with Vista (182G) on my
machine.

I can boot into Vista using the Vista boot loader. I added the XP boot to the EasyBCD
boot list and it appears on the Master Boot Loader screen with the Vista boot option.
When I select the XP boot option, I get a 'NTDLR not found' error.

If I remove the MBD I can boot the XP installation but then to get back to Vista, I have to
repair the boot loader from the Vista DVD.

Also - when I look at the deatails on the Easy BCD details page - it seems that it is trying
to boot the XP install from F: even though I selected C: in the XP boot set-up!

Any assistance or ideas would be greatly appreciated!!!

report abuse reply

cntrading:

I have the same problem as Janderman.

I have tried resinstalled both vista and xp(mce) again. And same failure accur (cannot
find \ntldr). I have tried with both XP and Vista installed first but no change. I have used
Acronis for making new partitions in Vista before I installed XP the first time.

Using Easybcd i also see that the drive letter change (to C: from E:) when I want to add
XP to the list.

I also need ideas.

report abuse reply

cntrading:

Used the vista installation disk to format the drive where I previus had the XP installed.
Also used Vista to "shink" the partion. Then follow the guide, and this time it worked.
Maybe Vista need to make the partion it selves to make it work.
When using Easybcd it shows that C: is used for both Vista and XP.???? Dont no why but
it still works

report abuse reply

You Can Partition Using Vista's Built In Programs...:

just to let every1 know, vista has its own partitioning program built in... google it

report abuse reply

johnnylinux:

1.vista partition must be set active (use gparted acronis boot cd partition magic or fdisk
etc) otherwise it won't continue the installation during the first reboot. ALSO make sure
you format the partition with vista. If you use a partition tool to create a partition label
vista won't install when it reboots. (if you are concerned about xp dumping files in your
vista partition you can use acronis boot cd or what ever to hide your vista partition until
you have installed xp/programs)
2.It does not matter whether you install vista first or or xp as far as i can see. When i
installed xp 1st and vista ultimate (cd not dvd) 2nd, xp did not show up in the vista boot
loader. I tried installing vista 1st and xp 2nd i ended up with the same situation.
3.The answer was so simple. First thing is to install EasyBCD 1.6. In the 'Add/Remove
Entries ' Advanced options' add an xp entry. You will probably find like i did that your xp
entry will point to the c: drive even though your XP partition is not 'c:' (note your 'active'
partition c: is now windows vista) You don't need to change the default setting but if your
xp entry is not pointing to the c: drive you can change it manually under the 'Entry-based
settings' in the 'Configure Boot tab). The second thing to do is simply copy the files
'NTLDR' and 'NTDETECT' from your xp CD (located in the i386 folder) to the c: drive
of your windows vista partition. Your vista partition should now have the following:

c: NTLDR
c: NTDETECT

reboot and enjoy

So much time wasted on this when i could have been installing the new versions of
fedora, ubuntu and xandros which just arrived in the mail this week. With your favorite
linux distrubutions you simply install each 'grub bootloader' in your boot partition for that
distribution. You can do this during your Linux installation by choosing the 'advanced
boot loader settings'.
By using 'EasyBCD' you can use the 'vista bootloader' to point towards your Linux boot
partitions. The way i set up Linux was adding an entry the xp boot.ini file with 'bootpart'.
It is so easy and hassle free to reinstall windows since i never had to touch my linux
installations when windows needs reinstalling (note install your linux boot partitions after
your c: drive) .

Cheers everybody johnnylinux

report abuse reply

johnny:

An update on booting fedora 7 with EasyBCD 1.6. The first time i went to the
'Add/Remove' tabb, Linux/BSD tabb, the 'Drive' partition number showed my boot
partition as being number 3. I added the entry and tried to boot Fedora but with no luck. I
read the great documentation on the 'NeroSmart' website and discovered the awesome
'SuperGrubDisc '.

I burned the image and within a few minutes i was able to locate grub and boot fedora 7
for the first time after installation. I rebooted Vista and tried EasyBSD again and this time
the drive (partition) listing was in a different order. The /boot partition was now number
1. I added the entry and rebooted and it worked like a dream. Great program and
excellent documentation.

report abuse reply

Mike:

Ok, im in a bit of a mess here considering i can't get further unlike the majority here.
From my pre-installed Vista, i went to My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management
and was able to Shrink my main and primary drive in which Vista Ultimate is installed on
(400 GB Sata Drive). I was then able to set about 100 GB of unallocated space over that
will be used for the XP partition. When i insert my XP setup disk, and boot i receive the
error that it doesn't detect any hard drive or partition. Anyone have any suggestions on
what i should do because im lost even though reading thru all the comments.
~Please and thank you

report abuse reply

Hamid:

I'm having the same problem. As nobody has answred here yet, did you find a solution
from anywhere else?

report abuse reply

hackman:

I have seen this error with some sata controllers.

It can be bypassed by going into the bios and choosing the compatibility mode for the
sata controller.

report abuse reply

MaxRabbit:

So if I have Vista on drive C, and install XP on G, when I install something system-

related on XP, how will it install to G:\windows instead of C:\windows?

That is something that bugs me, and I am unsure about.

report abuse reply

Chasl77:

I partitioned my hard disk using Disk Management, Vista OS on C: drive, XP on E: drive

and Data on D: drive. I tried numerous time to reboot with XP setup disk but each time it
just reboot into Vista not detecting XP setup disk at all...pls help.

report abuse reply

antonio:

ok after reading all the problems you guys had i dont even recon is a good idea to et into
all this but i need to dual boot my laptop with xp and vista i followed the tutorial in here
which went fine till i was meant to install xp, the program compatibility assitant in vista
does not let me install it and i dont know if i am just missing something really obious. can
anyone help? thanks

report abuse reply

bronxbadhan:

If your still wondering where you went wrong, I had the same problem. You don't install
after you log in to Vista, you install from BIOS setup. When your PC starts up, find the
BIOS menu, like F2, and change your boot order to cd/dvd drive first.

report abuse reply

Anonymous95B10:

Can't thank you enough for this post -- you saved my sanity. Works perfecty if you follow
the directions. Save yourself some time and download BSD on your Vista partition before
you start.

report abuse reply

zeerocks:

I bought a desk top with Vista installed.

If I add a second HDD from an old PC that has XP installed, can I use easyBCD to set up
for dual booting?
OR do I need to install XP from a CD so that Vista knows about it?
Cheers
Phil
report abuse reply

Jack Bauer:

Similar query to Phil 222.

I just installed Vista on a new 250GB HDD, while keeping XP Pro and all my apps on the
old HDD.

Keeping the case open if I want to switch back to XP because certain apps are not Vista
compatible (according to Vista on install, like Nero 7 Premier), all I do is switch data and
power cables from one to the other HDD.

Presumably if I had both plugged into the m/b simultaneously, I could simply go into
Bios on boot and switch the boot priority order to either HDD to get me the option of
which OS to run at any one time.

I don't want to get both OS on the new HDD. Any advice appreciated.

report abuse reply

Ajax:

I just loaded XP pro on a seperate hardrive to Vista on my brand new HP pavilion dv9000
series laptop. I followed the instructions on this link and it works perfectly. easyBCD
works a treat and the only other thing I had to do that is not mentioned by the authors of
this article is to install drivers for sound, graphics and USB support for XP. When I boot I
get a choice of either vista or XP and both boot up no problems at all.

I am not an expert by any means but have built about 20 systems for friends so far and as
a novice having a few thoughts I think most of the problems have occured with installing
two OS on one hard drive. I know it is simple procedure to partition and have done it
many times using programs like partition magic, but I cant help but notice everyone
having problems when arranging dual OS's on one partitioned drive. Anyway, thats just
food for thought!

report abuse reply

Igor:
Dear Ajax,
Tel me were you found " audio driver" for Pavilion 9000 ?
I have the same laptop....and no audio driver for XP-Pro ....?
Please Help !

report abuse reply

marty :

I was thinking the same thing I have hp tx 1000 with vista

a ext.60 gig western digital harddrive so are you saying you loaded xp on a ext.harddrive
and got to work

report abuse reply

Daz:

Hi, the article was excellent. I want to remove XP from my computer. But Xp is on the
C:/ drive and Vista is on H:/ drive, can anyone give me some tips of how I can Kill XP
without have a lot of issues? I read the articles for both xp and vista dual booting and
removing the other o/s. I noticed it makes no mention of how to remove the old O/S just
the newly installed O/S. Thanks and cheers keep up the good work!

report abuse reply

mic:

I got a fujitsu laptop running vista and osx how i did it? use the pre-patched uphuck
image (osx patched)run the installer on a system using intel chips and voila!

report abuse reply

JJBTNC:
been thinking about the drive letter assignment problem with XP - while not the end of
the world i have come across programs that wanted to install to a c: and not what xp says
is it's system drive - and it does seem kind of irritating and messy to have xp not assign
it's system drive as c: so....

....i was thinking, could you...

I have Partition Magic 8, and i was wondering if it would be possible to follow the
instructions up to the point before you install XP, run PM8 and get it to hide the partition
that Vista is currently on. Then run the XP install - in this case will XP not see the Vista
partition and therefore not assign it the c: drive letter? Boot in to XP and would it then
show it's system partition as C:

Once XP has been installed as per the guide, you would normally go to the "Restoring
Vista and dual booting" section of the guide which is basically running the Vista DVD
and using the repair options to fix the booting issue. Before you do this you could then
run PM8 again and unhide the Vista partition, and then run the Vista DVD

Following the above you should in theory end up with a dual boot, Vista will have it's
system drive as C: but when you boot XP (presuming the previous experiment ended up
with xp thinking it's system drive was c: ) will it still think it's system drive is C: ?

Even if (and that's a pretty big if in my eyes) it did work would it cause any problems? If
you did an install with xp first and then Vista they would both claim that there system
drives are both C: so can't really see why it would cause problems.

report abuse reply

steve.dan:

Hi

My computer has 120gig of space when I got to the stage when typing shrink it it left me
with a total of 55gig left and vista taking 44gig left of space.

Please help

Regards,

Rob

report abuse reply

Joe:

wanted to share some observations.

1. You do not need a Vista DVD to do this process

2. Read post 183 and then next ones after that (do the partioning this way)
3. Read post 23 - 30 if you run into the ntdlr problem
4. In my case I needed a floppy drive becasue I had to load the SATA controller. Note that
XP SP2 caused a stop error. When I loaded the drivers from dell (using F6) worked fine.
5. I have Dell XPS 410. Comes with 3 primary partitons (main OS, recovery and a EISA
part). I deleted the recovery, shrank the main OS and created a XP drive. Not sure if it me
or Vista but could not make more than 3 primary drives.
6. You will need to install all drivers for XP.
7. The dell XPS comes with all XP drivers
8. If you use Gparted to do the work it will take a long time. To move a partiton took 8+
hours. Although it did work like a charm.
Good luck

report abuse reply

jjbtnc:

Just wanted to check with you Joe about the Dell recovery options you get at boot.

I'm not sure it's clear to users that installing OS's might mess with their pcs built in
recovery process - just wanted to try and clear some things up.

