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General discussion

dual boot vista and xp two different hard drives

Sep 13, 2007 3:52AM PDT

I am building a new system and will that will have 2 separte SATA hard
drives. I want to do s dual boot one w/vista and the other with xp. I will be starting from scatch meaning i will be doing clean installs.
can anyone tell me what to? I saw things on this forum similar to i am trying to do but not specific to what i need. I need help on what to do and can this be done?

Discussion is locked

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So here is how I setup my Dual Boot
Dec 23, 2007 4:28PM PST

I installed Vista on a clean Raid 0 drive setup when I built my new computer before I read that you should have XP installed first. I also setup a Raid 1 Drive setup for all my data I had a backup image of my old XP drive from my old computer so I created a need cloned drive from the image on a second hard drive. I then unplugged my Raid 0 Vista drives and started the Computer with the XP drives (had to change the boot sequence in the bios). I installed all the new drivers and updates to my XP setup for my new computer, then I shut down and plugged my Vista drives back in and rebooted to Vista. I also pointed my XP My Documents to the same Mirrored Data drives that Vista stores my user files on.

I then did the manual boot loader repair mentioned by others in this thread. Everything work fine, except, that the boot loader does not properly control which operating system loads. While the selections show on my screen, I have to make a bios change to tell the computer which drive to boot from. This is simplified by an option my Gigabyte motherboard provides to just press the F12 key when I want to reboot from a different drive. Returning to Vista is easy as the bios looks at it as the default.

I would like to be able to get the Vista boot-loader selection option to work, but it is not that big a deal to do it pressing the F12 key. All I know is it worked without a hitch otherwise and by using an image of my XP drive with all my applications loaded saved me a ton of time setting the XP drive up for the few applications and peripherals I need it for.

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please help im new at this
Dec 5, 2007 9:07AM PST

hi i bought a new computer that came with vista and it has two hdd's and im wanting to put xp on the other hdd so i need to know how i read a forum about this here and im not that smart with computers so i didnt understand most of it so if you could explain it better that would be great and i wouldnt be bothering you if they just kept xp...

lol thanks

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Two hard drives is good...
Dec 6, 2007 5:44AM PST

That lets you out of the partitioning requirement. First, follow these instructions to perform a clean installation of XP on that second hard drive. Note that screenshots are provided in the left-hand column and expand at a click. Once XP's installed Vista will no longer run. From within XP, click here and follow the instructions under "Resolution" exactly as shown. Once complete, restart your computer and you should be given an option of which OS to run.

Hope this helps,
John

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XP on 2 SATA drives
Dec 10, 2007 11:29PM PST

John,

Can a person install XP on 2 Sata drives and have it present a choice of which to start upon booting up? I have installed XP but I do not know how to get the screen to allow me to choose which HD to boot from?

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Yes...
Dec 11, 2007 11:15PM PST

It doesn't matter if you're using a single hard drive with multiple partitions or multiple hard drives. When you install one OS it automatically scans for installed OSes on all connected hard drives and creates a boot menu for future use.

From your previous posts I see that you're trying to install two copies of Windows XP. Since Vista is not involved you may wish to repost your query as a new thread in the Windows XP forum to receive more responses. To get you started, though, I will say the problem likely lies in a missing boot.ini entry, for which information can be found in this Microsoft KB article.

John

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Thanks John
Dec 19, 2007 11:11PM PST

Thank you John, I will try to edit the ini file. I wonder why it didnt add the entry properly to begin with. I will let you know if that works.

Thanks Again !

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Another thought
Dec 19, 2007 11:15PM PST

John, when you said earlier that when you install a 2nd OS either on a diff partition or a diff hard drive it automatically scans for other OS systems. That is where i have been running into trouble, it doesnt recognize the other hard drive, even though it shows up in bios and it shows up after the os was installed as another drive. Its just when setup was running and it says something about searching for other OS's it does not find any so it thinks its alone.

