SONY SZ6/SZ58 Vista WinXP Dual Boot Guide

Hi, I just bought an SZ58GN/C - the Asian version of the SZ670. I don't particularly fancy Vista for a number of reasons I won't go into here. So the first task was to get XP installed pronto.

This forum proved extremely valuable to figure things out, however the XP thread is not very clear and long and for a new user it could take a lot to time to figure out how to do it. So this guide.

The guide will show you how to install XP on a second partition and dual boot with Vista. I have the Vista install as it is with all the junk and bloatware because I don't intend to use Vista. If you intend to use Vista then perhaps a guide to do a clean/semi clean install on this forum will help you more.

Ok lets begin. First boot up your spanking new notebook and make recovery disks. Very important. Also make a backup of your C:\Program Files\Sony folder to a CD/DVD.

Now the important stuff. I have a 160GB hardisk with Vista occupying most of it, around 140GB. There is another partition - the sony recovery partition, on the disk that is about 6GB. This is like a hidden partition and doesn't have a drive letter. Its very important when you need to rescue your system and restore to factory defaults so don't mess around with it.

What you need:
1. XP SP2 Installer CD
2. EasyBCD - http://neosmart.net/
3. Acronis Disk Director - Not Essential- You can use Vista's built in tool.
4. Vaio drivers for XP - ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/OS/XPDOWNGRADE/SZ6/
4. A basic understanding of how to use disk management and partitioning software and how to install XP from scratch.

Before you begin put the Sony laptop in Stamina mode if it is in Speed mode. That switches the VGA card to the Intel X3100.

Partitioning
What we have to do is shrink the Vista partition and free up space for XP installation. Now you need a couple of tools to get this exactly right, though using Vista tools will do too but with limitations. I used Acronis Disk Director 10 to shrink the Vista Partition. Using Vista inbuilt disk partitioning tool works but the lowest it could only shrink Vista was from 140GB to 80GB leaving about 60GB for XP which is sufficient. However since I am not going to be using Vista much I don't see why I should waste 80GB for it. So using Acronis I was able to shrink Vista partition to about 40GB leaving around 100GB free space for XP, it could go lower too to about 20GB but I am ok with wasting 40GB for Vista.

For those who don't have Acronis/ or can't get it you have 2 choices, use Vista's built in disk management software to shrink the partition or try something like GParted to do it. I haven't used Gparted so I can't help you there but a Google search for Gparted and resizing Vista should give you plenty of useful hits.

After you shrink Vista's partition you will have free space. Now using Vista Disk management software create a new primary partition for XP, I created a 40GB formatted as NTFS (create a simple partition, do a quick format) and the rest of the 60GB free space for another share partition. Your options vary depending on how much free space you have and how much your prefer to devote to XP. Once you create the partition reboot the computer. You should have a new drive in Vista Explorer. Note down the drive letter of the empty partition and its size for reference. This is drive you will install XP on. Now put your XP installer disk in the cdrom and reboot.

Warning: After installing XP you will lose the ability to boot into Vista temporarily untill you fix it, its nothing to worry about.

Install XP SP2
Once XP boots from the CD the install will start. When it comes to selecting the disk to use for XP installation select the new drive you create in Vista for XP installation, in my case it was drive F - 40GB empty NTFS partition. Be very careful here and choose the new disk you created from Vista, we don't want to overwrite Vista.

After you choose the disk the installer will take about 15 minutes to install and reboot a couple of times. Once XP is installed you need to install the Vaio drivers and utilities and then set up a dual boot system to complete this guide.

Install Vaio Drivers - Available here: ftp://ftp.vaio-link.com/pub/OS/XPDOWNGRADE/SZ6/
When you reboot finally XP will load (You have lost your Vista bootloader, but no need to panic, we will restore it in a bit)
You have to get the Vaio utilties and drivers from the ftp link above. I got the 2 big zip files SZ6_XP_DRIVERS.ZIP & SZ6_XP_UTILITIES.ZIP. That should do, you can choose to download the files individually posted in the sub folders if you want. You also need 2 patches/hotfixes KB896256 & KB909667. These should be installed before the drivers or just after the Intel chipset driver install.

KB896256 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896256
KB909667 - http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGNUX180P&upd_id=2228&os_id=7

Write the drivers/utilities to a CD or USB pen drive or something if you are working from another PC or leave it in Vista if you downloaded this on your SZ and you can access the files from XP.

Now there is a particular order the drivers must be installed. Refer to the sony doc linked below for the exact order. The link is on the right 'Recommended steps to install ...'

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGNSZ670NC

Ps: You may want to update your bios if an update is available, I didn't update the bios though.

As you will see in XP Explorer, Vista is drive C and XP is drive D, now this can get confusing so keep that in mind, especially when installing stuff in XP as installers can sometimes get confused and install to drive C which is Vista.

