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)
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-William. § (marvin_gohan)

Dear William:

This is exactly the info I needed! A big THANK YOU! I do have a couple of questions, before I proceed with the XP installation.

In Section 4, Since I am installing XP on a separate drive (D) as opposed to partitioning C, Under "Windows Legacy OS Loader", should it read... "partition = D:" instead of "partition = C:" ?

I don't know if I had mentioned this but, This computer is a new Gateway and will need some XP drivers. I went to the Gateway support site and entered my model and serial number to which it displayed the XP drivers that I will need for my specific unit. There are a couple of Motherboard drivers. One is... Intel VIIV Driver version 1 5 1 188 50... and another is Intel Quick Resume Driver version 1 52 1031. There is also a Intel chipset for a specific brand of Motherboard ... Intel Chipset Driver for Mickelson Trail Motherboard Version 8 0 0 101. Lastly, a Network Driver version 9 4 17 0.

Do I need to install these and at what point? If I do the XP driver installation in Vista, will they override the Vista drivers and cause any problems?

The last concern is... My Vista installation disc is the Gateway "Operating System Disc". Will this work the same as if it was a Vista installation disc purchased from a retailer?

Thank's again,
Steve O'Reno

Boss purchased new computer pre-loaded with Vista Home Basic. Trying to dual-boot with old XP Home drive from their old computer. Keep running into problems.

Going to try an "over-install" trying to repair windows xp with the new drivers and such for the new hardware. Would love to plug and play the drive but I hear Vista doesn't like to play nice.

Can anyone please give me some hints? The Vista drive is a serial drive and the xp drive is an ide drive. Computer recognizes XP drive as Ch 0 and Vista drive as Ch 2.

Edit:

I am first trying the repair method. It is recognizing the "old" version of windows on c: unless the "old" version is actually vista version which would suck because I've already factory restored once after doing all updates and deleting all factory crap (vista)

Edit:

That didn't work. Got 100% done and it said it couldn't do it. grrr

Yes I was thinking of "attempting" to dual boot my Acer Notebook, I already partitioned 24 gigs and called it Windows XP though I may never it get it on there and I have Easy BCD if that helps. I was wondering will this work or not. I've heard alot of horror stories, ata hard drive problems and bios and blue screens of death also then having to make slipstream sp2 discs, it sounds kinda scary, I'm thinking it's alot easier to go from Windows XP to Vista obviously. The fact that also... what if the company didn't give you the Vista disc?. How can I boot up with it? Well, William Wilson makes me want to attempt it. I just was wondering if I should try to get all the Windows XP drivers so I don't mess anything up. Also exactly where and what drivers to get should I try to get, in the device manager it doesn't really make it easy to tell you which one is your bios and which one is your motherboard driver. I'm pretty good with comps if I take my time with them, I'm just not as familar with bios, I'm pretty good with almost everything else with computers, just not the beginning internal workings of them. Or even if it would be easier to format Vista and install Windows XP fresh somehow if that would be easier if I had all the XP drivers which I hear makes installing Vista alot easier if you wanted Vista on your computer after but I don't need it, but what if you don't have the Vista CD haha. This is kinda a nightmare scenario, it's a Acer Notebook 5680-6798. I guess if I knew what I needed all ahead of time and where exactly to find all the Windows XP drivers... etc like I said in Device Manager it's kinda hard to know where to find information on the comp and what is your bios and motherboard in device manager. I just think alot of the Vista computer is integrated for Vista and well, I don't know if it's made for XP, though I think I know what sits mostly under it... just that's my scenario. Any help would be great, thanks. I'm just saying I don't need Vista around, I can easily format this if I have to. I'm sure I saw an ATA (SATA?) drive in the device manager.....

Adam

I have the same problem... I only have recovery CD for Vista, should I recovery all the files? I think it's like formating the partition again...

and when I take the recovery cd, the both OS (Vista and XP) dont work, it wont load at all... what should I do??

thanks

I'm about to buy an HP Pavilion DV6575us with Vista pre-installed. Instead of doing the dual boot thing, I want to wipe Vista completely and just run the machine with XP. I'm going to boot from XP and reformat the entire drive, thus getting rid of Vista as well as all those crap programs that HP loads on. Does anyone think I'll have a problem with this tactic?

Thanks in advance.


Pat

If you go to the HP website and make sure that the drivers for the model laptop are available for Windows XP, then you should be just fine. This is crucial! Do not install XP only to find that there are no drivers available. Just search for "DV6575us drivers for Windows XP" on the HP site. If there are sound, wireless, graphics card, and other drivers free to download for your HP laptop, then I would download all of them, burn them onto a disc, install XP, and then once XP is on, load the drivers from the disc and install them. Unfortunately, if there are no drivers available, then XP cannot be used on the computer.

If there are drivers for Vista, then there are XP compatible versions as well. As long as XP detects your hard drive (if SATA) you will have no problems with the install, if it does not, you will need to use a supplied cd or make your own with the SATA drivers on it, and load them before starting the install.

Hope you can help with a little problem i have,

I had XP Home installed on my Hard disk (drive 0 master) i then installed Vista Home Premium with a Vista Upgrade cd on another Hard disk (drive 3 master)

when i booted it said 'do you want to load earlier versions or vista' to which i could select XP Home or Vista

It worked fine but after deciding not to use XP anymore i deleted the partition and formatted drive 0 (XP Home) **BIG MISTAKE**

Now when i boot it just says Disk Boot Error, insert boot disk **blah blah**

I have setting the boot sequence to go straight to disk 3 (Vista) but no joy

So im assuming i have deleted the boot manager of some sort, i know that XP uses the boot.ini but i read somewhere that Vista doesn't.

The question i am asking is "Can i reset the boot manager so it knows where my vista is installed without having to do a re-install?

* i have tried booting off Vista DVD and repair option, cant do system restore as i turned it off

Appreciate any help on this

Thanks

Hey William, my machine has been running fine for a while now. However, is there any way this setup could affect POST? I'm trying to add another 2 GB of ram (Dual channel DDR2). Unfortunetly, the monitor doesn't get signal even though the system boots on, and detects when the new ram is taken out. I know the ram is not defective and it's the correct type for my board.

Either the bios needs an update (and I can't find one for the D945GCF G1 motherboard) or the motherboard is bad, or this setup has done something odd. It's probably my motherboard, but I thought I'd ask before I send it in for service.

Again, thanks in advance!

William,

I'm stuck on Step 3. Typing in Bootrec.exe /fixMBR in the Command Prompt will prompt the successful operation message. But when I do the next line '/fixBoot' it gives me an error message stating that "The Volume does not contain a recognizable file system." This is all from the X:Sources so I'm at a lost to figure out how to correct this problem.


Thanks as always!