Like you suggested though, I'm going to try to edit the boot.ini file, thanks for the link

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XP- Vista
Oct 6, 2007 11:08PM PDT

thanks john Wilkinson your a stand up guy - your advise worked out well

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installing vista on a second sata hdd
Oct 14, 2007 2:30PM PDT

hi there first post here.

like the previous post im planning to install vista on a second sata hdd. i already have i sata drive running xp. will this be a simple plug in,format,install vista kind of process?

will i be able to choose witch os to boot from at start up?

thanks a lot
R

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Should be...
Oct 16, 2007 8:54AM PDT

There is the odd problem with drivers or BIOS settings concerning SATA, but since XP is running properly one would assume Vista's installation will go smoothly as well. After installation the boot menu will automatically launch to let you choose between the 2 OSes at will.

John

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Duel boot with Vista and XP
Feb 16, 2008 12:50PM PST

John you seem to know a lot about the duel boot with Vista and XP so here's my situation. I did a Vista complete PC restore because I upgraded to a larger hard drive (I didn't want to do a complete Vista Ultimate reinstall) So I did a complete PC restore. I used one of my old hard drives to install XP of course after the Vista complete PC restore on to my new "C" drive. Everthing went well except after booting XP and shutting down the PC and restarting it when the duel boot screen comes up and I choose Vista I get a boot error for Vista. The two boot options are "windows vista ultimate (recovered)" and the next line says XP home edition which I used Vistabootpro to configure these options. My question is why can't I boot vista after booting XP then shutting off the PC and restarting when choosing Vista at boot I get the boot error message for Vista but I don't get it when I boot XP first then clicking restart when exiting XP then chosing Vista on the duel boot menu then Vista boots. Is this because Vista was a complete PC back up on my main drive and not a fresh install and if it is can vistabootpro help me correct this problem or do I need to do a fresh install of Vista? I sure hope this made sense.
Thanks in advance

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What I'd try first...
Feb 16, 2008 1:49PM PST

If you have your original Vista DVD, boot to it, on the second screen choose the "Repair my computer" option from the bottom left corner, and then run Startup Repair.

John

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Fix it using Vistabootpro
Feb 17, 2008 5:04AM PST

Vistabootpro allows you to manipulate the boot the way you want..open VistabootPro and figure out how it is done...it is easy...go through each option at the top. You can even delete an entry and re-enter it.

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Duel boot using 2 hds
Dec 9, 2008 4:14AM PST

John, I was told by the people at vistabootpro to install Vista first when using 2 HDs. The logic is that Vista sw would be more adaptable. I hope you are right because I've cloned my XP ide drive to a sata drive and am resisting formating the XP drive and reinstalling XP on the new (Dell Studio XPS)PC. I would rather format the Vista Drive then the XP driv.
Any help you can give would be greatly appreciatied.
G

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Make it easy.
Sep 14, 2007 2:47AM PDT

Just plug the one in you want to use.

I hinged my side panel and have five hard drives and if I feel like using ubuntu today I plug it in..takes second since sata just plugs in and you don't have to be concerned about cable select, master, slave or any of that old stuff.

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Good option
Sep 14, 2007 5:26AM PDT

So you are saying just install separtely and swap and that is it? Sounds easy. Is it?

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Yes
Sep 14, 2007 6:04AM PDT

Yes, but not swap, OK, swap if you mean just plug the one in you want to use.

I now have 9 grandchildren that visit at one time and I put a hard drive in for them and when they get here I have it plugged in and and tell them they can do anything they want on the computer.

I saved a drive image {MSI P6N Motherboard with a Intel E-6700 processor} and when they leave to go home I restore a drive and it takes 4 minutes to make it the way it was before they showed up.


They have no idea they are not using "GRANDPA'S" computer, the one he built.

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What did you use
Sep 15, 2007 2:16AM PDT

Tell me what software did you use to achieve this and how? Is it just a backup image of your hard drive? what you stated above is interesting. I hear people talk about this all the time just never gave it much thought.

