it has nothing to do with the dual boot, it is a strictly XP issue. All drivers need to be installed on both OS, things installed on 1 OS will not be available on another.

Thanks for putting these instructions on a forum. I just bought a PC with Vista installed. I'm going to try this. Is it easier to have a separate drive for each OS?

HP Vista Disc
 

Everything went smoothly until step 3. When I load my Vista DVD, I do not get the same green screen. It tells me that 'Windows is loading files...' and then an HP Recovery Manager window pops up. It doesn't give me an option to 'Repair My Computer', it only tells me that I can click next to recover and recreate a factory image on my hard drive or I can click cancel. Clicking cancel automatically makes the computer reboot and open up Windows XP. Any help would be much appreciated. I believe this is due to the fact that HP did not send me a generic Vista disc, but one of their own. If the problem is not fixable, and I am not able to successfully dual-boot, I am willing to reverse the changes (if I could just figure out how to get Vista to come up again). Then I could just delete the partition that XP was installed on.

problem with dual boot
 

First, thanks. This has been a biig help. I've unfortunately run into problem at last step. I've gone through process to rewrite master boot utility and all appeared to go as planned. I got confirmation of file changes as you noted and I'm now able to get screen with choice of OS on start-up. If I choose Vista all is fine. However, if I choose XP receive error as follows:

Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem

1. Insert Windows install disc & restart
2. Choose language
3. Click 'repair'

If you do not have the disc, contact system administrator or computer manufacturer for assistance.

File: \ntldr
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: the selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt.

I could of course try to repair or reinstall XP, but worry that doing so will put me back at start and will rewrite master boot utility once again. Help? Any suggestions?

Works Perfect
 

Hey....Thanx for the info...just did this to my 2 comp's and didnt have any issues with it..worked perfect

XP install glitch
 

I've read all the posts regarding this dual boot issue, but your quoted post particularly caught my attention, as I too had read that XP would need extra drivers, and would not install without them onto an SATA drive. Here is where I am at (not unlike a lot of others here it appears):

1) I have a new Dell with Pre-installed Vista Premium, trying to dual boot with XP Home.
2) Used Vista to partition the C: drive, created an F: drive about 10Gbs (probably more than necessary, not sure, as I do plan on installing some programs that won't run in Vista). I'm not sure, will check later, but think my new F is a Primary Drive.
3) Inserted my XP install CD, rebooted, F12, and it got to the screen than asked to which partition I wanted to use.
4) The only partition listed was c: partition 1(unknown)
5) The new F: partition does not show up. I F3 and fume..... I spent ALL day yesterday futsing around with one issue or another... all a waste thus far.

6) I installed an external Seatgate via eSATA and tried to install on this.
7) Step 3 again, never got to step 4 above. Blue screen with suggestion I remove any new drives I might have installed, or check for viruses.

Back to square one.

I removed my new external drive I tried the F: drive route again. Same ugly results, no option except the c: drive.

I see that a few others here are having no problem actually getting XP installed (unlike me) but that getting the the PC to see both OS as a dual boot is the issue. I'll deal with that later if I can just get past my install problem.

Question:

1) Should my new F: partition show up as F: on my XP install? Or is the C: partition 1 (unknown) actually the F: partition in reality, just showing up as C:?

I'm afraid to proceed as I don't want to wipe out all the Vista, including the Restore D: partition which came with my Dell in case of a dire emergency.

2) Any suggestions of where I might go from here?

Thanks for your help.

XP does not install properly
 

i can partition the main drive into 2 fine,
it also contains a 5gb section called EASI Configuration i was told to leave well alone, so i end up with a main C:\ 200gb Vista and a new D:\ 80gb called XP.

go to reboot twice then install XP it comes up with the blue XP installer and i tell it to install on the New partition D: it copies all the install files then reboots to do nothing at all! no XP Setup comes up to actualy install the OS, i can recover it back to vista and see the XP install files on the new drive so i formated all and tried again to get the same problem.

any help would be awesome as i'm stuck as hell!

Cheers

Mat

I'm getting the same issue as outlined by JimR (quoted below).

When I go to installed XP (on my 320gb sata2 drive; on which I have created a primary partition using Vista ultimate (32bit) disk mgmt, 50gb, formatted with ntfs etc) i see 2 options, both 131GB in size (not the 50gb i had created), and both listed as C: partition 1 (unknown)

quite odd.

anyone have any ideas?

XP Install doesn't recognize new partition
 

I had this same problem on my desktop when I installed the dual boot system. I solved the problem by booting into Vista and going into the disk manager via the my computer icon, once there you need to go to "storage" double click, then double click "Disk Management" and look to see if both drives are there. If they are, Delete the XP partition, reboot without a CD in the drive, then go back in and re-create your partiton by shrinking your C drive. Once this is done you should be able reboot this time with your XP CD in the drive and install XP on the new partition.

for some reason my comp had to install then uninstall then reinstall in order for it to recognize the new partition.

it is a hard thing to diagnose... if it works, glad to hear it!!!
XP has some odd quirks with sata drives, not reading partitions, or only reading the first partition. The only thing is to be persistent.

if all else fails, it can be a native mode issue. Enter your BIOS and find "SATA native settings" and make sure it is disabled... XP should atleast detect the drive properly this way.