How do I do this - it's driving me crazy

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dr Teeth
  • Start date Start date
D

Dr Teeth

I have an OEM version of Vista. I want to install it to a clean
partition and a) use a third party boot manager and b) not have Vista
place any files in my XP partition.

I used System Commander and followed the instructions for installing
Vista - disaster.

PartitionMagic is not compatible with Vista and neither is Acronis
Disc Director or Paragon's offering.

I have tried BootIt NG, but I could several places where it is
possible to hide a partition and gave up in the absence of any
detailed instructions.

Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.
 
Does Vista's Setup allow you to make several partitions during the initial
setup phase?

If so, make three partitions, say C:, D:, and E:. C: would be as small as
allowable because it only has to contain the system files, then D: and E: at
whatever size you want.

Install Vista to d:\windows and install XP to e:\windows in that order and
then come back and patch Vista's boot loader as described in
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529/

I think it ought to work.
 
I have an OEM version of Vista. I want to install it to a clean
partition and a) use a third party boot manager and b) not have Vista
place any files in my XP partition.
Click to expand...

Partition Commander 10 from Avanquest does everything Partition Magic
does... and its cheaper. I picked up a copy some time back and it was
Vista ready back then.

http://www.avanquestusa.com
 
I think it ought to work.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply. I did not myself as clear as I thought. I
already have XP installed. I want to use third party software for my
boot manager. I want both XP and Vista to be the C drive when they
boot.

I have done this with other OSs many times, but I'm stuck with Vista.

Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.
 
Partition Commander 10 from Avanquest does everything Partition Magic
does... and its cheaper. I picked up a copy some time back and it was
Vista ready back then.
Click to expand...

Will it actually let me do what I am trying to do?

Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.
 
I picked up a copy some time back and it was
Vista ready back then.
Click to expand...

The link that you supplied does not show partition Commander Pro 10 as
being Vista compatible. Only 9 products are listed, and PC isn't one
of them.

Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.
 
Will it actually let me do what I am trying to do?
Click to expand...

I will let you make new partitions without losing your current data,
move them around, size them, etc., like Paratiton Magic does.

Example:

Assume right now you have one hard drive that's 100 GB that currently
has XP and some other files on it. If you want to dual boot you need
two partitions. With a partition utility you can carve up your hard
drive into multiple partitions...without losing data like you would
using Windows. Its a multi step process. You need to first shrink the
current size of your one partition. What you take away becomes
unpartitioned "empty" space. Assume you cut it in half. When you're
done you'll have two partitions on your one physical drive, With two
seperate drive letters without harming any of files already there.
Then you can keep XP on one, and install Vista to another. There's no
need to run out and buy a whole new drive. The nice thing about such
tools is you can constantly resize later if you want. Its all wizard
based so very easy to do, not cryptic like trying to do it from DOS or
gosh no from the installed that comes with Windows.
 
I will let you make new partitions without losing your current data,
move them around, size them, etc., like Paratiton Magic does.
Click to expand...

It is the installation of Vista I am interested in, not the
partitioning itself.

Vista will dump files in an XP partition unless it is well hidden.
AIUI, there is a couple of ways of doing this and only one is good
enough to stop Vista polluting an XP install.

Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.
 
The link that you supplied does not show partition Commander Pro 10 as
being Vista compatible. Only 9 products are listed, and PC isn't one
of them.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I'm looking at the box it came in and it has a large size
of the pie chart showing Vista. I thought I would test out my install
and it threw me a curve. If I click on the desktop shortcut to the
program it comes up with a dialog box saying "Partition Commander
requires Administrative Privilages Access"

What the heck is that? Oh, that's part of Vista's new security. I
haven't researched it but it is curious. I am the administrator, so I
at first thought I needed to reinstall Partition Commander, which I
did. Clicked on the new shortcut, same problem. Right clicking on the
shortcut and looking under properties, then the security tab I see IT
DOES already have permission not just for all users, but system and
administrator. What's going on? I don't know yet. Windows says contact
your systems administrator. Well duh...

So the short answer is Partition Commander works fine under XP, but if
it will or not under Vista is still up in the air.
 
Did you turn User Account Control (UAC) off?

Adam Albright said:
Interesting. I'm looking at the box it came in and it has a large size
of the pie chart showing Vista. I thought I would test out my install
and it threw me a curve. If I click on the desktop shortcut to the
program it comes up with a dialog box saying "Partition Commander
requires Administrative Privilages Access"

What the heck is that? Oh, that's part of Vista's new security. I
haven't researched it but it is curious. I am the administrator, so I
at first thought I needed to reinstall Partition Commander, which I
did. Clicked on the new shortcut, same problem. Right clicking on the
shortcut and looking under properties, then the security tab I see IT
DOES already have permission not just for all users, but system and
administrator. What's going on? I don't know yet. Windows says contact
your systems administrator. Well duh...

So the short answer is Partition Commander works fine under XP, but if
it will or not under Vista is still up in the air.
Click to expand...
 
If you make the hard drive you want to install Vista on the first drive in
boot priority, then make the partition you are going to install Vista on the
active partition, you can install Vista with no files on your XP drive.
 
If you make the hard drive you want to install Vista on the first drive in
boot priority, then make the partition you are going to install Vista on the
active partition, you can install Vista with no files on your XP drive.
Click to expand...

Thanks. ISTR there being an issue about hiding the XP partition as
well...apparently there are two ways of hiding, one of which does not
work with Vista.

Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.
 
I would seriously suggest that you learn to use BootItNG, as it seems to be
the best suited for the task. System Commander supposedly worked for 1
poster I saw, but I couldn't get the version I have to work, even when
installed on XP86. Personally, the GUI is so ugly it hurts to look at it.
 
I would seriously suggest that you learn to use BootItNG
Click to expand...

I'll try and give it another go. I found it very confusing...I found
at least two places where it was possible to hide partitions. Also,
when one was set to 'hide', the others were not.

I'll try to find a guide.

Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.
 
Dr said:
The link that you supplied does not show partition Commander Pro 10 as
being Vista compatible. Only 9 products are listed, and PC isn't one
of them.

Cheers,

Guy

** Stress - the condition brought about by having to
** resist the temptation to beat the living daylights
** out of someone who richly deserves it.
Click to expand...
the Vists dvd will let you get into the command prompt by selecting
Shift+F10 after you enter the language. Use the partition commands and
do it from there
 
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