XP issues

[stuckinasquare3]

shocking right?

So I was in vista, decided I wanted to go into XP, so I restarted, and then booted into XP. For some reason though it locked up on the login screen after logging in, and I had to shut off. Turned it back on, went into XP and for some reason, my desktop background was gone, the recycle bin was moved to the lower right, and the theme looks like it had been changed to classic. No idea what was wrong. So I did a system restore, everything was fine. Then today, I decided to go out of vista and into xp, so I restarted, and booted up XP and it happened again. I'm very confused. I didn't wanna system restore again because its annoying. There's a bootsect.bak file in my C: drive on XP (the D: drive from vista's perspective), idk what that is but I think it has something to do with dual booting and I don't see why its an issue. XP has locked up on booting before but never with this weirdness.

[stuckinasquare3]

anyone?

[CStradling24]

I would have to say that you by far have more trouble then anyone I have seen on these forums :lol:

I am dual booting now and I have never experienced what you are talking about. Going to Vista and then back to XP assuming they are on differnt partitions should never effect one or the other. When you set up the dual boot did you install XP or Vista first?

[stuckinasquare3]

XP was installed first, then I used Gparted to shirnk my XP partition and grow a blank partition which i installed Vista on. Then i further shrank the XP partition and further increased the Vista one, but realized that I did it the other way around, so then I corrected it. And then little later on I again shrank the XP one more and increased the vista one more. I must have run Gparted like 3 times since I got it

[Psychokitty]

:scratch: Uhmmm... -What do YOU think might be the problem?
Stop squeezing and stretching the piss outta yer OS partitions like they're pizza dough.
...And for God's sake will you people stop taking a crap on XP and Vista everytime you screw them up?!

[7egend]

if you hadnt downloaded vista off a torrent then you wouldnt have gotten the virus killing XP...


but really, use one or the other if you are scared vista dont support all your stuff discard it for six months and reinstall after bugs are worked out, if you like vista and want to bask in all its graphical slendor and cant wait for Object Desktop to fully support Vista, then install it and forget XP completely.

And if you cant get Vista or XP to work right for you then Window;s ME is your OS you might be the only person to make it run smooth since you cant get XP to run right. :)

[Psychokitty]

And if you cant get Vista or XP to work right for you then Window;s ME is your OS you might be the only person to make it run smooth since you cant get XP to run right. :):lol: :laughing:

[stuckinasquare3]

I didn't realize that changing your partitions was bad for it? Could that be the reason why XP is being strange? If thats the case then I probably have to deal with it? I like vista, it runs most things, it just doesn't run a few things that I need XP for like my college printing and using my scanner. Tons of people dual boot. Is there anyway to fix this without giving up?

I also did not torrent my Vista

[stuckinasquare3]

:scratch: Uhmmm... -What do YOU think might be the problem?
Stop squeezing and stretching the piss outta yer OS partitions like they're pizza dough.
...And for God's sake will you people stop taking a crap on XP and Vista everytime you screw them up?!


Also, with all the issues I've had with Vista I've never complained that Vista is a bad OS. I like Vista. I'm just trying to make it work.

[Psychokitty]

You need to reinstall these OSes cleanly on a formatted, pre-partitioned out hard drive.
& I don't mean none of that "quick format" crap, either.
Clean it all. It's surgery.

[CStradling24]

:scratch: Uhmmm... -What do YOU think might be the problem?
Stop squeezing and stretching the piss outta yer OS partitions like they're pizza dough.
...And for God's sake will you people stop taking a crap on XP and Vista everytime you screw them up?!

:laughing:

I had no clue you have changed your partitions so much. Think of it like this, you just gave your computer a brain transplant a few times then put the original brain back in :eek:


You computer now hates you :thumbup:

[stuckinasquare3]

::sigh:: alright well I don't quite have the time to do all of that atm but could I completely format the XP parititon and reinstall XP on it to fix that or do I have to just do the whole thing?

[CStradling24]

Do you want to do it right?

If so then just do the whole thing, assuming you meant to format the whole hard drive and reinstall Xp and Vista...

[7egend]

i would wipe the whole thing out create one partition and install the OS of your choice. Multiple partitions are ok but as a prefrence i dont like them.

