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-   -   Dual Boot Vista and XP with Vista already installed (http://www.syschat.com/dual-boot-vista-xp-vista-already-1946.html)

William_Wilson 04-18-2007 01:00 AM

Dual Boot Vista and XP with Vista already installed
 
If you want to install Vista onto an XP computer, try the reverse tutorial: (XP already installed)

I'm not going to post any stats on XP, if you're running Vista, you certainly can run XP :)

*You will need your XP and Vista installation discs!

Step 1 - Partition the Drive:
Vista comes with a nice partitioning tool, so i'll be using it instead of partition magic this time around.
-right-click computer under the start menu and choose "manage"

http://www.marvingohan.com/images2/v...e%20drives.jpg


-right-click the drive you want to partition, and select "Shrink Partition"
-The amount you shrink the partition is the amount of space used for the XP partition, so i would suggest making it at least 3-

4GB in size, as a full XP installation will take 1.5GB on it's own.

-now right-click the unallocated memory and select new basic partition.

http://www.marvingohan.com/images2/v...0partition.jpg

-Choose NTFS file system, this will save formatting before installation.
-name the drive anything you like, i chose "XP"
-click next on the rest of the screens and finish.

once the formatting is finished you will have something like this:

http://www.marvingohan.com/images2/v...0formatted.jpg

*this new partition is where your XP installation will go, so take note of it's location, in case there are multiple partitions

on the drive (there will now be atleast 2).




Step 2 - Install XP:

http://www.marvingohan.com/images2/v...stallation.jpg

wait while XP installs (I won't go into detail, there are many tutorials on this, and it is reasonably straight forward)

http://www.marvingohan.com/images2/v...0partition.jpg

Now that XP has installed, it attempts to boot for the first time... all goes fine, video settings, networking, then the lovely

welcome screen as usual.

You restart, expecting a boot loader screen... followed the tutorial this far, and now you seem to only have XP... well not

quite, I wouldn't leave you hanging without giving you a proper dual boot.

http://www.marvingohan.com/images2/v...0boot%20XP.jpg

here lies the only real issue with installing XP after Vista, but it's a quick fix if you have your Vista CDs/DVD handy.

The problem is that Vista and XP use different boot loader utilities in the MBR (Master Boot Record) of your hard drive. XP does

not recognize Vista, but Vista will recognize XP, so we need to remove the boot loader that XP just put in with the old

Vista boot loader. So restart once more, but this time with your Vista disc in the drive.




Step 3 - Fix Boot Loader:
Vista will load the GUI files, and then display the loading splash screen.

-Click "Next" on the first screen
-Once the "Install Now" menu (do not click Install Now) choose "Repair Your Computer":

http://www.marvingohan.com/images2/v...-%20repair.jpg

-You will be prompted to choose the OS to repair. Don't worry if Vista is the only OS that shows up, even after a search.

http://www.marvingohan.com/images2/v...-%20search.jpg http://www.marvingohan.com/images2/v...tallations.jpg
click "Next"

-I realize there is a "Fix Startup" option, but it's been my experience that it doesn't work, and this method will.
-choose to open a "Command Prompt":

http://www.marvingohan.com/images2/v...d%20prompt.jpg

type in the command prompt the following 2 lines (separatly):
Bootrec.exe /fixMBR
Bootrec.exe /fixBoot

http://www.marvingohan.com/images2/v...%20fixboot.jpg

-close the prompt and restart
-now that Vista controls your boot loader, the process is mostly finished, now we need to inform Vista that XP is installed, as

to enable the boot loader selection screen.
*There are programs such as VistaBootPRO that will do this for you, but it requires .NET framework, etc, so I did it the manual

way.




Step 4 - Edit boot.ini:
In Vista, the boot.ini is not editable directly, as the file itself is hard to locate, so we will be modifying it through "Boot

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"

The completed bcdedit file should resemble this:

http://www.marvingohan.com/images2/v...%20bcdedit.jpg

-This will correctly add XP to your boot sequence, and even name it properly instead of "Earlier Version of Windows"
-the displayorder line also allows the entry to be visible under the advanced settings of your computer properties.

http://www.marvingohan.com/images2/v...ual%20boot.jpg

Vista is the default boot, if you wish to change this to XP it can be done by setting {current} to addlast, or under the computer

-> properties -> advanced settings.

