thanks a tonne
 

the best dual boot guide ever...i never had problems installing vista over xp....bur i always screwed up when it was the other way round....thanks to your guide....i am not only able to do it....but now i also understand why i wasn't able to do it....keep up the good work...and 3 cheers to you....

Hello!

You tutorial is very nice and easy to work with :)

But I have a problem....

Everything works ok till step 3, up to the Bootrec step.

After typing "Bootrec.exe /fixMBR" it says "The operation completed successfully."
But after typing "Bootrec.exe /fixBoot" it says
"The volume does not contain a recognized file system.
Please mae sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted."

And the computer is constantly bootin up Windows XP and I can't get it to boot up Vista.
I tried using Startup Repair, too, but it says that system booted normally and it fixes nothing.

What do I do????

Thanks :)

Im suspect I'm on a snipe hunt....
 

First...thx for all the info here. I've read every single post on this thread and now believe I may have saved myself a lot of grief by doing so. Mr. Wilson: you are a very patient & giving soul, indeed.

I suspect that an answer to the following question(s) will help quite a few people here....

Please confirm that I will NOT be able to set up a dual boot on my new system (or....if I actually CAN, then tell me where I can send a large bottle of your favorite adult beverage!)...

Have brand new HP Pavillion model a6257c. Specs are available here: HP Pavilion a6257c Desktop PC - Product Specifications

It comes with Vista Premium Home installed. No Vista CD is included (don't get me started....letters are already on the way to HP & M$ for THIS insidious omission). I did however, make Recovery Disks (2 dvds vs. 15 cds that it said it needed.), whatever those are. I doubt that they include a full Vista install, but could be wrong.

I do own a legal XP Pro w/ SP2 CD, however, and have the product key handy.

According to HP, there are NO XP drivers available for this machine. They also state that, while MS supports "going backwards" from Vista to XP, HP does not. So not finding XP drivers for this machine on the HP web site comes as no surprise. However, the other odd & unusual thing is ASUS, the MoBo maker doesn't seem to have a manual or drivers or anything for this MoBo on their site either. This is odd. They've always been very supportive in the past.

This is a 64 bit duo core with one SATA HD. Not sure I read some posts right, but this may be yet another reason that a dual boot set up won't work on this machine.

No problem using Vista to re-partition. It was quite EZ. This is what I ended up with:

Note: All 3 partitions have the same Layout, Type, & File System. That is: Simple, Basic, and NTFS.

HP (C:) Healthy (Primary Partition) >aprox. 172 GB size
(This is the volume I shrank to create the 3rd partition....for XP)

Factory Image (D:) Healthy (System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump, Primary Partition) > aprox. 9 GB size

New Volume (K:) Note that this drive letter was necessary due to all the removable media devices that came built in...I could have chosen A or B (and still can change it, of course), but feared that would cause problems. >aprox. 117 GB size

I formatted the New Volume.

That's where I am at this time, and fear proceeding. From all the reading & research I've done, it would appear that I'm out of luck on creating a dual-boot on this system.

Do you agree???

If so, can you instruct me how to return the C: drive back to it's original size?

If you disagree, then please tell me how to obtain XP drivers that'll work with this machine, and how to proceed from here.

Thanks so much for all of your efforts here. As a newbie, I'm very impressed.
Chris

I succeeded in installing dual boot on a number of HP, Dell and Toshiba machines. You'll just need to work a bit and I'm sure you'll succeed. It's worth the effort to avoid this Vista crap.

You can find the xp drivers on the sites of device manufacturers. For example, for your 945G Intel chipset : Intel® 945 Express Chipset Family - Intel® 945 Chipset family information and downloads. You'll find the storage manager driver for your sata disk and a great deal of detailed information. Especially, how to implement your storage manager driver at xp installation time (the F6 routine).

The first thing I would do is run Everest (version 4.20.1170 or higher runs on XP and Vista) to find out what specific devices are installed on your pc. Then, go to the respective maufacturer sites to download the drivers you need.

