Dual boot XP/Vista with 2 disks

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Guest

Hallo,
I too have a dual boot problem, which seems different from those reported in
the newsgroup.
To be clear I will try to report all data in a schematic way.
1. The Pc: P4 2GB RAM with 2 HD: 1st HD SATA 160 GB, with Windows XP SP2;
2nd HD
1. Plain PATA 80 GB.
2. I downloaded Windows Vista RC1, made the DVD and started installation;
when Vista installer asked to choose the target disk, I deleted the existing
partition on the 2nd disk, created a new primary partition on it, and let
the installer to continue its work.
3. Vista installation on disk 2 was completed without problems, and the OS
started running normally.
4. Problems arose rebooting. The only way to switch between Vista and XP
resulted to be at BIOS level.
5. When I set the BIOS to start from disk 1, Win XP starts normally, sees
the boot disk as C and sees the other disk (the Vista one) as disk D. I can
also see and open the D files. I tried to modify the boot.ini file adding an
entry for Vista, but it did not work. At boot time both entries are
displayed, but if I choose Vista the screen becomes black and nothing happens.
6. When I set the BIOS to start from disk 2, Win Vista starts normally, sees
the boot disk as C and sees the other disk (the XP one) as disk D. I can also
see and open the D files. I tried to configure the Vista tool for modifying
the boot adding an entry for XP, but it did not work (I used VistaBootPro 3.1
utility and also the command line tool). At boot time both entries are
displayed, but if I choose XP the system answers that the XP is corrupted
(which is not true, since everything works fine if I start XP through the
BIOS).
7. Many hints in the newsgroups suggest to create a second partition for
Vista on the first disk. I think this not very practical in many cases. Today
an hard disk costs much less that the time necessary to: a) defrag the disk;
b) backup everything; c) get Partition Magic or something like it; d) create
a second partition; e) reinstall Vista from scratch; f) seek some use for the
second disk.
8. I think that the BIOS switch is absolutely unpractical if one really
wants to test and study the new OS without risk for the everyday work.
9. I suspect that could there be some trick to get dual boot with two disks,
but I do not know well all the boot stuff (I am a C++ developer, not a system
specialist)

Thank you very much for comments, suggestions, hints.

Ambrogio.
 
Ambrogio,

I have installed Vista on my second HD and am prompted at each bootup which
OS I want to boot to (Vista was added as an option automatically for me
during install).

Just a few quick questions.

1. How many partitions on your 2nd hd?

2. Did you start the install from inside XP of booted from the DVD?

Jeff
 
Ambrogio,

I have done like you are trying to do. XP SP@ is on my first HD and my
second HD has Vista. No problems for me. An option screen for which OS to
boot to was generated by Vista during install and is presented at startup
each time.

A few quick questions:

1. Did you install from inside XP or boot from the DVD?

2. Any other partitions on your second HD?

Jeff
 
Ambrosio,
i understand you have two bootable drives, that is awsome. you have it set
up perfectly, the only part you made a mistake is the BOOT.ini entry. you
cant do it in XP because XP wouldnt know what VISTA is, so that boot entry
needs to be done in VISTA. once that entry is in VISTA then set CMOS to boot
the VISTA drive and you are all done. VISTA will give you the option of which
OS to boot.

enjoy
 
You must start the install from within XP to get dual boot. Starting it by
booting from the DVD will not work.

Mike Bernstein
 
Thank you Jeff.
1. I installed Vista booting by the DVD
2. I do not have other partitions on the second HD... I deleted the existing
partitions when I started Vista fron the DVD, using its utility which manages
disk partitions.

Since the second disk is not a brand new disk, maybe there be some hidden
boot sector on it, something that Vista couldn't detect. If this is the case,
is it there some means to "repair" it? I thought that VistaBootPro 3.1 could
be useful, but it did not worked. Do you think that BCDEDIT (the command line
Vista utility) could do the job?

Thank you for your collaboration
Ambrogio
 
Thank you Alejo.
I see that the BOOT.INI could not work, so I deleted from it the Vista entry.
The problem is that if I set up dual boot from Vista, using VistaBootPro
3.1, it does not work. That is, at boot time i see both entries (Vista and
"Legacy Windows", which is XP), but if I choose the second one it answer that
XP is corrupted (which is not true).
Maybe that VistaBootPro 3.1 is not smart enough in this case, and that I
should use BCDEDIT, which is a little difficult for my skills. However I'll
try it.

Thank you for the collaboration.
Ambrogio
 
Mike,
if you are absolutely certain about this, this close the problem.
Thank you very much
Ambrogio
 
Ambrogio,

How are you making out?

I see Mike suggested installing Vista from inside XP - did that work for you?

Have you tried formatting your second HD to remove all data before
installing to it?

I have just installed VistaBootPro but have not had a chance to use it. As
for BCDEDIT I couldn't get it working in my install.

Jeff
 
Ambrogio,

If you start the VISTA install from inside XP you will loose that drive as
BOOTABLE. your XP drive that right now can boot itself will no longer be able
after VISTA gets a hold of it. If you begin to install VISTA from inside XP
and tell Vista to install in to your other drive; it will. Vista will also
recognize XP and make a boot entry (in VISTA), the catch is Vista will make
the drive IT is in BOOTABLE, and the other drive will be nothing more than
storage. IF Vista fails you will NOT be able to boot XP just by changing the
BOOT order in CMOS.
Since you have TWO perfect drives, i would suggest to GOOGLE "how to make
BOOT entry + BOOT.ini" and you will find a how to, to follow. it is not
difficult. Unless i totally misunderstood your first thread you already have
Vista installed and Bootable, and also XP installed and Bootable, each on a
different hard drive. THAT is NOT dual booting. Dual booting is reffered to
when you have more than one OS on the SAME HDD. the catch in dual booting is
that only ONE OS makes the MBR which in turn you rely on its boot loader to
boot BOTH systemes. (you choose one ofcourse) in your case when you make a
boot entry in Vista for XP all that is happening is that it is telling the
computer where to go to find the OS which is in the other drive, once it gets
there XP boots itself NOT vista. (in other words all Vista did is store an
address, not so in dual booting. Vista would be in charge of booting both
OS's)

anyway, it sounds that the error you got was simply because the boot entry
was not in corect format. try again; remember that the disc nubering begins
at "0" for the first drive, "1" for the second and so on.

Good Luck!
 
You must start the install from within XP to get dual boot. Starting it by
booting from the DVD will not work.

Mike Bernstein
Click to expand...


Absolutely untrue. You want to install by booting from the DVD. My
suspicion is that you don't have your BIOS configured properly or your
partitions are not set up correctly. The SATA drive needs to set up as
a SATA drive not an ATA drive using the primary or secondary ide.

If XP was installed, when you installed Vista, it shouild have seen XP
and added it to the bootloader for Vista no matter what drive or
partition.

I originally had XP and SUSE on 2 different drives. I then installed
beta2 on the drive with windows. I decided to put RC1 on the drive with
linux. With this config, the Vista boot menu offerd me legacy, longhorn
and Vista Windows. Once I repaired the SUSE loader, it's boot menu now
comes up first, and if I choose windows, it then defaults the Vista Boot
Menu, where I can load XP, Beta2 or RC1, and if I choose linux, it boots
SUSE.
 
Keng,
Thank you very much for the information. I think that you are right, and
that there could be something wrong in the second disk.
I cannot check it right now but I will do it in the next days.
I will post the results as soon as possible.
Ambrogio
 
Thank you to all you, and especially to Alejo and Keng for the very detailed
information and suggestion.
I cannot try them right now, but I will do and update this thread as soon as
possible.
Ambrogio
 
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