If all done properly, XP and Vista will dual boot properly!

rclarke 04-19-2007 04:04 PM

Dual Boot Vista and XP with Vista already installed
 
William

Thank you for taking the time and effort to lay out the steps for installing xp onto a notebook/desktop having Vista pre-installed.

I have a couple of questions:

In step 4 where we need to use the editor, isn't vista assigned to C and xp assigned to drive E? You state: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:

Isn't xp partition letter E? Up to step 4 everything doesn't seem difficult. But if we mess up here it seems big problems. On the other hand perhaps I missed a crucial point you made earlier and I should just enter exactly what you have shown in step 4 to conclude the dual boot facility.

My last question has to do with possible need for drivers. I found out my notebook hd is a seagate SATA drive. Will xp pro need to be concerned about this drive type and require drivers? Thanks...Ron

William_Wilson 04-21-2007 11:41 AM

i know the drive sounds off, but Vista is the only active partition, even though XP was installed on E:, it still places it's info for booting on C (the active partition)

XP is good with most drives, as long as your mobo can understand it properly you should be ok

rclarke 04-22-2007 05:36 PM

William...another thought. Unfortunately for us newbies, the initial hd configuration may not be straight forward and simple as yours. This raised another question which while seeming to go off subject, anyone following your instructions may encounter (especially newbies who would never in their life of ownership consider hd management and partitions) a situation where the single drive has already been partitioned into 3 primary partitions.

Question: Must the xp partition to be created be a primary partion? If so, and 3 primary partitions already exist does this preclude adding xp? If yes does that mean no dual boot of xp? Thanks for your time and patience to help with these questions...Ron

William_Wilson 04-23-2007 11:18 AM

You can still dual boot, but what you must understand is that a partition which will load an OS must be a primary drive. There is the option when installing XP to leave the file system intact... i don't recommend it, but it you have no place to put the files on the primary partition. You could always resize them to move the files around.

*Where did you get your computer? All partitions meant for data files/storage should be contained in an extended partition, especially since there is a limit of 4 primary partitions (on a single drive) under XP, and i assume Vista.

rclarke 04-23-2007 12:42 PM

William...I received my acer aspire 5610 as a gift from my daughter. Yesterday I started following your 4 steps to installing xp. Using the disk mgt wizard on vista I shrunk the partition and allocated a new partition of 8 gb for xp. I ended up re-doing this step as I neglected to remove a flash drive and this caused the partition to be assigned a drive letter of G. I then deleted the new partition, expanded the C and restarted the procedure by rebooting again.

After I got back to recreating the partition again, I saw it wasn't a primary partition, but an extended one. I also saw via disk mgt three existing partitions, one un-named (eisa configure), vista (c drive) and data (d drive)

So using the wizard doesn't give me a primary partition so I need to use some other means to make sure the partition created is a primary one and not an extended partition...Ron

Kishore 05-04-2007 11:08 AM

Hooray, it really works. I loaded up XP SP1 and did all the steps, but could never load XP, because it was showing error
File: \ntldr
Status: 0xc000000e
Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt.

I tried so many things, but couldn't make it run - untill I followed the advice.

Thank you so much.

Tom Wylde 05-05-2007 07:56 PM

Different drives...
 
I purchased a new pc with a Vista pre-load, and then upgraded over the net to Ultimate.

I have a 750 GB drive installed other than the 320 GB that came with the new PC and the Vista install. I created a partition on the 750 for the XP install. When I attempted to install XO, it said it would erase my Vista intall, (along with Photoshop CS#, Office 2007, etc.).

Is it possible to dual boot by disconnecting the Vista drive, installing XP on the 750 and reattaching the Vista drive? What drive(s) should I make active? Will this be a solution? I realize I'm basically 'geta-testing Vista and a lot of my drivers, software, etc. don't work with it so I want to run XP until at least Vista SP 1...

Thank you so much for for your help.

