Dual booting 2 windows OS

[sanctus]

Hi all,

 

on my girlfriends computer I would like to install a dual boot for windows XP and Vista. She has already Vista installed. What I thought to do was:

1. make place for xp with gparted run from cd (Ican just make a partition out of the maybe non-connected free space right?)
   
2. install xp, but I wonder how to say that it has to be installed in the freshly made partition, I guess this option is not there like when installing linux
   
3. installing the grub boot loader, I have on the systemrescuecd grub4dos but I wonder how to install it and when, i.e. before or after the preceeding step?
   
4. did I miss anything?
   

A big thanks in advance.

[alexander]

full intructable:

 

How to dual boot Vista and XP (with Vista installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots

[sanctus]

Cool there is only one slight problem :phones:

 

Until step 4 everything is ok, because it works also without the Vista-cd which I don't have (you can just use gparted they say in step 2).

The work around a guy in comments proposes to fix the bootloader is:

"one you get to the xp install step install .NET framework 2.0 and get easyBCD in there and use its reinstall vista bootloader and click write MBR. Then when you restart you should get your choices between xp and vista. Even better vista will boot up like a pro."

 

Does he mean that I go on xp, get easyBCD and then reinstall vista bootloader? And then click write MBR? I think this is what he means, but it surprizes me that after reinstalling vista bootloader it still knows/sees the xp partition.

 

Why do you need the .NET frameworke anyway?

[alexander]

lots of crappy apps require .net platform, probably some part of that easyBCD requires it too, maybe the installer. It comes with a lot of libraries, and many applications use it...

 

sanctus, you are on your own, i haven't had a need to do this yet, but i think you are on the right track with your thoughts there :)

 

also easybcd is a program that will reinstall the boot loader, you just need to confirm and tell it to write the mbr. :singer:

 

yes the vista boot loader will load and see xp and vista, xp boot loader does not.... grub does though :hihi: meh loves grub :)

[buddyzen]

you could also do it without a program or anything but it is a very big pain because you have to reboot to get on the other operating system you could just install the other operating system on another partition. but then i just remembered you can use a free version of VMware it is a very useful program you should look into that

[freeztar]

I did the same thing over a year ago, but I don't remember all the steps. I followed a guide like the one Alex posted. I seem to remember having to edit the XP boot.ini file to get the vista bootloader to see it, but it was a long time ago and I can't remember exactly how I did that...

[alexander]

thats if you are installing vista after xp...

[freeztar]

thats if you are installing vista after xp...

 

Ah, ok...

 

After looking at my boot.ini file it seems that I was remembering incorrectly. I had added lines to it for boot options (safe mode, etc.) as the Vista bootloader will bypass any attempt at using F8.