On a friends Dell he bought recently there is a recovery option when you boot -F11 i
think - that allows you to reload a factory image.
When you go through the process of installing xp do you lose this functionality?
I realise in your case you deleted the recovery partition where this image is located so
obviously you not bothered by it - but i just wondered if you have noticed if the Dell
recovery system via a keypress at boot was still available?

My thinking is that it would be gone as the MBR would have been changed during the
install of XP and it would be a custom Dell MBR that gives this recovery functionality?

If it is lost do you know if it can be restored?

Maybe by backing up the MBR (not sure what program you would use)before the install
of xp and then restoring the Dell MBR afterwards?
This might then allow you to boot to xp or vista but KEEP the recovery boot option?

report abuse reply

Joe:

No option.
You can get the recovery partition from Dell. However I just made an image of the
recovery partiton and put it on a old hard drive. Hopefully I won't need XP to long.

report abuse reply

Jon:

Ok. So I did everything as planned, and it worked PERFECTLY except... I couldn't get
online... It successfully connected to my wireless hub, but couldnt get an IP address..
also, before I uploaded XP, Vista ran pretty well.. but after I loaded XP, everything
slowed down so much... and XP has an extremely slow start up... what should I do?

report abuse reply

fourdogs:

I wiped out my XP/OS and installed Vista Ultimate. I then decided to dual boot with XP
Pro so I proceeded to shrink the drive and set aside 10G for XP Pro. I a Dell XPS210
with a SATA hard drive by the way. I inserted my XP Pro CD and rebooted to the cd. I
then chose the unallocated space for the XP install and formatted with NTFS. After the
formatting completed the system rebooted. At reboot the bios version screen came up and
the system came to a halt. I could not access setup or the ability to choose the boot
method. I then disconnected the hard drive and was able to boot to a CD. SATA drives are
hot swappable so I reconnected the hard drive as the system was booting from the CD but
I still cannot see the hard drive. If the hard drive is attached the system will stop at the
screen that stated the bios and go no further. The only way to get to bios is if I disconnect
the hard drive. I have the system set to recognize the SATA and boot from the CD first
but the problem continues. I haven’t seen this problem with any other systems on this
board and I hope someone can shed some light on this problem. Thanks
report abuse reply

norman:

Small tips to everyone, im now having a dual boot on my pc and its easy to use. first,
install windows xp, make two partitions, 1 for xp and 1 for vista. after installing windows
xp, proceed on the installation of windows vista. after intallation of vista you can now
boot with the "earlier version of windows", w/c is xp and windows vista w/c is your first
boot priority. then download the BCD, (its very useful to me), then try to modify your
booting options, been using this since windows vista launches and i've tried this for so
many times. PEACE.

report abuse reply

Lomax:

After carefully following these instructions, I never fail to get an error message that says
XP cannot be installed because of the newer OS. No one else seems to have this problem
here.

Its the i386\winnt32.exe thats causing the problem.

report abuse reply

tony:

When i get to the part where you install xp the blue screen appears but there is only one
partition and that is c: where my Vista is stored so i f3 out so as not to install 2 OS on
same drive how do i get the new partition to show its self when i reeboot vista it can see
both partitions c: and the new x:
help
help

report abuse reply

Ste1200:

I get to the point of going to install Windows XP, and it says it can't find a hard drive to
install on to, and the only option is Exit. Also, I can't seem to know find the unallocated
space that was created, any ideas please ?

report abuse reply

Tim:

Eep. Thanks for a great tutorial, but despite its thorough step-by-step instructions, I think
I've messed it up!

As it stands, no OS will boot for me, instead, I'm constantly being lumbered with "Error
Loading Operating System". The DISKPAT process was executed successfully and I had
attempted to install XP on the 2nd partition, which had just under 50gb available.

I have since tried the diagnostics on the Vista boot disc, to no avail. I've also started
completely from scratch with the XP installation, but still the same thing.

I'm pretty much computer-less at this point... so any suggestions?

Thanks in advance.

report abuse reply

Slim:

What I found I had done was mistakenly made active the :D drive which did not have a
boot manager active.

The manufacturer i.e. E-machines in my case directed me to the "Data Life Guard 11"
tools for E-machines. (Google it)

I did not find it helpful since I did not have a floppy on my comp.

However I figured out a fix with out the E-Machine solution.

Insert the "Operating System" disk that comes with the computer.

This is different then the "System Recovery Disk" that has to be ordered from the
manufacturer.
(Which I have done and received at this point)
I suggest you do the same. but you will not need it to fix the missing Boot Manager
Problem.

Insert Operating System disk.

Restart computer and hit F11 and space bar back and fourth until a prompt screen comes
up.

Click the advanced options.

Fist click repair. This will not fix the problem . "But I have found it has to be done for
some reason."

Then restart. Do the F11 and space bar again. This time select advanced options and then
the "Ignore signatures option"

It will say are you sure. Click yes. Then Restart.

Boot the operating system disk again. This time just click install operating system. It will
now show you both partitions. The one you have active with no boot drive and your old
set-up.

Click on the new one. Click the format button. Click yes. Then click the delete button and
click yes. Then click install to the drive you just deleted.

When it is done your computer will start as normal. But you will notice it is a whole new
VISTA.

DO NOT PANIC. YOUR INFO IS SAFE!

Just go to start Then control panel, then System and Maintenance, then scroll to bottom
and select "Create and format hard disk partitions. Once there you will see your old set up
under another drive letter and this new one is "C"

Right Click your old set up and click make as active. Restart. Your comp will be back to
where you started.

If you go to the Format Hard disk Partitions again. you can now format and delete the
new set up you had just made to get you computer back up and running.

Just be sure to NOT choose make active again.

You will now notice your old set up is back as :C drive. Hope that helps anyone who
made the very simple minded mistake I did. As it can be quit frustrating having a none
working computer.

report abuse reply

mavbsbll21:

I tried this and it seemed that windows xp service pack 2 would not install because it said
it could not find any older versions to update. But i've decided to scrap this idea and just
want all the hard drive space i took away when i partitioned.(which by the way i could
never see any unallocated space,even after i refreshed and restarted) back into vista. i
shrunk my 320gb hard drive down to 212gb hard drive. i just want it to be at 320gb again.
Anyone know how i would do that?

report abuse reply

Jack:

One extremely useful, powerful , & free disk partition manager is GParted, yet it needs to
run under a Linux bootable CD. Some wonderful folks have done this & made Parted
Magic which can be downloaded at:http://partedmagic.com/downloads.htmlGParted will
give you the ability to resize an NTFS partition & change the boot flag if required, simply
an amazing tool!I also recommend using the free & outstanding JkDefrag program to
defagment & compact the files & optimise the free space on the partition to be resized
prior to using GParted. This will ensure the most effective resizing possible & lessen the
chance of cutting off some necessary files that might be lurking around at the back end of
the partition! It can be downloaded at:http://www.kessels.com/JkDefrag/Cheers, Jack

report abuse reply

PiwiKiwi:

Thank the gods for your posting Slim!

I noticed some minor differences when using the method you described, but it was mostly
as you described.

Thanks, I was seriously pissed off when everything stopped working.

report abuse reply

nishanth:

how come its giving me an error when i tryed to install xp. something like this s the first
time you seen this check ur hard drive and stuff.. please help me please....

report abuse reply

Prophesize:

hi nishanth,
I ran into a similar problem, it turns out that XP sometimes has issues with the SATA
controler. To fix this u need to find the drivers and put them on a floppy and use them
during the F6 phase of the install. If your on a Laptop like me, and didnt have a floppy,
you can make a new xp disk using nLite. Run this program and you can create a new Xp
CD with the driver already on it and have avoid the floppy/F6 situation all together.
BTW, if its an Intel SATA Controler(like mine), u should use the Intel(R) Matix Storage
Manager driver.

Hope this helps,

Prophesize

report abuse reply

Jules:

I am trying to do a dual Vista/XP boot (Vista was already on the PC). XP is not finding
any drives and like you I do not have a floppy drive to install the XP SATA drivers via the
F6 option.

I had intended to make an .iso image of the XP CD and add the SATA drivers but I don't
know where on the .iso image I add the SATA drivers so it automatically finds them and
it looks like you do. Can you direct me? Thanks!

report abuse reply

Terrible:

Thanks this was a great help...

Almost nothing that i wanted work on was
compatible with vista..
XP has functionality..

report abuse reply

tintin:

Hi, i managed to install both OS. but my vista takes forever to shut down. Anybody can
help?

report abuse reply

tintin:

Hi, i managed to install both OS. but my vista takes forever to shut down. Anybody can
help?

report abuse reply

Soi:

It worked fine for me, i have both OSs installed, except now xp has no drivers or
anything and i cant get online with it. :S

report abuse reply

unholydoragon:

I get the windows has been shut down problem. I use an HP Pavillion dv6000 laptop with
the xb3000 docking station and 300 gb external hard drive. There were no bios given to
me to begin with but it works perfectly with vista... How exactly do I do the F6 thing?
Thanks

report abuse reply

FUBAR-BDHR:

Well after beating me head against the wall all day I finally think I have this figured out.
First problem was XP wouldn't recognize all of my 250gig hard drive. After creating a
SP2 disk I was able to get the copy part of the install to work but received the ntldr error.
Did the fix with EasyBCD but every time I tried to boot to the XP partition the PC just
rebooted. Finally after 3 hours of fun I tried something stupid. The PC I am working on
has a restore partition that XP recognized as C: and installed to D: even though it was
actually on J:. Tried C: and J: several times and finally just for the heck of it I tossed D:
in there and copied the ntldr, ntdetect, and boot.ini to the recovery partition. Low and
behold XP installation picks back up. So it looks like even though the ntldr was copied to
the Vista partition C: XP was looking for it on D:.

report abuse reply

hirbow:

My xp partition won't connect to the net vs my Vista is fine- hence i'm writing this post.
i've tried everything I could think of,don't know what else to do,

any tips?

Thank you

report abuse reply

Anonymous5584568455315:

Have you installed your internet drivers that you get when you sign up for dsl,cable,etc.

If you have then make sure in the internet options nothing is turned off and is on the
defult settings

report abuse reply

Vijayaragavan:

Hi,
I've also faced the same problem.
This is because of the driver difference. You can download the drivers from the INTEL
site (by logging in to vista) and
store it ina common location. Instal the same after login in to XP.
This should work.

Regards,
Vijay S

report abuse reply

mrhappy9:

You may find issues with newer computers with componets that are set up for Vista Only!
I worked on an HP laptop and lost my network adapter and video and sound!!! HP had
nothing to offer. I have yet to rectify this problem. So beware and do your due dilligence
as to what drivers are out there for XP on your machine.

report abuse reply

Wes:

I tried this and it seemed that windows xp service pack 2 would not install because it said
it could not find any older versions to update. But i've decided to scrap this idea and just
want all the hard drive space i took away when i partitioned.(which by the way i could
never see any unallocated space,even after i refreshed and restarted) back into vista. i
shrunk my 320gb hard drive down to 212gb hard drive. i just want it to be at 320gb again.
Anyone know how i would do that?

report abuse reply

leon rothberg:
sorry if thes question has already been answered, but i have vista ultimate but my video
card is too slow, so in the mean time before i get a new one, can i dual boot xp64 when i
am currently using vista32???? also is possible to quadboot xp32, xp64, vista 32 and vista
64?? thanx

report abuse reply

Sandeep:

I followed the same procedure mentioned above. There was a shrinkable space of
59GB/120GB. When I gave a shrink command in cmd prompt, gave me an error msg
"There is not enough space available on the disk(s)".

