2 OS how?

Tigz79 · 1 Aug 2007 at 13:48

Hi iam currently running vista 32 on my pc and i have another copy of xp home on cd, is it possible to set up the 2 os together on my single hard drive which is a 500gb western digital unit? ive never tryed doin this before so dont know where to start

any help would be appreciated thanks....

Slogan · 1 Aug 2007 at 13:51

Totally possible. It's known as 'dual booting' - Google it and you'll even get a step by step guide for running XP with Vista.

What I will advise is to get a good feel for what you're doing before putting it into action - if you're new to partitioning your hard drive, formatting and so on, back up anything important (pictures, music, video etc currently on your computer) that you have to an external hard drive or DVD/CD - so that you don't actually lose it.

Tigz79 · 1 Aug 2007 at 14:02

thanks m8, cheers for clearin that up, yeah i have backed up a lot of old files and documents so it should be safe

vista is a good system but just rather stick to xp just now, just my pref ha. also the xp disk i will be using was installed on my older pc which still gets used, will this effect the copy going onto my new pc if i was surfin the net, would it realise it was installed on another pc? thanks again

stickroad · 1 Aug 2007 at 14:03

Adding to what Slogan has just said, its more than likely you will just have 1 partion with everything on e.g your O/S, games, music etc....

To be able to Dual Boot you will have to have atleast 2 partions.

Providing you havent filled up your entire drive, you can use something like partion magic to create another partion. Once you have created a partion, pop your XP CD in, restart your machine and then press any key to boot from cd.

Then just follow the on screen instructions. Now when it comes to installing XP, make sure you install it on the empty partion and not the one that has Vista on.

Tigz79 · 1 Aug 2007 at 14:25

thanks guys for your help, yeah i think your right i only have the 1 patition which vista is using, i have over 250gb left on the drive so should be fine

stickroad · 1 Aug 2007 at 14:34

Tigz79 said:
thanks guys for your help, yeah i think your right i only have the 1 patition which vista is using, i have over 250gb left on the drive so should be fine

Thats fine then.

To create another partion you can either download partion magic or:

Right click on My Computer and then go to Manage.

Then a dialog box should appear (Computer Managment), on the left hand side, further down that list it should say Storage, then below that Disk Management, click on that.

Now you should just have one Disk (DISK 0), click on the blue strip and go to Shrink Volume and then just follow the on screen instructions. Once you get to the part where it asks you how big you would want to make the partion, i would probally make it about 250GB.

When it asks yout to format, just tick the box, Quick Format.

Once that is all done, put your Windows XP CD in and restart the pc, press any key to boot from cd and off you go.

marc2003 · 1 Aug 2007 at 14:36

just a word of warning before you continue.

because xp is old, it won't recognise vista's bootloader and will overwrite it with it's own. you'll find once you've installed xp, vista won't boot anymore.

what you'll need to do then is install software in xp called vistabootpro which will restore the vista bootloader and allow you to pick which os to boot - well that's the theory anyway.

of course the other way round works perfectly - if you have xp installed first, vista's setup program would then recognise it and do it with no hassle.

Tigz79 · 1 Aug 2007 at 15:21

Once that is all done, put your Windows XP CD in and restart the pc, press any key to boot from cd and off you go.

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thanks i made a new partition and restarted with the xp disc in the drive like you said but it just automatically just loads up vista as before, can you tell me if i have done something wrong? i followed your description about making the new divide and it went fine so dont know why it wont recognise the xp disk, when i open the disk in vist it has the install xp choice blacked out so i cant pick it? thanks again.....

stickroad · 1 Aug 2007 at 15:23

Go into the BIOS and make sure the boot device is set to DVD-Drive.

Tigz79 · 1 Aug 2007 at 15:30

stickroad said:
Go into the BIOS and make sure the boot device is set to DVD-Drive.

thanks i will try this now and and see how it goes

will it just say boot device in the bios i dont usually go into there, thanks

Tigz79 · 1 Aug 2007 at 15:47

ok so i went into bios and set it to disable all except from boot from cd drive, then it says press any key to boot from disk so i press to boot then it just boots up vista like all the other times, i cant understand this? anybody else have this kind of prob? cheers

stickroad · 1 Aug 2007 at 15:49

Tigz, make sure the DVD Drive is the primiray boot device, then the Hard Disks and then the floppy drive if you have one.

Dont disable anything.

Tigz79 · 1 Aug 2007 at 16:03

stickroad said:
Tigz, make sure the DVD Drive is the primiray boot device, then the Hard Disks and then the floppy drive if you have one.

Dont disable anything.

ok m8, i tryed what you said and put primary to disk drive then hard drive then my floppy drive, then saved it and restarted ind it gives the prompt to hit any key to boot from cd then i hit the keys then it just loads up vista, its really puzzling? man am not cut out for this lol i appreciate your help!!