How to Make a Dual Boot with Vista and XP

This 'How-to' assumes that you have Vista installed in your computer. It will show you how to install Windows XP in your Vista machine so you can have dual booting access with both operating systems. Please read the steps throughly before you perform them. This article is for the novice and the advance users.

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Vista DVD
• Windows XP CD
• EasyBCD utility

1. 

   Load Vista DVD
   
   Boot off the Vista DVD. Hit Next from the start screen and then select “Install now”.

2. 

   Vista Product Key
   
   Uncheck the “Automatically activate Windows when I’m online.” option and select “Next”. Select “No” when prompted for product key.

3. 

   Select Vista version
   
   When prompted to choose the edition of Vista you’re installing. Select any of the options. We are not installing Vista at this stage. Select “I have selected the edition of Windows that I purchased” and then select “Next”. Accept the license terms and select “Next”. Select “Custom Installation”.

4. 

   Installation
   
   The installation will then ask you “Where do you want to install Windows”. You will see a single large partition that is marked “Primary”. This shows where your Vista is installed.

5. 

   Command line
   
   Press ‘SHIFT’ + F10. This will lead you to a Windows PE 2.0 shortcut and will open the command line window.

6. 

   At the command line, type in ‘DISKPART’ and hit ‘Enter’. This will open the Microsoft DiskPart application. Type in ‘list disk’. Next type in ‘select disk 0’.

7. 

   Next type in:
   list volume
   And then type in:
   select volume 0

8. 

   Next type in:
   shrink

9. 

   New Windows Partition
   
   DiskPart will run and reclaim as much of the drive as it can. The program should be able to get 50 percent of the disk space.
   Next type in:
   EXIT
   and
   EXIT (again)
   Click ‘Refresh and the partition window will update the information on the screen. You will then be prompted back to the install screen. At this point you should see the original Primary partition and a new partition.
   
   The new partition that you see is where we will install Windows XP. Eject the Vista DVD and put in your Windows XP CD. Restart the machine.

10. 

    Installing Windows XP
    
    Run through the Windows XP installation process. When prompt where you would like to install; you will notice that XP recognizes the Vista partition and the new partition that we created

11. 

    You should be able to see the space that had been reclaimed. It will show as “unallocated space”.
    
    Create a second partition using the Windows XP installer. Select the free disk space on the drive and then press “C” to create a partition. Choose the NTFS option if it prompts for a selection.
    
    XP will assign a drive letter to the partition. This means that it will use the next available drive letter. Therefore, the system drive for your XP will not be at the C:
    
    IMPORTANT NOTE – after the initial file copy, Windows XP reboots and loads up the GUI-based component of the install. You may get the following error: “A disk read error occurred – press Ctrl-Alt-Del to continue”. This is caused by a corrupt bootloader. If the Windows XP bootload gets corrupted during the install, performing a reinstall won’t fix the problem. Launching the XP Recovery Mode to repair the MBR will not fix it neither. To fix this problem, follow the procedure outlined in Step 12 to restore the Vista bootloader. This allows the system to boot into Vista. You can then use EasyBCD to create an XP boot entry and use that to boot and continue on with XP's installation.
    
    When the system reboots it will not show the boot menu. XP will recognize the Vista partition but it will not recognize the Vista operating system. Therefore the bootloader will load XP instead of Vista. After XP is loaded, launch the File Manager and select the ‘Computers’ option. You will see C: and E: drives. The C: contains the windows Vista operating system. Since Windows XP can read NTFS partitions, it can browse and modify the Vista’s file structure.

12. 

    Restoring Vista and Dualbooting
    
    Since we can’t use the XP bootloader to boot Vista, we have to reinstate Vista’s bootloader and configure it to manage both operating systems.
    Insert the Vista DVD into your drive. Once the DVD is loaded, it will prompt you to select a few options. Select “Repair your computer”.

13. 

    On the next screen, choose ‘Microsoft Windows Vista’ and then select “Next”.

14. 

    Recovery Vista's bootloader
    
    This will load the System Recovery Option on your screen. Select the “Startup Repair”. This will automatically fix Vista’s missing bootloader.

15. 

    If you would like to review the diagnostic of the repair details, select “Click here for diagnostic and repair details”. Scroll to the bottom of the list and you will see that the boot sector has been repaired.
    
    Click “Close” and then click “Finish”. Your system will restart and Vista will boot.

16. 

    Running EasyBCD utility
    
    Finally, we need to enable the dual booting feature with Windows XP. The best utility that we recommend is the EasyBCD utility. You may download it at this site. http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1
    
    After you have installed the application, launch it and go to the “Add/Remove Entries” option.
    
    Under “Add an Entry” and under the Windows tab, select the version drop-down list “Windows NT/2K/XP/2K3”. Change the drive selection to E:\ and the name to “Windows XP”. Click “Add Entry” and “Save”

17. 

    Reboot your system and you will see two entries in the Vista bootloader. You will now have the option of booting through two operating systems.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have one, try this on a spare computer first.
• PLEASE READ THE STEPS THOROUGHLY BEFORE YOU TRY THIS. THIS IS FOR THE NOVICE AND ADVANCED USER.