How I dual booted Vista & XP (HP dv6000t)

Very frustrating for me sifting through the countless numbers of guides for dual booting, so I'll try my best to chronicle my adventure into the great unknown which is Vista:

First it's imperiative that you backup all your important data (pictures, documents, vids etc.) or make a backup image of your HD. I didn't, thinking it would be smooth sailing, and had to recover these files when my system didnt recognize my HD. Also, its another important point to burn all your recovery DVDs for HP, this actually saved my arse.
First, things to consider, I tried upgrading using my pre-existing XP install, and somehow partition magic did not create my 2nd one right, so when restarted, BSOD heaven when trying to boot into XP. (Note: Used Hiren Boot CD to recover my data i did NOT backup) save yourself the headache and backup now.

1) As noted above, I had to revert to using the recovery discs burned from my HP with the whole recovery partition, so fresh XP install

2) Went into Dos prompt (Run-->type 'cmd'). Once there type in 'chkdsk c: /f' and it will prompt you that it'll run upon a restart, just click on and restart. Let chk dsk do its thing.

3) Using Partition Magic v8.0, I resized my c:\ Partition to allow Vista to have ~35GB. (Note: note the size of the new partition to be able to identitfy it later on) Do not touch the 1 GB partition, because this is used for Quickplay. Let Parition Magic restart

4) Now I used Partition Magic to creat a new partition using the 35GB of unallocated space. Apply the changes and Partition Magic will restart and continue to create the partition

5) Now your back in Windows XP, I used the HP upgrade utility to get started. Follow all the on-screen instructions, but stop it once it gets to the step where it will want to erase data. Just quit the install, now you need to continue to update your BIOS which can be found here. BIOS update HP
Use the executable to update your BIOS, please consider all the warnings it will give you

6) Once back into windows XP, insert your HP Vista upgrade disc, and restart your system pressing any key to boot from the DVD. If having problems press Esc on power up to edit your BIOS and change your boot order to allow booting from the ATAPI CD\DVD driver before the Notebook Harddrive.

7) Follow the on-screen instructions for Vista. It will ask you which disk to you would like to install Vista to. (Vista Labels each partition as Disk 1, Disk2 etc. so this is where you need to be able to identitfy the partition you just created)

8) Let Vista Install, suprisingly it seems quicker than it does with XP.

9) Once you have created a User Account upon first boot up into Vista, Insert your HP Drivers Utility. Customize which apps you would like to install. (Note: I did NOT allow it to install the nvidia graphics drivers, uncheck this under the last drop down option)
Allow it to install everything you need. process takes around 20-25min depending on the apps you chose to install

10) Now, onto the all important graphics driver. Vista right now looks dirty, because we dont have any nvidia drivers installed, dont worry your moment of glory is soon to come.
(Note: My system has the Geforce Go 7400)
-Go to www.laptopvideo2go.com
-Click drivers in the top menu bar.
-Click WinVista (Note: This is the 32 bit version)
-Download the appropriate driver. I used the 101.41 version. (Note: Try to get the latest drivers because they are being newly updated)
-Once you have downloaded the driver, stay on the current screen where you downloaded the driver to. Now extract the driver into a folder on your system (Note: I just extracted it into the Downloads folder in Vista)
-Click on thread icon next to the driver download link you clicked before.
-Download the Modded .INF file. Click yes to replace the existing .inf file from the driver you extracted.

11) Follow these Screen by Screen instructions to install your driver:
Vista Screen by Screen Instructions

Your sh!t is done! holla

 

Good summary. I followed roughly the same process (DV9000z) a few weeks ago. About the only things I did differently were that I did indeed backup beforehand - though thankfully I haven't needed to resort to it - and when using Partition Magic, I gave the new volume a name ("Vista"), so it would be easier to identify when Vista asked where I wanted to put the new OS. I also didn't have the nerve to mess around with the video drivers (also Nvidia) so I just installed what was on the CD. For what it's worth, the video driver autoupdated last night.

Agree that it's key to go through the HP upgrade utility and then stop the process when it wants to format the HD. Updating the bios manually was pretty simple, and it was very smooth sailing from there.

How did you handle the migration/sharing of your documents? I have pointed Vista's folders to my documents folders (on a separate partition from XP), but they take the XP-style names, like "My Pictures." A minor annoyance but it makes me wonder if I did something incorrectly.

Evan

 

Haven't had time to do anything other than install the nvidia driver. Will definately mess with the vista goodness tonight.
-Your nvidia driver is stable, you're not running into any sort of problems? Curious to know thats all.

 

Driver seems very stable, and graphics look great. Everything runs smoothly, even Flip3D, and I only have the GeForce GO 6150 (shared video memory) and 1 GB RAM. (2 GB arriving via UPS tomorrow, but it's not necessary for the graphics to run effectively, especially if you're not doing anything intensive. I bought it because my friend wants to use the speech recognition feature when doing her dissertation, and that does seem to bog things down a bit.)

I'm not a gamer - indeed, bought my first couple of games in over 5 years just a couple of weeks ago. One of them is Tiger Woods 07 and I tried to install it in Vista initially. It installed fine, but when I went to play, the fairways weren't rendered properly - they were pitch black. So, I installed it in XP instead; works like a charm. Haven't tried the Vista installation since the Nvidia drivers were updated last night.

Good luck, enjoy!

Brgds

Evan