I want to dual boot XP Pro and Vista.

I have not been able to do this successfully because of what I have come to realize are driver issues. Vista does not contain drivers for my Promise RAID controller. No F6 prompt like in XP is causing me headaches.

My XP is installed on a 2 drive SATA array. I have no way to partition it without purchasing software I would rather not have to, for a one time thing.

My latest attempt had me installing Vista on my backup drive (IDE, and is "D" to XP) that I created a partition on just for Vista ("V" in XP).

If I don't disconnect my SATA drives, the install gives me the following message "Windows is unable to find a system volume that meets its criteria for installation". Installing from within XP, I am told that Vista does not contain drivers for the Promise Controller, and mistakenly I believe, my IDE controllers, but no means to install them. Continue or abort are the options. If I continue, the next reboot during the install bluescreens.

Disconnecting the SATA drives, allows me to install Vista, but I boot right into XP.

Futzing around in VistaBootPro gave me the two OS's for boot options, but I am unable to boot into either of them. Obviously I have something wrong. Fortunately, I am familiar enough with the XP Recovery Console to correct the problem.

My ASUS P4PE motherboard has an early, and for nowadays crude implementation of SATA that does not natively recognize the SATA ports.

Any advice appreciated.

Hey root66 and welcome to PROnetworks

Which version of Vista are you wanting to install to RAID. There are no issues with doing so in Builds 5384 (Beta 2) X86 or X64 and Build 5456 X86 installs fine to RAID as well provided you have the right drivers of course.

There is no F6 function but that is replaced with the "Load Drivers" function at the setup screen where one selects the drive/partition on which to install. One is then prompted to insert the CD, Flash Drive or other media containing the drivers.

I use a CD and take out the Vista Setup DVD, load the drivers from it, remove the CD and reinsert the Vista DVD and then click Next and setup goes well.

I think if you also provide more detail of your Promise RAID controller we may be able to help you find the right drivers or another member may have found them already and post where they are available from

Hi Grav!ty, thanks for the welcome!

Yes, Beta 2 x86. I guess I was so much looking for an F6 prompt, that I overlooked the "Load Drivers". I'm certain that will cure my problem, which is "operator error".

The Promise XP drivers work fine so there are no issues there. As usual, I have overthought the problem and turned a small problem into a big one.

Thanks so much for pointing me in the right direction!

Welcome to PROnet Root66!

We have all been there in operator error land

Let us know how the install turns out.

Well, the install went well. I even got my ethernet drivers installed ahead of time.

I was not able to get into XP.

Within Vista, I installed VistaBootPro and noticed there were no drive letters associated with XP. I associated it with "C" which was probably my mistake.

Then, I could not get into either Vista or XP.



What do I need to edit to get this going? Should I have looked at the drive letter associated with XP in Vista and used that one? In Entry # 1, why is there no drive letter next to Windows Drive: ?

hmm, I am not sure... I think someone with a better knowledge of the program can be more help to you

how come you have your screen resoultion set so high??? Its messing with the buttons I guess

My screen resolution is not that high at 1280 x 1024, it's that I'm running Large Fonts.

Messes up some proggies.

Hi root66........... I think you made a "common" error here............. While in Vista, it considers itself to be the C: drive, and when you assigned XP the C: drive (While running VBPro in Vista) you pretty much confused the Vista bootloader.

Here is a suggestion: Boot the Vista DVD to WinRE (Advanced Startup Repair) and let Vista fix itself through the WinRE, then when you reboot - and you should have the Vista bootloader menu again - try to boot to XP. If this works, then simply run VBPro from XP and "fix" the OS descriptions.

If this does NOT allow you to boot to XP, then boot to the Vista and run VBPro and find out WHAT DRIVE XP IS ON AS VISTA SEES IT!! This is important, so open Explorer to see what drive Vista sees your XP install, and add a new "legacy" entry for XP on this drive.

The last ditch effort would be to boot the XP CD to the recovery console, use "fixboot", boot back to XP, shut down and boot to the Vista DVD (WinRE) to recover the Vista OS................

root66 wrote:

My screen resolution is not that high at 1280 x 1024, it's that I'm running Large Fonts. Messes up some proggies.

Oh, well do what you like - Good luck

There is a way to solve your issue

Set up your backup drive to be the main drive in BIOS, then pop your XP CD in the tray, and boot from that to XP setup.

Install a temporary XP setup into that drive --- it will NOT let you boot into your main XP, but don't worry about it...

Then, install the drivers for your Promise RAID controller, and reboot --- when you have done this, edit the boot.ini so that it can boot into both XP versions, and make sure that the main XP is set as default.

You should then have a pre-boot environment which should let you correctly install Vista into the IDE drive, and give you the desired dual boot options --- the problem you are having is that your MBR (Master Boot Record) is in a locaton that the Vista pre-boot environment can't see for lak of drivers, and following this procedure will create a new MBR in the IDE drive, which should solve your problems --- unfortunately, it will require reinstalling Vista ...

...

BTW, Promise RAID drivers are a nightmare, and you should try an avoid installing them during Setup --- it may be possible to find some working drivers, but ideally you should install them from within Vista