Discussion on:

How do I... Install Windows Vista in a dual-boot configuration along with Windows XP?

If you have the two disk scenario with say XP on the first and Vista on the second then it's been my experience that you'll end up with booting of the Vista disk dependent upon the presence of the first.
(I am an old mainframe guy, not a Windows guru, but I believe that the boot.ini file and ntldr.exe etc stay on the first disk)
So if you have a bios that allows you to choose which disk to boot from, you can set up the second (Vista) disk separately and have no interdependencies. You may have to disable the first disk while you do the clean install of Vista otherwise it will try to setup a multiboot system anyway.

I read from WindowsSecrets site that Vista upgrade can only be installed from an existing installation of XP, 2000 or Vista.
The article also says that the previous installation does not have to be activated so by installing Vista without the key then reinstalling Vista as an upgrade over the "trial" installation will work. This method is hard coded in Vista so is legal.
My question is can this method be applied to a dual boot system.
The article I refer to is at http://www.windowssecrets.com/comp/070201#story1

This method works, I just did this last night. The "upgrade" failed the first time around but worked the second time. Why, I do not know.

My question is, I would like to keep the dual boot for several reasons, but would like the boot loader information which currently resides on partition 0 XP to be moved to partition 1 Vista so I can specify disk 1 in my motherboards bios as the first boot disk. Currently, if I choose disk 1, which holds the Vista install a message appears that the ntldr is missing. Any assistance will be much appreciated.

you need to edit the boot.ini file on disk1 to point to the vista installation.

If you make all your system files visible, you will see boot.ini on the C: drive (disk 0).

You need to edit this for Vista and copy it to the vista drive.

Of course I would have done so!

But as neither drive booted up to installing any OS so obviously could not access boot.ini

I was able to get primary drive open is safe mode but it is not possible to modify boot.ini or anything else therein. I did try to find a way in CMD to change boot.ini but I lost my way and could not get any help.

Vista dosent use boot.ini anymore they have new system. But you can overcome your problem by installing VistabootPro 3.10 from there you can make the right boot file, it does it for you.

Since Windows Vista no longer uses the boot.ini file, I was thinking the answer to this might be a little more complicated and involve editing the BCD file. Again, any assistance is appreciated.

If you want Vista to boot up be default, all you have to do is access the the Startup and Recovery dialog box as shown in Figure L in the article.

You won't be able to move the boot loader information from partition 0 to partition 1.

Thanks Greg for your quick response,

I do have the Vista install as the default boot, I just do not like having the boot loader information on what is in this instance an older, slower hard drive where XP resides. You answered my question, apparently the boot loader is not movable between partitions.

Any other alternatives or ways to have a dual boot system with Vista / XP in which I can control which partition the boot loader information is stored? The method you set forth works flawlessly, I just want to have more contol of what OS resides on what partition, or in this case disk, and where the boot loader information is stored.

Anybody have any thoughts? (Besides running one OS in a VM)

Of course. But trying to change boot.ini default was not allowed and both 32 bit and 64 bit were, in BIOS setup, both default and neither would open. Partially solved by installing 64 bit Vista first then 32 bit
XPpro/SP2 on slave drive.
One of the problems is that there are still very few 64 bit compatible programs. Does anyone know of a source detailing which are
64 bit compatible.

Don't mean to seem dumb but can one set the new partition in Vista then recover XP and reinstall Vista to the new partition without wiping it out? (Vista express upgrade)
Dave

Exactly the best way to go, and if you are discovering SW titles with any discovery tools, you should disable access to the Vista Drive/Partition, so that Software discoveries are not utilized where they are not warranted

Why not install Virtual PC and run it that way?

I found no problems or errors in the install and the function of the OS. Seems to get around all the "dual boot" scenarios.

Since a Vista machine has to be modern it is very likely that you can choose in the BIOS which hard drive to boot from. I think that would be easier than dual boot - providing you are using separate hard disk.

Dual boot always seems to end up a pain in the butt - while I haven't tried it with Vista I have with other MS products and Linux - I wouldn't recommened it.

A reader sent this comment to me and I thought that I would share the question and the answer:

Q) In the old BOOT.INI file for WXP and W2K, I could modify the title string to display what I want to select a bootable O/S in the boot menu. In your article titled "How do I... Install Windows Vista in a dual-boot configuration along with Windows XP?", I don't see how to change "Earlier version of windows" string in Vista's Boot Manager to say something more applicable like "Windows XP" or "Windows 2K" in a multiboot configuration. I found this to be a problem during my testing of Vista beta releases and haven't found the answer. Maybe you can shed some light on how I can modify these Boot Manager strings?

A) Windows Vista no longer uses the Boot.ini file. That file and the old underlying boot system has been replaced by a new boot loader/bootmgr, which reads boot configuration data from a special file named BCD. A brand new tool called Bcdedit.exe (Boot Configuration data Store Editor) can be used to make more in-depth changes to the contents of the BCD.

Keep in mind that Bcdedit.exe is a command line tool that operates solely via switches and as such, is a bit cryptic.

