Mr Wilson,
where have you gone? pls back to help me..............

Dual Boot with Vista installed 1st
 

Everything is good till trying to repair boot mbr.
Computer did not come with Vista CD. Only Recovery Partition and we created Recovery DVD set. Downloaded Torrent file and Torrent program. After 2 days, still no Recovery disc created by Torrent. Did I miss something.

PLEASE HELP. Until I stumbled across this website, I have formatted and installed Vista and XP a dozen times over the last 2 months.

Thank you, William, for helping me with the dual boot process.
My Vista Computer Management program has created a Logical drive, not a partition. Does this make a difference? How can I make a logical drive into a partition? My Dell XPS420 has the OS Partitioned in C: and a Recovery partitioned in D:.

A partition is just that. A dedicated sectioning of a harddisc. A HDD can have up to 4 primary partitions and up to 24 logical partitions based on the archetecture of the operating system.

The differences are that primary drives are made as bootable (active) and are given a priority for assigned drive letters than what logical partitions are given.

To change the logical to primary (bootable) ......while in disc management
in the lower window rt. clk. the partition that you wish to change and select "make active".

Ok, I downloaded Visual Boot Pro (which I recommend, very easy and free) to fix the boot loader issue. After that when I rebooted I got the error message that the file was missing or corrupt, which I think people have referred to in earlier posts. The problem was that I referred to drive letter F: (where XP Pro) is installed, instead of to drive C: which is where ntldr is located.

Thanks!

Joel


Wow, I thought I was going to fly right through this, but I too ran into problems at step 4. I'm sure our friend William is sorry he ever put this up!

When I ran
bcdedit -set {ntldr} device partition = C:
I got the response
The device is not valid as specified.
Run "bcdedit /?" for command line assistance.

I installed XP Pro no problem on logical drive F:, and had no problems with the instructions to restore Vista as the default boot OS. So I'm in no trouble, but I'd love to be able to dual boot XP Pro.


If you have any suggestions, great, otherwise I'm no worse off than I was.

Thanks,

Joel

bootable Xp clone
 

This is my first post ever, so thanks in advance for any advise.
I have an XP image on an external HD, Cloned by Acronis.
I want to install it on a larger HD, now running Vista, on a notebook and make it dual bootable.
The XP image is most important, as it has tons of programs that vista doesent support, and data that i use daily. The Vista can be dumped and reinstalled if required.
So i guess I need to know my best and easiest options. Thanks again!

XP does not see hdd
 

Hi William,

Your instructions make total sense but my machine doesn't like them after 2nd step. I just got new Lenovo Y710 laptop, made partitions with Vista's disk management system as you advised, and got to run XP installation, (2nd step first xp setup screenshot you have posted) but then I'm getting the XP installation message that my computer doesn't have hdd installed and setup cannot continue. It just doesn't see hdd and there is C: vista partition - 30gb, D: 99gb F: - 48gb , and G - 48gb . D, F and G are empty. I assume it is about some Vista security block. Not sure does it mater but when I got computer I made one restore point. I read somewhere that might cause some dual boot problems.
Any advices?

Thanks a bunch,

Goran

XP/Vista Dual Boot process doesn't complete
 

William,
I Followed the directions to the letter and got a message that said I couldn't partition the hard drive because it already had all the partitions it could take. Why did I think this was going to be easy?

Here's the config of my Dell computer in Computer Management:
Volume (blank)
layout simple
type Basic
file system (blank)
status Healthy (EISA configuration)

Volume (blank)
layout simple
type Basic
file system (blank)
status Healthy (primary)

Volume OS (C)
layout simple
type Basic
file system NTFS
status Healthy (System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump, Primary

Volume RECOVERY (D)
layout simple
type NTFS
File system NTFS
status Healthy (Primary Partition)

Bottom 6 windows appear as follows:
1. Disk 0 Basic 298.09 GB Online

2. 86 MB Healthy
3. RECOVERY (D) 10.00 GB NTFS helathy (Primary)
4. OS (C) 261.02 GB NTFS Healthy (System, Boot, page file, active, crash dump, primary
5. 24.48 GB unallocated (I think I did this when I chose the new simple volume and specified volume size much larger than I should have) --Now it won't let me undo this.
6. 2.50 GB Healthy (Primary)

The biggest let down of windows operating systems is that you can only have 4 primary partitions on any given disk. It is a default action and the only way around this is to use a third party boot manager.

Google for GAG

dual booting xp with vista
 

hi william,i have been reading your tutorial on the dual booting as i am very interested in it myself,i must praise you on the way you have explained it from start to finish,i have checked the same process out on many forums,but you have taken the time to illustrate each step thoroughly,well done thanks heaps

Dual Boot Vista and XP with Vista already installed
 

I have to make the assumption that the version of Vista most are using is 32-bit. I just bought an HP 9700 laptop with Vista Home Premium 64-bit pre-installed but I was able to get HP to send original recovery disk as the recovery program would not work. I have used them twice trying to get this thing to dual boot. I have been trying for six days now. Have been all over the web and tried everything. Not happening! I have a full version of XP PRO that I am trying to load. I have 3 primary partitions using different software. At step 3 XP says it can not find any drivers for the hard drive and terminates the instulation. The closest I get to XP seeing a partition is when I plug in a 4gb thumb drive, in fact I loaded XP to it just to make sure the disc was not corrupt. I have even gone into the BIOS to reconfigure the boot sequence. No luck. I sure could use some professional help !

