Re: Dual boot Vista over XP problem.

"Tom Scales" wrote:
-----Original Message-----
From: Squidward [mailto:unununium333@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Posted At: Monday, September 24, 2007 8:46 PM
Posted To: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Conversation: Dual boot Vista over XP problem.
Subject: Dual boot Vista over XP problem.

Hi,

Firstly forgive the longish post. My system is Dimension
8300 running WinXP Pro SP2 1Gb Ram 120gb HDD.

Basically I'm attempting to install Vista Ultimate OEM
(32bit) along side XP Pro so as to dual boot.

I've found a way to do this from this guide
http://www.ehow.com/how_2029534_boot-vista-xp.html
but I've run into a problem.

According to XP's Disk Management I've got 2 partitions
on my HDD. One looks like its hidden (no volume label)
with a capacity of 55mb in FAT and the other is obviously
my C: drive with a capacity of 111gb in NTFS. The HDD
itself is "Basic" type not "Dynamic" and that's my problem,
because if I want to install Vista as per the guide I have to
be able to create a "simple volume" but this can only be
achieved on a "dynamic" disk.

So my questions are

1) what is this FAT 55mb partition?
2) If I convert my disk from basic to dynamic what will
happen to the hidden partition?
3) If the partition is something to do with Dell (ie restore
partition) what are the consequences if it gets lost in the
conversion?

OK, here's a bunch of points:

1) the 55mb partition is your diagnostic partition. It's small --
leave it alone
2) You do not want a dynamic disk.
3) You need either A) another partition or B) another drive.

To get another partition, you need a product like Partition Magic,
unless you're willing to reinstall XP. A MUCH better solution is to
just buy another drive, they're cheap, if your machine has a spot for
it.

All you do is install the drive, run the Vista setup FROM WITHIN
XP and install to the new drive. Vista will install the boot manager.
If you do figure out a way to create a new partition, it works the
same way.

I have dual boot running fine on three of my systems.


Putting Vista on another HD is much easier in the long run.
First, disconnect the XP-containing HD. Then install XP
on the 2nd HD (jumpering is irrelevant at this point as long
as the 2nd HD is the only HD connected.)
Then, re-connect the 1st HD, making sure that the 2 HDs
are jumpered differently if they are PATA HDS and on the
same IDE channel (i.e. same cable).

You can control which HD gets control at startup (and thereby
which OS gets loaded) by entering the BIOS and setting the
Hard Drive Boot Order (the priority for just the hard drives).
The setting will persist through startups, so you only have to
change it when you want to switch to the alternate OS.

You will find that the running OS will call its own partition "C:",
and it will call other partitions something else, including the
partition containing the other OS. This is OK as long as neither
OS has any shortcuts which refer to other partitions in the
system (since the naming of the other partitions will change).
Each running OS will view the partition containing the other OS
as just a partition containing data.

When you want to dump XP, just reformat the partition that
contains it. There will be no dual-boot menu adjustment to make
to remove boot.ini's reference to an OS that no longer exists.

*TimDaniels*


.

Relevant Pages

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