Dual boot with Vista and XP

V

vtx_

Gawd
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
792
I just found out that my school offers us Vista Business X64 for free so I think I am going to install a dual boot to get used to using it for when I do eventually switch over.

My question is will installing it on my hard drive with XP Pro already installed on it cause any problems? I know that usually you would install both with a fresh format, but I figure that I should just be able to install it with no problems.
 
Yes, you'll need to create a separate partition to install Vista to, which will probably involve resizing your existing partition, a process which is not 100% safe and thus warrants backups. As long as you install it to a different partition you'll be fine, but the same one is not a good idea (and I'm surprised that setup lets you).

You can get free Linux-based LiveCDs which include partitioning tools such as GParted to resize partitions, such as this one:
http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page
 
Using a separate partition you should be ok , but recommend a separate drive if possible . Note: Whether you use another partition of separate drive , you can install Vista straight from inside XP (no need to boot from the cd/dvd) as long as its a full version of Vista and not the upgrade version and you point the Vista install to the correct drive letter .

Ive been duel booting XPx64 and Vista Buisness x64 (on seperate drives) for quite awhile now , without any problems .
 
Well I have a 250gb drive that im not using right now so maybe I will put it on that. I am still waiting for them to send me a product key anyway
 
I resized my Vista main partition to eat my useless XP dual boot using the small, versatile Gparted Live CD. It worked, and didnt have any issues even though it was the primary OS. I can't speak for shrinking your existing partition, but I would think that it should work.
 
GParted will shrink your partitions no problem...I use it all the time. Another newer and equally effective option is PartedMagic.... it works just as well.
 
also before you resize your xp partiton defrag it because if you dont it will get corupt.
 
How do I install vista from inside xp? I have the image mounted but it wont let me run the disk. It says it isn't a valid WIN32 application

I dont have any DVD-Rs to burn it
 
vtx_ said:
How do I install vista from inside xp? I have the image mounted but it wont let me run the disk. It says it isn't a valid WIN32 application

I dont have any DVD-Rs to burn it
Click to expand...
why dont you use the vista dvd
 
No it isn't illegal... Why don't you actually read the thread. I downloaded it from my school and got a license key from my school through Microsoft. How is that in any way illegal?
 
I'd get some DVD-R's and burn it. I was going to say try Dameon Tools but that probably won't work after the first re-boot and you'd probably hose your XP install.
 
The best way to dual boot is to use the BIOS to switch the boot drive.
There is a setting in there to choose which drive you want to boot from.

This method has a number of advantages.
1) it will always boot the chosen drive until you change the setting (note:it will boot the only drive if only one is present)

2) the windows installations and drives are entirely independent of each other so if one has a problem, it will not affect the other.

3) you can remove any drive and it will not prevent others from booting.
Other methods of multi booting usually have a single drive as the boot partition even when windows is on another drive.
If that partition goes down or you remove the drive, you cant boot any of your other windows installs.
The BIOS switching method eliminates this problem.


One precaution needs to be observed to do this safely:
When installing windows, remove all drives except the one you are installing to.

The reason for this is that the Windows installer tries to honour the current drive letters assigned to the drives. If one is already C:, your new Windows Install might end up with a different drive letter.
This shouldnt matter but I have had a few occasions when Windows either misbehaved, a program didnt install correctly or my Windows suddenly decided it preferred Windows installed on Drive C: to write to and bastardised 2 Windows installs !

Once windows is installed and your other drives are plugged back in, simply changing the boot drive in the CMOS will allow you to switch between your OS's.

A life saver tbh, I have another Windows install on another drive that is there for emergencies and can be booted by just changing the CMOS setting, it has no reliance on the other drive.
Whichever drive you boot from, you can still see all the drives in your system.
 
Yea if I had a DVD-R I would just boot from that after uplugging all the other hard drives. I know how to install it correctly with a disk, but earlier a user said I could do it from XP which doesn't seem possible for me since it is Vista X64 not 32 bit.

Looks like I will just have to buy some DVD-R's (I guess Vista for the price of a pack of them isn't too bad :p)
 
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