Dual Boot Installation with Windows Vista and XP

How to Setup a Dual Boot Installation with Windows Vista and XP​

   Information

This will show you how to install Windows Vista and XP to dual boot with when you already have either Windows Vista or XP installed first.

   Note

With a dual boot installaton, you will have two operating systems (OS) installed. When you start the computer, you will have the choice to choose which OS you would like to start up to. This method is the easiest way of doing a dual boot with these two operating systems.

   Tip

To stop XP from deleting your Windows Vista System Restore Points everytime XP is started, then see System Restore Points - Stop XP Dual Boot Delete to hide Windows Vista from XP.

   Warning

Windows XP Minimum Hardware Requirements:
NOTE: For more information on this, see: System requirements for Windows XP operating systems

• PC with 300 megahertz (MHz) or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233-MHz minimum required;* Intel Pentium/Celeron family, AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended
• 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)
• 1.5 gigabyte (GB) of available hard disk space.*
• Super VGA (800 × 600) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor
• CD-ROM or DVD drive
• Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

Windows Vista Minimum Hardware Requirements:
NOTE: For more information, see: Microsoft Windows Vista: Recommended System Requirements


Vista Home Basic

• Processor: 1GHz (32 or 64 bit)
• System Memory (RAM): 512MB
• Hard Drive: 20GB with 15GB available for Vista
• Video Card: 32MB Memory and DirectX 9 Support
• DVD-ROM Drive

Vista Home Premium, Business, or Ultimate

• Processor: 1GHz (32 or 64 bit)
• System Memory (RAM): 1GB
• Hard Drive: 40GB with 15GB available for Vista
• Video Card: 128MB Memory, DirectX 9 Support with: WDDM Driver, Pixel Shader 2.0, 32bits per pixel
• DVD-ROM Drive

EXAMPLE: Windows Boot Manager
NOTE: This is the boot screen where you select what operating system that you would like to start. By default, you have 30 seconds to choose another operating system before the default operating system will start automatically.

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METHOD ONE

When XP is Installed First

1. To Create a New Partition from the XP Hard Disk Drive​

A) With your Windows Vista installation disc boot into the Command Prompt from the System Recovery Options screen.​

NOTE: Make sure that the CD/DVD drive is selected first in the boot order in the BIOS.​

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B) In the command prompt, select and shrink the XP volume by how many MB (1024 MB = 1 GB) you want to have for this Windows Vista partition. (See screenshot below)​

NOTE: You would do steps 2 to 9 in METHOD TWO at that link. Windows Vista Home Basic will need a minimum of 20 GB (20480 MB), and Vista Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate will need a minimum of 40GB (40960 MB).​

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C) Click on the X at the top right corner to close the command prompt. (See screenshot above)​

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D) Click on the X at the top right corner to close System Recovery Options. (See screenshot below)​

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E) Go to step 3.​

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2. To Use a Separate Hard Disk Drive than the XP Drive​

A) Boot from your Vista installation disc.​

NOTE: Make sure that the CD/DVD drive is selected first in the boot order in the BIOS.​

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3. Click on the Install now button. (See screenshot below)​

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4. When you get to this point, select the partition (step 1) or hard drive to install Windows Vista on. (See screenshot below)​

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5. Finish installing your Upgrade Windows Vista or Full Windows Vista version.​

NOTE: You would do the STEP TWO section at either link to finish installing Windows Vista.​

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6. When finished, restart the computer to have the option to boot from XP (Earlier Verision of Windows) or Windows Vista. (See screenshot below)​

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METHOD TWO

When Windows Vista is Installed First

   Note

• If you have a RAID setup, you will need to have the XP RAID drivers on a USB flash drive available to select and load (F6) while installing XP.
• If you have a SATA drive, then see How to Load SATA Drivers in Windows XP Setup on your Dual Boot PC with Vista or Windows 7 for how to load your SATA drivers during the installatioin of XP.

1. To Create a New Partition from the Vista Hard Disk Drive​

NOTE: If you want to install XP on a separate hard drive instead, then skip this step and go to step 2.​

A) In Windows Vista, select and shrink the Windows Vista volume in Disk Management by how many MB (1024 MB = 1 GB) you want to have for this XP partition. (See screenshots below)​

NOTE: You would do all of STEP ONE and STEP TWO at that link.​

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2. Insert your XP installation disc, then restart the computer and press any key to boot from it when prompted. (See screenshot below)​

NOTE: Make sure that the CD/DVD drive is selected first in the boot order in the BIOS.​

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3. From XP Setup, Press Enter. (See screenshot below)​

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4. Press F8. (See screenshot below)​

NOTE: On some multimedia keyboards, you may need to press the F-Lock or Function key before pressing F8.​

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5. Select the new XP partition that you have just created in step 1 using the arrow keys and press Enter.​

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6. Finish installing XP.​

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7. In XP, download and install .Net Framework 2.0 (for 32-bit (x86) XP) or .Net Framework 2.0 (for 64-bit XP) and EasyBCD.​

NOTE: Net Framework is required to run the free program EasyBCD.​

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8. Run EasyBCD.​

NOTE: This is required to repair the Windows Vista boot file and add XP to the Windows Boot Manager list.​

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9. On the left side of EasyBCD, click on the Add New Entry button. (See screenshot below)​

A) In the top section under Operating Systems, click on the Windows tab. (See screenshot below)​

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B) To the right of Type, select Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3 from the drop down menu. (See screenshot below)​

WARNING: Be sure to leave the Automatically detect correct drive box checked.​

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C) To the right of Name, you can leave the default Microsoft Windows XP as the name to be displayed in the Windows Boot Manager, or you can type whatever name you would like to have instead. (See screenshot below)​