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Oh Well!
Sep 14, 2007 11:27AM PDT

I have had major problems with using dual operating systems so good luck.

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Dual booting
Sep 15, 2007 2:13AM PDT

Currently, One of the machines in my house has 3 operating systems on it 98 2000 and xp. They run just fine, though i will admit it was hell trying to get them all installed.

However, doing a dual boot with xp an vista is something new and yes i have heard that people ran into a lot of problems. So that is why i decided to do from 2 separt hard drives. I have hope i have some luck.

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For some time I did this (about four months)
Oct 5, 2007 2:00PM PDT

had no problems with the install. Both systems worked fine but I did have problems with a purchased security suite that would not run on both OSs at the same time. After a few months I abandoned this approach and made the jump to Vista only. I now use the second drive as a backup for Vista Business. Vistas working well for me but it did take some work, only some minor glitches remain.

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At this point
Dec 20, 2007 9:29AM PST

No glitches remain accept I can't get that ---- SP1 release candidate to load. There is one other problem that is kind of a bummer. When will the third party freebies catch up with Vista? I was looking for a free Christmas wallpaper yesterday and came up with nothing. Sad

I know, I know...........poor baby. Geeeeez it is the Holidays, cut me some slack.

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Answer dual boot xp and vista
Oct 6, 2007 1:41PM PDT

I tried to do a dual boot with vista and xp when vista first came out. I experienced a great deal of problems. I am still using xp because my tv tuner does not work in vista. Anyway, I have one hard drive with xp on it and the other has vista on it. When I want to use vista I just unplug the other hard drive slide it out, slide in the vista hard drive and plug them back in. It is simple for me because both hard drives are SATA. Which is great becuase I have no jumpers to worry about.

I hope this helps.

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another option
Oct 6, 2007 5:13PM PDT

another option instead of dual booting is to put xp in a virtual machine

i have vista as my main system. then i have xp in a virtual machine using a program called virtual box. i have also put linux in vms

benefits.
you can run multiple os at the same time/ need alot of ram i

have 2 gigs
you can copy and paste between os
i can print from any os on a network printer
i have a shared folder i can share files between both os
you can boot up iso files in vms
you can copy vm between multiple machines and to back up it is only one file. linux. check eula before you do this
you can surf internet in vm and if you are infected with a bad virus or worm you can just delete vm and restore with a back up copy.

drawbacks
in order to burn a disk you need to have a usb burner or copy file to shared folder and burn in vista
other than the network card you can only access the usb bus

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Have you used the Microsoft vitalization software?
Oct 6, 2007 6:10PM PDT

The free version, Virtual PC.
What was your impression?
How does Virtual Box compare?

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microsoft
Oct 6, 2007 6:54PM PDT

no i have not tried microsoft virtual pc yet

with virtual box you can use microsoft os , linux and now there is a beta for use on macintosh. i would like to know what os's are compatable with virtual pc. this would make a good forum in itself.

http://www.virtualbox.org/

opensource

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Here's a link
Oct 7, 2007 1:54AM PDT
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SATA Dual Boot Question
Oct 22, 2007 11:49AM PDT

I'm sorry but I have to ask, forgive the basic question. I have 2 sata drives and need to install xp on both and dual boot so i can flip back and forth. The orig hd is in SATA 0 slot and has XP on it. The new HD is in SATA slot 1 but when i try to load XP to it, the windows setup pgm does not even see the 2nd drive. I was told that windows will only notice the SATA 0 slot.

Does this mean there is no way i can dual boot ? I know i can swap the slots when i need to but I'd sure rather just have a nice litte selection screen pop up when i reboot.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Is it showing up in the bios?
Oct 22, 2007 12:15PM PDT

restart>on boot screen, click f1, hold it down> is the drive showing up here?

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This is a basic over view of the problem
Oct 22, 2007 12:22PM PDT