OT: How to dual-boot Vista with XP (with XP installed first)

[admin]

You find lots of advice about this, but also lots of "should work", "could fail", and "could wipe the XP partition (!)"... so, is by chance anybody here doing this successfully?

[PeterH]

Maybe by using some bootmanager?
Mine can be customized to boot from one selectable disk-partition, and hide selected other partitions - so XP and VISTA don't see one another.
But sad to say: its BootUS, quite old, and I'm afraid it will run into problems somewhen. But maybe someone knows about other bootmgr beeing up to date, and having functions like this?

[admin]

Maybe by using some bootmanager?
Mine can be customized to boot from one selectable disk-partition, and hide selected other partitions - so XP and VISTA don't see one another.
But sad to say: its BootUS, quite old, and I'm afraid it will run into problems somewhen. But maybe someone knows about other bootmgr beeing up to date, and having functions like this?

No, it's not that easy. From what I heard Vista is trained to search any XP installation and make it unusable... apparently it does not work without some special hacks...

[bergfex]

You find lots of advice about this, but also lots of "should work", "could fail", and "could wipe the XP partition (!)"... so, is by chance anybody here doing this successfully?

I know some people who do it successfully. Maybe the easiest and safest way to accomplish it is to use "BootIt NG", a wonderful and reliable tool with a comprehensive manual and great support.

[j_c_hallgren]

I recall reading some articles that stated the best way was to install Vista first, and then XP, but can't locate that info right now. There were a few boot manager products available to assist but it seemed that it was the seq that caused most of the issue.

[ugus]

An alternative can be to use a software like Norton Partition Magic and then make a new partition and install Vista on that partition then you can just select which os to start with when booting the computer.
(With Norton Partition Magic you can resize and shrink your existing drives, adding new ones etc)

(I have it configured that way, works like a charm, XP installed on C: and Vista on D:, XP was installed first.)

Another way, maybe even better, is to use a software like MS Virtual PC 2007 and install Vista on a virtual disk.
http://shepherdweb.com/2007/03/02/insta ... l-pc-2007/

[bergfex]

Some links which may be of interest:

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista ... nshots.htm

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vist ... _guide.htm

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/videos ... pgrade.wmv

[PeterH]

...something like ugus said...

If the bootmgr "hides" XP-Partition from Vista, Vista doesn't find XP / recognize XP! (And vice versa...)
This is a configuration option of the bootmgr. You define: boot partition x & hide partition y, or such. Partition z could be a data-partition, to be seen / shared from both systems.
(Hint: there can be different forms of "hiding"...)

With repect to primary partitions: the active system will see other primary partitions as "Unknown", not as NTFS or FAT or whatever. So it cannot test for XP. IF VISTA doesn't delete all unknown partitions, this method is without risk. I used this with DOS, Win95,98, W2k and XP, with FATxx and NTFS.

As I don't know about VISTA, I don't know if this is hiding necessary, or if switching the active Partition by bootmgr would be enough. But at least: never install a Windows-System by calling Install "from another running Windows". So:
- create a new primary partition
- make new partition active
- boot "install" from DVD
But as I said: the new system can "see" the old - and if VISTA is sa bad, it 'could' recognize and delete it.

Example with Bootmgr:
- make new partition
- define options how to boot it (with hiding others)
- dummy-boot new partition: bootmgr hides other partitions, but cannot boot
- boot from install-dvd: new partition is "active", and others are "hidden"

Note: from other places (Disk-Mgr in XP or Vista, Partition-MGRs etc.) *never* touch such a hidden/unknown partition!

[ugus]

If you really want to be sure that Vista shouldn't affect your existing XP installation installing Vista as a virtual os is your best bet.

Another way, maybe even better, is to use a software like MS Virtual PC 2007 and install Vista on a virtual disk.
http://shepherdweb.com/2007/03/02/insta ... al-pc-2007

The Virtual disk approach makes Vista run in its own kind of sandbox, you create a kind of disk image which you install Vista on.