Dual boot vista with xp? Problems?

failurbydesign

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I was reading around that dual booting windows vista with xp can cause problems....is this true?
 
It's still a beta and there are bugs, so there is a chance something could go wrong with certain system configurations. With that said, there are plenty of people who have been dual-booting since Beta 1 (5112) with no problems. In fact, once I get my extra HDD, I'm planning to dual-boot 5308 with XP x64 on my desktop.
 
Yea, i really want to try it out, but i dont want anything to get messed up...
 
I have it installed on my machine, no problems here :)
 
Now i have never done a dual boot. Is there a "How To" somewhere?
 
Make an image of your existing drive/partition using something like TrueImage or Ghost. That way, even in the worst case scenario, if you end up losing all your data (highly unlikely), you can just restore the image in less than 20 minutes, and you're good to go. :)

You don't really need much of a howto. Basically, you need an empty extra partition (or separate hard disk) where you can install Vista. Make sure you install Vista after XP is installed. During setup, you get to pick where you want to install Vista. Select the empty drive/partition. Once setup is done, Vista automatically adds itself as well as XP to the bootloader, so you'll get a menu each time you start your machine, asking you which OS you want to boot into.
 
Yup, that's pretty much all you need. Notice the after XP. I made that mistake once, and only once :D
 
kcnychief said:
Yup, that's pretty much all you need. Notice the after XP. I made that mistake once, and only once :D


HA, yea i wont do that...make an image...thats a big image..like 60 GB...hmm..maybe ill just hook up an extra HD...
 
It shouldn't be that big if you use high compression?
 
yeah..... not a single problem with dual-booting. if something goes wrong with Vista, then XP SHOULD still be in perfect working order (unless said thing that goes wrong is with the boot loader). don't be an idiot like i was, and reinstall XP AFTER installing Vista...... basically makes your Vista partition a nice little (insert number here)GB Windows Folder that you can't boot to.

as for how to install it in a dual-boot config..... just install it as you would install XP, cept choose to install it to the partition that XP is NOT on.
 
so when it comes time to uninstall..do i delete the partition..?
 
failurbydesign said:
so when it comes time to uninstall..do i delete the partition..?
Yes, you delete the Vista partition, boot from your XP CD into the recovery console and run fixboot. That restores the XP bootloader, so you won't get the OS selection menu anymore at startup, and it'll boot right into XP like it normally does in a single-boot setup.
 
sweet!! Thanks for the help!! But my pc didnt come with an xp cd? Just a drive partition called "recovery"
 
Why dont you use vmware/virtual pc? that way there's no worry about messing up the boot up of your OS.
 
welli already put on vista too see how it would work...thene i deleted the partition, and i need to fix the boot order...
 
edit your boot.ini file. i think its located in the root of the C:\ it is hidden so you will need to enable hidden files. once you find the boot.ini edit it in Notepad and remove the Vista info.
 
well i looked for what you said and all hiden files are visable and i even searched and i didnt find a boot.ini
 
Right Click My Computer - Go to Properties.

Go to the Advanced Tab, under Startup and Recover click Settings.

On the box that pops up, you will see an Edit button.

Make the changes in there :)
 
thisis what i get

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


what do i edit?
 

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