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D) Click on the Add Entry button. (See screenshot below)​

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10. On the left side of EasyBCD, click on the Bootloader Setup button, select (dot) the Install the Windows Vista/7 bootloader to the MBR option, and click on the Write MBR button. (See screenshot below)​

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11. Close EasyBCD.​

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12. Restart the computer to have the option to boot from XP or Windows Vista. (See screenshot below)​

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That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Setup a Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Setup a Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP
• How to Dual Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu
• How to Change the Default Boot Partition Settings in Vista
• How to Change the OS Name in Windows Boot Manager
• How to Stop System Restore Points from being Deleted in Vista when Dual Booting with XP
• How to Do a Clean Install with a Full Version of Vista
• How to Do a Clean Install of Vista with a Upgrade Version
• How to Create a Vista SP1 Slipstream Installation DVD
• How to Create a Bootable USB Flash Thumb Drive to Install Vista
• How to Do a Custom Installation of Vista
• How to Load SATA Drivers in Windows XP Setup on your Dual Boot PC with Vista or Windows 7
• How to Properly Delete a OS in a Dual Boot

 

[dniaak]

Sure! Here's my disk management shot. D:\ is the XP partition. Thanks.

 

[Brink]

Dniaak,

Strange, a black liine usually indicates the partitions as being unallocated. What do you see when you right click on Disk 0 to the left of them?

 

[dniaak]

Hello Brink! You're right about black, but the screen capture came out in black&white rather than color --- don't know why. The actual bars above the drive volumes are blue, for primary part status. As for the Disk 0 [EISA partition] this is the Acer Vista recovery drive.

Hello again. I figured out the color problem. Here's the resubmit of the disk management capture.

 

[adelkahani]

Hi Friends:

can i used this method with Vista home premium 64 bit and XP 32 bit when Vista Installed first?

thanks for your help.

 

[Brink]

Hello Adelkahani, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Yes, you sure can use METHOD TWO in the tutorial for this.

 

[MichaelN]

Excellent work Shawn.

My problem:

I have Vista home Premium 64 bit.

It's installed on a separate HDD on a new machine. (Dell XPS 730x)

I also placed my old HDD with XP Pro 32 bit on it into this machine.(it used to be my boot drive on an earlier machine)

I can't boot XP after selecting in bios that drive with XP as first boot.

Nor can I re-install XP Pro, as when I try, I get a message that there are no HDDs detected and I get "press F3" and that's it.

Can you please help me install XP Pro 32 bit on a separate drive to my Vista Home Premium 64 bit.

I have a 32 bit program by IMSI called TurboCad Pro 15 and I can't get it to run from Vista even when in Vista, I set it to run in 32 bit , most other 32 bit programs do this without a problem.

Hope you can assist.

Thanks,

Michael

 

[Brink]

Hello Michael, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You might see if you can use only EasyBCD (step 9 in METHOD TWO) inside Vista to add XP to the boot list.

Not sure about the other program, but you might post about it in the "Software" forum instead for better support on it.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[MichaelN]

Thanks Shawn.

In Vista = can't install EasyBCD.

So I thought maybe it needed netframe, but that won't install on 64 bit.

Any more ideas?

Hello Michael, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You might see if you can use only EasyBCD (step 9 in METHOD TWO) inside Vista to add XP to the boot list.

Not sure about the other program, but you might post about it in the "Software" forum instead for better support on it.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Brink]

Did you try this EasyBCD? What did it say when you tried?

 

[MichaelN]

Managed to install and use EasyBCD in Vista 64 bit.

I have removed the XP 32 bit from my old boot drive (separate HDD to my Vista 64 bit operating system) and tried a fresh install of XP Pro 32 bit, but still the same problem.

The problem is really that when I boot from Win XP Pro 32 bit CD, I press 'Enter' to install, a message tells me that it couldn't detect any HDDs, then the only option it offers is to press F3 to exit the set-up.

My machine is a Dell Desktop XPS730X

 

[MichaelN]

Update.

Managed to download XP 32 drivers from Dell that are supposed to suit my Dell 64 bit XPS730x and got past the no HDDs found problem.

But now a new problem.

Using nLite, I integrated these drivers (along with a file called hal.dll) with the XP Pro 32 bit installation files and burned it as an ISO image, then with this modified XP Installation disk I tried the install XP Pro 32 bit.

Instead of getting the problem that occurred before .............
i.e. the XP setup ran upto the point of selecting 'Enter' to install, then getting no HDDs found ............
I get a (black screen) message even before it started the XP setup telling me that a file called hal.dll is corrupted or missing and to re-install this file.

But I did put a copy of this file into the integration along with the drivers.

Any ideas?

 

[MichaelN]

Hi

I have a Dell 64 bit XPS 730x desktop with Vista home Premium 64 bit.

I have three Sata internal HHDs

I have discovered that for me to have dual boot XP Pro 32 bit with Vista 64, I should have XP 32 installed first.

I wish to scrub Vista 64 bit and install XP 32 bit, then create dual boot by installing Vista 64 bit later on a separate HDD after XP 32 is installed.

I have an external HDD with all my files backed-up.

I have downloaded from Dell all the drivers for XP that Dell associates with my machine.

I am proposing to use nLite to slipstream the appropriate drivers into an ISO copy of the XP installation disk.

Problem:

Precisely which of these drivers do I slipstream?
(I can't select all the drivers as the ISO becomes too large to burn to a 700 meg CD)

Hope you can assist.

Michael.