I Want to repartition the HDD for my new Dell Xps M1530 laptop

Hi all,

I got a new dell XPS M1530 laptop with 320 GB hard disk. Now I have 10 GB of recovery drive and 290 GB drive with preinstalled Vista. I want to repartition my hard disk so that I want to leave 50GB for the present partition i.e. for Vista and the remaining 240GB I want to make a separate partition for installing XP and others........

I want to maintain the same copy of Vista what Dell have provided with my laptop and don't want to format it and reinstall vista.

Can you please suggest me how to have both Vista in one drive(50GB) and XP in other drive(240GB) and want to boot one at any time.

Please suggest me the possible solutions to acheive this with my laptop.....

Thanks in advacne
S Narayana

 

You will pull your hair out trying to do it your way. If Vista is installed first, you have to use EasyBSD and do some tricks. You will also end up with a jacked up installation of XP that has it's system root on some other drive letter (like 'E:').

You can avoid all that like this:

1. Completely wipe out all partitions.
2. Create a partition for XP, then install XP.
3. Create a partition for Vista, then install Vista.

Upon Vista's installation it will see the XP partition and add an entry to the boot menu for XP. This way you will have a painless dual boot. You will also have both Vista and XP refer to their system root as 'C:'.

If you want to do it your way, good luck. There are many web pages describing how to do it. The biggest problem though is that you will get an unconventional drive letter for XP if it is installed after Vista. You don't want this. Some programs don't like for the system to be anywhere but 'C:'.

Those are the two best reasons NOT to do it the way that you want to.

If you do it as I described you will have both Vista and XP refer to the system root as 'C:'. That is what you want. Two separate partitions that become 'C:' if you boot into them.

If you boot into Vista, system will be 'C:' and the XP partition becomes some other driver letter (like 'E:'). If you boot into XP, system will be 'C:' and Vista will become some other drive letter.

BTW: You will need a third party or Open Source partitoning program to accomplish this. I used Acronis for my dual boot and I highly recommend it.

 

I think he might be able to do this without reinstalling vista.
For details see here: http://zebsy.blogspot.com/

Cheers,

Zebs

 

Here are revised instructions for the sake of anyone else that read this thread (apparently the OP doesn't care that 2 people tried to help him).

1. Delete all partitions
2. Install XP
3. Install Acronis, resize XP partition
4. Create new partition
5. Install Vista on new partition

That is the easiest way to have a proper dual boot machine. You can use other methods but they require extra work, and you will likely still end up with an unconventional drive letter (not 'C:') for XP. This method above is as easy as it gets. That is exactly how I did mine and it was painless.

Also note that Dell puts many partitions on the disk. You will run out of room for primary partitions if you try to leave the 'diagnostics' partition and the 'media-direct' partition. Just do as step one says to do and wipe out everything, starting from scratch.

Edit: Before you start make sure that you have at least the chipset drivers and the wireless and LAN drivers since you will possibly need to get online to fetch some needed drivers after install. Also, for XP, if you plan on running in AHCI mode (default in BIOS) then you need to slipstream ALL of the Intel SATA drivers for the 965 series boards into a new XP install disk. If you don't know how to do this then find a howto on slipstreaming drivers. I will warn you now that if you install XP under ATA compatabilty mode, then switch on AHCI in the bios afterward, you will get nothing but blue screens.

 

Have you reviewed Les' guide at all?

It may be of help! ~ May help with the fresh Vista Install

Dell Vista Laptop Reformat and Bloatware Removal Guide
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=157838

Alot of the information you need, can be found right here on the forum.
You just have to look around!

Here is a great guide for dual booting:
Awesome dual-booting guides for every possible scenario
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=259759


Cin

 

Here is the problem - As I pointed out earlier, with Vista installed first you will have to install XP on a nonstandard drive letter (not 'C:'). If you follow any of these guides, with Vista installed first, you will always end up with the situation described below.

