Tried installing XP Professional trial as dual boot
 

The page where I am suppose to choose a drive to install XP said there was no disk detected. It didn't even acknowledge the normal drives. I followed step by step up to this point and now I am stuck....help a student of Computer Sciences.

do I need Vista disc?
 

I'm quite new to this, and I'm very sorry if this is a stupid question but:
I've just bought a laptop with vista on it and I installed XP as a secondary OS. Now, to complete the the installation and to make a dual boot, I need the vista installation disc. I'm not sure, but on my X: partition I probably have vista, but i can't boot using that partition. With my laptop I've got vista home edition but not the cd. Is there a way (if I have the vista installation on my HDD to boot the vista from there, or I'll have to buy a cd?

-or how can I boot from (if there is one) the copy of vista from my HDD?

Vista on Dell laptop using 4 primary partitions
 

I could not seem to use Vista to get a logical partition.

Using the Dell direct media install I started from scrach and the fourth partion was defined as logical and I was able to create partitions D and E both logical.
So I now have 5 partitions on disk (two system.)

This means reinstalling Vista (ok if you want a custom install)

L F Johnson

The no disk detected is normal. You have to provide the XP driver for the Storage Manager on a diskette (if you have a diskette reader on your machine or a USB Diskette Reader) and press F6 when prompted at XP installation time. It's difficult to help you because you provide no details. What brand and model pc are you using?

You don't need a Vista DVD at all. Use EasyBCD (freeware) which you can download from Download EasyBCD 1.7.2 - NeoSmart Technologies.

But, before using it, set your folder options to see hidden files and to show protected operating system files. Then open Windows Explorer and go to the drive where Vista is installed. Copy the folder Boot, and the files bootmgr, boot.ini, NTDETECT.COM and ntldr and paste them to the root of your XP drive.

re Dell adding logical partition
 

I would not advise reinstall of Dell Vista unless you wand to do a lot of work.
If you want to learn about your system and you know how to to installs go ahead. I did get locked up a few times but suceeded in the end except for
the free intall of security software was not on install disks.

L F Johnson

Vista Disk
 

Unfortunately, when I purchased my HP laptop there were no boot disks. I have created Vista recvoery disks, but i dont think I can boot from them. Is there a way to install XP without the Vista boot disk?

So, I too, have a system that came with Vista installed, but my computer didn't come with a Vista disc. What can I do?

Google for GAG boot manager. Download it but don't install it Create a new partition that you want to use for XP. Once you have the new partition then install GAG noot manager. It install on the 8MB of lead in on every harddrive and creates a DOS environment so as to control/hide the boot files of each operating system. Using GAG there is no over-riding of the individual operating systems MBR (master boot records). Gag will allow you to install XP without issues of coruption from VISTA.

Vista/xp
 

Thank you so very much!!!! This worked for me like a charm. I bought HP media center with Vista home premium; it is the new one with Phenom. I booted with xp and loaded it on the E drive which I guess was the second hard drive. I got panic when I couldn't boot to my vista but xp. Your tutorial guide was excellent. Thank you a million.

all those with this error message...
C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit -set {ntldr} device partition=C:
An error occurred while attempting to reference the specified entry.
The system cannot find the file specified.

you should just install easybcd and add entry of windows xp, name it and give it the drive letter of where the xp is installed.but if the drive letter is grayed out, give the drive letter first before u select os and name it.
if u have the error message booting into windows with the ntldr and 0x0000etc error message do the same thing with easybcd and u are done.use easybcd in vista.
it worked perfectly for me.now i can boot with ease.no problems.
thanks mr william.

Solution to errors on bcdedit
 

I kept getting the error and here's the solution that I found:
(All the '-' need to be replaced by '/')
bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=C:
bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr
bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast
bcdedit /set {ntldr} description "Microsoft Windows XP"

Hope this will be helpful.

Moiz Tankiwala

Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in pc
 

Followed all the steps in creating the partition for XP. It created a Logical Drive instead of a Primary Partition. When installing XP, message says "Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed in your computer". I have a Dell XPS M1530 with Vista Home premium. Please help.

Great article and really easy to follow.

If you have a second drive is there any reason why you can't just partition the whole drive and install XP on it and then fix the Vista boot loader?

You'll still be able to access the files on the Vista drive from XP, right? Just need to reinstall any programs that use them. Can you share the same Outlook PST file under both os's?

Thanks,
Benz1

thanx heaps for the tutorial william ... most of it went fine it wasnt till the bcdedit stuff that i couldnt get things happening (3 reformats later and some extra searching) i found this

bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d “Windows XP”
bcdedit /set {ntldr} device boot
bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr
bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast

and it worked!!!
cheers and keep up the good work

I would not be so sure of that. I bought an HP Pavillion dv6000, which, according to the HP website has loads of XP drivers available for it, only none of the actually end up working for the computer. I spent over 3 hours on tech support chat with HP downloading countless drivers for XP they were sending my way, only to conclude that my computer must be "Windows XP incompatible"

This post looked very promising to me so I went ahead and gave it a shot. I had the same problem as tony that upon installation of windows xp, setup would not recognize my new partition. I created a 66GB active partition using the Vista disk management tool, but when I rebooted, the c partition that Setup found was 133GB in size (the size of my vista partition BEFORE i shrunk it to make space for XP). I went ahead with good faith and tried installing XP on it but I got back to my original problem that after copying setup files, my computer WILL NOT continue the XP installation and instead give me an "Invalid BOOT.ini, NTDETECT failed" error message and restart over and over again. Now I'm back to recovering my computer using the recovery cds which takes a good half of a day to accomplish.