The version of the OS 32 bit or 64 bit does not affect anything during istallation as they are not running.

Your XP is likely a version below SP2 and your drive a SATA as opposed to IDE. XP was designed before these drives became mainstream so they do not have default handling for all of them. Try checking your bios for a hard drive setting of "Native" and switch it to "Legacy" (you can switch it back after the install). If that doesn't work you may have to install sata drivers during the initial step of the installation where it asks for 3rd party drivers.

Great Post, great info
 

I found your post and it was exacly what I needed. Excellent procedure.

Thank you - Jon

PS I even registered just so you would know your information is extreemly useful.

some problem
 

william

I am having problem with xp boot. it gives me error
File: \ntldr
status: 0xc000000f
info ; The selected entry could not be loaded because application is missing or corrupt

Any idea what's going on??

thank you

ronit

the most likely cause is an incorrect boot.ini setting, it is checking the wrong partition. Can you list your partitions and what OS is on each and post your boot.ini?

I Need Help !
 

I think I screwed up big time. Heres my situation. On step four, I typed in the four commands but in the first command I typed in E since I thought I had to put in the disk drive in which XP was installed. (PLEASE DONT SAY MY COMPUTER IS DONE). So when I rebooted it, it went to an blue error screen. So Vista doesn't boot anymore, not even with the installation disc. AT ALL. So I was able to boot the computer with the xp installation cd. I deleted the disk drive and reinstalled xp only. But it still doesnt start up the way it should and I cant install vista no more.
I hope you can help. Thanks in advance.

hello william ... thanx for sharing ur important time to post such a valuable info... i want to downgrade vists but i got a problem in the starting itself ...
there are two drives ( C and D) in my inspiron 1525...while i tried to partition the C drive (D is recovery drive) i got the following error:
"you can not create a new volume in this unallocated space because the disk already contains the maximum number of partitions"

could u plzzz help me out.. what to do... its very urgent for me... i'llbe grateful to u...
thanx in advance....

If you use windows disc management then you may only have 4 logical partition to any windows system. This includes all drives and partitions.

In order to get around this you need to use a third party disc manager or boot manager.
You may use GAG a free boot manager to install up to 9 different partitions on installed drives...or you can look into others such as Partition Magic.
If you use the boot manager....you don't have to install any other operating systems ( nice though that it would be pre-set up)

Cannot install XP
 

hello,
after creating a partition for XP when i boot using the XP CD, i dont get the installation page instead Vista loads. i also tried to boot using a usb flash drive but it says "remove disk and other media and press any key to restart", when i press a key Vista loads. Can anyone help with this problem please.

Hello

This tutorial is excellent!

Worked great the first time and no problems since (untill now!)

I had to reload Vista. What do i need to do to get XP working again? I am assumung that I have to reload somethng for the boot record but I am not sure where to begin. Any Help would be Greatly appreciated.

Thanks

<Mark>

Hello Again..

after reading my post, some more info may be required.

Vista partition = C:
Xp partition = d:

the dual boot screen comes up but when XP is selected, it tells me that \ntdlr is missing.

Using the xp disk to repair would only give me recovery console with DOS commands and I am not sure what to use.

Computer
Gateway p7811FX
2.26 dual core
4 gig ram

c= vista
d= xp
e = data
f= recovery(vista\gateway)

thanks for any assistance!!

M

I did something wrong here someplace and need a bit of help fixing it now. I completed this and vista boots just fine as it did before and the dual boot screen comes up on restart but when I select my XP install it just reboots automatically. My bcdedit settings are different and I'm not sure how they got this way, or how to fix it.

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.0.6001]
Copyright (c) 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=G:
path \bootmgr
description Windows Boot Manager
default {current}
displayorder {current}
{ntldr}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate (recovered)
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {1be01787-dab1-11dd-8675-806e6f6e6963}

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {ntldr}
device partition=C:
path \ntldr
description Microsoft Windows XP

The G:\ partition is actually my XP install, Vista is installed on C:\ currently.

Thanks
Josh

Problem in Installing Windows XP
 

I am using a Compaq Presario V3000 Notebook with Windows Vista already installed.

I had a problem in installing Windows XP.


This is the error message I got:

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.

Can you help me solve this?

I really need to have XP and Vista in my laptop...

Thank you in advance!

Your laptop is using a SATA drive...you will need to make a driver disc for the controller....right after the Boot to Cd prompt comes up you will be prompted to install SCSI or third party drivers by pressing F6....press F6 and use the driver disc to install the controller drivers....

You can find the drivers that you need at the manufacturer's website for your model of computer....they must be XP drivers and if none are listed you will have to search for the drivers.

