dual boot xp/vista problem...

znowman · 29 May 2009 at 23:36

hi, ive just tried to set up a dual boot system...

firstly i formatted both my drives, then installed xp on one, then installed vista on the other

this is whats happening:

if i connect the vista drive to sata 1, bios only recognises this drive (xp drive is not available), then when i boot my system vista loads normally - the strange thing (to me) is that both drives are there in 'my computer' and work normally

likewise, if i connect the xp drive to sata 1, the opposite happens and xp loads (vista not visible in bios, but there in 'my computer')

i was expecting vista to recognise the xp installation on sata 2 and give me the option in boot manager (boot manager doesnt appear)

im new to dual booting, so any help would be much appreciated

cheers mark h

Microwave · 29 May 2009 at 23:41

Download EasyBCD

add xp to your vista bootloader.

karl01 · 29 May 2009 at 23:47

Why dont u put both os on one drive partition the drive instail xp then vista then use easybcd this is how i dual booted and its worked ever since.

znowman · 29 May 2009 at 23:58

Microwave said:
Download EasyBCD

add xp to your vista bootloader.

just tried that, and because ive got vista connected to sata 1, thats the only entry visible in EasyBCD, so i added a new entry and chose NT/2K/XP/2K3 then selected the drive in which xp is installed (labelled D: )

when i reboot, bootloader now appears with the 2 options, but when i choose xp the machine restarts and comes back to bootloader

thanks for the advise though...

znowman · 30 May 2009 at 00:01

karl01 said:
Why dont u put both os on one drive partition the drive instail xp then vista then use easybcd this is how i dual booted and its worked ever since.

i want to use separate drives if possible, but partitioning one of the drives is something to think about, i'll try that as a last resort...

Microwave · 30 May 2009 at 00:14

You can do it with both on separate drives, I have that.

Try going into BIOS and go on hard drive priority and change it to your other drive. Let it boot into whichever one it goes into, then use BCD again.

znowman · 30 May 2009 at 13:53

Microwave said:
You can do it with both on separate drives, I have that.

Try going into BIOS and go on hard drive priority and change it to your other drive. Let it boot into whichever one it goes into, then use BCD again.

went into xp and installed EasyBCD there, which then said vista master boot record not found (or something), it then said it was gonna make one and asked what drive number i'd like to assign (i picked C

but nothing has changed and it still wont work...

thanks for the advice, but im gonna just go back to xp, i waste way too much of my time ******* with my computer, when i should be doing other more constructive things

thanks again for the help though