Anyone dual booting 32 bit and 64 bit Vista?

I was searching through the forums and didn't find anything related to the FX series.

I'm looking at dual booting or a fresh reinstall of 32 bit Vista as Cisco VPN doesn't work on 64 bit OSes.

Would it be possible for me to partition the hard drive, and after installing 32 bit Vista, get the OS (32) to search the 64 partition for drivers? I would assume that would be similar to using windows.old?

 

32-bit operating systems cannot use 64-bit drivers, or vice versa.

 

That's what I suspected, but was hoping I was wrong. Oh well, driver search time.

Thanks!

 

i think i can help you out here dtwn83

most of the drivers are located in your apps folder on the recovery partition..which i know you already know. it houses 32/64 bit drivers and even some windows xp drivers are in there as well. (not all off course, but some. this covers me from flamers... lol)

if you use your serial number on the gateway site. it will give you drivers for all versions of windows (some drivers! not all!)

you can use this nice little program for setting up dual boot options with out killing off what you already have.

http://www.pronetworks.org/forum/album_cat.php?cat_id=69

this is what i used to dual boot 32/64 now dual booting 32/xp i may add the 64 bit back later.

 

Very nice. Thanks a lot dude. The 64 bit's been annoying as hell.

 

no problem.

exactly why i ditched it!!



i didn't have time to sit and figure it all out with what i was doing.

 

The only problem I have with it is that Cisco VPN doesn't work with it. Huge pain in the ass. holliday777 had it running quite smoothly, which is why I didn't want to fiddle with it.

 

I have my 64bit systems working without a hitch, but I am not using Cisco VPN.

 

i will get around to working with it again, but none of my clients are using 64 bit os's and the the few programs i did load wouldn't work right. but as for a personal user, it worked fine. but being a personal user wasn't paying the bills...so off it went for the time being.

 

Looks like my problem is solved. While trying to switch on my P6860FX today, it won't start. God alone knows why, but Windows won't load right now. System restore isn't working either.

 

what did you do?

because i went through basically the same stuff

 

I actually didn't do anything yet. lol. I ordered my copy of 32 bit Windows and was waiting for it to arrive. I switched it on today and voila! "Your computer was unable to start.." and so on and so forth.

 

aaah. ok.

so you didn't get the 32/64 bit os gateway disk with this system???

 

I did. Wait? I thought it was only 64 bit? I didn't look at the disc. DOH! Looks like I just wasted $15 on an order from windows marketplace. lol, I'll need to see if I can cancel that.

 

yep!

and that disc is pre activated for all the p series gateways

do not use your serial when installing....there is sticky about it somewhere...

 

Well, the Windows DVD can't detect any problems, but it still won't let me start up. Guess it's time for a reinstall.

 

i live for these sorts of problems...what does it say when it tries to boot?

 

Problem has been detected, Windows has been shut down. That's about as much information as they would give me

I'm going to try a recovery with data backup and see if I can grab the files I need out.

Will then follow up with a 32 bit fresh install.

 

so how far along are you now....

 

Just finished with the recovery and backup. It's currently setting up Windows (again geez).

 

ok...

at least it's not an hp.(dv9740)..that would have taken about 2 to 3 hours.

 

Yea, it was surprisingly quick. I'm still uncertain about what exactly happened. There wasn't any indication, Vista just decided to die on me suddenly.

 

hummmm, did it have a wireless connection to the internet?

 

Nope. Thanks to the VPN issues, I haven't been able to get online with the FX at all. I didn't change anything either. As far as I can tell, whatever file it was just decided to fail today.

Plan is to reinstall the 64 bit, so that I could go ahead with the 32 bit install.

 

ok, gotcha.

well, lets hope things go over smooth this time.

 

Bootpro looks really impressive. Thanks for the link.

Man, from the bootup of this fresh Vista Install, all I can say is, Holliday777 did a really good job cleaning up so that it booted up real quick and easy. Well, before all this crap happened anyway lol.

