Vista - recovery disc

if i were to erase everything to dual boot installing XP first then Vista, would my Vista recovery disc load the Vista system back onto the computer?

yes, your system recover vista from your recovery,but xp hide means you can,t get any option to boot xp.after recover your system.

could i get vista to unhide the xp system and allow to boot after vista recovery install so that i may select during startup?

You can setup the dual boot with this.

Download EasyBCD 1.7.2 - NeoSmart Technologies

i cant run that on my system. it can't find the correct drive
Unfortunately, EasyBCD could not automatically detect the drive letter of your boot device. this can be caused by a non-standard MBR, use of a 3rd party bootloader, or a failed Windows Vista install.
To proceed, please enter the letter of your boot drive below. The boot drive is identified by the presence of special files and folders like boot.ini.ntldr. and bootmgr. If you continue to see this error message, please run "Reset BCD storage" from the Diagnostics section.

I selected all combinations to try aND nothing is detected

One of the problems in dual booting Vista and Windows XP is, that once you boot into XP, all of your restore points are deleted in Vista. There are workarounds, for example Dual Boot XP and Vista - Fix System Restore To Keep Restore Points In Vista ~ The Blade by Ron Schenone, MVP

Hello guys.

Vista forums has this excellent tutorial that covers the same subject.
Please feel free to have a look at it.

System Restore Points - Stop XP Dual Boot Delete












Later Ted

Hi Ted. Thanks for the heads up. I don't dual boot, although Vista has killed my Canon Digital Movie Camera - it won't capture video off it. But that is the only thing I miss, a small price to pay.

I'm not really worried about restore points. I have however, talked to Hp and the 'tech' told me that the recovery cd's that I have made from the Vista recovery program would act like an actual install cd like an OEM. They also told me I could purchase a cd for around $17. Not likely. though i will keep in mind the last 3 replies incase i get this dual boot to work.