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    Dual booting Vista machine with XP partition?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by Arla, Jun 18, 2007.

  1. Arla

    Arla Notebook Deity

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    Hey all,

    Quick question, I've found lots of guides for dual booting an XP machine with Vista, is it as easy to dual boot a Vista machine with XP (basically create primary partition, install XP, it automatically has a boot manager?)

    Just trying to check any "problem" areas before I start this venture.
     
    Arla, Jun 18, 2007
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  2. Gator

    Gator Go Gators!

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    I believe night_2004 tried this and encountered a lot of trouble. It seems that if you have XP and install Vista on a primary partition it's OK, but if you do it the other way around you have problems. Not sure if there's a solution---besides putting it on a different HDD and changing the boot order via BIOS---so just a heads up.
     
    Gator, Jun 18, 2007
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  3. Arla

    Arla Notebook Deity

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    Okay thanks...

    Unfortunately it's someone elses work machine that they need XP installed on cause Vista doesn't work with a lot of software *sigh* so I'm not totally happy trying to do this... first things first... backup DVD!

    Thanks for the info.
     
    Arla, Jun 18, 2007
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  4. PhoenixFx

    PhoenixFx Notebook Virtuoso

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    I have Vista on Primary with XP and Linux on extended logical partitions; I have also installed both on separate primary partitions; even though I have not tried "XP on primary and Vista on logical" combination myself , I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t work.

    If the Vista boot loader fails then you should be able to at least boot using a 3rd party boot loader.
     
    PhoenixFx, Jun 18, 2007
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  5. Poseign

    Poseign Notebook Consultant

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    As far as easy goes, its fairly simple if you allready have XP on the machine. If you are currently running Vista, like i was, it takes a few more steps to do it, and the help of a third party program, but is still just as possible and works just as well.

    The biggest problem with attempting to install XP on a PC with Vista Allready on it is that XP will totally rewrite the MAster Boot Record, and take Vista right off the list, meaning it wont allow you to choose to boot vista, it will just automatically boot XP. This scared me when I did it, but found out the fix was fairly simple, with the help of an additional MBR program.

    heres a link to one of the sites I used:

    http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp

    If you dont feel like using the DISKPART program they use in this totorial to create a partition for XP, you can use the Disk manager utility in vista to create a new partition from your primary partition, a nice feature i dont think XP had. Just follow the rest of the instructions to finish the procedure.

    and remember, after XP is installed, Vista WONT boot untill you use your third party program to rewrite the MBR.


    Of course this all assumes you have Vista on your PC now.
     
    Poseign, Jun 19, 2007
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