I wish someone would just have a solution =o/

Create the partition as described...then download the free boot manager
GAG and install it following the directions. Now you can boot to the xp cd and install the operating system free of issues other than aquiring the needed XP drivers for the motherboard and other hardware that is installed on that computer.

So, now that my fresh installation of XP didnt work I'm stuck with my active partition being the non-vista one and I dont know which tool I can use to switch it back. I tried just loading the vista recovery files, but they abort with an error when setup tries to format my hard drive. =o(

as wombat is all ways peering into his crystal ball to try to see what people left out.....and never being able too...:tongue: ....we can only help if the information is given to us that we need to know.

There are some 46,000 error messages associated with the windows operating systems and other third party vendors software/hardware...As much as I wish I could do it....I just can't remember which one you are refering to.

Could you please refress my memory and tell me which one it is and then maybe I might be of further assistance to you!

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... :tongue:

Can I install XP on a secondary drive?
 

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!

Booting XP from a secondary drive... yes... but?
 

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.

Ending it Alright!
 

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.

Vista loaded first Dual Boot with XP
 

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! :)

Step One
 

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

Ladybug,

Yes i am familiar with EBCD program and have used it for booting some customers computer for repairing. I have not used it for setting up dual booting as stipulated in the tutorial.

I don't like anything altering my Mastr Boot Record(boot .ini files) as with my experimenting shows it is only asking for trouble sometime down the line. That is why I am partial to a diferent type of boot manager than that which comes with windows....which is not that good to begin with.

I use BootIt NG (terabyte Unlimited) because it allows the installation of multiple operating systems and a great editing tool along with image back-up all without doing any changes to the MBR. If one drive fails it takes me less than 10 minutes to be back up and running simply because the failure of one drive has no bearing to any other as the MBR of each operating system is kept hidden from any others....so I still have complete use of my computer...

The program GAG is very much like the BootIt NG program except there are no other applications. It is simply a boot manager....and it has worked on my test computer for quite sometime. I have 5 operating systems installed with the GAG program. All of them are stripped down XP running various beta programs that I am putting through some real time testing proceedures.

HELP, please ASAP
 

I have a big problem. I follow the procedure, but in step 3, when I type Bootrec.exe /fixBoot computer send me a message:
The volume does not contain a recognized file system.
Please make sure that all required file system drivers are loaded and that the volume is not corrupted.

thanks :)

Dual Boot Vista & XP with Viste Already Installed
 

I am having problems with step 4.
I followed all the steps to the letter but unfortunately, i am not able to run bcdedit.
your steps that says the i should type it carefully, i am getting "AN UNKNOWN COMMAND WAS SPECIFIED" when i typed bcdedit -set {ntldr} device partition=C""
What should i do???

fmukaty

This is a continuation of my previous message.
I was finally able to use bcdedit, but instead of bcdedit -set{...}....., i used bcdedit /set. but that didn't work but i was able to set display order for this partition. Now i get both OS Options, but only VISTA works and when i select XP, the Window Boot Manager opens with the following message:
Windows failed to start. A Recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:
1-Insert your windows instalation disc and restart your Computer.
2-Choose your language settings and then click Next
3-Click "Repair your Computer"
File: \ntldr
Status: 0xc000000e
Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because application is missing or Corrupt.

What should i do? I can keep installing XP everytime i want to use it and i cant keep using Bootrec.exe to change back to VISTA when i need to.
PLease Help

upto 2nd stage..everything is fine.but when i reboot with vista dvd in drive..i don't find option "repair computer"..
i simply find install now and transfer files from other system..
because of this..i am not able to proceed further..
plz help me..

cannot find HD
 

Hi, I am still having the problem of XP not being able to find any hard drives and only gives me option of F3.

I have tried XP with sp2, xp with sp2 using slipstream, normal XP and they all give me this error.

Help please. Thanks!

This is posted in the wrong thread.
You need to install the sata/raid drivers for your motherboard when you are in set-up by using the F6 prompt. Get the drivers and installation information from your computer/motherboard manufacturer

i don't see how this is posted in the wrong thread. the thread is about dual booting xp with vista and that is what im trying to do and having a problem during that setup.

anyhow, thanks for your suggestion, i did see the prompt to press f6 to load additional drivers however when I press f6 nothing happens and the setup continues as if I never pressed it. I restarted many times and tried it even pressing the key multiple times but it does not seem to recognize it for some odd reason.

the device driver file is a .exe so i cannot even slipstream it into the install disk.

any further suggestions? Thanks!

Then you should have explained that you were trying to dual boot when we see these posts we see the question and not the forum it is written under.So without details we are allways having to quess at what you are trying to inform us to the problem

You need to be a bit more patient. When you press the F6 key it will continue to load files till it is ready to install the third party drivers and you will be prompted to insert the disk that the files are loaded on

1)If you got the drivers from the motherboard driver CD there is a file in there explaining the proper procedure for making the drivers ready to be installed.

2)If you got the drivers from the manufacturer's website there should be a instructional sheet on how to install the drivers as well...

In most cases you will need to use the "Make disc" application that is also included on the mobo driver CD or the manufacturer's website.

hi;Mr Wilson,

I am facing a unique prob there ,i think. Windows XP PRO freezes on "Setup is starting Windows" text screen,i cannot even see the option screen you mentioned above yet. I have tried your procedures for twice,but get the same prob at the same step (step2). pls help me and advice me how to deal with it..thanks in advance.

my laptop is LG S510 with pre-load vista H premium
my hDD is 320G RAID and my xp cd is legal OEM install DVD with SP1
the CPU is the Core2 Duo p9500,FSB 1066,6MB L2 Cache.