To run the command from within Vista:

1. Right click on the Command Prompt shortcut and slect the Run As Administrator command
2. Type the following command:

bcdedit /set {legacy} Description "Windows XP"

The text inside the quotes can be anything that you want to replace the "Earlier version of windows" string in Vista's Boot Manager.

I did a dual boot and found a serious issue that I have not been able to resolve. If I boot to XP with Vista installed in 2nd partition, then boot back to Vista, all restore points in Vista are errased. Hiding the Vista partiton from XP using TweakUI did not help. Sure could use a suggestion to resolve this.
On a good note, I also found that if you can't find Vista drivers for some devices, you can use XP drivers as long as they are digitally signed. Got my web cam working that way.

Other than your gyrations with the Windows activation nonsense, what's new with your article? This is the same process it's always been.

When you install Vista in a dual boot environment it will claim the partition that you are installing to as the primary partition. Vista has done away with boot.ini file and forces you to use the Windows Boot Manager to select your partition. If you configure the Boot Manager to use XP as the Default Operating system, your computer will revert back to using the Boot.ini for XP on load which does not have entries for the Vista Partition. You will either have to add it manually to the XP boot.ini file or use the command line tool bcdedit.exe on your vista partition to revert the default OS back to Vista.

I have used bcdedit to set windows XP as the default with a 5 second delay, and that gives me plenty of time to pick either os for booting from the new boot manager. I have a 250Gb Seagate, with three partitions; XP and Vista occupy the 1st and 3rd, with the middle partition being used for data only.

In a dual HDD system I had a 32 bit XPpro.SP2/IE7 system on primary drive and installed 64 bit Vista on secondary drive (and updated it) but then on re-booting both drives were identified as default and trying to open either I got "ntdlr" corrupted. I could open primary drive in "Safe Mode" but could not change boot.ini. Ultimately I gave up and had to re-install from scratch. Micosoft, in their wisdom, suggested installing 64 bit Vists first and 32 bit XPpro on secondary drive. Haven't dared do this yet and I wonder if anyone has experience of this.

I've got the Vista 64-bit Ultimate edition (retail) loaded. It runs great, even with 2 8800gtx's in SLI. I tried loading XP on my second hard drive after getting Vista all configured and after XP finished loading the files and rebooting I got "disk read error occurred Press ctrl+alt+del". I figured out that this action corrupted my Vista partition, but luckily after booting with my Vista disk I repaired it and booted again safely into Vista. Have not tried this again.

I have a system very similar to yours with dual HDs and XPHome installed. I tried to upgrade to Vista x64 from an OEM DVD but couldn't because the file system on my HD was Fat32. So, I booted Vista from the DVD and did a clean install on my secondary HD. Once Vista was up and running I formated the primary HD in NTFS, this of course removed my XPHome installation. I then shut down the computer opened the case and PHYSICALLY disabled the HD that now has Vista x64 on it. I rebooted from my DVD multi drive with the XPHome CD in it and reinstalled on the now reformatted HD. Once XPHome was installed and updated I then shut down the computer, reconnected the HD with Vista on it and changed the HD with XP on it to slave and the HD with Vista as the master. These HDs are on the primary IDE controler and the DVD multi drive is on the secondary controler by itself. Now when I boot the computer Vista will boot automatically and if I need to use XP I just hit F8 at the BIOS screen and boot from the other HD. For some reason Vista doesn't "see" the other HD at all. It's as if it wasn't connected to the computer at all. I don't know if this is a result of the method I used to install or not, but it works out because there are no conflicts between the two HDs.

I had same problem and was using same solution but thought my drive had gone bad when Vista didn't detect it and I never did the F8 thing (there was a SMART error on the drive too, so when it didn't show up in Vista, I thought it had died). Thanks for the post.

I see in this chain the problems of dual booting XP and Vista and I have sort of given up, Reading the above of physically disconnecting drives, I have chosen to re-build a computer with updated components and plug-in hard drives which will, of course, be similar to disconnecting one or other in the hope that if I install XP on one drive and Vista on another it will work OK. We live to have problems to solve!

Hi, I have a dual boot of windows XP and windows Vista Business running happily on the same machine.
Quite easy to do.
1 - partition your drives with gparted (why? well, because it's free! http://gparted.sourceforge.net/). Make sure the partitions are both master partitions.
2 - install xp on one partition
3 - install vista on another partition

voila.

Vista and its boot manager should you decide
to reclaim its space? I got rid of Vista with a reformat but am left with its boot manager. Any ideas on getting rid of the latter?

to remove any boot loader boot a win98se floppy or CD and get a dos prompt then do:

fdisk /mbr

Done!

but I have already tried doing this from the XP instal cd in repair mode with no result.
Will have another go using a usb stick formatted as a win98 boot disk

regards

Did you try both fixmbr and fixboot?

You know its strange to me, but it never even entered my mind to use the XP CD recovery console. When I want to be rid of an old OS i use the old familiar tools because they boot quick. Windows98 CD boots fast and the commands are very familiar.

