Problem with Dual Boot Vista and XP with Vista already installed
 

Sir,

I am a bearer of Toshiba Laptop-Satellite with Vista installed.

I tried using Wilson Willam's solution as I essentially require a dual booting system with Windows XP Sp2. I followed the Step-1 and was successful to partition the drive to create a new one. But unfortunately when I booted with the CD it stopped the installation given an error.

Windows XP Professional Setup

Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer.

Make sure any hard disk drives are powered on and properly connected to your computer, and that any disk related hardware configuration is correct. This may involve running a manufacturer-supplied diagnostic or setup program.

Setup cannot continue, To quit Setup, press F3.

I am baffled, please provide me the appropriate solution at the earliest.

Regards & Thanks,

Santosh

That laptop uses a SATA controller for your harddrive...you must install the sata driver when you are installing XP during the set up proccess. Shortly after the 'press any key to boot to CD" prompt there will be another prompt about installing 3rd party drivers pressF6...you press F6 and have the SATA driver on a CD to be coppied in the set-up files.

Echo, Echo, Echo...

Sir, Many Thanks for your prompt reply. I assume this may be my problem. Now after going through your guide/tutorial, I am facing the biggest problem of a Vista CD/DVD since I have received only a Recovery CD/DVD along with my Laptop. If suppose I am successful to install Xp after your solution, will I be change the boot setup as for that I require the Vista CD/DVD? Can I try out finally with the EasyBCD s/w?

Kindly reply soon.

Regards & Thanks in advance,

Santosh

[QUOTE=smachari;11625]Sir, Many Thanks for your prompt reply. I assume this may be my problem. Now after going through your guide/tutorial, I am facing the biggest problem of a Vista CD/DVD since I have received only a Recovery CD/DVD along with my Laptop. If suppose I am successful to install Xp after your solution, will I be change the boot setup as for that I require the Vista CD/DVD? Can I try out finally with the EasyBCD s/w?

If you prepared Vista Recovery CD properly, then it should be enough. I tried in my laptop (Sony VAIO) with recovery DVD I made. It works well.

Once you successfully finished making dual boot, make an additional copy of your recovery CD's or DVD's.

Sir, I am glad if it works with the Recovery CD/DVD. But please make me understand your reply as "prepare the Recovery CD/DVD". What do I have to do with it. I am confused. Should I make a copy of it or what? Please clarify.

Regards,

[QUOTE=smachari;11648]Sir, I am glad if it works with the Recovery CD/DVD. But please make me understand your reply as "prepare the Recovery CD/DVD". What do I have to do with it. I am confused. Should I make a copy of it or what? Please clarify.

if you got your laptop with visa installed at a point where you proceed installation with your language setting or preferences, then after complete installation of vista, a user should make a recovery set of dvd's, usually 3 dvds including vista and other accompanying software. but you've mentioned that you've only one cd/dvd (please mention which one cd or dvd) and it is not clear that whether you've the correct recovery cd/dvd. anyway, you can try. you just leave that cd/dvd in the drive and restart pc. make sure that you put the correct order to boot in the bios or put cd/dvd drive in the top of the list. Now, if it is try to boot vista from cd/dvd, you will get screens to adjust the keyboard and when you press next button, vista will show available operating systems. it will show vista and there you click next you will get a window with many options. you can see there, startup recovery, system restore, command prompt etc. if you are getting these, then you can utilise this cd/dvd to make your system dual boot. just click shutdown from the window because you didnt install your xp. now remove the cd/dvd from the drive and start with installing xp with your sata drives installed as mentioned by lurkswithin. in my case, i didnt install any drivers seperately while installing xp. you check with your partitions that you made with vista. provide here details of the partition and how you made it.

Dual Boot SATA Driver
 

[QUOTE=sreejmen;11651]Sir,

I want to clarify myself what I understand from the previous conversations.