Follow the instructions in the Sony XP doc and you should be good to go. Everything installed flawlessly for me, some of the drivers though need to be installed from device manager in windows as they don't have installers. These are the Alps touch pad driver, the sony camera driver, the Intel X3100 vga driver. The Intel vga driver is video_stamina.zip. Once you have finished installing the drivers and utilities (You can choose the utilities you want to install, the essential ones are Sony shared library, Sony utilities, Events services, Setting utilities) put the laptop in speed mode (nvidia graphics) reboot and install the nvidia driver which is the video_speed.zip.
Reboot and you should be good to go.

Restoring Vista Bootloader and setting up Vista XP Dual Boot
There are many ways to do this, if you have a Vista dvd you can boot with it and go into rescue mode and reinstall the boot loader. I choose to use Bootsect.exe do the job from XP. You can get bootsect.exe from your Vista partition boot folder, Vista DVD or PM me.

Open a command prompt in XP, browse to where you have placed bootsect.exe, preferably in root folder of XP.

Enter 'bootsect.exe -NT60 ALL'

That's it, that restores your Vista bootloader. Now when you reboot you will boot into Vista. Once in Vista install EasyBCD 1.7 available here www.neosmart.net.

Install EasyBCD, start it and select 'Add Remove Entries' under the 'Windows' tab in 'Drive' select you XP partition, in my case it was drive 'F', in your case it could vary go to explorer and see what your XP drive is identified as in Vista, input that in 'Drive'. For 'Name' select Windows XP or whatever you want to call your Windows XP install. For 'Type' select Windows NT/2K/XP/2K3. Now save and reboot.

Next you reboot you will be presented with the Vista boot menu to boot into Vista or XP. Enjoy.

I strongly recommend you make a backup of your XP partition to avoid going through this rigmarole again with a tool like Acronis True Image, Norton Ghost or even the excellent free tool DriveImageXML available at http://www.runtime.org/dixml.htm

IMPORTANT UPDATE
The Fn keys ie fn + F5/F6 for brightness etc. may not work without a Bios update in XP in stamina mode ie with Intel X3100 graphics drivers. They do work in speed mode though (Nvidia drivers), but first check if they work before going off to update the Bios. The Sony doc referenced earlier recommends a bios update if available. I just didn't pay heed to it because I don't use fn keys much but others might miss the functionality.

If they don't work there is a Bios update in the SZ6_XP_UTILITIES.ZIP file you downloaded earlier in the guide. Its version is R0101S5. This Bios update fixes the fn keys functionality in XP in stamina mode. It also removes an irritating but harmless error with secondary ide controller in device manager.

This Bios update is for SZ6 series. So what do us SZ asian owners with SZ58 series do? There is a Bios update for SZ58 (Asian version) version no R0082S5. My factory version was R0081S5. I tried the R0082S5 update but it didn't resolve the problem. So I updated with the SZ6 version R0101S5 and it worked. Downloading the XP drivers from Vaio Asia for SZ58 gives you the same version bios R0101s5 so its ok. The fn keys work with this update for SZ58 asian versions.

Update 2 - Dual boot with XP as C drive
Any dual boot system in which you install XP after Vista will have XP as drive D. This is no problem in any way, but since XP is my main system just for kicks I prefer XP to be drive C. Normally if you install Vista after XP, XP is drive C however since Vista is installed first in this case its the active partition and thus XP becomes drive D.

The trick to make XP drive C is when making the XP partition in Vista to mark it active. Then to reboot with the XP CD for install. This way XP will install as DRIVE C. Great.

However there is one extra step to take care of to set up the dual boot system. Easy BCD will now be installed in XP and not Vista. You will also have to copy the hidden boot folder and this file 'bootmgr' from the vista drive and place it in the root of XP. Then set up the bootloader with 'bootsect.exe -NT60 C:' , set up easybacd as in the guide above and you are good to go.

 

raul, thank you! Since this is my first post, also I extend my thanks to all the other contributors who have made this forum such a great resource.

Although it meets all my other requirements, I was not considering a SZ6 for my next purchase due to the issues downgrading to XP. Your guide makes all the difference.

Just for confirmation, is the XP installation completely functional? I mean no disabled devices or stray fn keys?

Once again, thanks and keep it up!

 

Yup, its completely functional, so no worries there. These are official Sony Drivers for XP for SZ6 so there is no problem. Any issues you may face will apply to both Vista and Xp.

 

Thanks raul. I needed this quick guide. Good timing

 

anyone try this? how did it go, i may attempt this next week once i get my xp cd back
Ive never had a dual boot, do i have to install each program into each system if i want to use it on both?

 

Hi
My notebook is SZ58GN/C.
I changed my operating system to xp and update bios.
I have a problem with hibernate and standby.
They don't work well.
please help me???????????????????????????
Good luck

 

I have a 'BOOTSECT.BAK' file, is that the same as the .exe? I changed the file type to .exe, but it didn't seem to work.

EDIT: I never figured out if it was or not; I ended up downloading a new copy of bootsect.exe here.