Since you don't have a Vista DVD handy, here's the procedure I used which just requires your XP cd and freeware you can download.

Install EasyBCD 1.7, a freeware described in the attachment of Message 242 above. It will fix the MBR and boot.ini for you.

Verifying this will work...
 

Again, as others have said, thanks for keeping everyone up to speed with all the questions being asked - no small task!

I have a new system pre-installed with Vista Basic. According to the Disk Management, my single 250GB HD goes like this:

1st partition: EISA Config (15MB)
2nd partition: Recovery Partition (D:\) (10GB)
3rd partition: Vista OS (C:\) (233GB)


If I've disabled the auto-recovery features of Vista (how do I know I've totally, and completely done this?) , can I blow away that 2nd partition (D:\), and install XP on that 10GB partition? Will there be any wierd issues with having the D:\ drive sit before the C:\ drive on the physical disk?

Lastly, it appears that the /ntldr directory which normally sits with the XP installation, is written to the C:\ partition (where Vista is, the Active-Partition) Correct? This is why some posters asked, "why am I having the Vista Boot Loader boot XP from the C:\ drive, when it's actually on the D:\ drive?"

I executed the instructions last nite, and everything worked perfectly. I was lucky; the XP SP2 CD I was using had SATA drivers for the NVidia chipset, so I didn't get the error about "I don't see a HD to install on..."

worked for me!

last night i backed up and wiped my whole system (dell e520, core 2 duo, 3 months old) and then reloaded a fresh vista using my dell disc on the smallest partition (cant really use vista with my software, just wanted it there in case for the future!)

Then I loaded xp pro on the main partition. your instructions were literally ""1,2,3" and it was all done in an hour or so.

thanks for the great guide.

Help!!! it's not working
 

Hi!

I'm not new to computers, and after checking the boards i thought this should be piece of cake

How wrong can you be!!!

My install of XP is not working. after the reboot I get the msg "Error loading operating system"

I've tried several times now, with the same result. I'm using an XP SP2 upgrade disk with a 98SE OEM disk for validation.

I've tried following the guide tot he letter, I've tried using the recovery console (very clumisly, never used it before) tried using the Vista recovery centre, I've even tried formatting as FAT32 and putting on Windows 98, but I keep getting the same error. any suggestions? I'm die-ing here

Taydius

infinity is blue from the outside

Disregard
 

Hi folks.

Please disregard my previous msg. 6 hrs of trying to setup a dual boot whhen things don't work out as they are supposed to can drive you batty

For those of you that do end up where I was, don't panic. I found a solution

The situation that I had was During step 2 when windows XP was supposed to reboot to continue the installation, it didn't. it gave the above error msg, or even just hanged before getting to that msg, just after the msg, press any key to boot from CD.

just go on the steps 3 and 4, and then boot into Windows XP and continue the installation

this works (ask me how I know LOL 6 hours of hair pulling and endlessly rebooting and changing disks around)

thanks anyway

taydius

infinity is blue, when viewed from the outside

"System recovery options" in XP?
 

After looking at 26 pages of questions and answers, I don't believe that I have seen this situation.

I have installed XP okay and used Vista Boot Pro to get VISTA access after the XP install (I don't have VISTA install disks, only recovery disks).

Now, VISTA is okay, but when I select XP at the boot, the XP (not VISTA) system recovery options menu starts up. The startup repair option is unsuccessful. Is there a way to allow XP to work as well from here?

Thanks (so close, hopefully)

Have seen this problem twice but no solution
 

Hello William,
Ok here is my Problem I have seen 2 Unregistered people bring this up. So I thought I would Register with my systems specs So that maybe I can get the answer to this.
I had no problem with step 1 But when I go to install XP it will load up the basic Drivers(on blue screen). Once done it will say "starting up Windows" which is where you select the HD you will be installing XP on. But i dont make it to that Screen. instead I get a Blue Screen that informs me "Windows has detected a problem that could cause damage, Needs to restart. If this is the first time you have seen this message restart computer and Try again, If Not Try to Run a Virus scan, Remove HD, or CHKDSK /F" At which point I cant do anything else but restart computer.

