Dual Booting Vista & XP

[+JSF_Aggie]

I've broken down and purchased a new computer, which is coming with Vista.

 

I'm thinking I'm going to install XP on a seperate drive. Anyone have any experience with this? I've been reading websites and forums on the subject since last night, and it seems to be relatively painless. Worst I've seen is that XP may mess up the booting of Vista, and I'll have to repair it after XP is installed.

 

Anyone of you done this before, and have any suggestions? Thanks

Edited September 5, 2008 by JSF_Aggie

[+DoctorQuest]

Generally, you should install the OLDEST OS first. So you may have an issue booting XP if you install it AFTER Vista. You can work through these if you are familiar with the BOOT.INI file. There is also a utility called VistaBootPro mentioned in a couple of MS articles but I have not used it. (Don't have Vista.......)

 

Do a search on microsoft.com for dual boot or multi-boot. Lots of good info to be had there.

 

Installing on separate drives is a good idea.

Edited September 5, 2008 by kirbykern

[+JediMaster]

Yes, I too have had little luck installing an old OS on top of a new one, but have put the new one on top of the old many times. The main reason is the boot sector on the main HD. Every bootable OS needs to access that and while new OS are aware of older ones and can work with that, XP has no idea what Vista is.

If you install XP over Vista onto another HD/partition (Vista lets you resize parts on the fly now), since you do NOT want them on the same drive letter (Windows works best when it's in a folder named "Windows" and mixing two OS worth of "Program Files" is also asking for it), you will likely need to run a repair for Vista afterwards as it may not even boot Vista again until you do, booting straight to XP instead.

[DaSpungie]

watch out

vista does not like dual boot

I had to redo my whole system because of it

so make sure you have all your data backed up before you wander into deep water

I have done win 98se ,2000pro and xp pro all on the same machine and all on the same hdd even in the same drive "c:"

but vista bit me hard so I am avoiding vista just for that.

Edited September 5, 2008 by DaSpungie

[+russouk2004]

I run xp pro on C,and Vista Ultimate on D drives...I did install xp 1st tho...had no troubles whatever...

If you add a 2nd hd to ur new pc...there is a trick you can do to get xp as first os..

remove the hd with vista on...put in the hd u want to use xp on...and set it up as C...install xp to C....then add vista hd as D drive...when u restart machine....vista should automatically let you know you have a new os choice,and it should then give u 2 options of os at startup...

alternatively...before u you add the vista drive back into ur pc...you can search and download a boot ini for your version of vista (home,home premium,ultimate etc),for the purpose of dual booting with xp...

hope this helps you..

Edited September 5, 2008 by russouk2004

[+JSF_Aggie]

Thank you much guys.

 

Backing up isn't an issue, since this will be a new PC. Worse case, I'll have to break out the restore CD.

[+DWCAce]

Right now I'm getting the Vista upgrade version (comeing from XP media center). I'll be sure to backup my stuff. Anything else I should consider?