From here: http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_...talled_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm?page=3

Not only do you follow 100 steps in these 'guides', but you end up with this silly situation. Your goal should be a proper dual-boot with both Vista and XP booting into a system with their system root on 'C:'. That is exactly what you will get if you follow my very simple instructions.

Again, from that same url:

I can assure you that you will receive plenty of headaches with programs that don't want to install on anything other than a system root at 'C:'. It happens more often than you think.

In the scenario that XP is installed first, then Vista, another thing that I have already pointed out while following any of these guides is that you will have to use 'EasyBCD' to modify the Vista bootloader. Here is a hint - it isn't all that easy, especially for a novice. Instructions on this aspect are here :

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dualboot_vista_with_xp__stepbystep_guide_with_screenshots.htm?page=5

Once again, if you follow that guide you are punishing yourself. If you are technically minded and just love to do this stuff, then go for it. If you are more of the average PC user, and just want to get this over with then use my instructions.

If you follow the 5 simple instructions that I posted you will have a proper dual-boot in half the time of any of those guides. And both your systems will have a system root pointing to 'C:'. . Also, as I previously stated, Vista will automatically see XP when XP is installed first and add XP to the boot loader menu. You won't have to fool around with EasyBCD.

It won't get any easier than 5 steps.

Edit: The guides that Cin points to are typical of the guides all over the internet. I have followed the exact instructions of those guides before. I did the process four different times. The last time that I reinstalled both OS'es from scratch I used the 5 instructions that I have posted. I saved myself alot of trouble.

 

Your information is very helpful....And, I have used Les' guide, and it worked well, also it was written for NBR, by Les. It has helped a great amount of forum members since its inception!

I think it comes down to what guide to use, is the one that works for each individual. And, I'm sure your information is very helpful! Hopefully it will help the originating poster.


Cin.

 

There is no doubt that those guides you pointed to will work. I just simplify things until they are reduced to their easyiest, as long as easyiest coincides with proper and best. That is the case here.

I think the most important thing to understand is that you should install XP first, then Vista. Just let go of Vista (since it is factory installed). Microsoft operating systems traditionally work this way - the newer OS recognizes the older OS. When you install XP, then Vista, you are starting on the right foot. That is the way Microsoft intended it to work, and that is why Vista will see XP and add it to the bootloader. You can avoid any and all complications.

You just do not want to do it backwards. If you choose that route, good luck to you. You may very well spend several hours doing it backwards. And you had better have a comprehensive knowledge of EasyBCD.

Edit: Note 1 : open source tools like 'Gparted' will do the job of partitioning, but they can create complications with the way that they write the partitions.

Note 2: if you go the 'DISKPART' utility route (comes with Vista), it will indeed do the job of shrinking Vista to make room for XP. However, this utility will also refuse to shrink Vista down to the size that you want. It is limited (I think by disk percentage). In my case Vista would only allow me to shrink down to about 120GB on a 320GB disk. I wanted something more like 50GB. Vista would not aggree to do this. This is yet another problem that you don't want to deal with. Following my instructions will avoid this altogether. 'Acronis' is the best partitioning tool that I have seen since 'Partition Magic'. It will make your life very easy.

 

More awesome information! Thanks!
Will keep in mind when I get my external HD (hopefully soon)...for tweaking I have to do again.

Cin.

 

i used this utility to make a new partition for my windows 7 installation, worked just fine... now i wouldn't know about XP...

 

Yes, as stated there is no doubt that the 'DISKPART' utility works. It is the fact that it's behavior (at least in Vista Home Premium) is to limit how small you can shrink the Vista partition. If you have a 320GB disk, and you want your Vista partition to shrink to 50GB, you're not going to be happy when the utility refuses to shrink Vista down to that size, and instead gives you a minimum of 120GB.

The behavior in Windows 7 could be different, I would not know about that.
If anyone knows of a way to get the Vista utility to get around the minimum size limit, please post your info.

However it would be pointless. In the end, if you go this route (Vista installed first) you are going to end up with your system root for XP being 'D:' or some other letter. You don't want this.