How to boot Vista and Xp from 2 separate HD?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Keen Lam
  • Start date Start date
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Keen Lam

I have fully licensed copies of Vista and XP on separate HD on the same PC
and I have to physically swop the SATA cable inside the PC to boot. I still
have some Vista incompatible software on XP that I have to use from time to
time.

Can I set this to boot from the PC then select which OS to use?

Vista SP1 has been installed. Appreciate any advice as the cable switching
is a bit of a pain.
 
Which operating system did you first install and was it detected while you
installed the other one?
Do you use any other boot-loader other than NTLDR or BCD?
The BIOS must be giving you an option to change the order of hard-disks
searched while searching for a boot-able device.In the BIOS setup,have a
look at the options under the `Boot` menu.You can change that anytime you
want to go back to XP so that your hard-disk containing XP is looked at
first and revert the change after your work is done without having to open
up the chassis.But this too is a bit inconvenient,so assuming that you have
more than one SATA cable with you,you will have to add the entry for booting
XP in Vista's boot-loader(i.e.,BCD).

I have fully licensed copies of Vista and XP on separate HD on the same PC
and I have to physically swop the SATA cable inside the PC to boot. I still
have some Vista incompatible software on XP that I have to use from time to
time.

Can I set this to boot from the PC then select which OS to use?

Vista SP1 has been installed. Appreciate any advice as the cable switching
is a bit of a pain.
 
Thanks. At least I know that it can be done.

I installed each OS separately on separate HD and only connect one SATA
cable at a time. I am not too familiar with using boot-loader tools. I've
just looked up some boot software and found one called VistaBoot Pro. Can
this be used to set up the BIOS instructions, ie add the entries to make this
happen?

I wonder if there are any other Vista users in the same situation.
 
Yes,it COULD be done,but.......since you have only one SATA cable,only one
drive's data contents can be accessed by the system at any given point of
time.
And therefore,as a result,there is no way the system can simultaneously
detect the presence/existence of two operating systems.
Since you installed each OS individually,it is confirmed that XP's NTLDR had
only one entry (of it's own) in it's boot menu and the same happened with
Vista's BCD.None of them `know` that the other exists in the same
system,since there is no way you can MAKE them know by using just one SATA
cable.There leaves no scope for tinkering with boot-loaders.
No,the boot-loader cannot meddle with the BIOS.Only you can,by entering the
setup at the POST(Power-On Self-Test) screen.You do not have to add entries
to anything in the BIOS but to the boot-loader's
configuration...............and the boot-loader itself would reside on a
hard-disk drive,only one of which can be accessed at a time in your
situation.Simply because the two hard-disks have different power cables
wouldn't do the job.Different SATA data cables too would be needed.

I was in a somewhat similar situation just about a month ago when I needed
to work with XP for my academic project.However,my case was much easier
since my installation of XP was on a PATA hard-disk,the data cable for which
would be obviously different from SATA ones and therefore both drives could
be simultaneously accessed.

PLEASE get another data cable(SATA) for accessing your other hard-disk
without having to meddle with the chassis.

Thanks. At least I know that it can be done.

I installed each OS separately on separate HD and only connect one SATA
cable at a time. I am not too familiar with using boot-loader tools. I've
just looked up some boot software and found one called VistaBoot Pro. Can
this be used to set up the BIOS instructions, ie add the entries to make
this
happen?

I wonder if there are any other Vista users in the same situation.
 
You might like a look at this link from my website:
http://vistasupport.mvps.org/install_windows_xp_on_machine_running_vista.htm.

--

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..
 
Oops.........sorry.........the previous message was to be addressed to BChat
and this one to John.
John,the poster already has both the operating systems installed and
working.However,his system cannot simultaneously read data from both the
operating systems since they each lie on different hard-disk drives and
there is only one SATA cable available for transmission of data.

You might like a look at this link from my website:
http://vistasupport.mvps.org/install_windows_xp_on_machine_running_vista.htm.

--

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..
 
My apologies Hiren I didn't read the post correctly. it appears that there
is only one SATA controller (my machine contains 4) so unless he can add
another SATA controller I suppose the best other two options would be to:

1/ Create a new partition on the master drive (assuming enough space is
available) and install XP to that.

2/ Use Virtual Machine software and install XP on a VM (Microsoft Virtual PC
2007 is free)

I run XP on a VM on my machine, although I use VMware Workstation software
which, sadly, isn't free.

--

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..
 
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