Tom Wylde

Unregistered 05-11-2007 10:56 PM

After getting to step four I ran bcdedit.exe command but every time i type in the four lines it tells me that it is not recognized.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

William_Wilson 05-12-2007 09:34 PM

Kishore: glad to hear the tutorial was helpful :)

Tom Wylde: The Vista drive needs to be the active drive, and it needs to be attatched while installing XP. If they are both connected, there is no problem installing XP on the 2nd drive.

As for errors, in bcdedit.exe, if you could post the exact error, as well as the line it resulted from, I may be able to address the problem as well as find a solution.

Unregistered 05-13-2007 06:46 PM

Still can't run XP CD
 
I have tried this and everything else (including reloading Vista), but the XP CD hangs every time with a blue screen (tells me to run CHKDSK /F) at the point of starting windows (right after preloading a few drivers). Any other suggestions?

Villemus 05-16-2007 01:05 AM

I'm also having trouble.

When I try to enter the command manually I get this error:
"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."

When I copy and paste from the forum I get this:
"C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit -set {ntldr} device partition=C:
The specified command line is not valid.
Run "bcdedit /?" for command line assistance."

Any ideas?

William_Wilson 05-16-2007 01:46 AM

bcdedit /set is also a valid option, you can try that.
Is your vista installed on C: ?

try typing bcdedit.exe /? to make sure the probel is not with bcedit itself.

Villemus 05-16-2007 02:36 AM

Nope same error both ways

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.

mosatar 05-27-2007 12:38 AM

xp sp 1 dualboot with vista
 
i have an hp pavilion with home premium vista, partitioned the main drive with 40gb for xp, restarted the computer, booted from the xp disc, installed, and then it froze when it got to the restarting computer step. i turned it off and it will boot in xp to the load screen and freeze. I appear to be locked out of Vista until i get xp to work. Was it a problem with the drive partitioning? or is xp sp1 possibly out of date for the hardware im using (pavilion s7700n pc).

any help would be greatly appreciated.

William_Wilson 05-28-2007 01:34 PM

could be a partition issue, but i doubt it. Try installing again, make sure you format the partition before installing.


Villemus:
It sounds to me, that your Vista is not installed on C: If it was, then the line would work. C: is what i used, but if your computer happens to have a partition on it before Vista, Vista may be on D: or some other letter.

The only other option for this message is if, your vista bootloader is corrupt. Restart with the vista dvd and choose the repair system bootloader option instead of the prompt option. Once this is fixed, the method should work.

someone 05-29-2007 03:32 PM

xp problem
 
I am trying to install xp a vista preloaded acer aspire 5610, no floppy. After all the shrinking and partitioning, the xp wont start in 16 bit mode so have to load from command prompt in vista mode. It starts to load then blue screen of doom appears with error pci.sys. I've now decided to clean vista completely but I cant even do that as despite all my fiddling with the bios, I cannot boot from either usb hdd or fdd nor the dvd drive. Looks like vista is stuck here for good. Any suggestions.

William_Wilson 05-30-2007 12:47 AM

if you have a cd drive, restart with the XP cd and you can format/install from there.

someone 05-30-2007 05:32 AM

No cd drive only dvd drive. System will not boot from drive at start up.

Unregistered 05-30-2007 09:08 PM

ASUS Preload Wizard
 
New ASUS notebook with Vista Premium installed.
I need XP for applications and some older hardware.
Loaded XP, Vista dissapeared as you said it would in your tutorial.

Followed all the steps except I have a genuine ASUS Recovery DVD which will only recover the Vista O/S.

How do I stop Vista from recovering and then making my XP non existant?

You have explained the steps very clearly but I still can not get it to dual boot.

Many thanks

Pat

Krazy ACER 06-01-2007 01:10 PM

Acer Aspire 3680 Vista Preinstalled
 
I have an Acer Aspire 3680 with vista preinstalled and Partitions C and D already on my system. C:/ is for vista while D:/ was supposed to be or XP. I installed xp and used Vistaboot Pro to configure the settings, but when I try to run xp from the Vista bootloader it gives me an error like this one:

File: \ntldr
Status: 0xc000000e
Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt.

