SysChat is a free online computer support community. Ask questions, share resources, contribute knowledge and discuss technology. Join our growing community to access all features. Register Now!

SysChat » Tutorials » Windows » Dual Boot Vista and XP with Vista already installed

Windows

Guides and tutorials on Windows operating systems

Comment
 
LinkBack (37) Tutorial Tools
Dual Boot Vista and XP with Vista already installed

Dual Boot Vista and XP with Vista already installed

Published by William_Wilson
04-18-2007

Default boot.ini edit



Step 4 - Edit boot.ini:
In Vista, the boot.ini is not editable directly, as the file itself is hard to locate, so we will be modifying it through "Boot

Configuration Data Store Editor" bcdedit.exe:
(Just as an explanation, the loader type for XP is an NT Loader, hence the use of ntldr)

-first open a command prompt with administrative privilages (right-click and choose "run as administrator")
*Note the following 2 answers from bcdedit for each item are acceptable:
"The Operation Completed Successfully"
"The Specified Entry Already Exists"
Be sure to type each line carefully (replace C in the first line with the drive containing your Vista installation):
bcdedit –set {ntldr} device partition=C:
bcdedit –set {ntldr} path \ntldr
bcdedit –displayorder {ntldr} –addlast
bcdedit -set {ntldr} description "Microsoft Windows XP"

The completed bcdedit file should resemble this:



-This will correctly add XP to your boot sequence, and even name it properly instead of "Earlier Version of Windows"
-the displayorder line also allows the entry to be visible under the advanced settings of your computer properties.



Vista is the default boot, if you wish to change this to XP it can be done by setting {current} to addlast, or under the computer

-> properties -> advanced settings.

If all done properly, XP and Vista will dual boot properly!

<<  <    (Page 4 of 4)    > >>

  #1  
By rclarke on 04-19-2007, 04:04 PM
Default Dual Boot Vista and XP with Vista already installed

William

Thank you for taking the time and effort to lay out the steps for installing xp onto a notebook/desktop having Vista pre-installed.

I have a couple of questions:

In step 4 where we need to use the editor, isn't vista assigned to C and xp assigned to drive E? You state:Be sure to type each line carefully (replace C in the first line with the drive containing your Vista installation):
bcdedit –set {ntldr} device partition=C:

Isn't xp partition letter E? Up to step 4 everything doesn't seem difficult. But if we mess up here it seems big problems. On the other hand perhaps I missed a crucial point you made earlier and I should just enter exactly what you have shown in step 4 to conclude the dual boot facility.

My last question has to do with possible need for drivers. I found out my notebook hd is a seagate SATA drive. Will xp pro need to be concerned about this drive type and require drivers? Thanks...Ron
Reply With Quote
  #2  
By William_Wilson on 04-21-2007, 11:41 AM
Default

i know the drive sounds off, but Vista is the only active partition, even though XP was installed on E:, it still places it's info for booting on C (the active partition)

XP is good with most drives, as long as your mobo can understand it properly you should be ok
Reply With Quote
  #3  
By rclarke on 04-22-2007, 05:36 PM
Default

William...another thought. Unfortunately for us newbies, the initial hd configuration may not be straight forward and simple as yours. This raised another question which while seeming to go off subject, anyone following your instructions may encounter (especially newbies who would never in their life of ownership consider hd management and partitions) a situation where the single drive has already been partitioned into 3 primary partitions.

Question: Must the xp partition to be created be a primary partion? If so, and 3 primary partitions already exist does this preclude adding xp? If yes does that mean no dual boot of xp? Thanks for your time and patience to help with these questions...Ron
Reply With Quote
  #4  
By William_Wilson on 04-23-2007, 11:18 AM
Default

You can still dual boot, but what you must understand is that a partition which will load an OS must be a primary drive. There is the option when installing XP to leave the file system intact... i don't recommend it, but it you have no place to put the files on the primary partition. You could always resize them to move the files around.

*Where did you get your computer? All partitions meant for data files/storage should be contained in an extended partition, especially since there is a limit of 4 primary partitions (on a single drive) under XP, and i assume Vista.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
By rclarke on 04-23-2007, 12:42 PM
Default

William...I received my acer aspire 5610 as a gift from my daughter. Yesterday I started following your 4 steps to installing xp. Using the disk mgt wizard on vista I shrunk the partition and allocated a new partition of 8 gb for xp. I ended up re-doing this step as I neglected to remove a flash drive and this caused the partition to be assigned a drive letter of G. I then deleted the new partition, expanded the C and restarted the procedure by rebooting again.

After I got back to recreating the partition again, I saw it wasn't a primary partition, but an extended one. I also saw via disk mgt three existing partitions, one un-named (eisa configure), vista (c drive) and data (d drive)

So using the wizard doesn't give me a primary partition so I need to use some other means to make sure the partition created is a primary one and not an extended partition...Ron
Reply With Quote
  #6  
By Kishore on 05-04-2007, 11:08 AM
Laptop

Hooray, it really works. I loaded up XP SP1 and did all the steps, but could never load XP, because it was showing error
File: \ntldr
Status: 0xc000000e
Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt.

I tried so many things, but couldn't make it run - untill I followed the advice.

Thank you so much.
Reply With Quote
  #7  
By Tom Wylde on 05-05-2007, 07:56 PM
Default Different drives...

I purchased a new pc with a Vista pre-load, and then upgraded over the net to Ultimate.

I have a 750 GB drive installed other than the 320 GB that came with the new PC and the Vista install. I created a partition on the 750 for the XP install. When I attempted to install XO, it said it would erase my Vista intall, (along with Photoshop CS#, Office 2007, etc.).

