Installing XP on secondary hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter awyarbr
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awyarbr

I just purchased a computer with Windows Vista. I installed a second hard
drive and want to install Windows XP on the second drive.

When I run the XP installation disk, I am told, essentially, that I can't
install and older version of Windows over a newer version of Windows without
first deleting the newer version. But I DON'T WANT to delete Vista; I want
to install XP on the second drive!

How do I overcome this?
 
"Computer Shopper" Feb 2008 pages 86-87 article 'Dual-Boot Your PC'
describes the solution to your problem..
 
awyarbr said:
I just purchased a computer with Windows Vista. I installed a second hard
drive and want to install Windows XP on the second drive.

When I run the XP installation disk, I am told, essentially, that I can't
install and older version of Windows over a newer version of Windows without
first deleting the newer version. But I DON'T WANT to delete Vista; I want
to install XP on the second drive!

How do I overcome this?
Click to expand...


First off, if you haven't done so already, you might want to post this
question to a Vista newsgroup. In that group you can ask about options for
having XP and Vista on the same machine. I've never tried this, but I've seen
suggestions that involve taking out the first hard drive, installing XP on the
second hard drive, putting the first hard drive back in place, and using a third
party boot manager to handle the OS selection process. That way neither
operating system is aware of the other.

Next, you might want to make sure that drivers written for XP are available for
the hardware component in your computer. Check the manufacturer's web site for
this info.

That said, the problem you're encountering is due to the fact that you're
trying to start the XP installation from within Vista. You need to boot from
the XP CD and make sure you select the correct location for your XP
installation. Once XP is installed you'll have to restore the ability to boot
Vista as described in these articles.

How to dual boot Vista and XP (with Vista installed first) -- the step-by-step
guide
http://www.apcstart.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp

Courtesy of John Barnett, MS-MVP
Install Windows XP On A Machine Already Running Windows Vista
http://vistasupport.mvps.org/install_windows_xp_on_machine_running_vista.htm

Here's a program that will come in handy after installing XP.

http://www.vistabootpro.org/

Keep in mind that having XP installed along with Vista in a duel boot
configuration will result in Vista
System Restore points being deleted by XP.

Good luck

Nepatsfan
 
awyarbr said:
I just purchased a computer with Windows Vista. I installed
a second hard drive and want to install Windows XP on the
second drive.

When I run the XP installation disk, I am told, essentially, that
I can't install and older version of Windows over a newer
version of Windows without first deleting the newer version.
But I DON'T WANT to delete Vista; I want to install XP on
the second drive!

How do I overcome this?
Click to expand...


The easiest way to do this (since you have 2 hard drives to
work with) is to simply remove the hard drive containing the
installed Vista, and install XP on the remaining 2nd hard drive.
Once you've ascertained that the XP installation is OK, put the
Vista-containing hard drive back in the PC, and choose which
hard drive to boot from by setting the Hard Drive Boot Order
in the BIOS. Various BIOSes handle this in various ways, but
there will be a setting which prioritizes the hard drives (not the
devices overall, but just the hard drives), and the hard drive with
the highest boot priority (i.e. "boot order") will control booting.

As another poster has mentioned, Vista and XP will conflict
in their restore points, but it's not clear if this will occur when the
two OSes are on separate hard drives with their respective boot
managers having been set up to mono-boot. In any event, if you
do frequent backups, you dohn need no steenkeeng restore points.

*TimDaniels*
 
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