I have been Realing forum after forum and called Dell Twice(to no luck "We can not help you install XP on your system b/c you bought your system with Vista") in the last 4 days.

What I gather is that I need to chage my SATA (cant remember what to what) From ATA to IDE (or something like that) But in my Bios I dont have an Option to change it (I know the difference b/c I pulled out my old computer and it had the option under "Drivers")

I have taken the HD out of my old computer (with XP SP2 installed) and installed it on my new one and still got that Blue screen only at a different point (Windows loading Screen comes up and quickly changes to the Error screen) The BIOS verison I am using is "Pheonix Rom BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A04" Which are the Bios Dell "Recommends" :(

I like Vista for Directx10 (and related games) but my True Love is FFxi Which will not work on Vista for me so if someone can help me get XP back on my computer there is a good chance that I will give you my first Child haha jk
PS: I dont even care if I keep Vista anymore haha
Thank you!

system recovery
 

AS74

you might try using the fixboot and fixmbr option that is afforedd in the recovery comsole of xp (I know it's in vista, but it is also in xp, although the syntax is different)

now this will stuff up the dual boot that you have right now, but it just might fix the problem that you're having.

If all else fails start the procedure from scratch. I know this means deleting the XP drive that you've created and then recreating it but. but I spent 6 hours doing just that before the install worked.

Hope this helps you

Taydius

Same problem
 

Everything went perfect. Thank you very much William. I changed my boot order to XP 1st . Now I can't load X at all. Changed the boot order back to Vista 1st. Still receive error message listed above.
File: \ntldr
Status:0xc000000e
Help me please before my wife throws the computer out the door. I got it for my daughter for Christmas so I could have mine back and have been on for 32 hours with 2 hours sleep fixing various Vista/ XP conflicts.

@soulfly:

IDE and SATA are not interchagable by selecting a bios option, it is simply the drive type. The only way you could make this change is if your computer had 2 hard drives, one of IDE and the other of SATA type.

The error you are encountering is a vague one, but usually has to do with information errors. The cable connecting your drive, or the drive itself may be damaged.
The other option I could think of off hand is that your computer is failing to recognize some harware, try unplugging all uneccessary devices such as scanners, printers, camras, etc.

Let me know if the error changes or goes away.

@Taydius:
sorry about your troubles and that I was not able to help sooner, but I'm glad you found something that works :)

@flS537:
This is most often an issue of files missing, sometimes Vista likes to "fix" things, and it just screws up XP. You can use the repair option, but that too can sometimtes do more harm than good. So I suggest copying the ntdlr and ntdetect.com files from your XP cd (located at: CD_DRIVE:\i386\) into the root of your XP partition.
Or check that XP is indeed pointing to the correct partition, Vista will label it as D, or X, or whatever, but when running XP it makes itself C:\ and that is what it should be pointed to.

Excellent steps laid out
 

I am a few days old member and would like to appreciate the efforts here.

Thanks for the step by step guide.

I did dual boot xp with Vista loaded few weeks back. But after installing XP I took the went through Start Repair after booting from Vista CD. And then use the program called EasyBCD to change to boot loader and that also worked fine. But that was a long way to go and bit complicated also.

But thansk for the efforts here.

easyBCD is a good tool. I am just a stickler for not having 3rd party software running my OS if possible :P
Glad your dual boot is working fine.

Helpp!!!!
 

Hey I am brand new here and I came accross this post. I recently installed XP on my HP laptop that had Vista installed. I followed these directions almost exactly. But now I cannot boot up vista. It defaults to XP and I don't know how to tell it to boot to vista. Any help would be excellent I can't use my laptop without vista.

acer
 

i have been thure this and thure this and not seeing the anser to my problem i suspect it is something with acer

what is hapeing is i go thure the steps but in page 3 i cant put in the install disk for vista because i dont have one all i have is a recovery disk that will wipe it and reinstall vista i managed to get back into vista by just reinstalling it and i did get it to show the boot loader screen with xp and vista but when i click xp it goes to the missing ntldr error and i have reinstaled it 3 times and can even see it listed there im shure its something simple i am missing but its getting to be frustrating as i am shure it is for you to keep seeing the same quistions im just wondering if there is something you might be able to think of

EasyBCD will clean things up for you. Go to message 244.

