Hello there!
Ever tried to install vista? Yes you did. You can upgrade your Windows XP to Windows Vista or you can install Windows Vista fresh on any other partition, either way, you can only boot vista. That means if you choose to install Vista freshly then your XP will be on the partition BUT you cannot boot it due to Bootloader that is assigned to Vista. Now here’s a tutorial to boot both windows xp and windows vista.
(With XP installed first)
(I am assuming that you have more than 1 partition on your HDD and all are NTFS and above 20GB)
Install Vista
Boot Vista from the DVD and select the partition you want to install Vista onto. The install will then commence.
The Vista boot manager will take over the system completely, and Windows XP effectively loads via Vista. It’s all pretty seamless though, and you shouldn’t encounter any technical problems.
Modify Vista's Bootloader
Once Vista is installed and the system reboots, you’ll be presented with a boot menu with two options: “Microsoft Windows Vista” and “An Earlier Version of Windows”.
This is perhaps a little bit blend, so you’ll probably want to change it. Here’s where one of the new features of Vista comes in, and it’s not so terrific. In Windows XP if you want to modify the bootloader, just right-click on My Computer, select Properties, go to the Advanced Tab, and click Settings under Startup and Recovery, then click Edit. This opens a local file – boot.ini. It’s just a standard text file and you can change pretty much anything. Unfortunately it’s not that easy in Vista – you can still navigate to the Startup and Recovery settings, but all you can do is select which operating system is the default and modify the timeout settings.
To edit Vista’s boot manager you have to use the command line BCDEDIT utility. To access BCDEDIT, run the Command Window as an administrator and type in BCDEDIT.
Unfortunately BCDEDIT isn’t an easy tool to come to terms with, especially as it’s purely command line-driven. So, a great tool to use here is EasyBCD by NeoSmart Technologies. EasyBCD offers a GUI frontend to BCDEDIT, and makes life much easier.
Once Vista is installed, call up the browser and navigate to the EasyBCD download page - download, install and launch the application.
To configure the bootloader go to “Configure Boot” – you’ll see the two entries, for XP and Vista. To change the name of Windows XP, just overwrite “Earlier Version of Windows” with “Windows XP” and click Save Settings.
Reboot the system and the changes are visible. You have a dual-booting Vista and XP system. That's all there is to it.
(With Vista installed first)
Ok in this section I am assuming you are running Windows Vista and working fine and you want to install Windows XP.
Install Windows XP
When the Windows XP setup reaches the point where you’re prompted where it is to be installed, Highlight the partition and press enter. (The screenshot shown below has a C: drive and an unallocated space where xp will be installed by creating the partition which you don’t need to do ‘cause you already have partitions).
Install XP as normal – there’s no need to do anything differently.
IMPORTANT NOTE – after the initial file copy, Windows XP reboots and loads up the GUI-based component of the install. You may get the following error: “A disk read error occurred – press Ctrl-Alt-Del to continue”. This is caused by a corrupt bootloader. (See at the end of the article to fix this)
When the system reboots it won’t bring up a boot menu. Although XP recognises the Vista partition it doesn’t recognise Vista itself.
The Windows XP bootloader gets installed to the MBR and Vista can no longer boot.
Restoring Vista and dual booting
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.
Compared with scenarios involving Ubuntu where you have to reinstall the GRUB bootloader, getting Vista up and operational again is very easy.
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.
If you click on “Click here for diagnostic and repair details” and scroll to the bottom of the list, it shows that the problem detected and repaired was a corrupt boot sector (according to Vista, anyway).
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.
Launch the app and go to Add/Remove Entries.
Under “Add an Entry” and under the Windows tab and select in the Version drop-down list “Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3”.
Change the Drive to X:\ and the name to “Windows XP”, then click “Add Entry” and “Save”.
Where X: is the drive where windows xp is installed.
Reboot the system and you’ll have two entries in the Vista bootloader, and can boot into either operating system.
Fixing the corrupt bootloader
If the Windows XP bootload corrupts during the install, performing a reinstall won’t fix it, nor will going into the XP Recovery Mode and attempting to repair the MBR.
Luckily, the install was up to the stage where all you need to do is be able to boot from the Windows XP partition, and the install will pick up from where it left off.
To achieve this, follow the procedure outlined above to restore the Vista bootloader.
This allows the system to boot into Vista, and then you can use EasyBCD to create an XP boot entry and boot into that to continue on with XP's installation.
Note:- I've personally Done this and it works absolutly fine.
