Dual Boot Vista and XP

[skiabox]

I have an Acer 9412AWSMi laptop with one hdd.It has 2 partitions.Firstly I had windows xp pro installed in one partition with drive name d: .Then I decided to add vista to the second partition.So I installed vista to this partition and they took the name c: .That move left me with no windows xp (althought they were installed to the other parition) because vista gave me no multiboot option.Then I formatted d: partition and installed xp again.Then xp gave me no multiboot option and now I cannot login to vista that I have installed at the other partition.Take 2 shots of the situation.(Shots are for vistabootpro that I installed to windows xp and from disk manager) :

Is this possible to access vista again?

[Stonkwell Bogtrotter]

Install XP first on partition 1 (c:), then install Vista on partition 2 (d:). Vista will automatically create a boot menu for you to access both OS. No need for Vistaboot.

Remember, when you are in Vista, even though you have installed it on 2nd partition (d:), when you browse all the Vitsa files from My Computer etc, it will appear to be on c:\. Even though it is not.

Someone else can explain that bit.

[skiabox]

I don't want to install xp again!!!It took me 3 days to do it.Is there any other way I can simply access vista that are installed?Thnx for answering!

Install XP first on partition 1 (c:), then install Vista on partition 2 (d:). Vista will automatically create a boot menu for you to access both OS. No need for Vistaboot.

Remember, when you are in Vista, even though you have installed it on 2nd partition (d:), when you browse all the Vitsa files from My Computer etc, it will appear to be on c:\. Even though it is not.

Someone else can explain that bit.

If this is so then why this thing didn't happen when I installed vista with xp already installed?

[Stonkwell Bogtrotter]

I don't want to install xp again!!!It took me 3 days to do it.Is there any other way I can simply access vista that are installed?Thnx for answering!

If this is so then why this thing didn't happen when I installed vista with xp already installed?

3 days to install XP??? :woot:

Mine ususally takes less than 30mins.

[skiabox]

look when I say 3 days I mean 3 days with conflicts repaired ,programs installed , etc

[Stonkwell Bogtrotter]

look when I say 3 days I mean 3 days with conflicts repaired ,programs installed , etc

Still along time. From fresh it should only take a couple of hours.

Anyways, try doing as I said above, hopefully it should work this time. I can't really understand why it never before.

Try doing an "advanced install" which will allow you to choose where to install Vista. If you are doing it all automatically, Vista will simply install onto c:\.

My set up is WinXP on c:\ and I installed Vista onto d:\ and it automatically created a new boot option. Try doing an "advanced install" which should allow you to choose where to install Vista. If you are doing it all automatically, Vista will simply install onto c:\.

Hope this helps.

[destined1ne]

Still along time. From fresh it should only take a couple of hours.

i think he means 3 days to configure everything to how he wants and install all his programs. may take couple hours for you or others, but for people who are nit-picky like me, it'd take me 3 days also, cause i like setting up my environment the way i like it, with programs, shortcuts, settings config (look and feel), etc.

i'm interested in this topic because i'm thinking of doing a dual boot with vista also. if i put it on a separate hdd, will i be able to remove it easily?

thanks in advance.

-S

[Turge]

If you google BCDEDIT, you'll find the answer in the first hit. (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/windowsvista/library/85cd5efe-c349-427c-b035-c2719d4af778.mspx)

From what I read (quickly glanced at), Vista is on the 1st partition and XP is on the 2nd and you are no longer given the option to boot Vista, correct?

Follow the section "How to modify BCD when installing a previous version of Windows onto a computer running Windows Vista" from the link above.

When running bcdedit however, you will have to specify the store if performing this from XP.

Example:

Vista is C:

XP is D:

from XP, you would type:

c:\windows\system32\Bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /create {legacy} /d ?Windows XP?

c:\windows\system32\Bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /set {legacy} device boot

c:\windows\system32\Bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /set {legacy} path \ntldr

c:\windows\system32\Bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd /displayorder {legacy} /addlast

When booting your PC, bootmgr.exe will now read the BCD store and provide you 2 choices (you can see this by running "c:\windows\system32\bcdedit" on its own). When you select "Windows XP", it will load NTLDR which will then read BOOT.INI and provide you with the choice to boot XP.

Let me know if you have any problems. I've spent a LOT of time playing with this (booting Vista PE/PE05 from my USB Flash Drive, etc.)