I got a problem
 

Hi William... I got a problem when I finished with the New Simple Volume Wizard, I followed all the steps rigthly but when I click finish it appears me a little message that says that there is not enough space available on the disk(s) to complete this operation. I don't know why that happens, I hope you can help me with this problem, thank you for taking your time to read this.

acer
 

ok i have a acer aspire 5520 and as you can see in my above post i had some trouble i managed to get mine fixed here is what i had to do it still has a small problem i can live with but i plan to redo all the processes and clean it up ill repost that when i do i am still haveng a problem with a modem driver

ok i followed the steps here but with acer laptops you dont get a dvd you have to make your own and it dont give you any options it just formats and reinstalls vista so what i had to do was (mine had 2 partions factory) start the xp install like you would from a fresh start and when it got to the directory to where you install i had to delet the d partion and let xp make a new one then install load into xp after it installs then put in my dvd that i made from inside vista with the recovery program and restart and boot to the dvd and let vista reinstall(if you are not willing to lose ever thing you have dont do this) here is where i run into my trouble i had to uses easybcd i plan to redo the process and use williams process to see if i can fix the problems i had but any way when i rebooted i got the missing ntldr error i added them and got a missing hal.dll error to fix that i had to boot to the xp cd and chose repair windows and then type in bootcfg /list enter(dont realy think you have to do this but it was in the instructions i got so i did it )then bootcfg /rebuild hit enter then save it it asked me for some other stuff i wasent shure what it was so i put in xp and vista so when i rebooted and picked xp it had a second list wanting xp and vista i hit xp and it loaded to windows i know this is not a very good post but i will try to fill in the info as soon as i can get my modem drivers fixed

if any one has found a working cnx driver for a aspire 5520 in xp i would realy like the link i have tryed about 10 and none of them work i did see on a hp driver page that there cnx needs xp sp3 to work and im on dile up so i cant download sp 2 or 3any way i hope this post helps some one

Did you use the vista disc to install it's boot loader? The default behavior after this step is to only have Vista, thus you add XP to it.

What is the partition setup of your drive? Installing Vista after XP is considerably easier as Vista can detect that XP exists. I have been busier than I could have even imagined lately, and I am trying to solve this issue, but using copyrighted files makes it difficult.

The MS partition shrinking software is not perfect, but I found this which has links to resources and tips on making it work.
Working Around Windows Vista's "Shrink Volume" Inadequacy Problems :: the How-To Geek

acer
 

there is a hidden partion for the system install for when it becoms nescary to format and reinstall its 10 gig then it has a acer c: (vista)90 gig xp d: (xp) 30 gig and the remander is data e:58.3 gig


my entire problem is with the dvd that i made from the vista os doesent give any options if you boot to it.it just formats and reinstalls vista to the c drive so i couldnt do the step where you boot to the vista cd and repaire the vista bootloader i managed to get my system to boot into xp and vista but acer doesnt seem to have a working modem driver for xp

2 drives - 1 xp and 1 Vista
 

Hello all.
I have been looking through all the posts and did not see a clear example of booting when you have 2 different drives.

I loaded a new drive onto my Vista Machine
I installed xp on the new drive (drive G:)
I reinstalled the setup on the vista drive
I get the boot option with windows vista and windows xp
Vista loads fine
XP shows the NTldr error
both drives are Serial ATA

I am not clear (need layman's terms) on how / what to edit

I see quotes on editing the bcedit file but I am not clear on what {legacy} means.

help!
Thanks
Noah

Strike that! I got it to work by following your BCDedit instructions on Blind Faith - Thank you!

