Dual booting advice needed

saguy

saguy

saguy

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I am keen to play some older games so would like to install XP. At the moment I am running Vista 64 on one Samsung F1 640GB (75% full) with no partitions. I would like add a new Samsung F1 750GB. Is there a way retaining the current Vista installation while adding a new drive with the option to boot into XP.

Is it possible to partion a drive when you already have Vista installed on it. There is the option of clearing some space and just use the current drive with 2 partions and operating systems.
 
Does this help?

Windows Vista is installed

If you completly reformatted your hard drive and wiped out XP when you installed Vista, your setup is going to be a little more complicated. Follow these steps:

Boot up your computer with a Windows XP install CD and install Windows XP to a different partition or physical drive than where Vista is installed. When the setup is finished, your computer will automatically boot into Windows XP. Don’t worry, Windows Vista is still on your computer if you correctly installed XP to a different partition or physical drive.

When you installed XP, the Vista Boot Manager was replaced by the Windows XP boot components. The Vista Boot Manager needs to be fixed by using the Windows Vista install DVD. Boot your computer to the Windows Vista install DVD , click Next on the regional settings screen and then click on Repair your computer in the lower left of the window. Select your Windows Vista install and then run the Startup Repair. This will fix the Windows Boot Manager and Vista will once again startup automatically.

Now we need to add an entry to the Windows Boot Manger for Windows XP. This is done through Windows Vista. When you are back in Vista, open an administrative level command prompt window and run these commands:

bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "Windows XP"
bcdedit /set {ntldr} device boot
bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr
bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast
Reboot your computer and test out the new boot menu.

Dual boot has now been configured on your computer. You will be able to enjoy the enhancements of Windows Vista without giving up the ability to run older applications that require Windows XP.
Click to expand...


To create the partition, you can possibly use Vista's Shrink to create small space although I've not done this.
 
Last edited:
Admiral Huddy said:
Does this help?




To create the partition, you can possibly use Vista's Shrink to create small space although I've not done this.
Click to expand...
Thanks that is helpful.

So you are saying it possible to create a partion on one drive that already has Vista installed. If I were to go the seperate hard drive route how should configure the drive booting sequence in the bios.
 
saguy said:
Thanks that is helpful.

So you are saying it possible to create a partion on one drive that already has Vista installed.
Click to expand...

Yes, Vista comes with a partition size slider in drive manager. However, i'm not sure it will create two from one. I've not tried this but I'm sure it does.

If I were to go the seperate hard drive route how should configure the drive booting sequence in the bios.
Click to expand...
You don't need to worry about the physical drive. Just follow the same instructions as above.
 
Sorry to jump in on this one,
I know this may be a very silly question but I'm going to ask it anyway. I've been thinking about a dual boot for a while but was just wondering.... does it make any difference if say Vista is the 64bit flavour and XP is 32bit, it probably doesn't but I was just thinking about it and had to ask the question.

Thanks
 
I hate having to constantly choose what to delete on my 640GB drive so what the hell, I've ordered a Samsung F1 1TB and a copy of XP Home for some classic gaming goodness.
 
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