A Digital Age Deserves A Digital Leader

Vista PC - Attempted XP dual boot install mess

Forum rules
Please start your own topic for support with problems you experience. Even if it appears to be exactly the same as someone else's problem, system configurations differ significantly. Thank you.

It may take our support staff between 24-48 hours to respond to your problem. We are a small business and strive to answer your questions as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience.

Vista PC - Attempted XP dual boot install mess

Postby ronmexico » Sat May 15, 2010 4:27 am

Okay...so before any of you excoriate me for what I'm about to describe, let me say: I am an idiot.

So for my ex-girlfriend's birthday, I volunteered to help her with her computer. She had a Windows Vista HP Desktop PC - one actually similar to mine. However, she never really got used to Vista, and it was slow, so I decided to surprise her with a dual boot setup with Windows XP Pro.

First big mistake: I forgot to create a backup DVD of Vista from her system (Vista was preinstalled from the factory, just never got around to creating a backup). I meant to, but had totally forgotten.

I followed the steps from this website, finishing through this step:
http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vist ... htm?page=3

I partitioned about 85 GB of space, and then used my XP disc to install it on the new partition. I used Disk Management GUI in Vista to do this.

I installed XP using the instructions. All was good, until after I finished installation, and removed the disc from the drive and restarted.

Upon restart, the system shows the BIOS screen,then just shows a blinking cursor in the top left. There's no Windows logo, no load screen, just one lonely blinking cursor at the top.

Now, I can put the XP install disc back in the drive, and on restart the PC will let me access the disc if I hit a key and then I can reinstall the XP, with the exact same overall results.

Now I don't have any idea how to proceed. In the end, I'd just like to retain the data that was on the PC (not backed up) and would be perfectly happy just to have XP only on the computer. But I'm not sure how to proceed.

For what its worth, I had a very similar PC to my ex-GFs, and installed the dual boot with zero problems.

Yes, I know I'm an idiot. A lazy, lazy idiot. Please help!
PRO New Member
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat May 15, 2010 4:09 am

Re: Vista PC - Attempted XP dual boot install mess

Postby NT50 » Sat May 15, 2010 4:37 am

HP comes with a restore partition, can you do a complete reinstall of Vista and then lets start from there?????
Dogs Have Owners; Cats Have Staff
PROfessional Member
User avatar
Posts: 8220
Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2004 4:46 pm
Location: Jackson, TN USA
Real Name: Jeff Replogle

Re: Vista PC - Attempted XP dual boot install mess

Postby ronmexico » Sat May 15, 2010 5:36 am

There is a restore partition, but would that wipe existing data on the hard drive? Also, how would I access the restore partition? Thanks!
PRO New Member
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat May 15, 2010 4:09 am

Re: Vista PC - Attempted XP dual boot install mess

Postby yeshuas » Sat May 15, 2010 2:02 pm

ronmexico wrote:There is a restore partition, but would that wipe existing data on the hard drive? Also, how would I access the restore partition? Thanks!


First and most important, YES this will wipe all the new data that your ex-grilfriend has installed or whatever since getting the computer. If there are things on there that are not backed up, they will be lost, hopefully they are not so important that you will lose her as a friend, and you will learn a very important lesson or two or three from this.

1st, always Backup a computer, before attempting something like what you did.

2nd, know what you are doing, by researching the process, and know the pitfalls and other possible outcomes

3rd, Never do anything like this without permission, especially on a friends computer.

With all that said, and now you know that all information that has been added since having purchased that computer, (which in some cases is a good thing, since it returns the computer to its pristine factory condition)

After pressing the button to turn the computer on, continually hit the F10 key to gain access to the Restore Partition
Game Over!!!!!!!!
Image
ASUS Maximus V Gene MB
Windows 8 X64; Windows 7 X64; Windows 7 X86
Intel I5-3570K
16GB Corsair Vengeance Ram
eVGA GeForce GTX 550 TI
Corsair GS700 PS
1TB Seagate SATA 6.0Gb HD
Thermaltake Case
Software Development
User avatar
Posts: 5075
Joined: Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:29 pm
Location: Chicago, IL
Real Name: Daniel Schmidt

Re: Vista PC - Attempted XP dual boot install mess

Postby ronmexico » Sat May 15, 2010 10:01 pm

thanks for the advice guys...are there any other options that I have on the table...anything I can try?
PRO New Member
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat May 15, 2010 4:09 am

Re: Vista PC - Attempted XP dual boot install mess

Postby yeshuas » Sun May 16, 2010 3:16 am

If you put the XP disk in are you able to boot to XP that you have installed or not. If you can get to XP we may be able to straighten this mess out.
Game Over!!!!!!!!
Image
ASUS Maximus V Gene MB
Windows 8 X64; Windows 7 X64; Windows 7 X86
Intel I5-3570K
16GB Corsair Vengeance Ram
eVGA GeForce GTX 550 TI
Corsair GS700 PS
1TB Seagate SATA 6.0Gb HD
Thermaltake Case
Software Development
User avatar
Posts: 5075
Joined: Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:29 pm
Location: Chicago, IL
Real Name: Daniel Schmidt

Re: Vista PC - Attempted XP dual boot install mess

Postby ronmexico » Sun May 16, 2010 5:12 pm

If I put the XP disc, I can get to setup (it looks like the screen on this link):

http://www.marvingohan.com/images2/vist ... tition.jpg

I'm able to reinstall XP, but the same issue exists...can't get anywhere near an XP boot screen...
PRO New Member
Posts: 4
Joined: Sat May 15, 2010 4:09 am

Re: Vista PC - Attempted XP dual boot install mess

Postby yeshuas » Sun May 16, 2010 5:21 pm

What you may be missing here is the Raid driver for the motherboard, even though you aren't using a Raid, sometimes XP needs the driver and it has to be on a Floppy
Game Over!!!!!!!!
Image
ASUS Maximus V Gene MB
Windows 8 X64; Windows 7 X64; Windows 7 X86
Intel I5-3570K
16GB Corsair Vengeance Ram
eVGA GeForce GTX 550 TI
Corsair GS700 PS
1TB Seagate SATA 6.0Gb HD
Thermaltake Case
Software Development
User avatar
Posts: 5075
Joined: Wed Jan 17, 2007 3:29 pm
Location: Chicago, IL
Real Name: Daniel Schmidt

Return to Windows Boot Problems

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 5 guests

cron
cron