And tells me to put in the installlation disk and redo the language settings which I have tried to do twice with no success.

DLS1031 06-04-2007 05:12 PM

disappearing bcdedit.exe window
 
William

I've followed your very well-written process on how to set up a dual boot XP/Vista (vista first) system. The problem is in step 4., Edit boot.ini. When I right click on bcdedit.exe and select Run as Admin, the black dos window fly’s in and out in a flash. It pops up but disappears immediately. What do I do now?
Thanks!
DLS1031

Soapy 06-06-2007 12:30 PM

Partition created by Vista disc manager. Labelled E:
When I boot from an XP CD (and I've tried three!) , after initial file installation- about 4 minutes in- I get a blue screen telling me there are no hard drives to be found on my machine.
Which comes as a shock.
The only option is F3 to abandon the install.
Suggestions?

necrologyx 06-06-2007 06:32 PM

help!
 
So i did step one, I have a partition for XP... when I pop the XP CD in to install, it wont see the 60 gigs I left for it, just the vista... in fact, it only sees 130ish gigs of vista... how do I make it see the partition I made for it?!? :(

Unregistered 06-07-2007 01:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Soapy (Post 7000)
Partition created by Vista disc manager. Labelled E:
When I boot from an XP CD (and I've tried three!) , after initial file installation- about 4 minutes in- I get a blue screen telling me there are no hard drives to be found on my machine.
Which comes as a shock.
The only option is F3 to abandon the install.
Suggestions?

I had the same problem. I had to create a new XP disk using "slipstreaming". Do a google search for "xp slipstream sp2" and that should point you in the right direction. Check out the websites driverpacks.net and nliteos.com for utilities that make it much easier.

Unregistered 06-07-2007 01:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Villemus (Post 6521)
I'm also having trouble.

When I try to enter the command manually I get this error:
"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."

When I copy and paste from the forum I get this:
"C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit -set {ntldr} device partition=C:
The specified command line is not valid.
Run "bcdedit /?" for command line assistance."

Any ideas?

I had this same problem. I had to create an entry in the bootloader first before setting the options. To create the new entry, use bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "Microsoft Windows XP". I was then able to run the commands in the order specified, though the last command to set the description was redundant as I had set it when creating the new entry.

Unregistered 06-07-2007 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Unregistered (Post 7013)
I had the same problem. I had to create a new XP disk using "slipstreaming". Do a google search for "xp slipstream sp2" and that should point you in the right direction. Check out the websites driverpacks.net and nliteos.com for utilities that make it much easier.

One of the XP discs IS new. Same on all three.
If I hit F6 on booting from the dvd, I get this- "Unable to load support for mass storage device. Currently, setup will load support for (no) mass storage devices.

To specify additional scsi adapters etc, press S.

When I press S- get this- I get the following:

Setup could not find a floppy dive on your machine to load OEM drivers from floppy disks.

Well, no. It doesn't have a cassette tape drive either.

I'll have a look at the sites you mentioned. Thanks.

techbunney 06-08-2007 05:11 PM

No vista cd
 
William,

I am new to syschat and must say I'm impressed with all your knowledge, posting, and willingness to help. We need more people like you!

I have tried following your 4 step process; however my laptop came with software preinstalled. I do not have a vista cd to insert upon startup to enter in all the bcdedit commands. Is there another tool out there that could help me with this? I tried installed easybcd in xp when it came up but it will not even open. Thanks for all your help!!

TB

Unregistered 06-11-2007 02:05 AM

what if I only have a recovery CD for Vista?
 
Hello All,
A really useful and informative site

In Page 2 The procedure is to use the Vista CD, But the HP notebook I bought only came with a recovery CD for Vista, can I boot from this recovery DVD? and then proceed to repair volume as outlined? Thanks in advance

Ned Erland 06-11-2007 11:53 PM

Three is a crowd?
 
Dear William,

Your tutorial has been very helpful and I have been trying to be a good pupil.
After completing al the steps I still haven't succeeded to dual boot Vista and XP.
Maybe I should start by saying that I'm trying it on my Macbook Pro.

