Dual boot XP and Vista

Have to install XP first, then Vista second. Vista will detect XP's presence, and install a bootloader that allows you to choose which OS you want to boot to.

If you just install XP while Vista is still installed, XP will overwrite Vista's bootloader, and you'll no longer be able to get into Vista.

actually, if you installed XP after vista, you can still fix the bootloader. Just go to the following link: http://www.syschat.com/dual-boot-vis...eady-1946.html

and read the last two steps (or read everything if you want to dual boot with Vista already installed and want the ability to select both thru the bootloader)

I tried that one once, and it didn't work for me, but if you want to give it a shot, by all means. It'd definitely be easier (if it worked) than having to reinstall both XP AND Vista.

That one worked for me. But then again, my Hard Drive doesn't have the Dell Diagnostic or the Media Direct partition. Could that be why it didn't work?

i have only an 80 gig hard drive on my computer but i have an external 500 gig harddrive can i install the vista onto the 500? to dual boot and can someone post a really good guide to dual booting on this forum? thanks!

Mine doesn't have those either, when I tried it, it was on my desktop (I've since exiled Vista from my desktop). I don't worry about it anymore now that I've got two seperate M1710's, one for Vista, one for XP.

O/S will not boot from external hard drive.

If you reformat your hard drive, follow prompts to install, then partition drive in half and install xp., then put vista in and follow the prompts to install vista in the 2nd partition.
There is an easier way though to create a 2nd partition from within XP, and install Vista, and the software to do it is free, and includes a walkthrough.
Step One

download Simply MEPIS 3.3 here:
http://iso.linuxquestions.org/mepis/
2
Step Two

Burn it to CD as an ISO image
(if you need an ISO burner for Vista default burner you can download it here)

32-bit version
64-bit version

3
Step Three

Boot from the CD drive, put Linux CD in drive and boot. It will run Simply MEPIS from the CD, but it will not install

4
Step Four

Sign in as: root, password: root

5
Step Five

Click on "Run QTParted"- that will open a box showing your partitions. The main Windows partition is usually /dev/hda1

6
Step Six

Right click on your Windows partition, and choose RESIZE

7
Step Seven

In the box labeled FREE SIZE AFTER, type the size (in MB) that you want the new partition to be. That will create free space.

8
Step Eight

Right click on the free space, click on create

9
Step Nine

Select partition type (NTFS or FAT32), click OK

10
Step Ten

Click on file(top left), then commit- changes will take effect

11
Step Eleven

Click close, then click on the K in the lower left of screen and logout, restart computer

12
Step Twelve

remove CD and it will boot to windows, check your partitions

Put XP in and follow prompts to install on new partition

Not quite correct - I have installed XP on an external HDD, and booted from it, you need to ensure the internal HDD is removed and boot from the disk. The problem with this is its sloooooooooooow not recommended at all, I tried only because I needed to fix a HDD which was an IDE and could not figure out a way of doing this without trying to install it on an external HDD.

I stand corrected philby.....was always taught that it was not possible. Tried it once like you did , but my attempt failed.

The guide on APC Magazine has worked for me in the past

Friends of mine have reported success as well, so give that a shot.

just a quick question about the apc guide.. im installing xp with a pre-existing vista install.. the guide states i'll need the vista cd, but i don't think my computr came with an actual copy of vista itself.. more like an oem ver/recovery ver.. any ideas if will this work?

I would think you would be able to edit the bootloader within vista. I dont use vista so I dont know for sure. You can thank XP for just plain overwritting the MBR though. Its ridiculous.

Linux/Windows Dual boot all you need ;]

google vista boot pro, its free and works great for organising operating systems

I run XP pro on a replaceable 2nd drive for some work applications

I second that.
I have XP Pro and Vista Ultimate installed.

I had trouble upgrading from XP to Vista and called microsoft for support.

I could duel boot, but I had to inserte the XP CD and run fixboot for XP
or installed the Vista CD and choose repair.
It was less than 10 minutes to do either, but still not reallly "duel booting"

I contacted Microsoft support and the Microsoft support tech via remote desktop downloaded and installed
vista boot pro 3.3 on my machine and fixed it.

Note:
Vista and XP swap drive letters: both show up as C: when running. My partitions are labeled "XP_Pro" and "Vista"
I think its actually Vista making itself C: when its on a Logical drive.

when in XP pro i get

When in XP:
XP_PRO C:
Vista D:

When in Vista
Vista C:
XP_Pro d:

but in Vista Boot Pro the conifguration looks like this: