Dual-booting Vista-xp

[LastSpartan]

...no. linux is so annoying to config, takes up too much of your life. plus, apps support is rubbish... the gimp?
bottom of the laptop, shiny sticker... normally, or in a manual. look for a shiny sticker
NTFS goes over the whole hard drive, nulling/erasing everything... NTFS Quick only writes the data tables. NTFS Quick is quite okay if you're sure your hd has no defects (it hasn't failed or "lost" any data).

(not sure about this, correct me if I'm wrong)

Yay I have the serial number! Thanks mate ! ^^

But my question is when do you choose between NTFS and such? When Clean Installing?

 

[leegrisham]

NTFS / NTFS Quick option will be given to you when you first start installing / formatting your drives.

I hope you have another computer in your home so you can read instructions as you take on this task.

TF_Productions seems to know his stuff - listen to him. He obviously is very knowledgeable in computers since he knows the differences in Files Systems. (FAT 16/32 and NTFS)

I'll lend what help I can, even though I have never set up a dual boot system I work on computers every day. (IT Professional)

 

[LastSpartan]

alright, here's the problem: you alsways have to install XP FIRST and Vista second. ALWAYS. xp's bootloader doesn't do vista's... meh, it's a pain.

Just to make sure, how I can do it then

---

@Lee : Yeah he seems to know way more than me

 

[Toby]

Thanks guys, but it's my job to know computers and also I have done dual-booting systems for a lot of my friends.
Most of them went back to only vista, so this is the way I do it:


step 1: backup your hard drive/save important data on a different hard drive/dvds.

step 2: erase hard drive and get rid of partitions. the backup partition usually DOESN'T work after installing a dual-boot system, so it's just wasting space.

step 3: create new partitions.. I'd do it like this for maximum flexibility (your hd is 150 GB, am i correct?):<ul>[*]partition 1: 40-50 GB for vista (+10-20 GB more if you install games or big software bundles Adobe, etc). [*]partition 2: 80-80 GB for data. (make this smaller if you made partition 1 bigger, so you end up with partition 1 + 2 = 130 GB)[*]partition 3: the rest (almost 20 GB) for xp (of course, you can make this bigger and make data less).[/list]the reason: if you decide to scrap xp, you can add it to your data partition (you'd erase partition 3 and then tell partition 2 to grow into the free space, possible from within vista). the vista partition is big enough to be used like it is if you decide to scrap vista.

decide on your preferred combination before you start partitioning, making partitions bigger or smaller is a pain.

step 4: install xp on partition 3.
step 5: install vista on partition 1.

(note alternatively, you can swap partition 1 and 3, if you think you'll give up vista. but vista needs at least 40 GB to run comfortable and for installing a few programs)

hope there's no questions, I'll gladly answer them if there are any.

 

[LastSpartan]

But why are you saying that you install Vista if I already have it?

And yeah my drive is 144gb

Thanks for the advices ^^

 

[Mobeus]

I also had a dual booting system, but then i scrapped my xp partition because vista just worked for me...

alright, here's the problem: you alsways have to install XP FIRST and Vista second. ALWAYS. xp's bootloader doesn't do vista's... meh, it's a pain.

No, you don't.
I arranged Windows XP to dual boot on a system with Vista pre-installed, and there wasn't a single problem.
I could see there being problems if you expect it to automatically arrange the bootloader by itself, but you can achieve so much more with actually doing some manual tinkering.

 

[Toby]

No, you don't.
I arranged Windows XP to dual boot on a system with Vista pre-installed, and there wasn't a single problem.
I could see there being problems if you expect it to automatically arrange the bootloader by itself, but you can achieve so much more with actually doing some manual tinkering.

you don't say, but for me, there were problems, on two different PCs... i used EasyBCD to change the bootloader sequence. now, annoying thing is, if changing the bootloader doesn't work, you have to install vista new again anyway.

so that's why I now advise customers to start with a clean/empty hard drive, do some proper partitioning (separate data and os, major advantage when working with 2 OSes or backing up data) and just install xp and vista new (that way, you also get rid of adware programs your manufacturer installed). in the end, it's faster and cleaner than messing with bootloader changes and so on, imo.

LastSpartan: you can use that guide (in your first post) if you want. it _should_ work without problems. note though that you won't be able to uninstall vista and your data will be on c:\, which may be a major or minor inconvenience when working with xp.

other idea: maybe you can shrink your c: partition down to 40-50 GB, then you can make a new data partition and a partition for xp. that way, you wouldn't have to install vista new... try shrinking c:\ and see how far it'll go (then click cancel ^^)

that way, you'd have enough room for the data-sharing partition you wanted.

 

[Mobeus]

you don't say, but for me, there were problems, on two different PCs... i used EasyBCD to change the bootloader sequence. now, annoying thing is, if changing the bootloader doesn't work, you have to install vista new again anyway.

so that's why I now advise customers to start with a clean/empty hard drive, do some proper partitioning (separate data and os, major advantage when working with 2 OSes or backing up data) and just install xp and vista new (that way, you also get rid of adware programs your manufacturer installed). in the end, it's faster and cleaner than messing with bootloader changes and so on, imo.

Yeah.. I can understand EasyBCD giving you troubles. It didn't do the trick for me either, so I eventually did it manually.

 

[Toby]

Yeah.. I can understand EasyBCD giving you troubles. It didn't do the trick for me either, so I eventually did it manually.

Phew, thought I'd messed up there ^^ Manual is pretty hardcore, not sure I'd even try to do that because I lack the knowledge on messing with boot sequences.

Anyway, LastSpartan, whatever you do good luck from me, I think you have all the info you need by now so I'll go on holiday

Follow the guide if you choose not to wipe your hdd. I'm sure Mobeus can help out if anything goes really wrong