Hey sam.wheale, when setting up a dual booting system, its normally much easier to install Windows XP first followed by Windows Vista. This way you don't (Normally) have to sort the Boot Menu out manually, it does it automatically. However since Vista is already pre-installed on your laptop and you have probably setup everything just the way you like, so it would be slightly mean of me to tell you to wipe Windows Vista off and install Windows XP and then re-install Vista.
First of all boot into Windows Vista, once you have logged in type in "Computer Management" into the start menu search bar and hit enter. Once the Computer Management window appears, navigate down to where it saids "Storage" and then under that click on "Disk Management". Now you will most likely need to create another partition so right click on the Hard Drive you would like to partition and go to "Shrink volume". It will then ask you the amount of space to shrink the volume too. Once you have selected the correct amount click on "Shrink".
You will now see an unallocated space (Will have a black bar across the top), right click on that unallocated space and select "New simple Volume". Now the "New Simple Volume Wizard" will pop up, click "Next". Click "Next" again since you should have already specified the size when you shrunk your main drive. Now assign a drive letter and then click "Next". Now the final screen will ask you a few things. Make sure that the "Format this volume with the following settings:" is selected, the File system should be "NTFS", Allocation unit side: should be Default (Leave it as this) and the Volume label, basically call it "Windows XP". Now depending on how large the partition is, it may take a while for it to format, so you can select the "Perform a quick format" option. Once you have completed that section, click "Next" and then "Finish". It will now start formatting your new partition.
Now once your new partition has finished formatting, insert your Windows XP disc and re-boot your machine. Then enter your Windows XP installation process. When the Windows XP setup reaches the point where you're prompted where it is to be installed, you will see the new partition that you have just created along with the Windows Vista one. Now make sure you select the XP partition not the Vista one
, once you have selected the correct one, press enter and just let Windows XP install as normal. (Their's no need to do anything differently).
When the system reboots it won't bring up a boot menu. Although XP recognizes the Vista partition it doesn't recognize Vista itself. The Windows XP boot loader gets installed to the MBR and Vista can no longer boot.
Because you can't use the Windows XP bootloader to boot Vista, we have to reinstate Vista's bootloader to the MBR and configure it to manage both operating systems. So boot from the Vista DVD and on the screen where you're prompted to "Install now", select "Repair your computer".
The next screen searches for local Vista installations – there should only be one, so click Next. This loads the System Recovery Options screen. Select the first option – Startup Repair. This looks for problems which would prevent Vista from loading (like a missing bootloader) and automatically fixes them. Click Close and then Finish, and the system will restart and boot into Vista.
Now we need to enable dualbooting with XP, and EasyBCD is the best application to achieve this.
Download and install EasyBCD
Launch the app and go to Add/Remove Entries. Under "Add an Entry", where it saids "Type", use the drop down box to select "Windows NT/2K/
XP2k3. Where it saids name simply type "Microsoft Windows XP" and then select the appropriate drive. Then click "Add Entry" and finally "Save" at the top.
Reboot the system and you’ll have two entries in the Vista bootloader, and can boot into either operating system.
