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General discussion

Installation help and advice

Sep 20, 2007 5:10AM PDT

I have a new sony vaio with vista installed... I wanted it for all my photoshop and video editing work... I now cant even open one video in media player etc of adobe elements... all I can do is use quicktime.I can't even rip a cd!!!

very fed up I want to install windows 98 as well so I have the choice on startup...

can anyone help me do this... I'm a bit scared about losing access to vista and losing my work, as the backup facility isn't working on my version of vista!!!

thanks jonni

Discussion is locked

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There's one complication...
Sep 20, 2007 12:24PM PDT

The initial hurdle is that you must split the partition in two as each version of Windows must be installed on its own partition. You can go into Disk Management (an Administrative Tool through the Control Panel) and "Shrink" the current partition, then Create a new partition from the newly unallocated space. The other alternative is to use a third-party program such as Partition Magic. Neither method is foolproof, though, so there is a slight risk of data loss.

After that's done you can install Windows 98 on the newly created partition. However, the complication is that when you do Vista will likely be unbootable. You would then have to boot to the Vista DVD and choose the Repair option, performing a Startup Repair to current the problem. It's entirely doable, but it can get a little testy. Personally, before doing that I'd copy-and-paste any important files onto a flash drive or external hard drive, just in case. If you decide to press ahead and have any questions feel free to ask.

John

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further vista problems
Sep 20, 2007 9:05PM PDT

thanks John, I think I want to press on, however I am trying to back up my hard drive... however vista is stopping me every time I get close to burning of the dvds... so many problems with vista its just not true...

you dont happent to know how to get these missing codecs for media player do you, I've searched everywhere... cood1199

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I wouldn't use WMP...
Sep 22, 2007 9:57AM PDT

WMP may be able to burn data CDs and DVDs but it's best to go with a tool actually designed for that purpose instead of it being a side function. CDBurnerXP is a free third-party burner that should get the job done without the fuss of fixing what was broken to begin with.

John

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thanks
Sep 23, 2007 12:45AM PDT

thanks for your help John kind regards...