XP & Vista dual boot

  • Thread starter Thread starter PE
  • Start date Start date
P

PE

I have a new computer with 2 identical hard drives and Vista installed. I
now want to install XP on the second hard drive to make this a dual boot
machine. When I run setup I am shown the two drives (C & D), both showing
full capacity of 131072MB and free space of 131071 MB.

There seems to be no clue as to which drive has the Vista installation so
that I can choose the other one to format and install XP. Is there a way of
finding out? I don't want to wipe out the Vista installation.

Thank you for your help.
 
PE said:
I have a new computer with 2 identical hard drives and Vista installed.
I
now want to install XP on the second hard drive to make this a dual
boot
machine. When I run setup I am shown the two drives (C & D), both
showing
full capacity of 131072MB and free space of 131071 MB.

There seems to be no clue as to which drive has the Vista installation
so
that I can choose the other one to format and install XP. Is there a
way of
finding out? I don't want to wipe out the Vista installation.

Thank you for your help.
Click to expand...

Do you have Vista installed on both drives? The C: drive is normally
your main drive, so that would be the Vista installation you don't want
to overwrite.

I would strongly recommend installing XP first, then Vista. If you
can't do that, then I would do the following to ensure no problems.
(Installing XP after Vista can really mess things up.

Take the master drive out of the computer (with Vista), make the slave
drive a master. Install XP on it. Once finished, make the XP drive
the slave again. Then put the Vista drive back in as the master.

Boot the computer with the Vista CD, use the Repair Boot utility on the
Vista CD. It will make a bootloader correctly for Vista and XP.
 
its much easier to just turn the drive off in the BIOS.

(e-mail address removed)@sport.rr.com

I have a new computer with 2 identical hard drives and Vista installed.
I
now want to install XP on the second hard drive to make this a dual
boot
machine. When I run setup I am shown the two drives (C & D), both
showing
full capacity of 131072MB and free space of 131071 MB.

There seems to be no clue as to which drive has the Vista installation
so
that I can choose the other one to format and install XP. Is there a
way of
finding out? I don't want to wipe out the Vista installation.

Thank you for your help.
Click to expand...

Do you have Vista installed on both drives? The C: drive is normally
your main drive, so that would be the Vista installation you don't want
to overwrite.

I would strongly recommend installing XP first, then Vista. If you
can't do that, then I would do the following to ensure no problems.
(Installing XP after Vista can really mess things up.

Take the master drive out of the computer (with Vista), make the slave
drive a master. Install XP on it. Once finished, make the XP drive
the slave again. Then put the Vista drive back in as the master.

Boot the computer with the Vista CD, use the Repair Boot utility on the
Vista CD. It will make a bootloader correctly for Vista and XP.
 
Hi mikeyhsd,
I'm interest with your animation,how do it.
its much easier to just turn the drive off in the BIOS.

(e-mail address removed)@sport.rr.com

I have a new computer with 2 identical hard drives and Vista installed.
I
now want to install XP on the second hard drive to make this a dual
boot
machine. When I run setup I am shown the two drives (C & D), both
showing
full capacity of 131072MB and free space of 131071 MB.

There seems to be no clue as to which drive has the Vista installation
so
that I can choose the other one to format and install XP. Is there a
way of
finding out? I don't want to wipe out the Vista installation.

Thank you for your help.
Click to expand...

Do you have Vista installed on both drives? The C: drive is normally
your main drive, so that would be the Vista installation you don't want
to overwrite.

I would strongly recommend installing XP first, then Vista. If you
can't do that, then I would do the following to ensure no problems.
(Installing XP after Vista can really mess things up.

Take the master drive out of the computer (with Vista), make the slave
drive a master. Install XP on it. Once finished, make the XP drive
the slave again. Then put the Vista drive back in as the master.

Boot the computer with the Vista CD, use the Repair Boot utility on the
Vista CD. It will make a bootloader correctly for Vista and XP.
 
Back
Top