Hi guys, I stumbled across this site when looking for guides for a Vista/XP dual boot setup with Vista already installed.

I followed your guide stickied here, I am able to make a new partition for the xp install, and I start the install from the XP installation DVD. The problems start when the xp installation reboots for the first time after copying files.

When the computer is rebooting for the GUI portion of the XP install I get a black screen with the message: "Error loading operating system"

I have managed to boot up Vista again by booting up with the Vista installation DVD and performing /fixmbr and /fixboot in bootrec.exe.

But my problem is now how to finish the XP installation as it always stops with this message saying "Error loading operating system" and I can't boot up Vista until I fix the boot record.

Any help most appreciated. Thanx

Do you have all the necessary drivers on floppy disk or slipstreamed into the xp install disk.

NT50 wrote:

Do you have all the necessary drivers on floppy disk or slipstreamed into the xp install disk.

Actually my computer doesn't have a floppy drive

But yeah, I am pretty sure all the necessary drivers are present. The initial installation is fine, it's when booting up into xp to finish the installation that the problem starts.

EDIT
I don't know if it makes a difference, but the XP installation DVD I have came with a HP laptop I bought about 2 years ago. It is labeled as a system recovery DVD, but I have used it to install XP onto a desktop system without any problems before.

Ahhhhh

It is a recovery disk. Those thing are set to install on certain disk, certain partitions, certain computers, and certain drivers also. I have had some customers give me the wrong recovery disk for their HP computer and it would not work.

Not only that what you are doing is considered illegal, you need to purchase a copy of Windows XP for that computer. If you shop around you can buy an OEM for it. You can not install a recovery disk of another older computer onto a newer one and it be legal.