First that is a grand step by step to state the least!

I'm a noob to this!

I have Vista on C: and RESTORE Vista on D:, on an Acer Aspire 4720Z 120 GB Dual core, 1 GB Ram

I'm going back to XP Pro and wanted dual boot, (or triple ?)
1. Does your fine instructions include using D to shrink, or do I have to move DVD to F and XP Pro to E to keep the RESTORE on D?

2. OR Can I still shrink Vista on C: anyway as I won't be using C very much at all? It's has 43.4 GB free now of the 67 GB.
And D: has 62.5 GB Free but also the RESTORE

3. Without extra software, can I do a three partition, with E: as XP Pro with the RESTORE partition on D ?

Oh yea, I really don't need the RESTORE, as I did a full disc backup for Vista via Acer.
And D: has 62.5 GB Fact that may be "to easy" even for this old man?

Sorry for the rambling, and thanks for this site!

It's just to overwhelming to find a site, like this that is so clear and easy to dual boot form Vista, to XP and have a choose to use either!
TO much!

Thanks for everything!

Hi bornfree. I'm inclined to suggest you shrink the restore partion (without deleting it) and to use the free space you create for the installation of XP. I think you'll only have the restore item in the boot menu when you press F8 on the Vista boot menu item or access it from the key according to your documentation.

The drive lettering is not that important to change, but it does help in configuring your system the way you want. It's very important NOT to change the drive letters of the drives on which you have operating systems or your restore partition though as that will make them unusable.

Hope that helps and please post back if you have more questions

Thank you muchly, even the extra fast reply!

I pm'ed you because the Locked Icon was next to the New Topic Icon!

Again good "goof proof" instructions!

So now I have no excuses, to just do it! (as he hold his breath and hits the button, that might destroy the Microsoft whole world as he once knew it ?)

Well if I'm not back in a few days, than you know I "leaped before I looked!"

Have a good one, here goes the whole thing!

Later!

We'll hold thumbs for ya

OK I got cold feet!

So I get C: to shrink,
than I have D: with the RESTORE on it.
And it is the size of the shrink plus what it was before! Or about 80GB minus the 15 GB for the Vista RESTORE.

SO before I get "up to my neck" in this. . .

I have Ubuntu that has a grub to XP Pro, and I want to piggy back this as it does it itself, onto XP but that would mess with the Vista boot choice? Right?

So would I have to fix the boot with something, to get to see the boot screen with (in any order what so ever it doesn't matter) Vista, XP, Ubuntu.

So what would I have to do extra to see a tri-boot screen to boot to what ever of the OS I choose from the three (3) ?

So there, I said it, that is what I wanted to do, but didn't know how to ask, correctly!

Thanks, more than I can state!

Hang in there bornfree, for someone with experience using GRUB with Vista, XP and Ubuntu to help.

I'm just going to go with your process, using VistaBoot to shrink and install my XP Pro Corporate!

I did some learning last nite about needing to re-learn DOS type of input to get places in Linus, so this old dog don't need no new tricks!

I don't do the cmd typing thingy very good!!

So I guess its just Mr.Billy ware for me, for now!

Going to do the shrink and install as soon as I make sure I have all the drivers, and an BIOS update (if I can find it) before I "step in the deep!"

Thanks

Sill have not put vista off to the side yet!

Had a ask how are the drivers installed, to run XP hard and software?

I don't see where you mentioned "How to install drivers" or are they just used under the Vista partition, which doesn't seem possible, but what do I know?

Many thanks!

bornfree wrote:

Sill have not put vista off to the side yet! Had a ask how are the drivers installed, to run XP hard and software? I don't see where you mentioned "How to install drivers" or are they just used under the Vista partition, which doesn't seem possible, but what do I know? Many thanks!

You have to make a bootable floppy or similar device for the XP installation to see the hard drives. This is a special disk the folks at Acer should have the tools to make. I think it's commonly called a Driver Disk. It can't be a driver installation package copied to the disk, they need to be extracted raid drivers. I've done this many times but I have it easy. I use my motherboard CD which has a create disk function to do that. And there is also a way to slipstream the drivers on to the XP CD but I don't have the info on that. There is a program - Lite something or other which does just that. Hope this helps. Hell I don't even know if I'm talking about what you're talking about. I know nothing about Grub or Linux and don't want to so don't ask me anything about that. But good luck with your project. It's both fun, very exsaperating but rewarding when done.

Mark

Depending on the version of Ubuntu you are using, if you have XP and Vista already installed and booting properly, Ubuntu should auto install GRUB and auto produce a boot menu to include XP and Vista. The newer versions of Ubuntu and Kubuntu will do fine at least.