Dual boot Vista and XP

[viperpa33s]

I just bought a new laptop and it came with Windows Vista Ultimate. I want to be able to dual boot with Windows XP Pro. I was reading up how to create a dual boot computer with XP installed first but what about when Vista is installed first. The reason why I want to do a dual boot is because there are still some programs I use that will only run under XP. I already checked with Microsoft's list. I heard somewhere that if you create a dual boot that the Vista bootup file gets messed up. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[pam123]

Read through this : http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp

[viperpa33s]

Thank you for the info, this would help me greatly but I just have one question. I understand that the Vista boot loader will be corrupted. Since I don't have the actual Vista CD but a restore CD, would the boot loader be on the restore CD? I looked up on it but don't think I am finding the right stuff.

Thanks

[pam123]

You need to tell me the make and model of your new laptop.
A restore disk may not have the repair function ( XP restore disks often didn't .) but the only way to know that for sure, if it's not in the manual, is to call tech support and ask.
While you're on line ( or on the phone ) with tech support ask if they have the XP drivers for your notebook.
If they say no ask if they can direct you to them.
If they say no to that as well you'll have to scrub the dual boot project.

[viperpa33s]

I have a HP Pavilion dv9260us, thanks for the help. I am on vacation in Florida right now so I don't have the manual with me.

The weather is so great down here, thinking about moving.

[pam123]

The recovery disks for your laptop come with the usual limitation, it's all or nothing.
You'll have to buy another copy of Vista in order to dual boot and you'd still be facing an XP driver problem.

[viperpa33s]

Ok thanks. Had a funny feeling that's what I had to do but just wanted to double check.

[tomster2300]

Couldn't he just wipe his drive clean, install xp, then install vista on top? It's the order he does it in that counts - installing vista last should fix the bootloader.

[pam123]

Hi Tomster
Vista has other ideas about dual booting :

Next I started up the install and found that Vista will only install itself on a primary partition. If you choose the C: drive where XP is already installed? Vista asks if it can rename your Windows folder "Windows.old." Uh, no thank you Vista. To get dual-booting to work, you have to create another primary partition where Vista can live alongside XP in peace and happiness.

http://lifehacker.com/software/top/w...sta-179906.php
-updated March 2007-

He's back at the same problem, Windows bootloader needed, and it doesn't get around the need for a proper Vista DVD either.

[tomster2300]

Yeah you do have to make two primary partitions, sorry for being a bit dense. I didn't read the above.

My journey with dual booting: I wiped my 40 gig drive clean and split it into two ~20 gig primary partitions. I put xp on one of them, then did a clean install of Vista (this is the Home Premium upgrade disk mind you) on the second partition, second.

Vista's upgrade disks will allow you to install full trial versions of any form of Vista onto a blank partition, even without XP. This is how I dual booted for awhile, but once the trial ran out I wiped the drive clean again, installed XP, then properly upgraded from that (which is what I'm running right now).

Question, and I don't mean to hijack this thread, but...

If I were to take that one copy of XP, install it twice on two separate partitions, then upgrade one to Vista, would that be illegal? When you upgrade you essentially get rid of the original XP install, at least as much as I can tell, or do you have to have two separate licenses of XP to legally do this?

PS: The actual registered version of Vista (once properly upgraded from XP) runs a lot smoother than the trial install for some odd reason. This install runs smooth as silk with all the effects turned on.

[pam123]

You're going to like this, you can do a clean install of the Vista upgrade, whatever version you have.
Here : http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase...rade_clean.asp

[tomster2300]

Oh I do like this. That's what I originally did, but I never realized you could activate it like that as well. Wonderful.

[tomster2300]

Originally Posted by pam123 You're going to like this, you can do a clean install of the Vista upgrade, whatever version you have. Here : http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase...rade_clean.asp

Alright, well I finally got around to trying to do this (I keep the dual boot in my sig even though I've had Vista uninstalled for awhile now), and I'm running into a problem.

I let Vista create a partition out of the rest of my 40 gig drive, installed it, then ran the update wizard like the websites says to do. The update program runs and goes through the update process until it gets to the very end, where it comes up with an error and says it could not update my version of Windows.

Does it sound like they fixed this so you can no longer do that? I did this on a fresh install without any microsoft updates though.

[pam123]

Tom...bbbabby'

nVidia dropped the ball on this.
The problem is Vista and drivers, you can't fix it but maybe new drivers or a game patch can.
Grit your teeth, gird your loins, and wait.
Of course, this being me, an email is a good idea (legal trail for a Class Action suit)

[tomster2300]

Originally Posted by pam123 You're going to like this, you can do a clean install of the Vista upgrade, whatever version you have. Here : http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase...rade_clean.asp

Alright, the scheme provided in that link does actually work! I finally figured out my problem and am typing on a successfully updated version of Vista Home Premium. There is a trick to it though, which ended up being why it wouldn't update.

When you do a clean install of the trial version, you must pick Vista Home Basic if you own the Upgrade copy of Home Premium. If you're trying to do this trick with Ultimate, then I'm assuming anything picked would work.

While the instructions on the website recommend you choose the copy of Vista which you own, it will only work by choosing Home Basic. I figured it out by reading the Vista box (go figure) where it says in tiny print on the back that it will only upgrade from the Basic version of Vista, XP Home, and XP Media Center.

[Hpro]

Hello -
Trying to give you another option..
Why dont you use Virtual PC 2007 instead - Easy to install and use
Top on that you can use two OS = Vista and XP at the same time ...

You can Download Virtual PC at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/pro...c/default.mspx

If you dont like it anymore then all you need to do is to DELETE it . No crashes no corruption etc.. runs on XP Vista Server2003 Server2008
regards hpro