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LynnS

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There are so many of my programs that wont run on Vista Ultimate 64 bit that I would like to dual boot with XP. I have XP Home and Pro. I originally was going to put it on an empty external drive but someone told me it would be better as a partition on the C drive.

Question 1, which is better for dual boot, ext drive or partition?

So I used disk manager and added the G partition to the C drive. Since I actually have 2 external hard drives (not counting the memory sticks), I decided this was silly and went back into disk manager and right click and deleted the G drive. But that left a green space in the graphic and right clicking C did not give me the option of expanding it back into that area. It did offer delete with a scary caveat that sounded like I could really screw up my C drive.

Question 2, if the1st answer is to use the ext drive, how do I incorporate the blank area back into C without trashing anything?

Thanks in advance for any help you can provide. I can't afford to be without my computer.

Thanks,
Lynn
 

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Sounds like the green area is unallocated space on a logical drive in an extended partition - it always warns you about deleting before extending.

Just to make sure what it is, post back a .jpeg screenshot of disk management.

Plenty of people dual-boot with XP on a separate partition - gets a bit complicated if you want to repartition or reinstall - so you may as well use a separate hdd as you have one.

To post a jpeg , first use your sreen capture tool to take a shot and save it as a .jpeg .

Then click the Go Advanced button at the bottom of the thread page, and follow step 7 onward from this tutorial

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/148532-how-use-snipping-tool-vista.html

Hope that helps

SIW2

Click middle icon, top right of this post to comment if it has helped
 

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System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Vista
    CPU
    Intel E8400
    Motherboard
    ASRock1333-GLAN R2.0
    Memory
    4gb DDR2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 9500GT 1gb
  • Operating System
    win7/vista
    CPU
    intel i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    ballistix 2x8gb 3200
SIW2 said:
Just to make sure what it is, post back a .jpeg screenshot of disk management.

Plenty of people dual-boot with XP on a separate partition - gets a bit complicated if you want to repartition or reinstall - so you may as well use a separate hdd as you have one.

Then click the Go Advanced button at the bottom of the thread page, and follow step 7 onward from this tutorial

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/148532-how-use-snipping-tool-vista.html
Click to expand...
I already made it back to a G drive but the 4g area showing as the G drive appeared empty and was boldly outlined in bright green, more so than the current picture. Right clicking gave me the option again to delete and right clicking the C drive did not give me the option to extend. I just wasn't sure if I should take the chance deleting it after the warning, and screw something up so changed it back to G. I can redo it and post the picture if it helps. Also to put XP on HD or partition, do I try booting from the disc?
 

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SIW2 said:
To post a jpeg , first use your sreen capture tool to take a shot and save it as a .jpeg .
Then click the Go Advanced button at the bottom of the thread page, and follow step 7 onward from this tutorial

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/148532-how-use-snipping-tool-vista.html

Hope that helps

SIW2

Click middle icon, top right of this post to comment if it has helped
Click to expand...
This may not have resolved my problem but I earned something new... the snipping tool. Cool. I do it a different way and I guess in the long run it comes out the same, but I do like it.
 

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Hi Lynn,

Need to see the whole thing - can't tell much from that -including the list of drives and their contents at the top of the disk management window.

Also need to see what this Recovery D drive is and exactly where it is -assume it is a recovery partition - you will want to keep that intact.

Post a shot of the whole window - at least the entire center rectangle, including the listing at the top and the volumes at the bottom - and a bit wider too.

It will give another chance to have fun with the snipping tool !

SIW2
 
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My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Vista
    CPU
    Intel E8400
    Motherboard
    ASRock1333-GLAN R2.0
    Memory
    4gb DDR2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 9500GT 1gb
  • Operating System
    win7/vista
    CPU
    intel i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    ballistix 2x8gb 3200

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Vista
    CPU
    Intel E8400
    Motherboard
    ASRock1333-GLAN R2.0
    Memory
    4gb DDR2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 9500GT 1gb
  • Operating System
    win7/vista
    CPU
    intel i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    ballistix 2x8gb 3200
From the small image you uploaded, it's clear that the last partition at the right end of the diagram is a "logical drive" inside an extended partition (the green rectangle). First delete the logical drive. Then delete the extended partition which is in that same area of the diagram. Then you will be allowed to resize the partition just before it in the diagram (C) using the Extend Volume command, so it includes all the unallocated space which was made by deleting the extended partition.
 