For others with 2 drives (trying to Install XP on exsisting Vista):

1. insert the new drive
2. boot your xp CDROM
3. Install xp on the unpartitioned new drive
4. reboot into XP
5. Install all drivers and updates (and reboot and rereboot as required)
6. Insert the Windows Vista DVD
7. Select Next and then REPAIR option
8. Now reboot into windows Vista (will happen automatically)
9. Follow Williams instructions (Thank you William again!!!):
"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"
"

** to open this goto Start --> All Programs --> Accessories--> (right click) Command prompt (and select run as administartor)

Once this is done everything should work.... I said should....

:)
Noah

XP Setup not recognising my hard drive..
 

Hi guys, I wonder if someone might be able to help me. I'm trying to install XP on to a machine running 64bit Vista and I'm having a problem at the installation stage of XP. I created the partition of 9gigs in Vista, rebooted with the XP CD but when it comes to choosing which partition to install XP on to, the list is empty apart from four entries of 'Unknown Disk <There is no disk in this drive.>' which I presume correspond to my in-built memory card reader. Any ideas? My computer is new but I would've thought it would still be able to take XP? There was just one partition on the hard drive to begin with, and the size of the hard drive is 320 GB. Thanks for the help.

XP refusing to install..
 

Just an update on my problem, I managed to get XP to recognise my hard drive. It turrned out I had to use NLite to install the SATA drivers into the XP installation files before XP could recognise my hard drive! I managed to get XP to install, but when it reboots for the first time, this appears.."Error loading operating system" Any ideas? Thanks.



New problem!! Computer keeps saying Disk Read Error, press Ctrl, Alt + Del. I've repaired the MBR with the Vista installation disk, many times, but still not working...help!

Not Good
 

Well I have an ASUS A8N-SLI Premium MB and have Vista x64 installed on a NVIDIA Raid 0 drive. I shrunk down the Vista partition to prepare for the XP install. I then booted to XP hit F6 and loaded the NVraid drivers. The install had no issue seeing the partition and copied all install files. On the first restart of the Install of XP I get:

Invalid Boot.ini file
Booting from c:\Windows

Then

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt
<Windows Root> \System 32\ntoskrnl.exe

Well I then booted with the Vista CD and selected the Repair Your Computer option. When it searches for Vista installations it does not find one. I loaded the drivers and it still does not find the Vista install.

I went to a cmd prompt and can navigate to my C: drive and Vista Partition as well as my E: drive that is the XP partition. I ran the bootrec commands with no errors and rebooted with the above issue.

I tried to some bcdedit commands to fix my boot but nothing will bring back my Vista install nor can I boot to XP.

Before I started this I tried using Acronis to back up the partition but it had issues with my other Raid 5 disks and could not copy so I am in a little pickle.

Any Ideas?

Thank You
 

Your "dual boot" tutorial could not have been clearer! Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

ClydeD

dual boot vista-xp
 

I have an Acer 5720, step 1 went fine as E:XP with 13GB, but when I try to install XP it says program block due to compatablity issues. Set-up wont continue because of newer verson.
Did I miss something?

I have a Dell Vostro 1700 with 2 internal hard drives When it gets to install XP it tells me It cannot find any hard drives. I can see the new drive created following your method. I have also tried just shrinking a volume to create a blank partition but still get no hd found in xp. I need some help please

Clive

I have installed XP on Vista, but now only XP boots
 

I followed the instructions for installing XP and everything seemed to be fine. However, when the system boots it shows both OSes but XP always boots. When you look at the Advanced setting tab in XP, it lists XP twice.

I tried to go back and rerun the setup. I can get through the boot the Vista CD and go throught he Step 3 part, but then when I get to Step 4 I am stuck, because I cannot boot Vista and XP does not appear to support the bcdedit command.

Vista is on partition C, XP on partition D on the same harddrive. When I looked at the bcdedit file after my initial setup, it looked exactly like the one in the example.

How can I proceed.

Got to step 4 but got stopped
 

I followed all the steps perfectly up until step 4 and I just have typed in bcdedit –set {ntldr} device partition=C: and it gave me either ''An error occurred while attempting to reference the specified entry." or "The specified command line is the valid"
Help
:confused: Sorry I am kind of new at this