hi, I installed vista without dual booting, nice fresh install. However, it's giving me a little headache. So now I want to install XP next to vista. I was wondering if I install XP now will it recognize the vista partition in the boot loader? If not, then how would I boot vista?

Do you have another partition or drive to install XP.

If not then use Vista tot shrink the existing partition and create a new partition for XP.

Download and use VistaBootPro to backup existing boot procedure.

Once you have the new partition created boot to the XP install disc and install a fresh copy of XP on the newly created partition

Once XP is install and working you can either install VistBootPro and try to do a repair or you can boot to the Vista DVD and do a repair boot that way.

Try this and report back.

NT50 wrote:

Do you have another partition or drive to install XP. If not then use Vista tot shrink the existing partition and create a new partition for XP. Download and use VistaBootPro to backup existing boot procedure. Once you have the new partition created boot to the XP install disc and install a fresh copy of XP on the newly created partition Once XP is install and working you can either install VistBootPro and try to do a repair or you can boot to the Vista DVD and do a repair boot that way. Try this and report back.

thanks Ill try it, I already setup a partition for XP, just waiting for a response before I do anything, Ill install tomorrow and tell ya how it goes

alright, it wasn't as simple as I thought, but it wasn't hard either. I basically went through trial and error as the obvious method didn't work.

First I tried simply making a new partition and then installing XP on it. After the initial copying of files doe the XP setup procedure(you know, when you boot from cd and it asks you what partition you want to install on) I rebooted expecting to go into installation where I had to enter the CD key and all, but it simply said "operating system was not detected" or "could not load operating system" I forgot which. So I tried again, booted from CD, this time let XP cd make it's own format on the partition, then rebooted after the files were finished copying for setup. At that point all I recieved was a black screen with a blinking underscore "_" at the top left. So, basically the following worked for me:

I used vista dvd to repair the vista boot loader, and booted into vista, went into disk manager and set the partition I want to install XP on as active. Rebooted and went into the winXP boot cd, went through formatting said partition from there and after it copied the files needed for setup I rebooted and bam, the setup loaded. I installed winXP, booted into it. Worked like a charm. Then I rebooted and went into the vista DVD to recover the vista boot loader. Booted into vista, opened up vistaBootPro and added an OS entry(while using the windows legacy option). Rebooted and I got to the OS select screen. So step by step

1. Make a partition for windows XP

2. set it as active

3. put in the winXP cd and boot from it.

4. install windows

5. use the vista DVD to repair the vista boot loader

6. boot into vista

7. open up VistaBootPro

8. Add a new OS entry, make sure you selected windows legacy and the correct drive letter for the partition that XP is on.

Note: I forgot to mention, vista didn't give a drive letter to the XP partition after I installed XP, so you may have to assign one in disk manger.

Nice one Omego2K

Thank you, Omega2k, gonna give this sequence a try myself.

After reading many posts on this and other forums covering this topic, it looks like you've clarified the procedure nicely. It looks like the key which has been missing is creating and marking as active the new partition from Vista.

I'll let y'all know if I have the same success!

Im doing the same but without the luxury of the vista dvd just the restore cd that came with the computer any suggestions?

The restore CD is actually a Vista DVD, so you should have no problems.

BTW Welcome to PROnetworks !!!

Having issues with the restore CD myself - it wants to restore, but it doesn't want to do anything else - any suggestions? (I am blaming HP for this!)

OOO

HP and Compaq have not switched over to the OEM style restore cds/DVDs yet. I think they are the only one that has not switched to supplying a DVD with the OS only and other cds/DVD with program files.