Windows XP in a dual boot with pre-installed Windows Vista
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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.
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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.
13 posts
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by kd1966 » Mon Mar 12, 2007 10:39 pm
Ok, need to know which HDD partition is the System drive as Vista sees it. You said you had preinstalled Vista so I presume the Vista partition IS the system drive at this point, even after installing XP, but let's make sure. I'm not sure what you mean by "The option is not available"............. are you booting to the Vista boot menu each time? Or are you sometimes booting directly to XP without a boot menu? I'm confused at this point what the issue is
by ns doug » Tue Mar 13, 2007 12:38 am
I'm sorry to be so confusing. I'm trying to sort out all of the Vista issues with my computer, unfortunately to date I cannot use my modem as it crashes the computer. Probably need to update the driver. My ISP will not update their software and that prevents me from using Vista OS to communicate with you. I am using my old laptop with XP.
Basically, the hard drive is partitioned with B: recovery (healthy) C: Vista ( healthy) D: XP (healthy) all NTFS. The DVD is allocated E:
My understanding of VistaBoot PRO is that it would allow me to select either C:(Vista) or D:(XP) on start up. When that option appears at start up if I select Vista it will indeed boot to Vista. Selecting XP causes an error message to appear stating that "ntldr" is missing. This is the issue that I would like to address.
If I use the VistaBoot PRO diagnostics to analyze the problem then I receive the message that I copied to you earlier. However, it is possible to boot between systems by opening VistaBoot PRO (on the desktop) and re-setting the default in the OS manager.
Hope this info helps. Thanks again
Doug
by NT50 » Tue Mar 13, 2007 1:56 am
VistaBootPro does not contrll you dual booting. Vista's boot manager does. VBP just allowed you to change your option with a GUI (Graphical User Interface).
To keep it simple I have been telling the people to copy the three files of XP: boot.ini, ntldr, NTDETECT to both drives Vista and XP.
From there you need to make sure that the boot.ini points to the proper disk and proper partition for XP to boot. You may also need to reenter the XP entry (LEGACY OS) in VBP.
Instead of selecting the default boot OS just select it when it is booting.
To keep it simple I have been telling the people to copy the three files of XP: boot.ini, ntldr, NTDETECT to both drives Vista and XP.
From there you need to make sure that the boot.ini points to the proper disk and proper partition for XP to boot. You may also need to reenter the XP entry (LEGACY OS) in VBP.
Instead of selecting the default boot OS just select it when it is booting.
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