I have a Toshiba Satellite L40-18X, Pentium T2370, 2048MB Memory 667Mhz 200Gb HDD 5400 rpm SATA, Microsoft Vista Home Premium 32 Bit. I think this information about my system would be sufficient. The second point is that I have a Recovery DVD of Vista which is supplied only with Toshiba Laptop at a new purchase. Behind the DVD cover it is clearly written if the Recovery DVD is processed it would format the drive and all the data would be lost. And I have lot of data which should be preserved.

Now the next step.
I have C:\100GB & D:\100GB hence I followed step-1 from the tutorial and partioned D:\ to create E:\ of just 6GB for installation of Windows XP by the manage option of Vista. After that I inserted Win Xp CD and restarted following which I recieved an error which I had mentioned in my first query.

I read the problem with my SATA Controller and downloaded a file viz. iata82_enu.exe of Macrovision Corporation. Firstly I wanted to know whether this is the correct file for my configuration? Secondly, how is the usage?

I was afraid, even if I install Win Xp will I get dual boot. For this reason once I had rebooted my system with Recovery DVD in it. After the setup as you have mentioned in the previous reply, I receive a prompt for the current operating system as "Windows Vista" and after that I saw the, Startup Recovery, System Restore, Command Prompt etc. these 3 options clearly. As per your previous reply this DVD will be usable for dual boot.

Now, my worry is only for the SATA controller driver installation and the rest is understood by me. I have not clearly understood the method of using the SATA drivers. I would be grateful to you if you reply me with steps since I am an amateur user in harware maintenence but an expert in Autocad and computer applications. The above whatever I have written to you is my knowledge and experience.

Sir, please bear with me and finally provide the solutions step by step only regarding my problems. For the rest, I shall follow Willam Wilson's Tutorial.

Best Regards & Thanks
Santosh

[quote=smachari;11660]
You should have backed up any data files, and any pix that you have on the computer before you even have started this dual boot thingy.

I have an ASUSTeK M2N Sli Deluxe that does not require SATA drivers when installing Windows, unless it's going into a raid config then it does...

[QUOTE=smachari;11660]
Santosh, I'm really sorry because my net was damn slow since 3-4 days. Still it is slow.

First you make sure that you got the correct SATA drivers downloaded from concerned either your motherboard or pc manufacturer. You may find details on how to install drivers while installing XP. I never did this and so I am not sure. I think you've to extract the ata82_enu.exe to a CD. Reboot the computer with windows XP installation CD in the drive. Press F6 at the first setup screen. Now insert the driver CD and press ENTER. The setup lists the available drivers. Select the one that is suitable for your computer and press ENTER. Windows integrates the SATA driver and finds the hard disk in the next step. (The information about installing SATA driers were taken from CHIP India Magazine May 2008 issue (HANDS ON TIPS & TRICKS).

If you've valuable information on your hard disk, take a backup and then start to work with dual boot. Manytimes I've formatted my hard disk with the recovery CD. So please make sure about your data. Once you made the backup, then you can play with the tips available in forums.:)

Sir,
Many Thanks for the reply. Sir, you don't have to be sorry for the delay. I know it is important for me since I am very curious regarding my requirement but at the same time it is not deadly urgent.

Sir, I have followed your reply. Now my last worry is whether I can manage with the booting with my Windows Vista, Recovery DVD? In your previous reply you have mentioned regarding the same as it will work. But it will help me if the steps are mentioned since each & every step is like thundering for me.

Anxiously awaiting your reply.

Regards,

Santosh

Santosh, backup your valuable data. Install XP with SATA drivers. Follow the steps exactly as William wrote. Read that article 10 times carefully. While doing each and every step, read the corresponding line carefully. If you follow those steps exactly as he mentioned, you will succeed.

As you wrote, you reserved 6 GB for XP installation. In my experience, at least 10 GB. If you are installing XP only, then 6 GB is enough. In my first trial, I gave only 5 GB to XP. Then again I did it with 20 GB. Now I've 100 GB for vista, 20 GB for XP, 10 GB for linux, 40 plus GB for my data.