Steve

[Stonkwell Bogtrotter]

i think he means 3 days to configure everything to how he wants and install all his programs. may take couple hours for you or others, but for people who are nit-picky like me, it'd take me 3 days also, cause i like setting up my environment the way i like it, with programs, shortcuts, settings config (look and feel), etc.

-S

So do I, but it certainly doesn't take me 3 days to do that. If you know what things you want turned off, tweaked, installed, modified, settings altered etc, it usually only takes me a couple or 3 hours at most. Including making a cuppa ;)

3 days! :wacko:

[skiabox]

ok it seems that we 're getting at some solution here.because it is a sensitive matter for me and I don't want to loose all my installed programs again I'll ask you to clear a couple of things.

vista is on c right now so all 4 commands u write here are vista commands.right?

the article u mentioned earlier shows that u must type an additional command before these 4 :fixntfs /lh

so I must write first : c:\fixntfs /lh .right?

[shooter468]

i installed Vista after XP and its working fine

vista created a boot menu that lets you boot the one you want

[HawleyTronics]

EXAMPLE:

I have a 64bit AMD system with (2) 20Gig HDDs.

The 1st HDD (Drive 0) has 2 partitions, the first partition has Win XP Pro SP2 on it.

The second partition on Drive 0 is for my DVD/Movie editing and other data.

The second HDD (Drive 1) has one partition and I installed Vista RC1 on that.

When I turn my system on, the boot menu created by Vista appears and Vista is selected by default.

If I boot into Vista and look at my drives in explorer, the Vista drive appears as drive C: (even though it was installed on the second HDD), and the XP drive appears as D: with my DVD data drive appearing as Drive E:.

If I boot into XP and look at my drives in explorer, the XP drive appears as Drive C:, my DVD data drive as Drive D:, and the Vista drive as Drive E:.

This is normal because the OS you boot into makes it's root drive as Drive C:, so the way you visualize how you set up your drives may be different than the way either version of Windows sees your drives.

You are really best to repartition your drive into 2 partitions again, and install Windows XP FIRST.

Then install Vista and you should be fine.

[Turge]

Yes, "c:\fixntfs /lh" will put the bootmgr as the default boot loader. You can always use bootsect.exe from the Vista DVD: "e:\Boot\bootsect /nt60 c: /force" for perform the same step.

[skiabox]

I opened an dos box within xp but dos can't find fixntfs.Any ideas from here?Thnx all for answering!

[skiabox]

I used your other option - Vista DVD: "e:\Boot\bootsect /nt60 c: /force" - and it worked like a charm!thnx a lot!I am having now 3 options while booting vista,windows xp a.d earlier version.vista works.windows xp option is not working and earlier version loads windows xp .

[Turge]

You can delete the entry.

if you run "bcdedit", it will show you the 3 entries. Select the identifier of the one you want to delete and copy it to the clipboard. the simply run:

bcdedit /delete {identifier} where "identifier" is the identifier you selected above.

eg. bcdedit /delete {a743cc8d-7337-11db-b380-94d4fd1962fa}

if you want to change "Earlier Version" to "Windows XP", just copy that identifier to the clipboard and change it with the following command:

bcdedit /set {ntldr} description "Windows XP" where {ntldr} is the identifier for the entry you want to change.

You should no longer need to include "/store c:\boot\bcd" since the store was used to boot the OS, but if you happen to get an error message from XP, just include it.

[skiabox]

I added ubuntu linux to an extrnal hdd but now I have to have the external hdd open to boot my laptop so that it first load grub and then the vista boot loader referred in the previous posts of this thread.Is there any way now I can boot without the need of the external hdd?thnx again for all advices!

[skiabox]

difficult?

[Computer Guru]

EasyBCD is a better boot loader manager tool than VistaBootPRO, and it's exactly what you're looking for.

From the Add/Remove Entries screen you can get EasyBCD to set up a one-click dual-boot between your Windows Vista and Linux (ubuntu has been tested and verified working by the folks at UbuntuForums.org themselves).

You can choose to either hook into a (pre-installed) GRUB on the bootsector of your Ubuntu partition, or forego GRUB entirely and use the included NeoGrub package to get Ubuntu dual-booting with Window Vista without having to ever leave Windows to get the job done.