Hello. I'm wanting to install XP on my Vista machine so I can play games better on it later on. What do I need to do other than get a copy of XP to make it work? Do I just install them both and then boot whatever one I like when the computer starts up?

Thanks. Phill.

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

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Step Five

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

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Step Six

Right click on your Windows partition, and choose RESIZE

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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.

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Step Eight

Right click on the free space, click on create

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Step Nine

Select partition type (NTFS or FAT32), click OK

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Step Ten

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

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Step Eleven

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

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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 ;]