Dual booting xp and vista

[boyd4444]

I have two SEPERATE hard drives. One has XP SP3 and the other has Vista Ultimate SP1. I want to put both drives in one system and be able to Dual boot. Since I have never dual booted before, I'm at a loss on how to do this. Does Vista manage this or does XP and how do I go about it. Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[vacunita]

Where both OSes installed in the same machine a.k.a The machine you want to have them both in?

If not you'll either have to reinstall them both, or at the very least perform repair installs, and probably reactivate the OSes so that they can boot of the new hardware.





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Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[brokenhalo]

Also, unless you have a floppy drive, chances are you will have to slipstream drivers into the Vista installation CD. And vacunita is right, you are going to have to start fresh with the install on that computer, you can't just put a hard drive with Vista already installed into a computer and expect it to work because that Vista installation was made for the computer that it was installed on.

Brad L. - MCP

"If the doctors told me I had 5 minutes to live, I would type faster.

 

[boyd4444]

More details. Both drives were installed on THE system, one at a time. I can put one drive in and it will boot xp. I can take it out and put the other one in and it will boot Vista. What I want to do is put both drives in and dual boot.

 

[linney]

What happens when both drives are installed together?

See if a third party tool like Vista Boot Pro (freeware) can set the dual boot up for you, it will run from either XP or Vista but both hard drives must be accessible.

VistaBootPRO

http://www.vistabootpro.org/

Vista has Startup Repair, this should be the next thing to try if VistBootPro fails.

Vista Startup Repair.

Startup Repair is a Windows recovery tool that can fix certain problems, such as missing or damaged system files, that might prevent Windows from starting.

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Wi...809f-ed90-415f-a83f-89b42108b3551033.mspx#EFF

How to dual boot Vista and XP (with Vista installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm

See the related links on the same page -

Related stories
How to dual-boot Vista with XP (with XP installed first) - step-by-step guide with screenshots
How to dual-boot Vista with Linux (with Linux installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots


XP has the Recovery Console, see the Bootcfg command, this is not much use for Vista however.

A Discussion About the Bootcfg Command and Its Uses

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q291/9/80.asp

How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

 

[vacunita]

Well you should have done that to begin with, installing Vista with the XP present in the system would have yielded you a Boot Menu after the installation was completed.

Since they where installed separately you'll need to either use a 3rd party bootloader, or run a repair install On Vista so it generates the Bootloader.

Having both drives present, boot from a Vista DVD and run a Repair install.

Best Case scenario, Vista picks up the XP install and Generates the Bootloader.

Or you can use ECBCD to fix Vista's Bootloader and add the XP installation to it.

http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/EasyBCD+Documentation+Home

----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[boyd4444]

Thanks all. I always come here for the expert advice. Looks like I have a few solutions to try out.