Installing Vista and XP on same system

[Skypix7]

This for a change isn't a request for a solution, but rather a solution itself. It's meant for anybody out there trying to do a dual boot system involving Windows XP.

My nightmare began when I tried to clean install XP service pack two on a separate hard drive, after having a very solid clean installed Vista 64 bit system that was up and running for three months.

In the twinkling of an eye, both operating systems were completely screwed up and unbootable. I couldn't even get in to safe mode, in either OS.

Apparently, and not everybody seems to know this, because I've read a lot of similar threads online about people falling into the same trap, you cannot install XP or any older operating system, after you've installed Vista.

You have to install older OSs first!

After spending several days with Microsoft, I discovered that even a lot of their techies don't know about this. Especially the low level people from New Delhi or Calcutta or wherever.

Next I went through a complete reinstall of both OSs, on re-formatted drives,and within a day or two I began having the same master boot record corruption problems.

"Vista," said the techie whose company sold me my bare-bones case, "does not play well with other operating systems."

Indeed.

I pass along his suggestions, which I followed, and everything is now working splendidly:

Disconnect all drives
Install the XP (or any pre-Vista) OS first, make sure everything is working fine, then...
Disconnect all drives except the Vista drive. Install that OS. Make sure it's working properly. Connect everything back up.

The only downside is, each time you boot up, you have to go into bios and select the hard drive that holds the OS you wish to boot to. It's a minor nuisance of maybe 30 seconds extra time, compared to the nightmare of having corrupted boot records that end up shutting your computer completely down and losing you days of time.

Needless to say, I have finally, after many years in computing, invested 50 bucks in an Acronis backup system,and completely backup my system and all the programs once a week onto an external hard drive.

I am at last returning to the world of the sane. and no longer dream of scooping sterno into my computer's innards, lighting it on fire, and smiling as it slowly burns to death.

Hope this helps the similarly afflicted who wish to have dual-boot systems. I went down this nightmarish Tim Burton path because I had an important program for my work that wouldn't run in Vista 64-bit.

 

[Arkaign]

I have given that same advice many times (separate hdds, install separately, use bios bootloader to choose).

It is invaluable, and should probably be stickied, as many of these threads pop up with = OMGBBQ Vista/XP/Etc Dual-Boot problemZ!!!

 

[stash]

Installing the older OS first is nothing new. That has always been the rule.

 

[Skypix7]

Yeah, I probably saw your post on the subject as I researched it before I did it...unfortunately, I also saw a couple posts here that said "don't unplug any of your hard drives, you'll screw up your system."

At least for me, that was the wrong call.

And like the ancient knight in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, "I chose poorly."

Who does stickies? It would be a good thing to have up there for folks like me who research, but still go down the wrong path for no obvious reason.

Probably the posters who said don't disconnect the drives were referring to dual boot loaders...but after what the techie told me about Vista not liking to play with other OSs, I'm happy to go through the BIOS inconvenience in favor of more OS nightmares.

My second install, XP, then Vista, set up the boot loader properly...and it corrupted almost immediately. That's why I went with the method described above.

Re why you need to install Vista last, apparently, when it installs, it puts page files or something on every drive. (maybe this is common with all operating systems, I don't know. I'm not a techie. )

Anyway, when something else comes along, like XP, it corrupts all that stuff and a whole lot more I don't know about and never will. But many of you out there no doubt know and probably even have a better way to do it than above. But at least for guys like me, I know this works.

 

[Skypix7]

I'm sure that's true for people who have done it before. This was my first dual boot and it was a disaster in terms of time lost. There's so much information floating around out there, on this board and others, but it's very difficult to know what the right way is, without getting a Ph.D. in stuff we don't want to have to get a Ph.D. in.

Anyway hope this helps out a little bit.

 

[1ManArmY]

Originally posted by: Skypix7
I'm sure that's true for people who have done it before. This was my first dual boot and it was a disaster in terms of time lost. There's so much information floating around out there, on this board and others, but it's very difficult to know what the right way is, without getting a Ph.D. in stuff we don't want to have to get a Ph.D. in.

Anyway hope this helps out a little bit.

So do you have both OS's partitioned on the same Hard Drive or are they on separate HD?

Do get an option during the boot to choose which OS you wish to run?

 

[Skypix7]

No, they're on separate hard drives. The problem is similar with partitions for OS...maybe someone has found a way for Vista to stay healthy with dual partitions, but it didn't work, even installing it "by the book" with XP first, then an installation of Vista. The boot record and/or boot loader got quickly corrupted and I had to do it all over again...but it took a few days, just long enough for me to install a bunch of programs again in both OSs, then have to do it all over.

REal pain.

Now, with separate installations as described above, no, you don't get the choice on boot up. You go into Bios (hit delete key), then under BOOT, select the hard drive or partition that has the OS you wish to boot to.

I don't know if it would work with separate partitions this way because partitions don't show up in Bios.