Is it possible to dual boot by disconnecting the Vista drive, installing XP on the 750 and reattaching the Vista drive? What drive(s) should I make active? Will this be a solution? I realize I'm basically 'geta-testing Vista and a lot of my drivers, software, etc. don't work with it so I want to run XP until at least Vista SP 1...

Thank you so much for for your help.

Tom Wylde
Reply With Quote
  #8  
By Unregistered on 05-11-2007, 10:56 PM
Default

After getting to step four I ran bcdedit.exe command but every time i type in the four lines it tells me that it is not recognized.

Any thoughts?

Thanks
Reply With Quote
  #9  
By William_Wilson on 05-12-2007, 09:34 PM
Default

Kishore: glad to hear the tutorial was helpful

Tom Wylde: The Vista drive needs to be the active drive, and it needs to be attatched while installing XP. If they are both connected, there is no problem installing XP on the 2nd drive.

As for errors, in bcdedit.exe, if you could post the exact error, as well as the line it resulted from, I may be able to address the problem as well as find a solution.
Reply With Quote
Comment

Tags
dual boot, dualboot, vista, vista-xp, windows xp




Tutorial Tools

LinkBacks (?)
LinkBack to this Thread: http://www.syschat.com/dual-boot-vista-xp-vista-already-1946.html
Posted By For Type Date Hits
Untitled document This thread Refback 02-07-2011 09:06 AM 360
Instaling a dual boot for XP on a Vista machine - XP setup forgets the SATA drive after required reboot #1 This thread Refback 06-11-2010 09:55 AM 60
have 2 hard drives, with different operating systems on them This thread Refback 05-04-2010 10:33 PM 67
Installing XP on a Vista System This thread Refback 05-03-2010 03:55 AM 108
How do I run a dual boot/dual OS on Dell XPS M1330? (on it's own partition) This thread Refback 04-28-2010 02:25 PM 69
Win XP als 2. Betriebssystem auf bestehendes Win 7 64Bit und HDD-Fragen - Software allgemein - FlightXPress - das Forum This thread Refback 03-20-2010 08:02 PM 88
Forum / Bits und Bytes / xp und win7 ist verschwunden - Online-Magazin Team-Ulm.de This thread Refback 02-27-2010 05:16 PM 19
0xc000000f missing or crupt winload.exe This thread Refback 02-06-2010 11:42 AM 379
Cant Boot XP after installing Windows 7 - general-discussion - windows-7 This thread Refback 01-25-2010 09:44 AM 1306
Dual Boot Vista/XP - problem installing XP - Configuration-Customize - Windows-XP This thread Refback 01-09-2010 02:47 PM 67
Master Boot Record: How to Rebuild? - Vista-General-Discussion - Windows-Vista This thread Refback 01-07-2010 07:00 PM 325
Install Window 7 - CariGold Forum This thread Refback 12-26-2009 01:54 AM 24
Untitled document This thread Refback 11-04-2009 11:50 AM 42
Installing an XP Pro Hard drive with a Vista Hard Drive | 5 of 11 This thread Refback 10-31-2009 12:41 PM 13
how to choose which partition to boot from? This thread Refback 10-18-2009 11:57 AM 2580
Dual Boot Vista/XP - problem installing XP This thread Refback 09-18-2009 10:51 PM 158
Master Boot Record: How to Rebuild? This thread Refback 05-22-2009 02:55 AM 176
Formated HDD and now can't boot XP This thread Refback 04-07-2009 06:33 PM 134
Dual Boot Vista 64 and XP 32 with both already installed This thread Refback 01-20-2009 07:12 PM 134
Windows 7 Multiboot XP This thread Refback 01-20-2009 04:00 AM 6453
Fórum Linha Defensiva -> Dual boot Vista e XP em Hds separados This thread Refback 01-06-2009 03:55 PM 618
install XP on HP pavilion dv6830 This thread Refback 12-15-2008 06:13 PM 198
Boot Record Fix? Anyone? - Windows 7 Forums This thread Refback 11-17-2008 09:52 PM 1969
Partitioning my hard disk - Computing.Net This thread Refback 11-14-2008 10:10 AM 239
Installed Leopard iDeneb 10.5.5 but unable to boot - Hackint0sh This thread Refback 11-05-2008 09:18 AM 129
Vista and XP dual boot. - Steam Users Forums This thread Refback 05-11-2008 05:37 PM 17
Unable to dual boot vista+xp - NotebookForums.com This thread Refback 10-31-2007 11:35 PM 50
Yahoo! Answers - How to remove vista? This thread Refback 10-29-2007 10:10 PM 31
Dual Boot XP and Vista Walkthrough - NotebookForums.com This thread Refback 10-29-2007 05:48 PM 24
Installing XP on a Vista System - Notebook Forums and Laptop Discussion This thread Refback 10-12-2007 08:25 AM 24
Recently purchased new laptop with Windows Vista. Can I partition my 160Gb HD so i can also run Windows XP? - Yahoo!7 Answers This thread Refback 09-04-2007 04:22 PM 12
Tutorial de Dual Boot com Vista e XP - FórumGdH This thread Refback 07-04-2007 12:42 PM 1039
Dual booting XP + Vista? - XtremeSystems Forums This thread Refback 06-08-2007 04:36 AM 15
Making my system dual boot This thread Refback 06-05-2007 06:20 AM 19
Win Xp Install On A Vista Machine - The Elder Geek on Windows XP This thread Refback 05-21-2007 07:53 PM 43
Dual Boot Vista and XP (Vista already installed) | tweako This thread Refback 04-18-2007 07:40 PM 133
Digg - Dual Boot Vista and XP (Vista already installed) This thread Refback 04-18-2007 02:53 PM 72

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is on
Smilies are on
[IMG] code is on
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are on



» Ads



1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54