please kindly help me

Hi all
I have a DELL laptop with win xp home and win vista ultimate installed on it on separate partitions (both 32 bit). Now I want to install win 7 ultimate 32 bit over the vista and i want to get rid of vista completely and do a clean install.
How can I do this, such that I don't lose my XP?
If I format my vista drive, then put the 7 disc and perform a clean install in the resulting blank partition, will everything be OK? and it recognizes my XP afterwards?
please if you don't know the exact answer don't mislead me.
Thanks in advance

 

The only problem I can see is maybe the MBR will be changed and you will not have access to xp. It's easy to fix that though.

But to be safe, how about backing up your files onto some DVDs.

 

backing up is the last option. I thought maybe it has a simpler solution. If MBR is changed can I DEFINITLEY fix it, or is it a chance to lose everything?

 

You will be only losing the Vista partition that you decided to install W7 over it.

You can also go into the boot.ini file and remove the Vista boot entry first. Restart and be sure that XP is being loaded automatically. Then you can proceed with the installtion of W7 over that inactive Vista partition.

cheers ...

 

Why is backing up the last option?

If I were you I would backup all important files onto and external drive or some dvds, then install win7.
Then if it all goes wrong, you still have your backup.

 

If a vista MBR is used currently, I dont think there is a boot.ini file. I think vista has it's own special way of doing the boot menu. Not 100% sure about that though.

 

I had xp on my machine when I installed vista over it, so I think that this "special way" of vista about the boot should not be taken into account.
My question is that do you think that playing around with boot.ini is safe? I am worried that I may lose my xp before even installing win7.

 

This is the contents of my boot.ini file:


;
;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

 

your boot loader is from vista. Since the boot loader is configured by the last OS installed.

So when you install win7, it will config the bootloader, and it may not detect xp.
If it does not detect xp then you will have to fix it.
But I *think* it should work fine.

Otherwise you can follow this:
http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_windows_xp_and_windows_7_xp_installed_first.htm?page=5

I linked to Page 5 - Step 4 - Managing the Bootloader, which is relevant to your situation, but you may want to read the rest of the guide.

 

there is no problem if I can fix it. My Question is that: "IS THERE ANY CHANCE THAT I LOSE MY XP INSTALLATION COMPLETELY, OR I CAN FIX IT NO MATTER WAHT HAPPENS?"

 

It's a bit of a hard question to answer.
There has got to be a very small chance, that's how these things are...

But if something does go wrong, I'm sure it would be microsofts fault.

 

Yes there is a very small percentage that you could lose your xp partition if something catostrophic happens, like hdd failure or something. Another way is if you format xp partition by accident while you are trying to locate the vista partition for formatting. Just be extra careful at this step and make sure you format the correct partition and you should be fine.

 

backing up is the first option always. you don't want your data lost, no matter when, no matter why.

other than that, just start the setup, chose the partition of vista, delete it, and install into the free space. shouldn't mess anything up.