 

i think that is the factory install or does it have his software as well?

 

Nah, it's the factory install. The other stuff is backed up, but won't work as the dlls. got toasted in the fresh reinstall. I'm working on cleaning out the crap right now. Once I do that, 32 bit here I come.

 

i know that's right!

i think i may get around to making an apps dvd to see what they look like. never made on yet. i just take the files i need and put them to a flash drive then done.

 

My 64 bit install is largely cleaned of crap. I'll need to settle the 32 bit installation before being able to get online. And adding other stuff in.

I already created a third partition for the 32 install, I assume I could just stick the DVD in and install from the DVD 32 bit Home Premium?

 

hold on there speed racer..... (in a good way)

 

lol, I'm tired of carrying two laptops around the place. Since my Slappa bag hasn't arrived yet, I'm reduced to carrying the FX in its box.

 

had to think about the the easy way to do this....

1: under windows 64 bit make the partition for xp
2: format partition
3: reboot boot computer so that you know what drive letter to use after you install 32 bit.
4 :reboot computer again, this time with dvd in rom drive.
5: run 32 bit install like normal
6: install everything or just the network and video driver stuff.
7: install vistaboot pro on this partition as well. this will get you back into 64 bit without a lot of problems.
8: run it just like you did for 64 bit making sure the drive letters are the same.
9: reboot. and you should see both partitions in the vista boot manager.


do you understand how vistaboot pro works?

 

wanted to get that post in before you started.

 

I figured.

I've been reading through the Vista bootpro documentation. And I think I get it. I think Well, who dares wins!

I've already did steps 1 and 2. I assume you did step 3 to make sure that the drives are properly partitioned?

Step 7 means vistabootpro gets installed in both 32 and 64 bit partitions (already installed in 64, will that be an issue?)

 

no, it's just to make sure you can get back to 64 bit...if it works and you see it upon reboot. then all is good.


i wasn't sure...i figured you read through it, but better to be safe than sorry...

 

I got the 32 bit installed. I assume I now have to install bootloader for both OSes?

 

well....reboot and see if you can see the 64 bit.

if not, reinstall vbp and just do 2 things.
1: run vbp
2: click system bootloader
3: put check in all drives
4: install bootloader
5: then reboot

 

You mean if I am able to see both OSes in VBP?

Hmm, just realized that the 32 bit needs the drivers too. In case you're wondering, first time I'm dual booting.

I'm getting the integrated vga card problem. Oh well, I know how to get pass that at least.

 

when you boot the computer, you should see the real vista boot loader screen showing you 2 operating systems with the 30 delay waiting on you to choose.

 

The one which shows you select which OS to boot etc? White letters, black background and all that right?

I can't decide if I'm doing everything wrongly or if VBP's awesome since I haven't had any issues with installation at all.

 

that's the one

 

i made one mistake when i did it....i changed the drive letter in vista and the one in xp changed it back. lol once i put it to the right drive letter, all was good!

 

I'm going to try booting into 64 to make sure everything's okay before loading 32 with drivers. My 64 partition is huge though, won't let me go below 180GB.

 

i have a fix for that as well.. so dont worry.

edit: im sure you already know.. use repartitioning software to resize it.

 

Yea, from how I understand Vista seems to do partitions differently, which is why it's better to use the inbuilt partition program. Unfortunately it's stuck at 180 GB.

Collecting drivers for 32 bit right now.

 

nah, you can use what ever partition program will work. i used acronis to do mine, then i installed the os. because vista was acting funny on how to repartition. like it was saving disk space for a rainy day or something...*LOL*

 

Hmm sounds good then. Yea, Vista partitioning takes up huge space.

 

Got everything set up and running. For some reason though, my 32 Vista installation gets switched to drive C when it was previously drive D. Hasn't cropped up any problems so far, which is great.

Incidentally, does anyone know what driver I might be missing?
Only information available is its location
Location 1 (Internal High Definition Audio Bus)

 

lol

told you about the drive switch