Please help! I badly need to install Win 2003 into my system which has Win Vista Home
Premium installed. Thanks in advance.

Best Regards
Sandeep

report abuse reply

Kevin - St. Louis:

Can someone help me out here. I've read through the posts and have yet to find a
situation like mine. My old computer Pentium got fried but the hard drive was not
damaged. I bought an external shell and can access all the information on it. My DREAM
is to be able to boot directly from that drive since it has XP Pro already installed on it
with all my other files. If this is not possible, I can transfer the personal files and install a
fresh version of XP pro. I have the disk.
I am operating a Gateway with the AMD dual athlon. (I know, I know...)
Can anybody help?

report abuse reply

ceberus:

im having the same problem as kevin - need help asap!

report abuse reply

Antaries:

Look in your BIOS to see if you can boot from usb. If so then your problem should be
solved.

report abuse reply

ela:

hi, i bought a vaio with vista preinstalled. just noticed that my hd is actually split already,
with the 1st partition being "recovery". do i still need this? is that the windows
installation or just a copy of vista?? also your guide splits the hd 50/50. i want to add
another partition for all my files. can i set the size of the vista partition myself? how
much space does it need? thanks!

report abuse reply

Taufik:

Hello everyone,
i bought that computer with Vista pre installed, i want to dual boot with XP,
but, after i put the windows XP disk, it wont boot up after reset,
and when i try do it while im in vista, i can click on Install windows XP, its grey,
i really need help,
thanks

Taufik

report abuse reply

Morili:

Boot from the Vista DVD and on the screen where you’re prompted to “Install now”,
select “Repair your computer”.
Repair Vista

The next screen searches for local Vista installations – there should only be one, so click
Next.

Choose Vista

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.

Startup Repair

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).

Repair Diagnostics

Click Close and then Finish, and the system will restart and boot into Vista.

report abuse reply

Taufik:

HEllo, since no1 answerd my last comment, i tried do it again, but now, when i did it,
about HALF of my HD just disappear,
befor i did it, i have about 110GB free on HD, now, i have only 10Gb, where all those
100GB went, i mean its not in use, coz max storge was 190, now max is 90.
i might did something worng, there is anything i can change it back?
please help!

report abuse reply

Jared:

Hey,
I'm an aspiring amateur computer expert and was getting annoyed with some stuff with
Vista, and I think you guys have given me a possible future with XP.

I've got a newly acquired HP dv2000t with Vista Home Premium installed. I'm quite sick
of Vista being a massive load on my little machine, and am considering doing this dual-
boot operation.

However, one of the things I want to know about before I do this is HP's Quickplay
feature. It is currently inoperable under Vista as originally designed. It is supposed to play
DVD, CD's, Music, etc., without booting an OS. Under Vista, it currently is forced to do
just that. I have yet to find a fix for it. So, I'm tacking it up to my excuses to dual-boot XP
and Vista.

I currently have 2 partitions, C: (Vista) and D: (HP Recovery). Does anyone have any
idea what affect this will have on HP's Quickplay?

But here is another option I've floated with myself. I have with my HP what appears to be
a Windows Vista DVD (its labelled Windows Vista Upgrade Anytime, but appears to
function as the install DVD, only requiring the purchase of a liscense key for a Vista
upgrade). If I wipe Vista off, install XP (all my stuff saved on an external of course), does
anyone know what kind of partition I need to create to be able to use Quickplay? I've
found where to download it from HP, I just want to make it work properly.

report abuse reply

maz:

i dont have the vista dvd. how can i repair the vista bootloader. is it possible to use a third
party boot loader such as grub?

report abuse reply

Clay:
Hi, I am trying to dual boot XP on my Vista machine, but it won't boot from my XP setup
CD. Is anyone else having this ridiculous problem? Please e-mail me.

report abuse reply

Anon:

Is your BIOS set to boot from CD/DVD at startup. If you get pas that hurdle then check
your HDD, and if it is SATA type (New computer with VISTA then most probably has),
XP will not install. You need to install the SATA drivers for the HDD. Do a google for
installing XP on SATA drives. Lots of pages which provide a blow by blow account
Good Luck

report abuse reply

Cynthia:

Just to be sure..
At the beginning of the tutorial you say "This
tutorial assumes that Vista has been installed on a
partition which takes up 100% of the hard drive".
I have 2 partitions C and D with Vista installed on
C. So the process is exactly the same ¿right?.
I prefer to ask now that i'm about to begin that
when i have made some mistake.

report abuse reply

JohnHace:

This is so cool. I just found it on the EasyBCD forum. When I first installed XP, it
showed up on the D: drive. I must have it as a C: drive.

Here's the solution. Create the partition with something like GParted and set the new
partition as active or boot partition. Then install XP. When you boot XP, it will be on C:
and Vista stuff will be on D:. When you boot Vista, it will be C: and XP stuff will be on
D:.

report abuse reply

michael:

I thought it would never work, but it did. Thank you sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

much

report abuse reply

Justin:

ok, i just need help on a tiny issue....

i followed the guide and ran into an issue... easybcd won't let me pick an non existent E
drive...

do i just make a small partion and letter it e?

report abuse reply

Andy:

I tried your guide to the letter but when xp scans the hard disk to find a partition to install
onto it couldnt find any hard disks ! madness ! i have three hard disks on my hp pavillion
laptop! everything else worked fine up till that point.

Thanks for any help

report abuse reply

ToxicShadow:

Here's the thing, I dont have a Vista DVD so I can't do the "Repair" option, I read the
commments and on number 23 its says "You can do it from XP. Install SP2, .NET
Framework 2.0, then EasyBCD. Run BCD, click Manage Bootloader. Select Reinstall the
Vista Bootloader, then click write. Reboot and it should boot into Vista. From there you
can install and run BCD. Click ADD/Remove Entries, and add an entry for XP and save
it. That should be it." This was good until I read in the guide that "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 continue”. This is caused by a corrupt bootloader – click here to see how to fix this
problem." The link brings me down to the "Restoring Vista and dual booting" which, like
I said before, requires me to have the Vista DVD. As you can see this is a really big
"problem cycle" and is stopping me from doing this, please help.

report abuse reply

Japes:

If you find yourself stuck without the Vista DVD to repair the boot files, because like a
lot of us they weren't supplied with your new PC/laptop get yourself a copy of 'Vistaboot
pro'. It's designed for just this problem.

It's available FREE at http://www.vistabootpro.org/

It repairs your boot files very easily.

report abuse reply

Jack Bart:

Dell Vostro 1000 laptop, came with Vista Business (just so I could have a laugh at it!)
One thing I like about Dell, they give you a somewhat decent reinstall DVD for Vista, so
at least you can play around with partitions, delete those bloody recovery partitions etc.
(can't say that about my HP laptop).
Anyway, used the EasyBCD tool and now dual booting Vista/XP. Great little app.
Regarding virtualisation, I use it every day, but it ain't the answer to all your problems.

report abuse reply

Jeremy:

Hm, I got this working on one of my PCs, but I can't do it on my Acer laptop!
The problem is after you've gotten XP in.
On one attempt, the Vista DVD didn't detect any problems with startup etc (it's a pre-
installed Vista, but I used a downloaded Vista DVD).
On another attempt, it said it had successfully repaired the startup.
In both attempts, it booted to XP after this stage, when it was meant to boot to Vista.

report abuse reply

Milt:

Did you ever get this to work? I have an Acer with the exact same problem. I tried fresh
installs with both and still run into xp booting.

report abuse reply

ANIKET:

I HAVE PRELOADED VISTA ON MY VAIO.I WANT TO INSTALL XP TOO.BUT MY

SYSTEM DOES NOT DETECT A XP BOOTABLE CD.IS IT A PROBLEM WITH THE
XP CD OR VISTA IS NOT SUPPOSED TO ALLOW XP INSTALLATION???.[ MY
BIOS SETTINGS R OK I.E. CD DRIVE HAVNG HIGHER PRIORITY??]

report abuse reply

Bios:

This worked perfectly.. thanks so much for the instruction

report abuse reply

awm9750:

My m9750 should be shipping sept 10th w/vista preinstalled on it. It comes with a vista
dvd tho. Anyways my question is this: I have an external hard drive that is 320gb could I
install windows xp on that and boot off that hard drive. If so how would I go about
installing xp on it and booting off the external drive? I already know my lappy can boot
off the usb therefore I just need to know how to get xp on the hard drive. Thanks
report abuse reply

chas:

I guess I'm not really as quick as I thought.

I installed Vista on a Seagate 160 (SATA2) hard drive and XP on another Seagate 160
(SATA2) hard drive.
I rebooted my computer (Dell) and nothing... It goes directly to Vista. The drive letters
are shown in Vista as "C" (Vista) and "F" (XP) but it just won't go to one of the other as a
dual boot. If I remove the cable from "C" and plug it into "F", "F" becomes "C" and it
boots up perfectly to XP, but then Vista doesn't even show as the cables are not
connected. I tried most of what I read in this blog but to no avail. Can anyone help and
maybe tell me what I am doing wrong?

report abuse reply

Ryan:

After installing the first phase of XP, on restarting I get the error "Error laoding operating
system".

I booted in to the Vista DVD and repaired the startup - it said it worked - but when I
restart PC I get the same error.

Trying to repair it again Vista says that there were no errors.

How can I get back into Vista???

I am currently booted into my 'Ultimate Boot CD for Windows'.

Please send me an email to ryzza007 {AT} gmail {DOT} com

report abuse reply

Ryan:

If anyone else has a similar problem to mine - I solved it with the aid of this link:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392
Ryan

report abuse reply

bronxbadhan:

Alrite, I am able to go through all the steps in this guide. I've partitioned by drive.
However, when I put in the installation disc for XP, the Vista Program Compatibility
Assistant does not let me install it. I don't know if I'm missing a step or something
obvious that everyone else is getting. Please help. Thank you.

report abuse reply

Justin:

First, thanks for the killer article. I followed everything, and it worked great. My question
now, though, is how do I get rid of Vista, and just have XP take up the whole disc? I've
realized that Vista is still worthless (for the time being), and want to remove the whole
partition... But as is, my XP partition is still E:\, and I'm wondering what would happen if
I simply deleted my C:\ (Vista) partition... Would E: magically become C:? would all my
application paths adjust correctly? How would I even go about fixing the boot manager
so that it wasnt still trying to boot Vista? Thanks for any help you may have!

report abuse reply

Carson:

@Justin, you need to know this: XP technically is always installed in what is called the
BOOT drive [partition], so-called because the OS boots from there. That can be anywhere
on the computer, even on Partition (Z) in your second hard drive.

However, no matter where XP lives, the vital boot.ini file and NTLDR [= NT Loader] are
automatically on Drive (C:). [The big problem with Vista is that it does not use the same
boot-up system at all.] Now, Drive (C:) is called the SYSTEM drive [partition], because
the system depends on it to get going. Normally this is a moot point, because both the
system AND the OS files are on Drive (C:).