I first installed Vista using Bootcamp. This went remarkably smooth! And 'm very pleased with running Vista on my mac. The trouble starts when trying to 'triple' boot with XP. Am I pushing the Mac's Limits?

I'm now actually dealing with 2 problems which if you could only solve one might get me through this sticky phase.

XP's 1st part of the setup goes well [copying files to my 2nd Windows partition, D:].
After the first restart, however, it says: can't find 'hall.dll' in the Windows/system32 folder. When starting up in Vista again, I look for the hall.dll, and this file appears to be in the Windows/system32 folder at both C:(Vista) and D:(XP) drive!

So I'm not sure why it is complaining about that?

Now my 2nd problem kicks in:
I listed the XP setup as second in the Windows Boot Manager, but my mac keyboard does not seem to respond when the Boot manager window comes up and starts after 7 sec. into Vista again. Weird thing is: sometimes (at random?!) the arrow-down key respons for a split-second, but then the 'enter' does not work, so I'm left to do a hard reset and try again, and again, and again....

If you know how to solve the hall.dll issue, I could list XP as the 1st bootable os, so it will at least finish the XP install.

Thanking you in advance,

Ned

William_Wilson 06-12-2007 10:03 AM

I am not familiar with installing windows on a Mac, , so i am not familiar with bootcamp either.
Are you sure you are using a proper version of XP for the Mac?
Is it Pro or home?
To be honest i would suggest installing XP before Vista, if this is possible now. Vista is more versitile in installing, it will be easier for it to handle the triple boot issue than XP.

Ned Erland 06-12-2007 11:04 PM

RE: Three is a crowd?
 
Yes, I'm using XP Pro SP2.
I have been thinking about installing XP first.
But I would prefer to have Vista on C: and XP on D: so I can get rid of XP once all my programs have become compatible with Vista.
Can I do a clean install of XP on D: first and then instal Vista as primary OS on C? [I'll check your other tutorial]

Also, any idea why currently windows boot mngr keeps giving me the missing or corrupt hal.dll notification?

Thanks,
Ned

DMB1991 06-14-2007 09:16 PM

Recovery Partition
 
Hey, I'm a total newbie; I'm not sure if another poster was asking about this or something else. I have a recovery partition (D) that is labeled as a primary partition. Should I delete that to make this process work?

Also a friend was telling me that XP does not support native SATA and would probably not install well. Any idea what he was talking about?

Thanks in advance!

William_Wilson 06-15-2007 01:28 AM

you must have a SATA hard drive as opposed to an IDE drive. XP installs just fine on SATA drives, many people have done so.
You do not have to delete the partition, it is your choice, just be careful that the new partition for XP is also primary.

THE LEM Unregistered 06-16-2007 11:08 PM

need serious help plz...
 
1st I must say thanks for providing all this help and i hope i get a response to this.

Anyways i did everything u said and all went well...except for the part to set the dual boot. When i insert my vista cd to boot from it, it just bypasses it after a while and goes directly to xp. (N:B - yeah i did set my dvd drive as the 1st boot device.) I really want help with this. Thanks in advance.

William_Wilson 06-17-2007 11:25 PM

hmm, which OS is on the C: drive?
Are your drives SATA or IDE?
which bios are you running?

The_Lem 06-19-2007 04:07 AM

Vista & XP
 
Hey i figured out what to do with my gual boot. All i had to do was run the bcdedit from my xp then vista came back. All i needed was alil sleep i guess. lol. Thank goodness though, cause i was so frustrated i was very close to formating the entire drive and losin all my data and starting from scratch. But my thanks to u Mr. Wilson. All ur information was very informative.

William_Wilson 06-19-2007 08:47 PM

glad to hear it's working fine!
You are most welcome for any knowledge or assistance i may have supplied :)

Unregistered 06-20-2007 08:59 PM

Hmmm
 
Nice guide MR Wilson, i followed all of it but when its at the selection screen for the OS (either XP or Vista) i select XP and it doesnt work, it says "this application may be missing or corrupt" and i cant get XP to load. Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

William_Wilson 06-21-2007 11:56 AM

you're going to have to give me more information:
which OS is on which partition?
what does your bcdedit look like?


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