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System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    home assembled
    CPU
    Intel Q9450 quad core
    Motherboard
    Asus P5Q Pro, Intel P45 chipset
    Memory
    4GB : 2 x 2GB G.Skill DDR2 800MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte 9600GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek onboard the mobo
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ 24"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    2 of Samsung HD501LJ SATA2 500GB
    and a few IDE hard disks on USB for backups
    PSU
    Corsair TX-650 and APC UPS
    Case
    Antec P180
    Cooling
    OCZ Vendetta2
SIW2 said:
Need to see the whole thing - can't tell much from that -including the list of drives and their contents at the top of the disk management window.

Also need to see what this Recovery D drive is and exactly where it is -assume it is a recovery partition - you will want to keep that intact.

Post a shot of the whole window - at least the entire center rectangle, including the listing at the top and the volumes at the bottom - and a bit wider too.

It will give another chance to have fun with the snipping tool !

SIW2
Click to expand...
C is self explanatory
D is Dell's system recovery
G is the new partition
H is a large external drive
P is an empty external drive
A is the floppy (yes, really)
E is the CD
D is the DVD
J, K, L, N I believe are thumb drives.
I beleive in Backup, Backup, Backup and I move thinkg on occasion back and forth between a laptop.
 

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OldBloke said:
From the small image you uploaded, it's clear that the last partition at the right end of the diagram is a "logical drive" inside an extended partition (the green rectangle). First delete the logical drive. Then delete the extended partition which is in that same area of the diagram. Then you will be allowed to resize the partition just before it in the diagram (C) using the Extend Volume command, so it includes all the unallocated space which was made by deleting the extended partition.
Click to expand...
When I first deleted it it seemed ok but when I went to delete the left over box I got a warning message that I would be inaccessible which made me unsure so I didn't.
 

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Hi,

Oldbloke has just posted how to do it - so don't want to repeat that.
Also have just seen that second screenshot. That particular message is new to me, but I don't recall deleting an extended partition. Oldbloke has done a lot of hard drive stuff, but If you're not sure , best to see what he says.


SIW2

Click the middle icon at the top right of this post if it has helped -thanks
 
Last edited:

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Vista
    CPU
    Intel E8400
    Motherboard
    ASRock1333-GLAN R2.0
    Memory
    4gb DDR2 800
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia 9500GT 1gb
  • Operating System
    win7/vista
    CPU
    intel i5-8400
    Motherboard
    gigabyte b365m ds3h
    Memory
    ballistix 2x8gb 3200
As you now intend to install XP onto a separate hard disk, you'd better not follow any tutorials which are about installing it into a partition on the same disk as Vista.

You can dual boot Vista and XP which are on separate hard disks by using one of these three methods:

A: the BIOS boot menu
Most modern BIOSs have a boot menu feature. You may need to go into BIOS setup first to enable this feature. Than whenever the PC is switched on or rebooted, you can press F11 very early in the boot sequence (or maybe it's a different F key, depending on the brand of BIOS). You will see a menu offering to boot any of your hard disks or the DVD.

That method requires no software changes, such as editing Vista's startup files. To set it up, it's important to remove the Vista HD temporarily while installing XP. When you reconnect the Vista HD (after the XP install has completely finished) you can set the HD boot order in the BIOS to favor whichever HD you want to be the default, which will be booted if you don't press the F11 key at boot time.

B: use a non-Microsoft boot manager
I recommend the shareware OSL2000, which can boot any OS on any partition on any hard disk. OSL2000 Boot Manager - An Advanced Multi Boot Manager

To prepare for using OSL2000 (or any of the other non-Microsoft boot manager programs) you install XP the same way as above (while the Vista disk is disconnected). Then reconnect the Vista disk and run the OSL2000 installer in whichever Windows OS gets booted. It automatically creates a boot menu offering every installed OS it can find. Next time you reboot, you will see its boot menu where you have an option to adjust its settings.

The advantage with the two methods above is that you can disconnect either of the HDs and the other one will still be bootable. Both of the systems think they are single booted.

C: use Vista's dual boot feature
Unlike the other two methods, this modifies Vista's and XP's boot files and depends on both disks being connected. Depending on how it's setup, you could find that if you remove the XP disk, or format it, you can no longer boot Vista without doing some repairs -- or if you remove the Vista disk you can't boot XP without doing some boot repairs.