If you have lots of partitions, and you keep your programs in a discreet partition, you can
actually remove XP, reformat the partition (using a floppy), and put on a new XP, and it
WILL WORK with your programs—so long as it is set up the same way. Similarly (and
this is pretty amazing, but I've tested it out) you can remove the SYSTEM FILES (by
some external program) and you can re-format Drive (C:) and replace the system files
and away you go again. This is a very hairy ride, and you have to be very careful—you
are replacing your car's ignition system WHILE you are driving down the street.

So that background tells you that you can dump Vista altogether, so long as you do it
carefully. It is not the Vista program that is problematic; it is the system boot files and the
drivers that you have to watch. You should have a good external backup for these for XP.

But, having said all that in regard to your question, I might ask now, why not just do a
nice clean install of everything CLEAN, with a Maxtor PowerMax drive format while the
system is down? You'd have your hard drive back to store-new condition. And you could
set up any system of partitions you wanted, using the XP CD and later XP's very capable
Disk Management partitioning (under Computer Management in XP). You generally
don't need Partition Magic.

Good luck.

report abuse reply

Mike1231212411:

i succesfully installed xp onto my vista home edition and can boot either one whenever i
want. however, whenever i go into xp, the internet doesnt work, i've tried some things but
nothing seems to work.

plz help.

report abuse reply

l3oto:

I had this same problem. I tried 2 things. I don't know which one worked but after I did
both it worked fine. 1. Create an internet connection in the wizard and make sure you
have an internet connection setup.
2. Go onto Vista and download all the drivers for your hardware into a folder you can
access from XP that has the XP version of the drivers. Go onto XP and install all the
drivers and you should be set!
report abuse reply

steveg:

Is there a way to change the Vista boot loader to see XP without the Vista CD? My
computer came loaded with Vista but no CD.

report abuse reply

Ron:

I have a laptop with Vista installed. I've created a partition for XP. I reboot the laptop
with the XP install CD and follow the steps to install XP. However I dont get a list of
partitions (although these are visible in Vista) all I get is an error message saying no hard
drives are found and press f3 to exit. Am I missing something obvious? I'd be gratefull
for any help.
Ron

report abuse reply

noj:

So i have everything setup, i installed xp on a separate partition and can successfully boot
back into Vista. When i load the EasyBCD program and add xp to the list, it only lets me
choose the drive path as C:, which is the same as Vista, instead of E: like on the pics. I
went ahead and set XP to C: and now when i try to boot up xp it is just a black screen.
vista still boots fine, but i really need my xp for some programs. any help is much
appreciated!!

report abuse reply

mike:

Did you ever find a solution to this? I just encountered the same problem after upgrading
my motherboard. I can boot to Vista without a problem, but if I select XP at startup, I
briefly get the "XP" logo and then it goes straight to a blank screen.
When I run EasyBCD in Vista, I noticed that the existing XP installation shows up but
indicates that it is on drive J (the Vista partition) instead of drive x (the XP partition); "J"
is the only listed drive option in EasyBCD.

While in Vista, I have no problem pulling up everything on the X partition, so I know

everything is still there.

report abuse reply

Alexander Mac Donald:

I made a big mistake last winter when I purchased the Basic Home edition of Vista
instead of XP, more out of curiosity than anything else. I find XP acceptable and thought,
poor fool that Iam, that Vista might be better. It is the worst purchase I have ever made
(except for a bed that caused me lower back, which was misdiagnosed as sciatica), and is
really frustating to use. But I digress

How do I get rid of it and install XP, if I can find a copy? I tried formatting another drive
as a fat 32 DOS drive and installing my old copy of ME, with the intention of upgrading
that to Windows 2000, from which I orginally upgraded to Vissta, and then upgrading
from their to XP Home.

Everything goes as it should until the computer reboots during the ME installation. The
flash screen for ME comes on, and then the computer reboots again, and again and again.
What is going on here?

Has Vista altered the boot sector so as to exclude any other OS from running on my
computer? What can I do? How can I regain use of my other spare hard drives? They all
behave the same way now.

report abuse reply

Roberto:

Great article!

I had a system that already did a dual boot of Vista Ultimate and Vista Ultimate 64-bit to
two separate drives. That was easy as Vista does it automatically when you install the 2nd
one.
But, I also needed to boot to Windows Server 2003. I followed these instructions to
install Windows Server 2003 on the second drive along with Vista 64 bit and it worked
perfectly.

Thanks a ton for putting this out there.

report abuse reply

Rashid:

I have a new Toshiba Laptop which came bundled with Vista Home. It had two partitions
one with Vista and other empty.
Also, Toshiba gave a Recovery CD for installing Vista Home.

Since I already had two partitions. Partitioning step did not bother me.
I staright away installed XP into the second drive(this was called D:\ in XP.
Then i booted with Vista Recovery CD provided by Toshiba. This was found useless as it
said that it will erase and format my drives. So I felt real sad and waited in patience for
some way out. I aborted plans to format.
Then a friend of mine had a Dell Vista Re-installation CD. He gave me that. It worked as
per the steps shown in this tutorial.

Then I installed the EasyBCD in Vista and did as told in the tutorial. It worked perfectly
well.
By the way the XP Drive was shown to be E:\ drive in Vista and I used it.

And I am glad things worked perfect.

Thank God.
Thanks APC for the good work.

Rashid

report abuse reply

sizz:

how long does the shrink take? i have a 170 gb hard drive and its taken more then 30
mins is this normal? and if u got a external hard drive can u install a OS on there?
report abuse reply

tiber:

Worked quite well, but instead of using vista dvd o gpartition, in my case i used windows
administrator to do the partition, u can find it easily in the help menu. Overall i didnt had
no problems. Thanks

report abuse reply

n25philly:

I love reading these comments. I can't remember the last time I've been on a website that
has crammed so many comments that are filled with such pure BS as this one!

report abuse reply

Appleman:

I am having the same problem as newdell where i get to the xp is loading but just before
the f8/iagree thing a BSoD shows up about corrupted hard drives and virus scanning.
anyonw with the same problem? any suggestions?

report abuse reply

Eyore298:

HP laptop has Vista already installed. Do I have to reinstall it or can I just shut down the
automatic updates etc... then go forth. I haven't touched it yet, this computer was bought
to be dual boot format but couldn't figure out how to do it.

report abuse reply

Max:

Hi, I've got a problem. I have bought an Acer laptop with pre-installed Vista. I've created
unallocated space on the hard drive and tried to run the XP setup from the CD.
Everything goes fine, until I press ENTER to start the installation. At this point, the XP
setup cannot see any hard drive and stops the installation.

Do you think that this is an issue with Vista or a problem with the hardware?

Thank you in advance for the help!

report abuse reply

Kaz:

Great article guys!

Problem: Installed XP in Windows Vista folder. Need to uninstall it. CD doesn't work.
Can't format because I don't have a Vista CD.

Help please. I read every single post and couldn't solve my problem.

report abuse reply

magatsu:

hi there kaz
i to have installed windows xp on to a vista machine, and now need to delete it as it loads
xp but not vista in any form, and i have no vista disc, have you solved your problem yet?
and if so could you please direct me in the right direction?

any help would be much appreciated.

nick

report abuse reply

showmemagic:
Hi There, this is a great walkthrough guide.

I have one issue I need help with, I created a new Partition (E:) and it shows up in disk
management and everything looks fine but when I load the up setup (step 'Now, install
Windows XP') the second new partition is not displayed??? Can you help?

report abuse reply

ijavid:

Some Windows XP installers, dosnt susports large HDDs.

I have the same problem (250GB SATA, it was formated to 3 partitions, but it recognized
as 69GB in unkown filesystem), I tried other install CD... worked!

report abuse reply

ijavid:

At first, I installed with dual boot Vista + XP. The Vista is on 1st partition (C:), and the
XP on 2nd (D:), E: and F: are CD and DVD writers. the booting works perfectly! the
article is great!

But I have got a problem:

I tried to install some programs on Vista(64bit)... it not worked perfectly. I think its no
problem, i will install on XP. then i tried, but when I started the Setup.exe file, it startedd
to load the InstallShield wizard, but it stopped with an error. When I tried to install other
program, the same error occured.
(some dll is missing or corrupt, or cant start the windows installer... and similar errors)

I think it is because the programs install wants to inicialize the installer from drive C:, but
it is Vista 64bit

How can I solve the problem?

Reinstall XP on 1st partition and vista on 2nd?
Or can I kill under XP the C: drive and rename D: to C: ?

report abuse reply

Russ Homans:

This procedure was a great help. I had a little bit of question when it came to partitioning.
My install of Vista had the diskpart application installed and didn't need the Vista
installation CD for this step.
I have a HP DV6000 computer and had to disable the SATA setting in BIOS. In XP I had
to download all the device drivers but it was easy. I just did a google search for "HP
DV6000 drivers" and found the HP site had all the drives conveniantly on one page.
Thanks

report abuse reply

mediwhapper:

I just followed the directions and it works as promised. Dual boot selection every time I
start it up. Running a Toshiba Satellite L35 w 2gb RAM and 80G hd.

But now XP doesn't recognize most of my HW features, like, most importantly , the
wireless nic. How do I get XP to see the HW on this box?

Thx,
MW

report abuse reply

Allday:

Dual boot was success with EasyBCD, but I tried the Vistabootpro 1st. Didnt work after
some frustrating time. I loaded easyBCD and within a couple of minutes success

report abuse reply

Nadeem Afzal:
I was running vista 64 short of lots of software still only xp compatible (eg Palm, Nikon -
the list goes on). After reading your article I partitioned my drive (had Vista home 64)
and installed windows XP. The installation was seamless - exact to the dot as described in
your article. There were minor teething problems (EasyBCD 1.7 does the trick ) but each
problem has been anticipated and answered in your article.

Now I have the best of both worlds on the same computer !!!

I cannot thank you enough ...

God Bless

report abuse reply

Hjean:

I had recently purchased an Acer 9810 with 2 hard drives. Vista Ultimate is installed on
the first hard drive (partitioned C: and D: drives) and nothing is on the second hard drive
(E:). Can I do a dual boot keeping Vista on the first hard drive and have Windows XP Pro
(Microsoft volume licensing) on the second hard drive? My software is not Vista
supported. The laptop came pre-installed without any Vista CD. The dual booting
instructions provided are for a single hard drive with a Vista CD. Can anyone help me?

Greatly appreciated

report abuse reply

Moha:

I did all the steps; shrink the hard drive, boot from the XP CD and got to the point where
it asks you if you want to start a new install or a repair and I selected a new install. But
there comes the problem, it is saying that there is no Hard Drive in the machine and I
know there is cos I am using the laptop with Vista.
My system is Tinkpad T61 7658CTO notebook. And I badlly need to have a DUAL
BOOT. can someone please help me out here.

report abuse reply

Rodik:

Windows XP installation will notice that C: is the primary (boot) partition and since it's
also a NTFS partition it will put it's file NTLDR in there.

Setting E: as drive in EasyBCD will break your Windows XP nicely since it wont find a
NTLDR on E:

Make sure drive is set to C: on Windows XP as well in EasyBCD!

report abuse reply

Markli:

Please help me I just got a Gateway GM5446E and i really need to find a way to get Vista
and XP on the hard drive Ive tried all the reviews and have gone nuts nothing works.
Gateway Specs is the link for my specs.

