Dual Boot Vista and XP with Vista already installed

If you want to install Vista onto an XP computer, try the reverse tutorial: (XP already installed)
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-William. § (marvin_gohan)

thanks man this really helped me... very detailed.

Hello, good tutorial but unfortunately it did not work for me.

I have Vista installed on disk0 (2 partitions C and E)
I have a backup harddrive that im just mentioning for information sake on drive D (disk1)

Vista is installed on C and E is 8 gigs empty (part of disk0)

I put in the XP cd and choose to install it to drive e. It copied all the files and when it rebooted, "Operating System Not Found".

I had to repair my Vista with the CD just to get vista back running.

Ideas?

You might have to wait till William_Watson replies back to this thread mate, he is the guru on doing this it seems...

Dear William,

Great tutorial and thanks for providing this great resource! I spent the last 2 hours reading most of the posts to see if I could find an answer to my problem. Unfortunately I'm encountering some issues. I have a new Dell XPS420 computer, Quad-core 2.66GHz 1333FSB with 12MB cache, 500GB SATA hard drive and 4GB RAM. The new computer came installed with Vista and has been pre-partitioned by Dell as follows:

Disk 0 has 3 primary partitions, one with 55MB (no drive letter or label), C: (Vista OS) and D: (called "Recovery") but the D: partition actually precedes the C: partition - so I don't think I can delete it and merge it with the C: partition. Also, I think this partition is used by Vista and probably can't be deleted.

PLAN A
I used Shrink to create a 4th partition which I labeled N: but it created a logical drive and not a primary drive. Is there any way that I can create a 4th primary drive where I can install XP?

PLAN B
If not, I have an alternate solution. I have a secondary Seagate 200GB SATA hard drive from my old computer which I can install into the new computer. It currently has nothing on it.

Could I partition Hard Drive #2 and install XP on that drive's primary partition and dual boot from 2 physical hard drives instead? (This would be ideal as I could just re-format this hard drive and use it for something else when I eventually migrate permanently to Vista)

If PLAN B is a viable solution, can I install XP on it from my OLD machine and then transfer the hard drive over to my new machine or will that screw things up with Vista? I realize I still have to install all the drivers for the new machine's hardware onto Hard Drive #2. I could burn them onto a CD prior to installing XP.

What's the best/easiest solution here? Plan A or Plan B? And if Plan B, which would be best way to install XP for dual-boot?

I downloaded EasyBCD. Depending on how I solve my initial dilemma of where to install XP, at what point in the installation process do I introduce EasyBCD?

I have both the XP Reinstallation CD & the Vista reinstallation DVD that came with my computers. I'm assuming they are full installation disks. (The XP CD was for my old Dell, so I'll probably have to get an authorization code from MS to re-install it on my new machine).

However, when I tried to install XP from the boot/installation disk in the CD-drive of my NEW Dell computer, I got the Blue Screen of Death that hung at "Setup Is Starting Windows" and never got past that. Got an error message and had to shut down and reboot. I don't think it ever got far enough to know that it didn't have a primary partition to install it to. So how do I get past this?

I'm not OS-savvy and appreciate any help you can offer!

I've been doing some research since my last post and discovered that it is indeed possible to have Vista and XP installed on 2 different physical hard drives and boot from either one.

So this brings me to the next dilemma...

1. If I install XP on my F: drive (which is my secondary hard drive), will all the references be to F:/ or will they default to C:/ ? (I cannot use D: as it is used by Vista "Recovery" but it really shouldn't matter what the letter drive is called, should it?)

2. What about when I install applications to the F: drive where XP resides? Won't the application try to install all the system files to the C: drive where Vista will be?

Can I still install XP on my F: drive while it is connected to my old computer and then later physically move that HD over to the new computer? Assuming I install all the drivers for the new computer's hardware on there as well... (The 2nd hard drive will still be called F: on the new computer)

If so, how will Vista know/recognize there is another OS on another HD if I connected a new hard drive with XP already on it?

When I boot from the F: drive (XP), will it show up as C: or F: ??

Also, I still need to know where EasyBCD comes in, in the installation/setup process.

Thanks again!!

LB

Ladybug,

I agree with your accessment of Williams tutorial. It is a great way to set up XP/vista as dual booting.....here it is....BUT, I think that using a third party boot manager will and is the easiest way to accomplish the same thing....and a whole lot less troublesome.

As an explanation...the windows bootmanager combines the MBR (master boot record) of all the operating system into one to boot all operating systems. With older operating sytem this was determined that the oldest OS had to be installed first in order to have the corrected MBR for all operating systems to boot properly. Williams tutorial bypasses this and allows you to install newer first then older and then to repair the MBR so as to be operational for booting either of the operating system.

Third party bootmanagers superceed this issue by actually hiding and protecting the MBR of each operating system from the other installed operating systems. This hiding the MBR protects the integrity of the operating system....and by doing so allows for the booting of any operating system installed in/on any partition yet allows for the sharing of files and folders (not programs) between the OSs. As such any one OS can/may be removed without damage to the others and also means that they can be repaired easier from the other operating system as well.

simply put...if you use windows boot manager and the MBR corrupts itself then there is no getting into any other OS either. With third party bootmanager....if any MBR corrupts you can still boot to the other operating system to try to repair or to use it to back up the files for easier reformating/reinstallation.

I personally use BootIt NG from terabyte unlimited but is a paid for boot manager. I have been experimenting with GAG a free boot manager and have found it to be extremely worthy of use. I have it installed on my testing computer for over 6 months now with absolutely no problems at all.

Install GAG to any harddrive in your system and it will allow you to install up to 9 operating systems on your computer. Each installation is done as a new install by just booting to that partition and installing that OS as if it were the only one installed. If you later decide that there is no more need for a particular OS then simply reformat and make the drive as storage or remove the drive. Either way you don't have to worry about damaging any other operating system or partition. This means simply that any operating system can be installed on any partition or drive that you have and in any order or removed as the same without damaging any other partition.

When you boot the operating sytem will then automatically become the "C" partition and the others will be alloted accordingly...this should answer most of your questions and concerns.

All you need to remember is that each installation is as if there was no other operating systems installed.

This also makes it much easier for backing up the files and data on each OS.

Thanks, works great. I would just suggest that you add at the bottom of the penultimate page, that the user will be rebooting with the disk in the drive in order to get back to the command prompt for the final bit of system configuration. If someone happens to pull the disk, as I did, and boots into Vista, you can get the command prompt with administrative rights by entering "command prompt" into the Full search page (not Quick Search), then right click the line with the title "command prompt", and choose "run as administrator". Then just enter the bcdedit commands as shown.

Hey William,

Nice site. I need some help with your instructions regarding the Dual Boot procedure. I have Vista Ultimate 32-bit loaded on my 150GB Raptor. I would like to install WinXP as a dual boot. I followed your procedure but maybe I'm missed something. After going into Vista and editing with bcdedit, it created the dual boot menu. I am trying to complete the install of XP at this point but the pc gives the same error that another user Kishore stated. I can go into Vista but not XP to complete the install. Please help.

Thanks.
Slick.

Lurkswithin,

Thanks for the response. I downloaded EasyBCD because I heard good things about it. Are you familiar with this program? I'll check out GAG also.

Thanks very much for your help and answer. You pretty much answered all of my questions!

when i partition the xp drive its doesnt says that its a primary partition it says its Logical Drive and thus when boot the xp cd after the cd loads the files i get an erro saying
STOP: 0x0000007B

please help me ill really appreciate it
thnkx