X205 Dual-boot OS

I am seriously considering buying an X205, and since it has dual HD's it seems like an ideal candidate for a dual OS install. I was wondering if any of you X205 owners have done this and if so how well it worked out for you. Any info on how well you like/dislike your Toshiba would also be great.

 

In theory, yes, it is possible. You can even install dual OS even on one drive, although having a second one is ofcourse better. However, there is an issue with having both Vista and XP: When you run your system with XP, all restore points in Vista will be deleted. There is also the problem of finding drivers....

 

I'd think the biggest issue would be getting drivers for XP for the x205, and if you can, also I'm sure you'd need XP SP2 to get XP on there. (Though you can slipstream SP2 into an older version.)

 

Yeah, that's the most difficult part... All the drivers provided by Toshiba are for Vista... You can just see how many people in NBR have this kind of problem when they downgrade... Toshiba could have provided us some XP drivers as well...

 

I'm running XP without any problems or glitches. Also the device manager shows that all devices are installed correctly. Think I'm going to upload a complete XP driver package for the people who want to install XP. Probably tomorrow...stay tuned

 

OMG! ColdSoul you are my hero! If you could provide us the drivers for XP, I will straight away go and install my old copy of XP... (damn Vista! My RAM usage, withoutrunning anny programs and having bloatware removed, is 40%, with 2GB of RAM. And also It cannot run Metal Gear Solid 2 Subastance... what a pitty). However, I will maybve keep Vista and go for Dual-Boot OS as well, since we, the X205/X200 owners have 2 hard drives I could be way batter...

P.S.: What the hell was Microsoft thinking? "Previous Generation OS" XP has something like 15% performance boost compared to Vista. Yup, installing XP will be a good thing. Or, shall I install Linux? LoL, just kiddin'!

However, I hope that the drivers are not in Geman (!), even though I will be starting German lessons REALLY soon... (nice language, I love the accent!)

Oh yeah, almost forgot... was XP pre-installed on your Satego X200, or you downgraded?

 

Pretty relevant topic, I was searching informations on that point !
I'll wait news from you users, but I would know ColdSoul how is your dual boot (like using Vista Boot Pro ?) ?
Cause in the french version of X200, we've got two hard disks (150Go), and one cuts into two parts of 75Go. But my idea was to put Xp on the first (150Go), and Vista on the second (150Go) before I received the laptop.

Can I regroup the second into one 150Go disk ?
Why do you needs wore drivers for Xp ( ) ?
Sorry for my nooby question, and sorry for my frenchy english !

Thanks !

 

Welcome to NoteBook Review Flyingkiki! Whatever you need to know about the site, send me a message.

Drivers are needed to use your hardware. Vista drivers are not compatible with XP so we need different ones.

About dual-boot now: if you want to know how to install another OS, here is a pretty good guide on how to add another OS in dual-boot:

http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp

And, yeah, it is recomended that you install the second OS in your second Hard Drive.

Hope that answers some of your questions!

 

Uh-uh... I've gone through this guide to dual-boot:

http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp

Seems very risky to me... I'll really think a lot before doing anything...

 

I would always start with the older OS first. That's going to be much easier to do (at least with clean OS discs-maybe the Toshiba restore disc wouldn't work the same).

 

Thanks a lot Demon ! This tutorial is pretty good !
Risky, hmm, yeah I know it's risky but I need to install Xp to play with "old" games uncompatible with Vista (even if a service pack has been put online these days).
I've a question about partitions of my first disk (it's divided into two partitions of 75Go) , but it's out of this topic !

 

Yeah, Vista is kind of...strange. It looks pretty cool but I don't really like it as a whole. My X200 came with Vista preinstalled and when I started the notebook for the first time I knew I would go with XP, so I installed XP myself.
No, the drivers won't be german, rather multilanguage (are there any German drivers anyways? )

No problem with your english mate. I know many french people have difficulties with the english language but yours is quite good.
As for your questions: I'm not using dual-boot, only XP is installed on the first HDD. And yes, you can fuse your two 75GB partitions to a 150GB one.
You can do that in the XP setup for example. Just delete those two partitions and they will be put together afterwards.


I will probably release the driver package in the course of the next day. Dunno when exactly.

 

Is there any reason you can't just wipe the drive, install XP, then install Vista?

Normally that's what I'd do, but does the recover CD Toshiba ships with the system allow that? (ie does it go through a normal Windows install routine?)

 

Yes, basically you could just format the HDD and install XP right away, but the recovery DVD doesn't go through a normal Vista install routine. It just restores the condition as supplied to customer i.e. restoring the original status of the notebook. You would need a Windows Vista Anytime Upgrade DVD which you can order here: https://emea.windowsanytimeupgradestore.com/WAU_DIRECT/Home.aspx
With that DVD you can make a clean Vista installation. After installing Vista you can restore your Vista activation with ABR Beta 2 which can be found here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=120228&highlight=abr
So, make sure you backup your Vista activation with ABR first and restore it on the clean Vista afterwards.

 

Thanks so much for that info! Do you have to actually BUY the Windows Vista Anytime Upgrade? I was hoping it would be a fairly cheap thing (shipping and handling or something), but Microsoft's site lists it as full price for a Vista upgrade.

But at any rate, I'm really glad someone's come up with a method to do a clean install!

 

Well, first you have to put any Vista installation into the shopping cart and then remove it afterwards (Yes it sounds dumb, but that's the way how it has to be done lol)
Here the instructions:
1.


2.


3.


4.


5.



Now I have to go get some sleep. It's 4.25AM here, lol.

 

Thanks so much!

 

Hi !
These upgrades of Vista, they have to be used only if you want to install Xp first, isn't it ?
I've tried to install Xp on my second HD, but the setup doesn't start because of a compatibility problem !!! The CD I used is old ( SP1 on it ! ), but no way to use it...
So I have a question. Does an "Anytime Upgrade" CD always exist ? Because I don't know how to install Xp now...

I thought it mights be an easy doing with Vista Boot Pro, but if I can't have an Xp boot, it's gonna be more difficult...

Anyone can help me ?
Thanks for your help for the moment

 

Crap... that's like problem I have... I have XP SP1 as well, and when I try to install it, the setup fails, because the PC says that I do not have any Hard Disks installed... What the hell? I have 2 Hard Disks! LoL!

 

If you own a copy of XP that you can use, you can make a slipstreamed XP SP-2 CD. You need a copy of the free program called (I think) nlight, plus a downloaded version of the full Service Pack 2 from Microsoft, plus your XP CD, plus a blank CD-R.

You have to do that for the Macbook Pros too, so it's probably all new hardware.

 

Hi !
You say "NLight" ? I haven't found any program with that name able to create a compatible Xp CD.
Someone knows how to do it ?

 

Nlite actually, I misspelled it. You have to also have a legal copy of XP of course.

 

Oh, great, I've found the program !
Thanks so much for your help ! I'll try it soon, and I'll tell back the result.
It seems to be easy !

No problem, I've a legal Xp version !