XP and Vista Dual Boot problem

hellarda

hellarda

hellarda

Soldato
Joined
4 Mar 2008
Posts
2,566
Location
Guildford
Hi Guys,
i am trying to install xp on a vista system so i can dual boot.

i went into disk management and right clicked my c: drive to create a partition on it. then shrunk the volume by 100000MB (i have 750gb drive). i then created the partition and used the letter L: and called it XP

Then I formated it (not quick format) with NTFS.




Then rebooted, changed boot device priority to DVD drive, booted into xp setup and selected to install on partition L:. did not format again as already formated.the intial Setup (the one with the horrible blue screen) copied all the files, then restarted the machine, when i did not press anything to boot from CD it tried to boot from the harddisk (as it should) and all i get is a flashing underscore in the top right hand corner. :confused:
i left it for about an hour to see if anything happened but nothing did.
i then managed to reboot into vista by using the vista disc and changing the boot loader back to vista.
then i went into vista and i reformated the partition (this time not quick format) and then booted from xp disc. it copied files and then it rebooted and i still got the same. so i went in to the xp disc and formated the partition from in there. still had the same problem.
I also tried deleting the partition, extending the c: drive again and the shrinking it again and reformating and it still didn't work!!!

i have tried everything i know to try and get this working. as i am only 14 i have limited experience in this area!!!

any help would be much appreciated.

cheers Ali
 
I think ideally you need to wipe the disks, install xp first then add vista second as it can recognise the xp boot where xp wont recognise vista as a boot option.
 
thats not the problem you can use vistabootpro to change between the two. its the fact that xp won't install for some reason
 
Have you got a second disk you could try? You could build onto it then ghost/acronis it back onto that partition then edit the boot.ini...maybe.
 
Well Im spent then.
Check your startup and recovery options in vista, see if it even mentions xp there. Are the files physically there on the second partition, even in a raw partially installed format?
 
Don't worry I managed to sort it. Turns out xp can't recognize non active partitions for some reason LOL anyways thanks for the help!!!!!
 
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