When I try to install XP it just flashes to a Blue Screen with crazy #'s on it.

Please help me!!

Do I have to down grade my BIOS? and if so where do I get the files?

Thank you in advance,

-Markli

report abuse reply

BootKey:

Maybe BootKey can help you. The latest version is available from www.BootKey.com.

report abuse reply

Anonymous623:

Under control panel install program there is a way to select compatibility in that you can
choose what OS you want to be compatible with. I had the CD in the drive and choose
compatible with Windows XP SP2 and voila suddenly my install option was no longer
grayed out. Talk about simple. NOw hopefully the rest will go as smoothly.

report abuse reply

makdaddy:

does this mean you can install XP onto another partition while vista is running ? ( if so
this would resolve my sata driver issues )

report abuse reply

Anonymous-reloaded:

Hi there!
Very good tutorial indeed. Nonetheless, I was not able to fully install XP Pro SP2
secondly to a Vista Ultimate x64 machine. I used a perfect original XP CD that began
installation by partitioning and formatting the HD (in which I have installed the Vista
x64) an then installed the XP files like a dream. However, when it reboots, the computer
halts by the message "press any key to install from CD/DVD". Some funny colored ASCI
characters also appears on screen (somewhat like a virus, though none was detected thru
my previous scanning with both NOD32 and Norton). Any guess (and/or
troubleshooting)? Thanks anyway.

report abuse reply

Kimble:

Didn't Work...it keeps telling me that there is no hard drive (on Windows XP Setup) when
there clearly is.

report abuse reply

Meshuggah:

Same for me, no hard drives available to choose where to install XP pro on.
report abuse reply

huyn54:

well u should go into ur bios setup and into and disable ur native sata w/e there. and i
dont recommend doing this on a computer pre-made for vista b/cuz that will seriously fck
up ur cpu trust me.

report abuse reply

Philip Loftin:

If this process has ended with your system giving you the message "Error loading
operating system", here are the troubleshooting steps I did that finally resolve the
problem for me. Keep in mind that some of these steps may be redundant and could be
skipped; these are just the steps I took that ended in a success for me.

01. Boot up the system using the Vista DVD.

02. Click Next, then click Install.
03. Press Shift+F10 to open the console.
04. In the console, type DISKPART and press enter. This will open DISKPART.
05. In DISKPART, type LIST DISK and press enter.
06. Type SELECT DISK 0 and press enter (or your disk #).
07. Type LIST PARTITION and press enter.
08. Type SELECT PARTITION 0 and press enter (or your partition #).
09. Type ACTIVE and press enter.
10. Reboot and your original Windows Vista partition should load up like usual.

If you want to try again with the dual boot process. Here are the steps I performed after
getting back into Vista.

11. Open Disk Management, delete the new partition we created earlier in the tutorial,
and the Logical partition it resides within.
12. Right-click the empty space and create a new partition of the desired size and format
it NTFS (choose to quick-format if you like). This creates you a new PRIMARY
ACTIVE partition.
13. Reboot using your Windows XP CD and install to the newly created partition.
14. After once again receiving the message "Error loading operating system", insert the
Vista DVD and reboot using it and using DISKPART once again, make the newly
installed XP partition the active partition.
15. Reinstall XP, choosing to format the drive NTFS (Quick).
16. Insert the Vista DVD and reboot using it and using DISKPART once again, make the
Vista partition the active partition.
17. Reboot into Vista and install EasyBCD.
18. Then continue following the steps in the article to configure EasyBCD. (The only
difference is when I was adding the Windows XP Entity, it would not let me select drive
E. It had drive C selected and the drop-down list was disabled)

Good luck!

report abuse reply

Gswiss:

How would you go about deactivating native SATA when the BIOS option is not
available and you get the "disk not recognized" message when installing xp with vista
pre-installed?

report abuse reply

makdaddy:

For the SATA issue ( which i suffered from myself) use this guide.. worked 1st time and
flawlessly ( choose method 2.)

i feel lucky to have found this guide as no amount of web searching seemed tho throw it
up as a search result

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=111960

report abuse reply

Yann M:

You cannot install XP after you use Windows Vista or Windows PE 2.0 to create
partitions on a hard disk.
This is the title of Microsoft article #931760 dated Aug 29, 2007.

The article describes exactly the problem I experienced: used Vista to create a partition
for XP on my hard drive (HP Pavilion m8100n), started installation of XP SP2 Home
Edition, got through the installation until the reboot request.

At reboot, I get: "A disk read error occurred. Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart".

Then all reboots ends up at the same point. Even if I ask the XP installation disk to
reformat the partition. The hard disk has been checked with Hitchi DFT utility.

It seems many people used either Vista or Windows PE to create the partitions, which MS
says doesn't work, and got the errors indicated by MS: A disk read error occurred,
Unable to load operating system, or Error loading operating system.

I am ready to follow the workaround described in the article. Has anyone already tried
this? Any word of wisdom?

Thanks,

report abuse reply

Jonathan:

To whom this may concern.

The NTFS and unallocated partitions of my C Drive cannot found by XP when it is

installing. The Setup process will state the message that the hard discks cannot be found
and them I am immediately directed to push "F3" to exit . How can I get XP to read these
partitions? I currently have Vista installed on SONY VIAO. I want to dual boot

report abuse reply

Darklight:

You might have to change your BIOS settings to boot from cd before harddrive, that can
sometimes give you that problem.

report abuse reply

timmar:
i have got vista pre installed on my lappy, and i want xp, right. i completely understand
tutorial except one thing.
i my lappy never came with a vista install disc, YET i have access to friends vista disc, so
if i complete all the steps, and then go to use the VISTA REPAIR off the install disc, my
question is, will it still repair the MBR, or will it tell me some error about not being the
exact same disc it was installed from.

timmar

report abuse reply

Colin:

This will still work each and every vista disc is identical atm so there are no problems
using your mates dvd or any vista disc for that matter (it'd even work if you had ultimate
but he had home basic) they're all the same.

report abuse reply

frignoran:

Help; hey, I have a dell inspiron with vista pre-installed.

I wanted to use both vista and xp, so I installed xp on the same parttition as vista was
installed. now I realise that I can nolonger run vista and I don'r have the cd. is there a way
I can reverse that?

report abuse reply

MX:

I don't see it mentioned anywhere: does this work with the OEM version of Windows XP
Pro or does it require the Retail version?

report abuse reply

Jack:
When I put in the xp disk, it loads up just fine, but when it gets to the prompt on where
it'd like to be installed, it doesn't see my hard drive. Any of it, not even the parts that are
partitioned.

report abuse reply

Phil:

I have a Sony Vaio TZ150N/B.

It came pre-loaded with Vista Business.
I've got nothing against vista, beside the fact that it takes entirely WAY to much memory
to run, so I opted for a dual boot of XP. Took me all day but I finally found a resolution to
putting XP on a computer that has no restore CD but rather a recovery partition.

Note: I have a copy of Windows XP PRO on hand.

Started with using vista to shrink to a new partition, I went with 20GB.

After the installation was complete I did a windows update, downloaded and installed the
2.0 .net framework. This as said in a previous comment will allow you to run EasyBCD
on windows XP.

When installed I opened EasyBCD and followed the instruction above.

Restarted.

Got a corrupt black screen prompt.

Restored XP.

After about 2 hours and a lot of time reading these posts I came to the conclusion that
both XP and Vista needed to be booted out of the C: Partition.

My setting screen in EasyBCD now looks like this:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.

Bootloader Timeout: 30 Seconds.
Default OS: Microsoft Windows Vista

Entry #1

Name: Microsoft Windows Vista

BCD ID: {current]
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry #2

Name: Microsoft Windows XP

BCD ID: [3aad53d1-8aa6-11dc-bbob-001bfb1befb2}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \NTLDR

This was the simplest way I found to fix the problem of a corrupt screen on start-up if
you get one.

Hope this helps somebody.

report abuse reply

lesm:

Erase programs and data! All this info is great, but I have one question, will all of this
work have any effect on previously installed programs and data? I have just spent about
two weeks trying to reinstall all of my programs and data and would hate to loose it all
and have to start all over. I have Vista installed on Gateway MT6831 and would like to
install XP for programs that will not work on Vista.

report abuse reply

mburke:

Have Dell inspiron 530 with 250gb harddrive. Vista Home came pre-installed and I
followed the instructions and shrunk the vista parition to 110gb.

I created two partitions on the remainding space with Vista disk management. When I
installed XP it took up most of the partition which it shouldn't. If I don't use vista disk
management and try to install xp it doesn't see the unpartitioned space ?

Any suggestions ?
report abuse reply

Scott Scanlon:

This is my take on things. Maybe it will help.

http://sscanlon.spaces.live.com/?lc=1033

report abuse reply

eric:

i cannot compeleting installer my laptop, anyone can help?

report abuse reply

Fred:

I have used the metod above, but when I finnish, it will not come up in Vista again. I have
an acer Aspire 5610Z with Vista Basic, and tried to make dual boot with XP-Professional.

report abuse reply

frig:

I have the same problem with an inspiron. I installed the xp on the same partition as vista
was installed. anybody know what I should do to correct that?

report abuse reply

silencer32:
What are the disadvantages of dual booting, if someone would care to explain, I'd be
greatly obliged.

report abuse reply

Josh:

'No HDD found' FIX

'No HDD found'-problem when installing XP FIX

I don't know if it's the right way to do it but all I did was to remove the installation of
HDD/SATA drivers on the XP installation CD and adding my own HDD drivers using the
program nLite (dl at http://www.nliteos.com/download.html , I used v. 1.4).

I have a Dell M1730.

What I did: Run nLite and extract the files from your XP CD. When that's done, click
'Next' until you come to the 'Task selection'. Here, you can check off any of the tabs you
wish to alter but to remove the built-in HDD drivers, click on the 'Components' tab. To
integrate any of your own drivers click on the 'Drivers' tab. And, of course, to create the
needed ISO you need to click on the 'Bootable ISO' tab.
If you have done what I did you should see the integrate driver-page after clicking next.
Do what you must here. I integrated a HDD/SATA driver (but I'm not sure if it got
installed).
After that you should see the 'Components' page. You can just click cancel on the first
window that pops up if you don't need/want to mess with that. The HDD driver should be
under 'Drivers'. Expand 'Drivers' and click on the HDD driver to remove it.
Click next and it will be removed. Hereafter you can create the ISO.

