vista XP dual boot problem

That along with several other articles about adding XP to an existing Vista system is simply horse crap! When first released I went through a number of those along with a few free BDC editing tools to still find one thing. The newer version goes on last to see the older installed as a boot option!

What most likely happened there is that the Vista boot loader needs a repair to get Vista going again. Or you would now reinstall Vista to see that will then add XP into it as an option. To simply repair the Vista boot loader boot up with the Vista dvd and choose the "Repair Tools" button at the lower portion of the install now screen. Look for the startup repair tool found there.
 
I used EasyBCD 1.7.1

I have vista installed on my laptop and did not want it but did not want to lose it either, i installed xp then fixed the mbr with vista then used EasyBCD 1.7.1 to add xp back to the boot...works great!
 
nmnetworkservice said:
I used EasyBCD 1.7.1

I have vista installed on my laptop and did not want it but did not want to lose it either, i installed xp then fixed the mbr with vista then used EasyBCD 1.7.1 to add xp back to the boot...works great!
Click to expand...

I tried adding both XP Pro and Home versions into the Vista boot loader with that as well as the VistaBootPro tool to see NADA! I ended up reinstalling both versions of XP over again entirely to finally see Vista go on and add both as options by detection and then installing them. EasyBCD did however make it easier to set the default as well as rename "previous version of Windows" to "Windows XP" where the next screen saw the Home and Pro options listed.

The sure fire method is simply to see XP go on first and later Vista to see working results. Note that you will need to use a work around since the dual boot will hamper Vista's own creation of system restore points. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926185
 
thanks for the link again PCeye :)

Ok so i have XP home on the Hdd now and nothing else. i want XP to have 60gb and Vista to have on 20gb.

i know this is a very noob question but where should i go from here? what would be the best way to partition and get Vista on?

are there anysure fire ways to get this right. ive been spending a long time just wasting my time and tbh im a little unsure as what to do next.

also i dont actually know how to us easy BCD. so any help with that would be great :)

Thanks :)
 
ok so i only have XP installed now and Easy BCD hasnt really done anything. what you would suggest? something like paritition Magic? are there similar progs out there which are free?

alos BCD doesnt work :(

Thanks

James
 
One thing to note right off about Vista is that it loves the "first" primary on any drive you install it to. When trying to multiboot XP Pro on a second ide drive here before ordering a pair of sata drives it refused to install to the second primary created by GParted there. I was then forced to reinstall Pro on the first sata on the last build!

GParted live for cd works far better then the XP installer or going out for a retail product since you can download that free at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=115843&package_id=173828

Review the information and screen shots on it if you are unfamiliar with the Linux drive tool there as seen at http://gparted.sourceforge.net/larry/generalities/gparted.htm

The correct two "platform independent" releases 0.3.2.0 and 0.3.3.0 are numbers 15 + 16 down from the top on the download page. The rest are stricly for Linux and not the cross platform type for MS and other partition types.

EasyBCD is a convenient desktop tool for setting the boot order and editing even renaming what is seen on the boot splash screen. But like any other older versions being dual booted the latest is installed last to see the best results. The other option is seeing each version as stand alone installations on separate drives. For the new build that's how I ended up preferring that over needing to reinstall both if only one needs repair or a fresh full install.
 
Thanks Again PC eye, Im going to have a go and see if i can sort it this time and have some better luck :)

i'll keep you post and i'll get Gparted used :)

Thanks

James
 
GParted is a great tool once you get familiar with it. The free version of one burning program always seems to see good burns for GParted live as well as data dvds called BurnOn. Eventually I'll get around to getting the full version since that works just as well on Vista as on XP. http://www.burnworld.com/burnoncddvd/

With two ide drives along with the two sata models taken out of the last build there I had XP Home on the first ide, Vista on the second, and XP Pro on the first sata. That had been on the first primary of the second ide until trying to get Vista onto the second primary there. no go! Vista wanted the first only.
 
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