XP and Vista on same Partition

Had vista Ultimate 32 bit installed on 250 G HDD. Hated it. Constant errors. Reinstalled XP Pro on same HDD no separate partition. My bad! It boots into XP fine and I am happy again but the Vista files, incl My Docs created in Vista, are invisible. How can I transfer My Docs and add book back to XP?

I don't think you can. You would need to see them and take ownership of them. Reinstalling over the top probably removed those files. I don't believe XP can see the Vista files.

If you have a second hardrive or partition, just copy the files manually, from your Vista Docs, and back them somewhere etc. Then do a fresh install of XP and copy those files to your XP Documents.

....probably the simplest approach.

r2rX

When you say "copy the files manually", How can I, I can't see the Vista files. Do you mean in a DOS mode?

My Documents and Outlook Express message store is kept under Documents and Settings/%user%. If its the same in Vista, once you reinstalled XP over Vista it would have deleted and recreated the Documents and Settings folders. This is why I usually move the My Documents and OE message store out of this area on to a separate drive.

Thanks for trying but I don't think you understand the problem. The Vista Files, including My Docs and Outlook created under the Vista OS are now invisible since the Vista OS now does not exist.

They are on the drive but I can't get to them. Nor can I view them in a run command.

Enable the administrator account and log in under it. Take ownership of the entire drive and all directories and subdirectories. If they still exist, you will see them.

Thanks, tried it it didn't work. I Simply reformatted the drive and restored some files from an old backup I had. Not the best solution, but I'm past the problem now, and back to my beloved XP. No More Vista crap to mess with! Hooray!

You should backup the My Documents folder once or twice a week to DVD. I use two tape drives for my backups.

I back up to two seperate HDD's, one external, daily so I was able to recover most of my data. Thank you for your attempt to help.

Microsoft needs to be criticized heavily for issuing an OS that is so disrespectful of exisiting software drivers, and it's OWN former OS! I have more than 500 computer clients in this area and the complaints about Vista have forced many to seek new computers with the old XP on them. That is a sorry state. Old printers don't work. the software sent with the scanners don't support Vista, beloved games don't work, etc.

Sheer arrogance on Microsoft's part is the only explanation. "We will issue the OS and the other mfg's and software companies can go pound sand", seems to be their mindset.

I attempted to use Vista Ultimate in both a 64 bit and 32 bit format. The 32 bit had possibilities but not the 64 bit. The 64 bit cannot even load Adobe Flash Player. Apparently Adobe does not have a 64 bit driver.

Even the 32 bit was extremely skittish. After two days of searching and loading Vista drivers and getting green lights on the device drivers, I got messages like " Local Active Permission" needs to close or cannot load": or, " Com service app w clsid processor is missing": or, "Open component services administration tool to correct LRPC". When faced with messages like these the average computer user asks, "why did I ever leave XP"?

I won't make the mistake again. As to the rumor Microsoft is withdrawing support of XP in order to force everyone to Vista. I assure you many will go to Linux or still not go to Vista.

An OS is only good if the average user can use it seemlessly.