The easiest way to modify Vista's dual boot menu is to use EasyBCD freeware. Unlike OSL2000, this isn't a bootloader or boot manager, because it doesn't run at evey boot. You just run it occasionally when you want to modify Vista's boot settings.
Download EasyBCD 1.7.2 - NeoSmart Technologies
 

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System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    home assembled
    CPU
    Intel Q9450 quad core
    Motherboard
    Asus P5Q Pro, Intel P45 chipset
    Memory
    4GB : 2 x 2GB G.Skill DDR2 800MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte 9600GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek onboard the mobo
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ 24"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    2 of Samsung HD501LJ SATA2 500GB
    and a few IDE hard disks on USB for backups
    PSU
    Corsair TX-650 and APC UPS
    Case
    Antec P180
    Cooling
    OCZ Vendetta2
Regarding your difficulties using disk management in Windows...
It should allow you to delete the extended partition (shown as a green rectangle at the right end of the diagram). That should do no harm because none of the other partitions were inside the extended partition.

Although it will be able to do this particualr job, I generally have very little respect for XP's and Vista's disk management feature. It has a limited set of features and several annoyances.

For one thing, Vista's disk management makes weird partitions which break the long standing tradition (obeyed by non-Microsoft partition managers and also by all DOS and Windows versions up to XP) that partitions should start and end on track boundaries.
If you make a new partition in Vista for installing XP into, the XP installer is likely to say it's a faulty partition and refuse to install there.

The best freeware alternative is gparted (which runs from a bootable CD).
GParted -- Download

Or if you do a lot of partitioning work and want to buy a full featured program, I recommend Paragon Partition Manager or Acronis Disk Director (not Partition Magic which is not compatible with Vista).
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    home assembled
    CPU
    Intel Q9450 quad core
    Motherboard
    Asus P5Q Pro, Intel P45 chipset
    Memory
    4GB : 2 x 2GB G.Skill DDR2 800MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte 9600GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek onboard the mobo
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ 24"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    2 of Samsung HD501LJ SATA2 500GB
    and a few IDE hard disks on USB for backups
    PSU
    Corsair TX-650 and APC UPS
    Case
    Antec P180
    Cooling
    OCZ Vendetta2
Don't do a lot of partitioning, particularly since Partition Magic no longer works. And it was a rare occurrence previously.

So, the warning message is nothing to worry about? I wont lose the hard drive space?

And I wouldn't know how to disconnect the C drive. My guess was to switch things around so it will boot from the installation disk to get XP in and on the slave. Is that a possibility? Or where's the Vista's dual boot feature? That last software mentioned sounded the best to me.

Sorry for so many questions.
 

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LynnS said:
So, the warning message is nothing to worry about? I wont lose the hard drive space?
Click to expand...

I saw the warning message in your screen shot. Of course, like it says, that partition will be inaccessible if you delete it.

Edit added: When you delete a partition, that area of the hard disk becomes "unallocated space" which is inaccessible in the sense that you can't save files there, until you either make a new partition coverng that space, or add the space to the partition next to it, which is what you will be doing.

There is always a risk to every procedure, so I never give a guarantee that something will work. Like they usually say, always have backups before doing anything. If it were my computer, I would definitely feel safe to delete the extended partition (which is that green rectangle).

LynnS said:
And I wouldn't know how to disconnect the C drive. My guess was to switch things around so it will boot from the installation disk to get XP in and on the slave. Is that a possibility?
Click to expand...

If you don't want to open the case, to unplug the cables from Vista's hard disk, you could do it by a setting in the BIOS about which hard disk is the boot disk. Then test whether you got it right by rebooting. Vista should not boot. You should see a message complaining that booting has failed because the operating system is missing (or similar words) assuming the disk where you are going to install XP doesn't have an OS on it yet.

If you install XP while Vista's disk is the boot disk (as set in the BIOS) whenever XP is booted it will letter its own partition containing its Windows folder as D: or above. If you install XP while XP's disk is the boot disk, whenever XP is booted its own partition will be lettered as C: (which I prefer)

LynnS said:
Or where's the Vista's dual boot feature? That last software mentioned sounded the best to me.
Click to expand...

You mean option C:, Vista's boot menu, I presume. To do that:

After you install XP, the computer will single boot into XP.
Then you fix it so Vista boots and shows a menu offering both OS's (XP can't boot Vista)
- boot the Vista DVD, go through the language settings, then on the next screen click "Repair...". It will offer to repair Vista's startup. Hopefully that boot repairer will see both systems and make a boot menu for them.