I hope someone could use this.

report abuse reply

killerko:
thanks, it worked for me!
i got the same problem with my dell m1730.. now the xp instalator finally see the hdd :)

report abuse reply

Pascal:

In your tutorial dual booting vista/xp with vista installed first, you do not address using
two hard drives nor do you address how to repair vista when one doesn't have a vista
original DVD and just the recovery DVD. Please clarify the use of separate hard drives
and how to repair vista. thanks

report abuse reply

Miguel:

Thank you very much for this tutorial. I wanted a "triple-booting" with Ubuntu, and this
method respected my grub. Now, I have Grub for selecting Linux or Windows, and
EasyBCD for selecting Windows Vista or Windows XP. Thanks a lot.

report abuse reply

rrrrr:

my notebook came with vista installed on a partition 100g and there is another partition
about 8g a recovery partition,so in order to install xp with vista i've used the Disk
MAngment from the controlpanel i choosed the partition on which vista is insatalled and
shrinked the empty space in this partition.
the problem is when i insert the boot xp cd,a blue screen named installing xp windows
appears and some files like kernel and other are installed then i recieve a message in the
same screen saying that my computer doesnt contain any diskdrives aaaor they aren't
connected properly or there is something wrong with the configurations
i cant find a solutionnn, can any one help me please??

report abuse reply

SAM:

XP does not contain SATA driver for the new laptops and XP expects to add via a floppy
drive which most new laptops aren't equipped with. Using a USB floppy usually will not
have workable results. I was able to install on a new ASUS laptop with a slip streamed
install disk made with Nlite that contained the drivers. Google is your friend and here is
one of the links I used
http://paparadit.blogspot.com/2007/06/installing-sata-hard-drive-with-windows.html

Good Luck, worked fine once I was able to make the slip streamed install disk.

report abuse reply

raghda:

helppp me plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzmy notebook has preinstalled vista home edition ,ti install
xp with vista i faced the problem that xp cantfind diskdrives; to solve it i wentto the bios
settings,disabled SATA
after that the installation run successfuly. the problem is that xp cant read my network
adapters so i have no net!!!!!! PLUS i cant go back to vista ,i'm automatically directed to
XP; i've tried to enable SATA i thought this would solve vista problem but nthng happend
i was directed to xp AGAIN receiving this blue screen"the COMputer has to shutdown to
avoid image!!!!!!!!!!!!"
cannn any one help me plzzzzz as i'm having exams and i do not really have any time for
this vista
thanks in advance

report abuse reply

s.d.:

EasyBCD 1.7.1 did not manage to fix the bootloading problem. Then I checked more
carefully and saw that the tutorial was done with EasyBCD 1.6. It managed to fix the
problem, although it still shows that both OSs are on C:

So, if the latest and greatest EasyBCD is not working, stick to 1.6.

report abuse reply

billbob784:

can i dual boot vista preinstalled and xp on a external hard drive and then select xp or
vista to use?

report abuse reply

Jimzone:

Vista 64 Ultimate and Asus M2N32 SLI motherboard (AMD dual core X2 6000, 4G
RAM):

Some twists to dual boot with XP installed on its own hard drive:

1. Something (Asus motherboard?) is finicky with keyboards. The only combination that
worked was to use a PS/2 keyboard at "press any key to boot from CD" then a USB
keyboard for "press F6" and the rest of the installation. That took half a day to figure out.

2. For some reason the XP installer didn't like the way Vista had formatted the XP hard
drive. The drive had worked fine with Vista but the XP install always hung at "Starting
Windows". Where it asks for "leave the drive as is or quick format or full format" after 3-
4 tries I had to use full format, then it installed.

3. Vista was in drive 0 (C:, SATA drive), XP was going in drive 2 (E:, ATA drive). With
the SATA driver added with the F6 key during the XP install, XP did NOT overwrite the
boot track on the SATA drive as expected. Only Vista would run until I made the
following boot.ini file:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

So finally a good working dual boot after 2 days and a new keyboard that seems to suit
everybody. Thanks for all the clues on your site, I couldn't have done it without them.

report abuse reply

Zira:
Woww!!
It's great, work well for me.
My laptop Toshiba A135 was having trouble in dual booting because its vista must be
installed in drive C: (recovery from manufacturer)
but using the EasyBCD it's going well, the Vista installed in D and XP installed in E
Thanks Bro!!

report abuse reply

Vista is garbage:

I am not a mac guy, but I think Vista is garbage. So many 3rd party applications are not
compatible (e.g. QuickBooks 2007, ATI PCI HD tuner cards, high performance graphics
cards, etc.) and the new file manager is awful. MS had made so progress over the years
with improving their software stability. I have worked on 3 Vista machines, all have had
problems where they lock up. Even reinstalls from the rebuild disks did not resolve all of
the issues.

report abuse reply

gvi:

What about deleting Vista after you install XP? This way you can still work, tweak XP
occasionally, then kill Vista (I'm not too impressed after using it approximately a year)

report abuse reply

zira:

it's work on my laptop Toshiba A135!!

thanks pal!

report abuse reply

darshan:
plz help

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.)

in this step when i press c i get this error ..

error:- setup cannot create a new partition in the space you selected because the
maximum no of partition already exist on the disk ...

wat shud i do to fix it up ???

plz help its urjent ...

report abuse reply

Jimzone:

Problems after successful dual boot

1. After 2-3 days of using the dual boot with no problems, the dual boot option suddenly
disappeared. This happened after an automatic update in XP and I'm turning off automatic
updating to avoid this in the future.

I got it working again with EasyBCD but it wasn't easy. As soon as I told it there was an
XP installation, EasyBCD would disable the drive selector with C: showing but I have
XP on the E: drive. After closing & restarting EasyBCD a few times and trying different
things, it turned out that it worked if I first selected the correct drive letter, then second
told it which operating system was located there.

2. This 2nd problem isn't solved yet. Read Microsoft knowledge base article kb926185. It
says that with dual booting, every time you start the computer with XP it will delete ALL
of the restore points in Vista plus all but the latest complete system backup in Vista. How
can they let something like that happen without fixing it like a year ago?

They say the best way to avoid this is to use the Bitlocker security feature in Vista to keep
XP from seeing anything on the Vista drive or partition. Not sure if all versions of Vista
have Bitlocker but I have Ultimate and it's there. I'll probably do the Bitlocker thing but it
sounds like a snake pit that's bound to cause other problems.

report abuse reply

Jimzone:

Follow up on 2nd problem

The more I read about Vista's Bitlocker the worse it sounded, and it's only available in the
Ultimate and Enterprise versions of Vista anyway. My motherboard doesn't have the
encryption chip that Bitlocker needs so I would have to keep the encryption key on a usb
drive and lose the hard drive data forever if I lost the encryption key. So forget that
option.

What does work just fine to protect Vista's restore points is to make the addition to XP's
registry that Microsoft suggests in kb926185. As soon as I did it, XP saw the Vista drive
as just "local drive" (the name I had given it vanished). When I tried to read the Vista
drive in XP there was no visible data on it and XP no longer deletes any of Vista's files.

Microsoft's instructions for modifying the XP registry are a bit cryptic and wrong in one
aspect - it says that Vista will put its restore points on a different hard drive if there is
one, but in fact you can specify which drive you want to use and it defaulted to the Vista
drive. So by hiding the Vista drive in XP's registry it also hid the restore points from XP.

report abuse reply

KuZuKiE:

Hey, I have a problem on XP, the sound doesn't work and when I try to fix it, it says that
there isn't anything pluged in, but when I go to vista, the sound works perfectly fine.
Does anyone have this problem and know what I can do to fix it?

report abuse reply

J4mmY:

The partition I shrunk for Vista to stay on only shrunk by 9GB it had around 60gb free
space on it, its a 160gb hdd (149 really). Now I'm going through the process of putting
XP on a 8880MB partition which is pointless as I need room to put all my games on XP
side for increased performance. How can I further shrink my vista partition and increase
the XP partition? Help would be appreciated, thanks :)
report abuse reply

ozedge:

Can you just use the disk management GUI to manually shrink the partition?? Thats what
i did in the first place... it lets you choose the size you want

report abuse reply

dscole:

I have a laptop with a sata hard drive I have used nlite to put drivers on xp but I get a blue
screen

help if anyone knows a step by step on using xp with sata drivers let me know

report abuse reply

Muzkat:

When XP was installing its initial setup files, it restarted on me, and I received the "Error
loading operating system" message.

Repairing the boot/startup with the Vista DVD did not help. Nor did formating the
partition with the XP files on it.

I panicked, as you do when you can't get into your computer and when you are
envisaging loosing your files.

So, what I did was the following:

Boot with the Vista DVD, select "Repair," and then select "Command Prompt."

Type in bootrec.exe and press ENTER.

You will receive some options to repair the boot.

Type in bootrec/fixboot and press ENTER.

(This didn't work for me actually, but if you have the problem that I did, you might as
well try this anyway. It might work for you.)

Then type in bootrec/fixmbr and press ENTER.

When you have done that, restart, if your computer doesn't do so automatically.

Allow your computer to boot normally (ie: don't boot from a CD or DVD) and Windows
should do two memory tests on your system. When this is finished, even if Windows did
not find any problems, your computer should boot into Vista and your startup sequence
should be fixed.

Incidentally, if that doesn't work for you, then you can also type in the following under
the command prompt on the Vista Repair screen:

bootrec/rebuildbcd then press ENTER.

But I can't verify if that works as I didn't need to use that option.

I hope that everyone that gets that "error loading operating system" finds aid in my post. I
know I got very anxious not being able to boot into anything. I don't want to sound nasty,
but I feel this article should have covered what to do in such a situation, instead of
leaving me high, dry, and desperate. It took me awhile to find this solution.

And after this happening to me, I can honestly say dual booting XP isn't worth it. Most of
my stuff runs on Vista, and I run old apps and games. Vista isn't that bad - all it needs is a
decent Service Pack, which should be on its way soon.

report abuse reply

billy john:

I have followed everything and it works great but on XP my internet wont work and
when I unplug and plug my modem it ses that it has malfunctioned and won't work. Is
there any way to fix this or another way to get online?

report abuse reply

Berhurts:
I also suffered the "error loading operating system" problem right after the Windows XP
installer reboots the computer for the first time. I couldn't get into my Vista or continue
the XP installation. Vista's boot-repair-thingy didn't do squat for me.

A previous advisory post gave me the idea to do this: -

Run the XP setup again and use it to turn your intented XP partition into two partitions.
Install XP on the first of these two new partitions (meaning your original drive now has 3
partitions on it) Let it run until it reboots your computer until you see "error loading
operating system" (you never know, it might decide it wants to work).

Reboot with the Vista DVD and install an new copy on the third partition that you
created. When this reboots the machine you'll be able to choose to boot into your original
Vista (but when you choose, both are listed with the same name. If you get the right one
you'll boot into Vista normally, if you get "preparing to run for the first time blah blah..."
then reset and pic the other one).

Now happily back in your original Vista, you can use EasyBCM to add the entry for the
XP. Reboot and you'll be able to complete the XP installation by choosing the XP OS on
the selection screen.

After that, all you have to do is delete the extra Vista partition and use the extra space on
another partition (this will also remove the duplicated Vista entry on the OS selection
screen). And you're done!

Note: Be really careful about knowing which partition is which...I advise labeling your
partitions with names rather than going on drive-letter alone...because I almost wiped my
original Vista installation.