J

the norton ghost 2003 cd for the same reason. GDisk is very much like fdisk but can read and write ntfs and ext2/3 partitions as well. Boots in 35 sec as opposed to the 1 min + for XP recovery console. I use to use a 98 boot floppy, but I do not have floppy drives any more, and one machine will not boot off a USB stick. Though it would be sweet to have a 98 boot disk on a USB key.

I ran into this problem and used the "Boot sector restoration tool" through the recovery console booting from my Vista install disk. You can access the recovery console through one of the repair options on the Vista disk

Assuming your Vista DVD is on drive E and XP is on drive C, open the recovery console command prompt and type:

E:boot\bootsect.exe /nt52 C:

If it doesn't work because access is denied and it can't be unmounted. If this is the case, type:

E:boot\bootsect.exe /nt52 C: /force

It isn't recommended to use the /force switch unless you have to. If your system was doing a write operation at the time it could cause an error on one of your files.

I found this solution on a message board when my system was rendered unbootable when Vista had a issue.I'd give credit to the site if I could remember! This got me back to the XP bootloader and into XP. Handle with care...Vista doesn't seem to disappear very clean.

But after working through them as they came in, the one that worked for me was that by JBanks a couple of posts down. Could not put this post as a reply due to the forum limit

But thanks again

Gdisk will remove any and all partitions on any HDD but be carefull you could loose All reading the help file is a must.Gdisk is part of Norton Ghost distro's and is also on Hire's Boot & Maintainence cd,very very handy.

I absolutely will not install the express upgrade to Vista Business on my laptop unless I can dual boot Vista and XP but I would love to be able to multi-boot Vista, XP, and Linux on on my laptop.

Does anyone know if Vista, XP, and Linux can be setup to do a multi-boot from the same hard drive? If so, how can it be done?

I am sure other experts on this thread will probably give better advice; but I had no problem multibooting using the regular intall routine of any Windows operating system. It was only necessary to install the oldest OS first in the primary partition and in ascending order from there. Just pick the correct partition to install to during the pre-install dialog.

I saved my Linux OS for last and used the instructions for multi-booting from the booklet that came with the disc set. It all seemed very intuitive and was easily done from beginning to end. I formated FAT 16 for '98, and NTFS for all the rest of the Windows partitions; - then whatever New File System for the particular distro of Linux used.

I've been wondering about this too. I already have DOS, Win2k and a couple of Linices and I'd rather not reinstall /everything/ just to get Vista on. I'm thinking I could just install each Linux over the top of its current install and would hope that it won't overwrite all my customisations? Does anyone have any experience at this?

Sorry I don't have enough Linux experience in that area; so I can't help you there.

You can only have four primary partitions per hard disk - the rules say you can't run an operating system on logical drive partitions but I ran XP on one for 3 years, until I started messing with the allocation tables and then it blew up of course. Other wise you could run more that way.

I have used Partition Magic to copy partitions and mirror one partition to another, it is very powerfull and has worked swimmingly; but I have found the new versions are poorly written like all of Symantecs other software, so is consequently unstable. Make sure the base formatting was done by the original disc manufacturers software or risk losing all data.

Hard drives are getting cheap; looks like it is time for you to buy another one.

Install Vista first and then install Linux. They both'll work fine.

I have had the same problem with linux and windows.
The typical install was windows and then linux but 1 day i did it the other way around and noticed that there was no bootloader...

So there are 2 ways i know of getting it to work.
Either install linux last on the pc
or if a Win OS is installed after linux you will need a 3rd party bootloader like acronis to find the linux and windows installations.

But what would be pretty nice is if windows could have recognised the linux file system.

The dual boot option appears to be a viable solution, I've use it many times in the past. I'm currently building a new test system and was looking to set up an XP Pro 32bit/Vista 32bit/Vista 64 bit option. Are there any complications that you are aware of when installing the 64bit version I should be on the look out for?

My two hitches when doing this were:
1. I had used PM to create partitions of my new 200GB drive and it recommended "logical" partitions (I created two). But in Vista setup it didn't see them, so I went back to PM and changed them to Primary, and then Vista setup worked.

2. I also couldn't get the DVD to boot, no matter what I did with the boot order. THEN a friend suggested to make the DVD drive a primary not slave. Voila! Did it.

FYI: I'm going to try to triple-boot, with two versions of Vista each on primary partitions of my main HD (I use a second HD for all data storage), plus XP. I've never done more than a double, and never tried even that with essentially the same OS. I need a separate test environment for Vista+Office'07 (in case you wondered). Thoughts anyone?

The article implies that the one DVD contains all Vista versions, and that the serial no. will dictate which parts of the disk gets installed to the HDD. Is that caorrect? Can I install Ultimate to play with, then install Home later on when I want to register?
Also, does anyone know whether the install DVD contains 32-bit and 64-bit versions, or do they come on separate DVDs?

Yes, the Windows Vista DVD's will contain multiple versions of the operating system in order to facilitate the Anytime Upgrade feature.

Yes, if the DVD has multiple versions, you can install any of the versions on the DVD for a free 30-Day trial. You must then reformat and then reinstall the version that you purchased. You can then activate it.

The 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Vista come on separate DVDs.