Ever tried to install vista? Yes you did. You can upgrade your Windows XP to Windows Vista or you can install Windows Vista fresh on any other partition, either way, you can only boot vista. That means if you choose to install Vista freshly then your XP will be on the partition BUT you cannot boot it due to Bootloader that is assigned to Vista. Now here’s a tutorial to boot both windows xp and windows vista.
(With XP installed first)
(I am assuming that you have more than 1 partition on your HDD and all are NTFS and above 20GB)
Install Vista
Boot Vista from the DVD and select the partition you want to install Vista onto. The install will then commence.
The Vista boot manager will take over the system completely, and Windows XP effectively loads via Vista. It’s all pretty seamless though, and you shouldn’t encounter any technical problems.
Modify Vista's Bootloader
Once Vista is installed and the system reboots, you’ll be presented with a boot menu with two options: “Microsoft Windows Vista” and “An Earlier Version of Windows”.
This is perhaps a little bit blend, so you’ll probably want to change it. Here’s where one of the new features of Vista comes in, and it’s not so terrific. In Windows XP if you want to modify the bootloader, just right-click on My Computer, select Properties, go to the Advanced Tab, and click Settings under Startup and Recovery, then click Edit. This opens a local file – boot.ini. It’s just a standard text file and you can change pretty much anything. Unfortunately it’s not that easy in Vista – you can still navigate to the Startup and Recovery settings, but all you can do is select which operating system is the default and modify the timeout settings.
To edit Vista’s boot manager you have to use the command line BCDEDIT utility. To access BCDEDIT, run the Command Window as an administrator and type in BCDEDIT.
Unfortunately BCDEDIT isn’t an easy tool to come to terms with, especially as it’s purely command line-driven. So, a great tool to use here is EasyBCD by NeoSmart Technologies. EasyBCD offers a GUI frontend to BCDEDIT, and makes life much easier.
Once Vista is installed, call up the browser and navigate to the EasyBCD download page - download, install and launch the application.
To configure the bootloader go to “Configure Boot” – you’ll see the two entries, for XP and Vista. To change the name of Windows XP, just overwrite “Earlier Version of Windows” with “Windows XP” and click Save Settings.
Reboot the system and the changes are visible. You have a dual-booting Vista and XP system. That's all there is to it.
(With Vista installed first)
Ok in this section I am assuming you are running Windows Vista and working fine and you want to install Windows XP.
Install Windows XP
When the Windows XP setup reaches the point where you’re prompted where it is to be installed, Highlight the partition and press enter. (The screenshot shown below has a C: drive and an unallocated space where xp will be installed by creating the partition which you don’t need to do ‘cause you already have partitions).
Install XP as normal – there’s no need to do anything differently.
IMPORTANT NOTE – after the initial file copy, Windows XP reboots and loads up the GUI-based component of the install. You may get the following error: “A disk read error occurred – press Ctrl-Alt-Del to continue”. This is caused by a corrupt bootloader. (See at the end of the article to fix this)
When the system reboots it won’t bring up a boot menu. Although XP recognises the Vista partition it doesn’t recognise Vista itself.
The Windows XP bootloader gets installed to the MBR and Vista can no longer boot.
Restoring Vista and dual booting
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.
Compared with scenarios involving Ubuntu where you have to reinstall the GRUB bootloader, getting Vista up and operational again is very easy.
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.
If you click on “Click here for diagnostic and repair details” and scroll to the bottom of the list, it shows that the problem detected and repaired was a corrupt boot sector (according to Vista, anyway).
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.
Launch the app and go to Add/Remove Entries.
Under “Add an Entry” and under the Windows tab and select in the Version drop-down list “Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3”.
Change the Drive to X:\ and the name to “Windows XP”, then click “Add Entry” and “Save”.
Where X: is the drive where windows xp is installed.
Reboot the system and you’ll have two entries in the Vista bootloader, and can boot into either operating system.
Fixing the corrupt bootloader
If the Windows XP bootload corrupts during the install, performing a reinstall won’t fix it, nor will going into the XP Recovery Mode and attempting to repair the MBR.
Luckily, the install was up to the stage where all you need to do is be able to boot from the Windows XP partition, and the install will pick up from where it left off.
To achieve this, follow the procedure outlined above to restore the Vista bootloader.
This allows the system to boot into Vista, and then you can use EasyBCD to create an XP boot entry and boot into that to continue on with XP's installation.
Note:- I've personally Done this and it works absolutly fine.