This my layman's way of avoiding all the command prompt etc. fiddling with the doo-
dah's. I hope you find it useful!

report abuse reply

Dave Jackson:

BCD Dosen't Read Windows XP at all. I did everything the right way too! To hell with
this, doesn't work for me.

report abuse reply

VWFeature:

I found my Vista disks did not offer me the option of 'rescue' and after installing XP I
couldn't boot into either OS. I tried adding Ubuntu, hoping it would fix the boot manager,
but no good.
What DID work was at the following link, which includes instructions on using
EasyBCD . A lifesaver!!

http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Recovering+the+Vista+Bootloader+with+EasyB
CD

report abuse reply

SrAMagistrado:

I just want to reiterate just incase it hasn't been pointed out, if you can't change the drive
letter in EasyBCD when you're setting up dual boot just let it be. For some reason the
new version of EasyBCD automatically does it for you, I dunno how but I pondered for
30 mins if I want to restart but it all worked out fine. Thanks for this guide and the author,
now I can play my games in XP and do normal stuff in Vista. Again, thanks.

report abuse reply

ozedge:

Yeah i just completed it and found the same thing.. went the to the EasyBCD forums and
found that the new versionautomatically searches for the XP location

I managed to complete this dual boot procedure first time without any problems... and i
was really surprised as i was expecting problems

anyway thanks heaps!!!

i can now develop on xp which is required but keep my vista machine which i love

report abuse reply

Anonymous1973:
thanks a lot for this article.
yesterday I added another 250GB hard disk to my Acer T660 with Vista Home premium
and installed XP Pro.

I didn't have to use any other document or do any troubleshooting 'cos this procedure
worked great!!!

Now I have a nice clean dual boot system....

report abuse reply

Derek:

I am trying to dual boot Vista and Win 2000 Pro (prefered for various reasons) and have
been unable to find any guidance online for this senario. Has anyone attempted this and is
the dual installation process the same as XP? Any help here would greatly be appreciated.

report abuse reply

Fred Karmally:

I have a Sony Vaio laptop with 2 hard drives of 160 GB each. It has Windows Vista
installed. I want to use the other 160 GB hard drive (nothing on it) to install Windows
Server 2000 (so I can run SQL server 2000). Is there any way I can do this?

report abuse reply

Serbia:

Everything except the part when u need to go to repair is working ok. But even if u skip
that part and use EasyBCD to rebuild boot for Vista it is working just fine. Thanx for tips.

report abuse reply

chhuck12:
DUAL DRIVE boot problem (Vista+XP)

Hi everyone,

I have 2 HDDs, 1 SATA with Vista x64 HomePremium and 1 IDE with Windows XP
Home.

I installed Vista first, disconnected the SATA and installed XP on IDE. Now, both OS are
working perfectly but the big thing is that I have to change my hard drive priority in my
bios each time I want to boot with a different OS. I already tried a lot of solutions like
changing my boot.ini with XP and changed my BCDedit with VistaBootPro and
EasyBCD with Vista. None is working.

I got the choice list but my PC never wants to boot the other OS (XP when I boot with
my SATA or Vista with my IDE in first priority.)

Which way should I continue trying. Any ideas to solve this problem?

report abuse reply

gudin:

I have similar issue...

Toshiba satelite P200 laptop came with Vista preinstalled. I unpluged drive, connected
external USB HD, and installed Windows XP on it.Reconnected internal HD, and I can
boot in both OS but only with the help of BIOS boot order.

I tried EasyBCD, but it does not work.Vista boots fine , but Windows XP gives me ntldr
error (and if I specify drive D in easy BCD-laptop just rebots after selecting XP from dual
boot order).

Is it possible to get working dual boot, with Windows XP installed on external HD and
Vista on main(internal) disk.
Thanks,
G

report abuse reply

chhuck12:
I tried to install GAG. When I saw the graphics of that and made my windows vista
recognize a new floppy disk, even if I don't have any...I uninstalled it right away, from
there, XP didn't want to boot anymore so, I tried some Google researches repairs for ntldr,
none was good for me. I format my IDE drive with Vista to reinstall XP, but with the XP
install, I accidently format my Vista too! The XP install didn't recognize my IDE
anymore just my SATA. So, don't try what I did!

report abuse reply

Patrick:

Hi Sjd,

I bought Sony Vaio FZ240E with pr-installed Vista Home pr, Please i was trying to load
XP pro on it. I used DISKPART to do partion on vista & created G: dirve. Now when i
put Win XP cd in cd-drive & restarted my pc it has started istallation process for xp but i
got Error saying Hard disk not found. Please let me know what should be reason?

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Moto:

Thanks. Worked like a charm once I managed to make windows xp see my sata drive.

(had to slipstream the drivers in)

search for DriverPacks in google if you have the same problem. It should be one of the
first things to pop up. I had to use "DriverPack MassStorage"

Note: I was just being lazy and size wasn't an issue.

report abuse reply

oldtimer:

i followed your tutorial and got vista and xp installed. you said the following:

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.

i now have C: (Vista) and F: (XP)

how can i get both to show in in C when i boot into each?

report abuse reply

Discotechnique:

Hi I'm pretty computer ilterate but have followed the instructions to the letter until I get
to the part where it askes to install xp. When I try to do this I am getting a message that
says "This program is blocked due to compatibility issues"
"Setup cannot continue because the version of Windows on your computer is newer than
the version on the CD"

Please can anyone help?

report abuse reply

Kiki:

Hi, I don't have time to read through the 300 some posts on this article, but I was
wondering if it was possible to do this without any type of disk. I bought a new laptop
(HP) with Vista Home Premium, but I want to dual boot with XP. The laptop didn't come
with any type of boot disk of window's vista, nor a repair disk (that I know of.) So, I'm
wondering if it's possible to find any of the files I need online. You don't have to tell me if
it's against rules, a yes or no will do. Thanks.

report abuse reply

Canifrou:

Do yourself a favor and please read the postings. It's shorter, you'll find your answer
before you get to 300, you'll have an un-wipeable smile on your face and non of the
bruises from banging your head against a wall, like I did - unless you like that kinda stuff.
Best regards. CHAU!

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MandyApril4:

I have a new computer with vista home premium on the hard drive. I took the hard drive
out of my old computer and it has vista home basic on it. I want to install the 2nd hard
drive also and have never done anything like this before. I don't know if it would be best
to partition the drive(s) or run it as a dual-boot system...I have never opened up a
computer before so is this something I can do on my own or would I have to call a
professional? I know I sound very naive...but when it comes to this I am! Any help on
what to do and how to do it would be VERY much appreciated!!

report abuse reply

AnonymousLOLOOL:

Thank you. This guide helped a lot. I had the same problem. I installed Vista and my
CPU was not working properly. Now i reinstalled it and it is working thanks to this guide.
Thanks!

report abuse reply

jaomadn:

hi im a bet dazy now cause i cannot dual boot to vista

ultimate and xp..i already follow the direction above
but still can't boot.i already install xp first and vista
next because vista will handle the dual boot but still
cannot boot to xp.xp partition is seen in vista but cannot always boot to vista even i used
the easy bcd..and then
installes vista and xp next and used easybcd but still cannot dual boot.im frustrated now..i
almost follow any
instruction in the post but..about this partition naming o label.i already installed xp to c:
and vista to d: but after boot to vista the drive change vista to c: and d: to xp..that happen
in boot vista first and xp first.i alreaedy to the boot.ini,ntldr.ntdetect.com and still i cannot
dual boot..pls help.. i almost take 24 hrs to do this things..

report abuse reply

vshut (New user):

I am a novice at this as are others that have posted their comments. I am also frustrated
with some of Vista's operations. There are a lot of good comments and troubleshooting
ideas in this forum but is there a revised instruction guide for installing XP with Vista
already installed with all the helpful hints and troubleshooting ideas. With only the one
computer which is used for work, I cannot afford to be without it if something goes
wrong. Is it better to pay and take it to someone who is more proficient in computers so
my downtime is minimised. I know I can read through all the comments, which I have
read about half now, but it I miss something crucial, there goes my computer until I get it
restored.

Good comments from you all. Keep up the good work.

report abuse reply

cris (New user):

I have ah vista os but japanese, then I would like to install an xp I have already a partition
but when i install the xp the system said that i dont have a hard drive. why?

report abuse reply

Michael (New user):

I pulled up this web site because I'm in the process of buying a new computer. I know it
will come pre installed with Vista so I am already checking out what the process will be
to dual boot.

The question I want to ask which is better dual booting the way it comes and add XP, or
formatting the hard drive installing XP Pro as my main partition then putting Vista as the
second partition? I don't mind doing it if it's something that will make a difference.

I read both guides (partitioning Vista to XP and partitioning XP to Vista), I've scanned
through most of every ones comments on both pages and haven't seen anyone ask this
yet.
I've dual booted many drives in the past with 2000 and XP (even tri booted before with
Linux for someone) But I have no experience with Vista at all besides hearing all the
horror stories of how many problems people are having. So any advice would be
appreciated.

Thanks,
Michael

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apong168 (New user):

Boot and load your Vista DVD. Repartition into 2 partitions and format. Install Vista into
the first partition. Then Boot your Win XP CD and install windows into the second
partition. Windows XP will boot. To boot Vista, boot Vista DVD and choose Repair
(StartUP. Restart and you will see on your screen Windows Vista and Windows XP.
Choose anyone and boot. And you will have a Dual Boot Vista and XP

report abuse reply

petemason99 (New user):

Here,s my story:-

I recently had issue with my dual boot system ntldr missing etc.

I eventually managed to solve the problem by installing easyBCD in my vista system.

With this app it is very simple to change the default boot op sys. Also the timeout. Ie time
u get to change to other op sys. Also name of op sys.

But most importantly for me and I hope u, it showed that XP (my default op sys) was
trying to boot from a deleted partition. This can easily be changed to the correct drive. Go
into change settings, and under "choose op sys to change associated settings" Choose the
faulty op sys and hopefully u will see that it is trying to boot from the wrong drive. Just
type in letter of drive:\, ie D:\

I think my problems arose from deleting partitions with partition magic. I also made a
restore to a previous HDD image (using ghost 2003) just before i had the issue.
Unfortunately easy BCD only works on Vista, but for anybody having this issue on a
single boot op sys with XP, the missing ntldr problem on startup can be fixed by going
into the microsoft recovery console, and type in fixboot at the prompt.

Finally, if u really can`t find ntldr and NTDETECT on the XP partition (although I find
hard to believe that they have been lost) u can easily copy and paste them directly from
folder i386 in an XP installation disk. Paste them directly in the root of the XP partition.
U can perform this while running your Vista sys. Hope this helps. Pete.

report abuse reply

petemason99 (New user):

Here,s my story:-

I recently had issue with my dual boot system ntldr missing etc.

I eventually managed to solve the problem by installing easyBCD in my vista system.

With this app it is very simple to change the default boot op sys. Also the timeout. Ie time
u get to change to other op sys. Also name of op sys.

But most importantly for me and I hope u, it showed that XP (my default op sys) was
trying to boot from a deleted partition. This can easily be changed to the correct drive. Go
into change settings, and under "choose op sys to change associated settings" Choose the
faulty op sys and hopefully u will see that it is trying to boot from the wrong drive. Just
type in letter of drive:\, ie D:\

I think my problems arose from deleting partitions with partition magic. I also made a
restore to a previous HDD image (using ghost 2003) just before i had the issue.

Unfortunately easy BCD only works on Vista, but for anybody having this issue on a
single boot op sys with XP, the missing ntldr problem on startup can be fixed by going
into the microsoft recovery console, and type in fixboot at the prompt.

