Dual Boot Installation with Windows Vista and XP

kavita · Apr 28, 2009

Great work and efforts Shawn, just wanted to update you about VistaBootPRO - Windows Vista BCDEdit Dual Boot XP and Windows 7 as it also provides a function to replace the custom boot loader and vice-versa.
Also, you forgot to add poll for this tutorial. :D

Brink · Apr 28, 2009

Hello Kavita,

Thank you for the additional program to choose from.

I'm moving away from the polls. I prefer to have people post what problems they had with a tutorial instead to make it easier to update the tutorial for it.

Phantomas · Apr 28, 2009

Great job !!!

nikhil2020in · May 25, 2009

Hello Shawn,

Nice work and this forum is really very helpful. I was successfully able to create the Dual Partition of Vista and XP after following the steps mentioned above:D. Though goofed up somewhere :confused:

... but coz of my mistake

.
Also this forums has helped me a lot to improve my Vista performance from worst to better now hoping to make it best

Thanks a lot..........

Brink · May 25, 2009

You're most welcome Phantomas and Nikhil2020in, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Shawn

vash79 · Jun 1, 2009

Hopefully someone can help me. I currently have a dual boot system with xp on one hard drive and vista on another. XP was installed first. I want to get rid of the dual boot any only use Vista. How can I safely remove XP, erase the hard drive it is on so I can use it for storage?

Thanks!

Brink · Jun 1, 2009

Hello Vash79, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You could boot from the Vista installation DVD and delete and format the XP drive under step 4 in METHOD ONE above. Afterwards, you will just need to run a startup repair to repair the boot file for Vista.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

vash79 · Jun 1, 2009

Awesome, that seems simple enough. Now what if I wanted to replace the XP drive with Windows 7? Could I just insert the Windows 7 disc and format and install over the drive with XP and automatcially have a dual boot still with Vista?

Brink · Jun 1, 2009

Yep, you could do that as well.

Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and Vista - Windows 7 Forums

nikhil2020in · Jun 3, 2009

Brink said:
Hello Vash79, and welcome to Vista Forums.

You could boot from the Vista installation DVD and delete and format the XP drive under step 4 in METHOD ONE above. Afterwards, you will just need to run a startup repair to repair the boot file for Vista.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Dear Shawn,

This is in relation to Vash79 problem, i would like to know that can we remove the XP in the following way (assuming XP installed in other drive) :
1) Boot through Vista
2) Format the drive where XP is installed
3) Use the EasyBCD software to repair the boot manager.

Thanks and Regards,
Nikhil.

Brink · Jun 3, 2009

Hello Nikhil,

Yes, you can also use that method as well.

VRV · Nov 2, 2009

Hi guys..I just joined and I have a question about the tutorial.

Shawn I have a working xp sp3 32-bit on one drive and I just installed a vista business 64-bit on a seperate drive (not partition). when i updated and restarted, I did not get the boot selecting page. any ideas?

thanks

Brink · Nov 2, 2009

Hello VRV, and welcome to Vista Forums.

While in XP, go ahead and do steps 7 to 15 in METHOD TWO to add Vista using EasyBCD. When you get to steps 10 and 11, use the settings boxed in red in the screenshot below for Vista instead of for XP.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

VRV · Nov 2, 2009

Hi Shawn,

thanks for the welcome and the reply.

funny thing...about that...:huh:...I already did install vista from cd boot through dos before posting the question, and thats why i cant see xp anymore which is (was) on an entirely different drive.

i read somewhere that i can press down key repeatedly to get the boot list, so i did..and strangely enough xp wasnt there (just vista), although when i went into vista, i was able to see the os windows, program files and all my docs & files on that other drive which had my xp installed on!

in any case, in the line of making this the clean way..now i have a working vista 64 bit..and another freshly formated drive that i would like to install xp on again.

should i do it from inside vista or dos (boot cd)?
...and anything i should take into account..regarding restore points being deleted and god knows what else? :sarc:

thanks for your help

Brink · Nov 2, 2009

If you can boot to Vista and are going to reinstall XP, then you can just do METHOD TWO to do so.

XP will wipe out Vista's restore points everytime you start XP, so you may want to do the tutorial below in XP to prevent this after installation is complete.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/127417-system-restore-points-stop-xp-dual-boot-delete.html

DA1745 · Dec 9, 2009

Hey Shawn,
Thanks for replying on my other problem thread. I'm preparing to reinstall (clean install) Vista again but I wanted to dot a few i's before I do that.
Refresher on my set up, XP professional was installed 1st on one drive, then Vista was installed on a 2nd hard drive. The dual boot was all set up & working fine.

Now I NEED to start over on Vista's end. I'd ultimately like to go from the 400GB drive that Vista is installed on, to a 1GB or 1.5TB drive ((since the Video files even on the lowest settings are HUGE)) but what I think I will do is simply do the upgrade clean install on the same 400GB HD that's it's already on & then later I'll clone the drive over to a 1GB or 1.5GB drive later.
Am I correct in assuming that doing an upgrade (clean install) installation of Vista Ultimate on that same drive I won't mess up anything with the bootloader etc.?

Also do you know of anyway to save out my TV SERIES Recording/settings? I have at least 30 (likely more) shows set to record, some are on a break right now, some only come on seasonally and I often forget about them until the recording shows up etc. so it would be great if there was a folder somewhere that I could save or export (like exporting Favorites, cookies). I have spent the last few days transferring over shows, documents, videos, bookmarks/favorites. Thank you.

Brink · Dec 9, 2009

Hello DA1745,

If for some reason that it does mess up the bootloader, you can use EasyBCD to repair it like in METHOD TWO of this tutorial.

I'm not sure about how to backup your TV Series recordings and settings though. You might post that in the Media Center forum to see someone may know of a easy way for you.

dniaak · Dec 15, 2009

Hello Brink. I followed Your instructions (method 2). [On Acer Aspire 1410 laptop] I
resized the Vista partition to leave 55Gb unalocated space for XP [XP Pro SP2] and created a D: primary partition. I then inserted install disc and restarted. After XP setup loads initial files/drivers, and tries to start Windows, instead of startup I get this notice
screen:

"A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. Check for viruses and remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your drive to make sure it has been properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK for any drive corruption; then restart your computer.

Tech Info: *** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF78D2524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)"

When I looked up the above STOP code on the Microsoft site I got this: "If you receive one of these error messages [STOP: 0x0000007B] while you are installing Windows XP, update the computer BIOS or obtain Windows XP drivers for your hard disk controller .....", which didn't help much.
There are no viruses. I ran an error check and this drive [Hitachi, less than 3mo old]
has no corruption. As far as controller/configuration goes, Vista has started and functioned without a hitch repeatedly. The only change has been the C: resizing and creation of D: primary partition. I am at a loss as to what to do. If you have any ideas they would be very much appreciated, Dan T.

Brink · Dec 15, 2009

Hello Dniaak, and welcome to Vista Forums.

Could you post back a screenshot of your Disk Management to help see how your drives and partitions are layed out? This may help if there's a problem with the layout.

Dual Boot Installation with Windows Vista and XP

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