Suppose if you can't succeed your xp installation in any unlikely event, you can restore the vista MBR at anytime by inserting recovery CD, and after some time, you will be present with options like Start up recovery, system restore....Command prompt. In this take command prompt and type the following.

bootrec.exe /fixmbr

bootrec.exe /fixboot

these 2 lines will recover your vista mbr and after restarting your PC, vista will be loaded. remember, you've to remove your recovery CD before restarting PC.

While installing XP, it will ask you where you want your XP installation to go, you can see your partitions there on your screen. Select the one which you've reserved for XP. If you reserved 6 GB, you can this partition as 6 GB. It is always a good idea to give a disk label for all partitioned disks. For example, if you've Vista on C drive, label the drive as VISTA. If you've reserved xp installation in D drive, name it XP. So you can see these labels while installing XP. This will be more convenient and avoid any confusion.

:)

Sir,
Sorry, I was buzy in the morning to reply. Yesterday as per your instructions I was successful in loading the SATA drivers and installing Windows XP. But I failed in the last step. I inserted the Vista Recovery DVD but unfortunately it didn't provide any of the above mentioned options viz. Start up recovery, system restore....Command prompt, etc. It showed me the current system as Windows Vista. Then it asked me whether I want to proceed with the recovery. When I pressed Next...to my surprise it started formatting the HDD. I was afraid and I immediately shut down the Laptop or else I would have lost all my settings and installed programs. In my opinion the Recovery CD what I have will not be usable. Later I restarted the Laptop and aghast I found the famous error "BootMGR file not found, Press ctrl+alt+del to restart".

I am stuck here and don't know what to do now. Today I made a research on the net to find a file named "Vista_Recovery_Disc.iso.torrent". The site said, I can use this at my risk. It says it is a recovery tool for Vista users who doesn't have an installation CD.

Should I proceed with this file or is there any other alternative left for me now? I was really happy last night and thought I almost succeeded but then all my happiness was converted. Really couldn't sleep last night of worries.

Sir, is there any solution left?
Regards,

Santosh

Sir,

This is to inform you that I've successfully installed dual boot on my Vista PC with Windows XP SP2. I am planning to use Vista as the main OS since I've already started being addicted to it whereas I will install the softwares in XP only which I couldn't operate through Vista.

But the tradegy on my part was, I lost all my data inspite of warnings from your end. I admit and accept it was my overconfidence, haste & negligence. Some of the data I have with me in my Office PC so I can still manage but I lost some valuable Technical data. It was my mistake to use Recovery DVD which formatted the HDD instead of Repairing it. Its my suggestion to others too, not to repeat what I had committed.

I sincerely Thank Wilson William & Team and this website for offering me this great help to overcome my hindrances. I request you people to wish good luck to me for which I have taken so much trouble for a fruitful purpose.

My final query to you would be of a dll file named msnetobj.dll which did not copy from my XP CD to the PC. There was an option to skip it and I did the same. But at the same time there was a warning if I continued my XP installation wouldn't function properly. But after installing and re-booting several times I didn't face any problems except that I am getting only ONE icon of Recycle Bin on my XP Desktop compared to Vista Desktop which is normal. If this can be ignored, I would continue as it is or do I have to once again try installing XP.

Do reply as per convenience.

Best Regards & Thanks Once Again,
Santosh

At last you made it. Congrats!!!. Yes, it is a bad luck that some of your data were lost. Never mind, try to do collect your lost data as soon as possible otherwise it may be easy to forget when time passes.

It should be a lesson those to who are all not sure about the tweaks, tricks with the pc. I have made 3 copies of recovery each containing 3 dvds because we can't predict things since all are electronics.

Regarding your missing file, try to search for this in the net or in microsoft site for this. If you can borrow a copy from your friend, try to extract this file from the CD (there are options available to extract single file unfortunately i dont remember now) or install a fresh copy of XP again. Now you are experienced in dual boot. If you are using a licensed version of XP, you will get a fresh copy by contacting the vendor.

We also thankful for your posts since many of the users can learn from other's mistakes.

We would be happy if you are continuing your support to our forums.

WE ALTOGETHER WHO MADE THESE FORUMS MEANINGFUL.

:)