Finally, if u really can`t find ntldr and NTDETECT on the XP partition (although I find
hard to believe that they have been lost) u can easily copy and paste them directly from
folder i386 in an XP installation disk. Paste them directly in the root of the XP partition.
U can perform this while running your Vista sys. Hope this helps. Pete.

report abuse reply

petemason99 (New user):

I recently had issue with my dual boot system ntldr missing etc.

I eventually managed to solve the problem by installing easyBCD in my vista system.

With this app it is very simple to change the default boot op sys. Also the timeout. Ie time
u get to change to other op sys. Also name of op sys.

But most importantly for me and I hope u, it showed that XP (my default op sys) was
trying to boot from a deleted partition. This can easily be changed to the correct drive. Go
into change settings, and under "choose op sys to change associated settings" Choose the
faulty op sys and hopefully u will see that it is trying to boot from the wrong drive. Just
type in letter of drive:\, ie D:\

I think my problems arose from deleting partitions with partition magic. I also made a
restore to a previous HDD image (using ghost 2003) just before i had the issue.

Unfortunately easy BCD only works on Vista, but for anybody having this issue on a
single boot op sys with XP, the missing ntldr problem on startup can be fixed by going
into the microsoft recovery console, and type in fixboot at the prompt.

Finally, if u really can`t find ntldr and NTDETECT on the XP partition (although I find
hard to believe that they have been lost) u can easily copy and paste them directly from
folder i386 in an XP installation disk. Paste them directly in the root of the XP partition.
U can perform this while running your Vista sys. Hope this helps. Pete.

report abuse reply

xtreme1 (New user):

Please help! I am trying to install a second xp os on a second hdd, but xp does not seem
to allow me to install on a second hdd. I also tried using P Magic 8, but it also only
allows installing on the first hdd. I tried disconecting hdd1, but for some reason xp says
boot failed. I would prefer not to format the partition on hdd 2 as it will take me nearly
one week to reinstall all my programs. any ideas welcome. i feel like i am at a toilet with
a bent penny :) - cheers Rod

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am321 (New user):

I followed the steps up until I had to install WinXP. The bluescreen always shows up with
messages: "A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent
damage to your computer...... Technical information:***STOP: 0x0000007B
(0xF78D6528,0xc0000034,0x00000000,0x00000000)
The computer is a Gateway GT5628 w/ two SATA drives. I need to get the WinXP due to
the incompatibility of my technical software that cannot be upgraded. Could anyone help
me, please?

report abuse reply

jeyojo (New user):

if i configure dual boot, will my files be lost? i have a lot of valuable work saved on my
computer, and i don't want to lose it.

report abuse reply

jeyojo (New user):

if i configure dual boot, will my files be lost? i have a lot of valuable work saved on my
computer, and i don't want to lose it.

report abuse reply

jeyojo (New user):

if i configure dual boot, will i lose my files? i have a lot of work saved that is vital.

report abuse reply

jeyojo (New user):

if i configure dual boot, will i lose my files? i have a lot of work saved that is vital.

report abuse reply

bad_code (New user):

I just tried to create a media/theater PC with Vista Ultimate 64Bit because I have 8GB
RAM. Got the AuzenTech Prelude 7.1 and it fails right and left for anything other than 2
channel sound, digital or analog. Their tech support gave me a canned email response to
my problem. Needless to say tomorrow morning I am doing this to my PC (Piece of crap)
no Mac are not PCs (Piece of Crap) of course they don't run windows so they have an
advantage. ;) April 2, 2008 8PM EST

report abuse reply

AzzMAN (New user):

PCs are great for running linux and when I bought my new Toshiba Satelite I was
naturally shocked to learn that it had vista not xp like the ad said. so I tried to reinstall
freespire(a linux) and vistas bootloader appears halfway through the installation 3 times. I
was wondering if anyone knows where to get a better hDD partitioner than has been
mentioned on this page so far. + XP student edition is the only version I had that didnt
have vistas bootloader appear.

++++Macs are not very good because they are a media computer while windows are for
office work and gaming and linuxes are for programming and hacking and everything
else

++++Just format your macs hDD and install linux before its too late.

++++Apple has been going downhill since iPod touch Look at the macbook air---- No
Optical Drive and Way too thin

report abuse reply

Theresa4C (New user):

Hello .. I have been trying for weeks to fix my proublem. I had Windows XP pre installed
on my computer. Then some Jerk I took my computer to to get fixed decided to install
Vista on my computer. He thought he was doing me a favor. I am very unhappy about
this. I am now trying to get my windows xp back on and get everything that has to do
woth Vista OFF !. Well, I did all I had to do but I can't seem to get rid of this error " SW
BUILD ID DIFFERENT FROM ID ON RECOVERY MEDIA" I Have no clue what to
do now. I been looking all over the internet trying to find something that I could do to fix
this Issue. So If anyone out there knows what I am talking about I would love to hear
from you. I am at my witz end. You can post it here but can you also email me incase I
loose this site somewhere in my junk. I would love that :) .. Theresa
( Theresa4C@aol.com )

report abuse reply

Bambi300 (New user):

Can anyone help me. Ive already got my hard drive partition, but when i got to install xp
it gives me an error saying compatibly issues, and xp doesn't boot up like the steps said it
would.

report abuse reply

Bambi300 (New user):

Can anyone help me. I've already got my hard drive partitioned, but when I go to install
xp it gets me a compatibility errors saying I cant load it up.

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positivepause (New user):

I have recently purchased the n713nr compaq laptop with XP Vista Basic. Like other I
also didn't liked XP Vista so I just created the recovery DVDs as per the process and then
formatted the computer and now I am trying in to install the XP Professional . I had to
disable to SATA HDD from the BIOS , but after the format option where I deleted all the
partitions which came with the computer using the XP installation Menu and selected the
formatting option. The computer Hang after some time. So I restarted the computer but It
never able to detect the XP CD again. I tried tons of time..So used the USB bootable stick
but it gave me errors like NTLDR.DLL then somehow I got get rid of that now I am
getting HAL.DLL error.

In order to get the computer back working I thought of went back to Vista but the
recovery DVD also could not work as It does not detect the DVDs. I went to the store ,
they don't know how to solve the problem as the Recovery DVDs are not working.

I am totally lost...what to do now..Please help.

report abuse reply

Reb (New user):

Ok, I am totally lost and so is the new computer.

I have a HP Pavillion m8400f that came preloaded with Vista Home Premium. I do not
have a disk for the Vista program. I have tried to load the dual OS configuration and got
as far as installing XP. When XP tried to reboot, a disk read error came up. I think I have
read all the notes related to this problem several times. I have tired each one, none
worked.

If I can't get the two systems to worked together, I would like to get the Vista back. Can
anyone help

Wyndell Taylor
taylorw3416@comcast.net

report abuse reply

Rezn0r (New user):

damnit. after installing xp but before the GUI part of winxp setup, I get this:

"Error loading operating system"

report abuse reply

steveh (New user):

to restore vista for dual booting it seems as though you need the vista DVD to reboot
with. unfortunately i have no physical disk rather it's already installed on my system (i
used gparted to split the C drive). what should i do at this point to repair the vista start
up?

report abuse reply

elektroboy (New user):

Hi I just tryed to dualboot vista home basic and xp following the tutorial,it all went ok
untill during the xp installation the pc reebooted. It loads the GUI up to the hard drive and
it stops after that!
please if anybody knows why and how to fix this it would be of grear help.

report abuse reply

elektroboy (New user):

Hi I just tryed to dualboot vista home basic and xp following the tutorial,it all went ok
untill during the xp installation the pc reebooted. It loads the GUI up to the hard drive and
it stops after that!
please if anybody knows why and how to fix this it would be of grear help.

report abuse reply

alexander (New user):

I Dual Boot XP and Vista just fine. However, when I try Windows Update on Vista it is
trying to create a Recovery Point before installation of the updates and since it cannot
create it it just gets stuck.
Any experiences or suggestions?
Alexander alexandr@tampabay.rr.com

report abuse reply

kkt (New user):

I have toshiba satellite u305 series laptop. Whenever i try to install xp (i wanted to have
dual os),windows xp bootable cd/dvd doesnot recognise my harddrive, it simply says
"harddrive not found". Any suggestion to fix the problem is heartly welcome.

report abuse reply

SamVDC (New user):

Understood that after installed Vista but Xp sees but won't boot it.....
Is it possible that just by editing the BOOT.INI directly from XP's Start Up & Recovery
panel by adding VISTA into it?
Would it make a dual boot that way?

report abuse reply

I have a question. (New user):

Will this work with a Vista upgrade CD?

report abuse reply

lrock23201 (New user):

What if I do everything correctly, but I am able to log on to Windows XP Pro. but I don't
have the option to boot to Windowws Vista?

report abuse reply

Nanoxy (New user):

I have the Windows XP installation in another HardDrive in a folder. My Windows Vista

Home Premium is on C Drive. My question is can I install Windows XP by just double
clicking the setup icon like if I were to install an application using the second harddrive
to install it. My PC have two (2) harddrive

report abuse reply

jungkhans (New user):

If your bios allows you to select your boot drive at startup the procedure is infinitly
easier. Install vista on drive 1, and XP on drive 2. No need for BCD. I have done this on
an HP M8100y and it runs flawlessly. Hint: during install only have one drive connected
at a time, and then have both drives connected after both installs are completed.

report abuse reply

rosy_glow (New user):

Excellent article, saved me many hours of reconfiguration, worked first time for me

rosy_glow

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ladylibra018 (New user):

im having problem when i put the XP pro cd.. and went to the part where u supposed to
delete the partition... it says... Unknown disk... :(

report abuse reply

jcuticchia (New user):

I have been pulling my hair out on this one. When I go to install XP, it finds the partition,
copies the files --- but then on reboot to complete the installation the computer goes into
an endless loop. Has anybody else had to deal with this?

report abuse reply

Roots (New user):

Hope it works

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akbarim (New user):

hi
instead of using diskpart we can use frendly gui based disk management.
for view discussion check this article:
http://www.mits.ir/win/vista.htm

report abuse reply

Frost8488 (New user):

here's the problem that when I insert the VistaDVD and the it autoruns to the installation
screen, there's no "Repair Your Computer" option to begin with !!

is it normal ? what should I do ?

report abuse reply

Frost8488 (New user):

here's the problem that when I insert the VistaDVD and the it autoruns to the installation
screen, there's no "Repair Your Computer" option to begin with !!

is it normal ? what should I do ?

report abuse reply

kinglaiho (New user):

ok i need some help
i've made the partition and i boot with the XP disk, but it gets to the point where i would
choose which partition and says that it can't find any hard disks installed
i've got a Dell XPS M1530 if that helps

report abuse reply

Hamid (New user):

Hi!
help me!
I have vista in c and xp in D partition.(dual boot )But I cannot install Microsoft office and
many program in drive D(wnidows xp).
Thank you.hamfazeli@yahoo.com

report abuse reply

stormraidermk2 (New user):

After so many tries, the best way so far to dual-boot XP and vista is to NOT to. Simplest
solution is to install a second hard disk, make the second hard disk as the boot disk,
install your secondary OS. No confusing C: and E: situation and flipping OS is just a
matter of trip to the CMOS.

report abuse reply

robs (New user):

exelente! articulo, no lo hubiera hecho sin su ayuda, Thanks

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