This is the web page...it contains all the XP drivers that you may need for your laptop (if you gave us the correct model...V3000....there is a model V3000T and the drivers are different)

Select software and driversÂ*

The file you need to put on the disc is the Intel SATA AHCI Controller Driver located towards the bottom of the page.

Error in Installing Windows XP
 

My laptop model is Compaq Presario V3431TU...

Vista and XP installed on different disks
 

I have installed Vista and XP on 2 different disks (Vista is on a SATA drive and XP is on an NVIDIA RAID 0). The XP was the first OS and Vista was installed afterwards. Since I had problems installing Vista with the RAID as the primary boot drive (BIOS setting), I had to make the other drive the primary boot drive and install Vista. This resulted in Vista not recognizing that there was another OS present so it did not create the dual boot entry on the boot loader. The only way I can boot to either OS is to change the primary boot drive from the BIOS setup. Will the procedure you describe work on such a configuration, or is there something that must be changed?

Thanks in advance!

Then why did you not say that that was your model number to begin with...

Look it up yourself!

@ParisD
You can use this dual hard drive configuration.
Install a boot manager like EasyBCD in Vista.
Download EasyBCD 1.7.1 - NeoSmart Technologies

Thanks for the info. I will give it a try.

I fixed it! I used EasyBCD to add the menu entry for Win XP to the Vista bootloader, but there is an extra step:

You have to copy the ntlr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini files from the root of the XP drive to the root of the Vista drive, and then edit the boot.ini (through EasyBCD) to set the correct entry for the drive.

I had to change the following entry:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)
to
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)

Hope it helps others with the same setup!

Reg: Windows Vista Already have Need to run dual Boot with XP
 

Hi EveryOne,
I'm new to this syschat. I've HP dv2000 Pavilion Windows Vista Home Edition. I wish to install Windows XP and vista as dual boot. I tried several ways to install both, but all failed finally. I've removed Vista and Installed XP. Even tutorials from here too. i want to tell one thing the shrink volume does work around 3 gb only, it doe's not work after first attempt(only 3gb partition). Please let me know how to install windows XP and Vista both?, also i've only recovery disc's and XP CD's, where can i find Vista in Recovery disc's.? Kindly help me out regarding this......

Thanks & Regards
Saravanakumar.C

Hi William Wilson,
Thanks for your time and effort on this tutorial, i'm succesfully dual booting and lovin' it! all thanks to you.

Nice one Mr. Wilson

well I have xp and win 7 as dualboot and its works fine , and remember read wel the post from William , you must do it whit two partions on you hd , if not is looking for trubbels :icon_wink:

Dual boot XP Vista
 

After trying the directions and actually making a new partition, the system says I can not allocate the part about NTFS because I have the maximum number of drives> 4. There is the C and the Recovery, then there is a 75 mb EISA and a 2.5 gb that warns me to not delete it. What would be in there?

Before you do anything else....we need to know exactly what make and model of computer are you using...

C would be the vista operating system.

Recovery could be either the make recovery discs files or a recovery partition holding the ISO copy of the vista operating system

75mb EISA partition is a bus protocol to convert older 16 bit hardware into operating systems into 32 bit operating system normally used by IBM and HP on Servers

2.5g do not delete would be another recovery partition but you should not have 2 and that is why we need to know what computer you have!

The reason you are unable to use the NTFS format in the logical partition you created is because the built in Microsoft disc management program will only allow 4 logical drives to a system.... so we need to determine what all it is that you have in there so that it can be determined as to what can be changed without hurting your system!

It is a Dell PP29L Inspirion 1525 In a live chat Dell said it was ok to delete it and now Im have a working partition.
So what was the 2.5 for?

Probably a lot of DELL bloat ware and logs for their tech support.

The question I now have is, if I am going to do a dual boot.....is there any reason to keep Vista or is it possible to just replace Vista with XP? And why keep Vista, other than it is a big hassle to replace one with the other.

I personally have no use for vista as I just don't like the operating system but as time proggresses I am sure that at some time I will be forced to install it or a version of it. Keeping the operating system and chooseing the dual boot is a personal decission....you have to decide what you wish to do!

Any way here is the drivers you will need for the XP installation for your laptop....

Drivers & Downloads

Make sure it is the right model and all that...

You do realize that you will still need a licens for the xp installation for activation?

Problem in install XP home edtion on Dual Boot with pre install Vista home premium
 

Hello, anyone knows what to on this problem:

After i made the partition on the Hard drive using Vista disk management, I formatted the partition to NTFS format, swap the DVD drive and partition designated drive letters.

My XP installation hangs and give me error messages:

"a problem has deteced and windows has been shut down to prevenet damage to your computer.

if this is teh first time you've seen this stop error screen, restart you computer. if this screen appears again follow 3 step:

check for virus on your computer, remove any installed harddrive controller. check you hardrive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated
Run chkdsk /f to check the harddrive.......

technical info:
****stop oxoooooo7b (oxf78d663, 0c0000034, 0x000000000, 0x000000
"
My laptop is brand new... no virus, drivers are configure properly, I can still boot Vista no problem.

Is there any special way of install XP home edtion?