Then I recommend you install EasyBCD so you can edit Vista's boot menu, such as changing the names of menu items (from "Legacy Windows" to "Windows XP" for example). You can set one of the items as your preferred defaut, with a timeout in seconds, so if you don't press a key at the boot menu it will boot your chosen default.

LynnS said:
Sorry for so many questions.
Click to expand...
No worries :)
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    home assembled
    CPU
    Intel Q9450 quad core
    Motherboard
    Asus P5Q Pro, Intel P45 chipset
    Memory
    4GB : 2 x 2GB G.Skill DDR2 800MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte 9600GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek onboard the mobo
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ 24"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    2 of Samsung HD501LJ SATA2 500GB
    and a few IDE hard disks on USB for backups
    PSU
    Corsair TX-650 and APC UPS
    Case
    Antec P180
    Cooling
    OCZ Vendetta2
By the way, I used to dual boot XP and Vista, but I got fed up with it (too much trouble maintaining two systems and rebooting between them) and now I only use Vista 64. I have found that all my main 32 bit applications run just fine in Vista 64. Just a couple of utilities were not compatible and I found alternative programs which do work in 64 bit Windows.

So you could consider working on the compatability issues instead of installing XP. This thread is all about dual booting, so you could start a different thread listing the specific programs you had a problem with in Vista 64.

Usually you can fix it by running the problem program in "Windows XP SP2 compatability mode". Right-click its shortcut on the desktop or start menu > Properties > Compatability. Sometimes it's also necesary to run the program's installer in compatability mode.

Vista 64 can run most 32 bit applications but it can't run any 16 bit programs (which XP 32 or Vista 32 can). However I think there is a program you can download which makes it possible. Sorry I can't remember its name or link to it.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    home assembled
    CPU
    Intel Q9450 quad core
    Motherboard
    Asus P5Q Pro, Intel P45 chipset
    Memory
    4GB : 2 x 2GB G.Skill DDR2 800MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte 9600GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek onboard the mobo
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ 24"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    2 of Samsung HD501LJ SATA2 500GB
    and a few IDE hard disks on USB for backups
    PSU
    Corsair TX-650 and APC UPS
    Case
    Antec P180
    Cooling
    OCZ Vendetta2
That sounds do-able. Much prefer tweaking the bios rather than opening the case. What I'm thinking now is to make the empty external drive boot first and then putting the CD in and loading it there. I'll have to think this through a little more but that's what I have in mind at the moment. And I can delete that G partition and then expand C into it, right?
 

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LynnS said:
That sounds do-able. Much prefer tweaking the bios rather than opening the case. What I'm thinking now is to make the empty external drive boot first and then putting the CD in and loading it there.
Click to expand...

Yes that should work.

LynnS said:
And I can delete that G partition and then expand C into it, right?
Click to expand...

Yes. First delete the G: partition, which is a special type of partition called "logical drive". Then delete the extended partition (which is the wrapper which that logical drive was inside).

A logical drive can only exist inside an extended partition. That's the only use for an extended partition, to act as a container for one or more logical drives.

All your other partitions are of the type "Primary Partition". That is the most simple and normal kind. They are not inside an extended partition, like logical drives have to be.
 

My Computer

System One

  • Manufacturer/Model
    home assembled
    CPU
    Intel Q9450 quad core
    Motherboard
    Asus P5Q Pro, Intel P45 chipset
    Memory
    4GB : 2 x 2GB G.Skill DDR2 800MHz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Gigabyte 9600GT
    Sound Card
    Realtek onboard the mobo
    Monitor(s) Displays
    BenQ 24"
    Screen Resolution
    1920 x 1200
    Hard Drives
    2 of Samsung HD501LJ SATA2 500GB
    and a few IDE hard disks on USB for backups
    PSU
    Corsair TX-650 and APC UPS
    Case
    Antec P180
    Cooling
    OCZ Vendetta2
OldBloke said:
Vista 64 can run most 32 bit applications but it can't run any 16 bit programs (which XP 32 or Vista 32 can). However I think there is a program you can download which makes it possible. Sorry I can't remember its name or link to it.
Click to expand...
That would certainly solve a lot. I'll hunt for it. I should probably check the laptop to see whether it's 32 or 64. It might also solve the problem in part. In fact, it's probably 32 as there was one program I could run on it that wouldn't run on the PC. Must look into that further.... Thanks.
 

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