[stuckinasquare3]

Well I'm definitely going to have two partitions. I really do like Vista but I need XP for one or two things.

I was set to wipe the whole thing but I'm not famiilar with the vista disk. The XP disk would let me delete my partitions, create new ones, format , and install XP. The Vista disk seems to just want to install Vista. How do I go about deleting my partitions, creating two new ones and installing vista on one of them with the vista disk?

[CStradling24]

Use the XP disc to do it. I have found it easiest to install XP first since Vista can see XP but XP cannot see Vista if you were to install XP after Vista.

So put your XP disc in, delete all partitions, format the HD ( I dont use wuick just as a prefernce). Make your partitions. If you are using only 2 programs with Vista I would imagine 10GB is plenty for XP, all of its updates, and your programs. Make the rest of your diskspace the partition for Vista. Install XP on the smaller partition, update it. Then go put your Vista disc in and install Vista on the larger partition.

There is a program called VistaBootPro 3.1. Its great for changeing the boot sectors properties. You can change the names of the operating systems you have installed and the partitions. You can also select the time you want the menu to display that gives you the option to go into your XP or Vista during boot up and you can even select which OS you want to boot by defualt. If you have any questions feel free to ask me. Its really pretty simple.

[stuckinasquare3]

ah too late, i figured it out in vista, after you type in your product key it shows you your partitions and then I deleted both of them and made two new ones and installed vista on the bigger one. The thing is, I formatted it by clicking format and then it looked like it only took like 10 seconds to do and then it let me click next and I installed vista...I'll use teh xp disk for xp

[7egend]

Vista for me installs faster than XP, but i forget what it says but it shows the partitons then you click "advanced options" or "disk options"

[Kaleb]

Eww dual boot, if I were you I would check everyday if those programs have been updated to be compatible with vista. Dual Boot is like that lady in the time warner against DSL says, its for dinosaurs lmao j.k When you can though keep one OS =]]

[Psychokitty]

I don't think that's necessary at all. Lots of people have dual, even tri boot options with no problems at all. But it multiplies the risk for things to go wrong if it isn't done correctly.
Talk to some dual-booters here. They're in their own blissful lil' worlds!

[stuckinasquare3]

Ok well I was just kinda amazed at how fast vista allegedly formatted the partition.

Anyway, I installed vista, and then immediately installed XP on the other partition. Now I can't boot into vista because it automatically boots into XP, XP can't see Vista I guess as someone said. How can I make Vista the default boot so I can select which one I want to boot into?

[Psychokitty]

Settings\Control Panel\System\Advanced\Startup and Recovery "Settings"\
Here you change the time to display your boot options as well as which boot option you want to be the default.

BE CAREFUL, especially if you start poking around in the manual editor.
In fact, that's as far as I know (having never needed to use this setting much). I suggest that you post a seperate thread or PM someone regarding this to ensure you do it properly. This is one of those "no boot!" possibilities if done incorrectly.

[CStradling24]

I would go about it a different way. Put that Vista disk in an boot from it. Tell vista to repair instilation and it will find the boot sector has been hijacked by XP. It will fix it without you doing anything. Then boot into Vista and Download VistaBootPro 3.1. Make both XP and Vista in the Boot sextor and you are good to go.

[CStradling24]

Look here. This is a great guide for what you are doing.

http://www.windowstalk.org/dual_boot_part2.htm


I did it the way you did the first time. Thats why I recommended to install XP first.

[stuckinasquare3]

I used the DVD to repair my Vista installation and now it boots into Vista but I don't think it can see XP anymore. What do I do in VistaBootPro to get it to see XP?

[CStradling24]

You need to go tot he Manage OS tab. Click thre box that says add new OS. Click the radio box "Windows Legacy". Select the drive letter that its on, then click apply. That should be all there is to it. When you restart you should get a menu that asks what OS you would like to boot into and then you can select either. If you slect XP and it doesnt work then go back to Vista Boot Pro and say that the Windows legacy is on the other drive. Try it again. The boot delay time is how long the menu asking what OS to boot to in the boot up will show up for until it boots to the default drive. If you have any more questions ask. Hope this helps...

Chad