Can Vista be installed on top of itsself?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jeff Ingram
  • Start date Start date
J

Jeff Ingram

Hello,

Can Vista be installed on top of itsself? I was wondering if I were possible
to reinstall XP onto a different drive and then reinstall Vista over top of
the current install without wiping everything out.

Thanks,

Jeff
 
Hello Jeff--

Exactly what are you trying to get done and what do you have to work with?
Is Vista an upgrade DVD? Do XP and Vista work and where are they on the HD
now? It's not clear to me what your end objective is.

1) Why would you need to install Vista "on top of itself"? Is Vista working
on your hard drive and is it an upgrade?
2) If you dual boot install XP first, and simply pick a target partition for
Vista.
3) You can install XP onto any drive you want, and you can install Vista
onto any drive you want, but make sure that you install the older legacy OS
(XP in your case first.
4) What is your real situation now?
5) Exactly what CD for XP and DVD do you have?

CH
 
wouldn't a "repair" install be simpler...........if you are having problems
with Vista and need to correct something that you feel only a reinstall
would fix!!
peter
 
Chad Harris said:
Hello Jeff--

Exactly what are you trying to get done and what do you have to work with?
Is Vista an upgrade DVD? Do XP and Vista work and where are they on the
HD now? It's not clear to me what your end objective is.

1) Why would you need to install Vista "on top of itself"? Is Vista
working on your hard drive and is it an upgrade?
2) If you dual boot install XP first, and simply pick a target partition
for Vista.
3) You can install XP onto any drive you want, and you can install Vista
onto any drive you want, but make sure that you install the older legacy
OS (XP in your case first.
4) What is your real situation now?
5) Exactly what CD for XP and DVD do you have?

CH
Click to expand...

I got a new Dell XPS 410 with XP installed and I got the upgrade Vista Home
Premium Edition. So I installed Vista onto a different partition and
afterwards I didn't' get the boot menu so that I could dual boot between the
two OSs.

I spoke with a Microsoft Rep and he said that you can do a dual boot even
with the upgrade Vista disc. Why I didn't get the dual boot menu? Don't
know. Since the Vista disc came from Dell he referred me to Dell for
support. When I contacted Dell, they told me that they don't support dual
boot installations. So I found and installed VistaBootPRO 3.1 expecting to
get a boot menu, but still no go....

I can see the XP partition and access all the files from within Vista, I
just can't boot back to it. And only the Vista install is listed in the
boot menu in System Properties/Advanced/Startup and Recovery/Settings, no
XP.

So how is it that the XP partition is still there, but I can't boot to it?
I was hoping that maybe a reinstall of both might "do the trick".

grasping for ideas,

Jeff
 
Jeff--

I'm betting you can't access *all* the files from within Vista--I dual boot
a lot, and I shortcut to the XP desktop or to the Vista desktop from XP. I
find I have to go to the security tab not infrequently to sometimes be able
to use some folders from one drive to the other, but for the most part I
don't need to do this. Also, I'd like to be able to access XP's OE mail
from Vista, but I can't, and you can't merge them because there are two
entirely different mail formats in XP and Vista (OE vs. Win Mail). So for
important messages, I copy from XP OE to a folder on my Vista desktop from
XP. You can of course merge Outlook easily.

I am not sure why Vista Boot Pro could not help you out. I suspect somehow,
although others might have a different theory, that you overwrote the XP
MBR--and I would have thought either BCDEDIT or Vista Boot Pro's gui could
have fixed this.

If Vista Boot Pro (after using the tutorial they provide won't fix this, I'd
read up on BCDEDIT. You may have to start over, however you might try to
use Startup Repair from the Vista DVD and see if then you can dual boot to
XP or Vista.

I think that you might not have followed the steps in doing the "workaround"
to use that upgrade DVD. Remember officially, you are to install the
legacy OS and activate it first ***on the partition you want to use and
install that upgrade DVD on to become Vista. It seems you chose to do the
workaround to avoid doing this, which is fine, but it has to be done
correctly. I'm wondering if you followed the steps outlined below:

MSFT has set up Vista so that *officially you do have to have the legacy
OS (XP in your case) installed/and activated on the partition you plan to
upgrade on.

From Ed Bott's blog:

"This silly technical restriction is not required by the license agreement.
It's designed to frustrate anyone who wants to use the upgrade version on a
new PC without an operating system and get them to pay more for a full
version. But it's easily worked around." I agree.

3) However, unofficially, and MSFT is well aware of this, there is a
loophole. You can install the upgrade another way (without installing and
activating the legacy OS) and it has been discussed many many times on this
group and the Vista general group as well:

If you don't want to install and activate legacy media for the upgrade:
explains it best and includes good screenshots:

As Ed Bott writes in the link below:

"Your easiest option - by far - is to use the PC maker's system recovery
media to restore an image of Windows XP as it existed when you first got the
computer, and then install Vista. I can hear the complaints now: "That copy
is out of date. It's loaded with crummy, obsolete drivers and crapware."
Yes, I know. That doesn't matter. Every bit of that junk will be erased soon
enough. It will never get mixed with your new Vista setup."

We've had several links to the "Vista Upgrade loophole", but I think Ed Bott
co-author of Windows Vista Inside Out

Vista Hands On #4: Clean install with an upgrade key
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=196

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Additional Articles on using the "workaround":

Workaround Discovered For "Clean Install" With Vista Upgrade DVDs
Microsoft Confirms Vista Upgrade Limitations (Updated with Workaround)
http://www.dailytech.com/Workaround...stall+With+Vista+Upgrade+DVDs/article5932.htm


Paul Thurrott / January 29, 2007
http://www.windowsitpro.com/mobile/pda/Article.cfm?ArticleID=95011&News=1

MSFT Ignores Vista Upgrade Loophole
http://www.mstalkonline.com/microsoft-ignores-vista-upgrade-loophole/

Good luck,

CH
 
Will a repair install give me the boot manager that I didn't get when I
attempted a dual boot install with Vista and XP? (you can read the other
post for all the particulars...)

Thanks,

Jeff
 
Back
Top