Could someone please talk me through setting up Dual Boot?

[kman79]

Hey guys, with all the talk about Vista, I would really like to try it out. I only have one decent rig at the house to try it on. I currently have XP Pro installed on this computer. From what I remember or was told before, you can't set up a dual boot system with an OS already installed and no free partition made. If this is the case, I have some free time this weekend and could easily transfer files to my laptop that is networked. A clean install of XP would be nice anyways.

Could someone please talk me through step by step how to set up a dual boot of Windows XP Pro and Windows Vista? It's going to be installed on a 120GB HD with a seperate 300GB HD for storage. Or could I install Vista on the storage HD and boot from there? If so, how do I set this up. I appologizse for my ignorance in this matter, but any help on this is greatly appreciated

 

[sswingle]

Put in Vista DVD. Install program will ask you what drive to put it on. Choose different drive than XP is on. Vista installs. Done.

 

[thebigdude]

It automatically installs a bootloader so you can choose which OS you wan't to start.

 

[kman79]

Ahh....I see. Thanks for taking the time to help me out. I appreciate it

 

[Cardio]

Plan on it taking a heck of a long time to install in dual boot mode and any problem drivers on the XP install will still give problems with VISTA. I know it shouldn't but it does ! Run a performance check, part of Vista, and delete any drivers it finds a problem then let Vist look for replacement on the internet. It worked for me for audio drivers and Nvidia miniport driver.

 

[Lord Banshee]

My machine does did not do the boot loader. My XP is on a SATA drive and my Vista is on an IDE drive. The only way i am able to get into vista is hitting ESC during startup and selecting the IDE drive a boot. So is there any way to set up so i see a boot screen and i can select OS 1 or OS 2.

 

[snor]

Originally posted by: Lord Banshee
My machine does did not do the boot loader. My XP is on a SATA drive and my Vista is on an IDE drive. The only way i am able to get into vista is hitting ESC during startup and selecting the IDE drive a boot. So is there any way to set up so i see a boot screen and i can select OS 1 or OS 2.

I think that means you have two boot.ini files, one on sata and one on ide. To dual boot with a boot loader, i think a boot.ini file must state where each os is located on which drive on which partition.

 

[pcgeek11]

Originally posted by: snor

Originally posted by: Lord Banshee
My machine does did not do the boot loader. My XP is on a SATA drive and my Vista is on an IDE drive. The only way i am able to get into vista is hitting ESC during startup and selecting the IDE drive a boot. So is there any way to set up so i see a boot screen and i can select OS 1 or OS 2.

I think that means you have two boot.ini files, one on sata and one on ide. To dual boot with a boot loader, i think a boot.ini file must state where each os is located on which drive on which partition.

Vista doesn't use a " boot.ini " file.

Under Windows XP and 2000, Windows looks for a simple text file, called boot.ini, that controls boot options, displaying them for your selection in character mode during system boot. If you have more than one version of Windows installed on a computer, Windows consults the boot.ini file (located in the root directory) for this information at boot time. Boot.ini controls basic defaults, such as which installed OS will load automatically if you don't intercede on the multiboot screen, the wordings that describe your options there, and how long the multiboot screen will display at boot time before executing its defaults.

Windows XP's boot.ini file can't control Vista at all.

Microsoft places a new "boot" folder on your root drive.

See here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/window...d5efe-c349-427c-b035-c2719d4af778.mspx

pcgeek

 

[Billb2]

[[/quote]

Vista doesn't use a " boot.ini " file.


Windows XP's boot.ini file can't control Vista at all.

Microsoft places a new "boot" folder on your root drive.

See here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/window...d5efe-c349-427c-b035-c2719d4af778.mspx

pcgeek
[/quote]There is a VISTA program called BDCedit.exe that can edit the VISTA boot folder(?) It can only be accessed through a 64bit command prompt. You either have to boot XP-64 or use the VISTA recovery consul from teh VISTA CD. You can then change boot order and timeout (and alot of other stuff???). bcdedit /? TOPICS will get you the help screen, and fortunately there are specific examples for seting the default boot back to the boot.ini file and for setting the timeout. Then instead of "Microsoft Wildows" being the default, it will default to the "Other Windows OS" (I think that what it's called?) choice and call up your original WinXP boot.ini program (or just boot XP if you only had one OS previously). I'ver done it and it works perfectly...unattended boots to WinXP again!

 

[pcgeek11]

Originally posted by: Billb2
[

Vista doesn't use a " boot.ini " file.


Windows XP's boot.ini file can't control Vista at all.

Microsoft places a new "boot" folder on your root drive.

See here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/window...d5efe-c349-427c-b035-c2719d4af778.mspx

pcgeek
[/quote]There is a VISTA program called BDCedit.exe that can edit the VISTA boot folder(?) It can only be accessed through a 64bit command prompt. You either have to boot XP-64 or use the VISTA recovery consul from teh VISTA CD. You can then change boot order and timeout (and alot of other stuff???). bcdedit /? TOPICS will get you the help screen, and fortunately there are specific examples for seting the default boot back to the boot.ini file and for setting the timeout. Then instead of "Microsoft Wildows" being the default, it will default to the "Other Windows OS" (I think that what it's called?) choice and call up your original WinXP boot.ini program (or just boot XP if you only had one OS previously). I'ver done it and it works perfectly...unattended boots to WinXP again!

[/quote]


That is why I put the link in my post. Tells all about BCDedit...

pcgeek11

 

[Billb2]

Or....
My Computer\Right Click/Properties\Advanced System Settings\System Properties\Advanced\Startup and recovery\Settings

 

[pcgeek11]

Originally posted by: Billb2
Or....
My Computer\Right Click/Properties\Advanced System Settings\System Properties\Advanced\Startup and recovery\Settings

That doesn't apply to Vista, you have to use BCDedit. Vista doesn't use boot.ini anymore.

pcgeek

 

[Billb2]

[/quote]
That doesn't apply to Vista, you have to use BCDedit. Vista doesn't use boot.ini anymore.

pcgeek
[/quote]I beg to differ. That does work. Did you look?
I understand about, and have used bcdedit.exe, but for just changing boot order and timeout, there is a buildt in utility in VISTA.

 

[kman79]

I was able to do the Dual Boot.

Cleaned out my Storage Drive(Transferd all files to a networked PC). Installed Vista there. Vista runs just fine with no Driver issues. Well except maybe the Nvidia Geforce drivers, GRAW won't play right.

If I want to uninstall VISTA, how do I go about doing that? I was thinking of just booting into XP and format that drive, but doesn't that leave some residual files that could cause problems in boot up?