[apw63]

Hello,

I have been reading the forums, doing some research in to what I need to start. This is I have for an system.
Vista Home Premium 64 bit SP1
Intel Core2 Quad Q6700 2.66GHz
4 GB RAM
500 gb hdd SATA C: only one partition (system files VISTA)
1000 gb hdd SATA D: only one partition (programs and storage)
DVDRW SATA E:
DVDRW SATA F:

I have vista installed already, and I would like to install 32 bit xp on another partition. I have read that the preferred way to do this is to install xp first. I would really like to avoid this option. I have my vista system all setup and running. I do have all my vital files backed up on to a external usb hdd.

Thank you for any help in getting me started or pointed in the right direction. I have vista boot pro v 3.3.0.0
Andy Wegner

[yeshuas]

follow this guide and you should be alright

http://www.pronetworks.org/index.php/gu ... ows_vista/

[apw63]

Thank you for the link Yeshuas. I will give this a try and report back on success or failure.

Andy

[apw63]

I have my first problem the guide that Yeshuas pointed me to http://www.pronetworks.org/index.php/gu ... ows_vista/ has this warning

NOTE: Check that Windows XP drivers for your system are available from the manufacturer of your system or from the motherboard manufacturer before attempting to install Windows XP. In particular, if you are using an SATA drive, make sure that you have Windows XP SATA Controller drivers available as they may be necessary for Windows XP setup to be able to "see" the partition on which you intend to install it. This is an important step especially with new Laptop and Notebook systems as well as OEM Desktop systems from manufacturers like Dell, HP and Gateway.

Here is the problem, when I try to install XP on the newly created partition per instruction in the guide. XP install disk can not see the new partition. XP reports drive C: 131 GB and drive D: 131 GB. I know this is not correct. XP is not seeing the new partition correctly. So I need the Windows XP SATA Controller drivers. I have my motherboard (ASUS P5N32-E) driver disk. The motherboard does have the makedisk utillity, but it appears to need a floppy drive. I do not have a floppy drive in this computer. I do have access to another computer running XP that has a floppy drive. How do I install these drivers so that XP can see the SATA drives correctly?

Thanks for any help
Andy

[yeshuas]

You have a couple options

Slipstream the drivers into an XP install disk, which can be difficult for most.

Beg borrow or steal a floppy drive, they are cheap like 10 dollars, a little more for an external one.

[apw63]

Thanks for the suggestions! Making a slipstream of my xp disk with SATA driver and SP 2.

Andy

[apw63]

I have a problem. I installed XP on the newly created partition F:. The slipstream XP install disk I make worked great. I was able to update XP and install all other drivers that I needed. I next installed vista boot pro while running XP and ran it. Opened the system Bootloader tab selected "Windows Vista Bootloader" in the first section and "All Drives" in the second section and then click Install Bootloader. I ran the diagnostics. The guild stated that "you will have entries there for "Earlier versions of Windows" as well as "Microsoft Windows Vista" I only had entry for vista. I added XP, boot drive F: system type legacy. When I rebooted system I got the option to boot to vista or xp. I booted in to vista no problems. When I went back and rebooted again and selected XP I get Windows Boot Manager error, tells me to insert system disk and repair.

I think that something has not worked right. What did I do wrong? What can I do to fix this issue? I did try to run repair by booting to xp with install disk and run repair on F: drive. It just took me to a dos screen F:/windows. I think dos is looking for some typed command, but I don't know what to type.

If any one could help thank you. If there is any added info that is needed please let me know so that I can provide.

Andy

[yeshuas]

Get into Folder Options and unhide hidden files and folders and have it to show hidden system files and folders, then make sure that these 3 files are in the system/boot partition of your harddrive, boot.ini, NTDETECT, and ntldr.

It won't hurt anything for them to be in both the Vista partition and the XP partition by then way

[apw63]

I was looking at my vista disk mamagement tool. I see that the partition that I installed xp to is listed as E:. I assigned E: to the partition when changing drive letters recommended by the guide. Vista reports to drive as E: volume label XP. When I installed XP, and it asked me were to install XP . It reported the same partition as F: volume label XP and that is were I installed XP. When I had XP running it reported the XP drive as F:. I'm wondering if this is not part of the problem. Could I change the drive letters in vista from E: to F: to match up with the XP install? If I changed them would it have adverse effects?.

Ok to answer your question. With Vista running and I explore C: I do see boot.ini, NTDETECT.COM and ntidr. If I explore E: (F: in XP) I do not see any of those files. I hope I'm explaining this well enough so that you can get an idea of how it has laid out.

Thank you for you reply
Andy

[yeshuas]

Are you able to get into both OS's now ?

If not then I would change the drive letter to see if that helps, also make sure your boot.ini file is showing the correct partiton for XP or it won't boot to XP either.