Building a 32 and 64 bit dual boot laptop

Laptops are my only option right now, and the current 64-bit OS seems to have issues with some of my older programs and games, so I wanted to set-up a dual boot with windows 32-bit and 64-bit Home Premium.

I'm currently at the point where I have the 32-bit system in my other partition, but when I try to make that new partition active and reboot, the bootmgr seems to become lost and the only way to restore is using restore software.

The drive looks like this right now:

C: 331GB (has my current 64-bit OS)
D: 13.9 GB (the laptop's recovery partition)
F: 199 GB (has my 32-bit OS sitting in it, made the partition using disc manager.)

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Firestorm29 said:

Laptops are my only option right now, and the current 64-bit OS seems to have issues with some of my older programs and games, so I wanted to set-up a dual boot with windows 32-bit and 64-bit Home Premium.

I'm currently at the point where I have the 32-bit system in my other partition, but when I try to make that new partition active and reboot, the bootmgr seems to become lost and the only way to restore is using restore software.

The drive looks like this right now:

C: 331GB (has my current 64-bit OS)
D: 13.9 GB (the laptop's recovery partition)
F: 199 GB (has my 32-bit OS sitting in it, made the partition using disc manager.)

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Click to expand...

Have a look at this tutorial: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/215641-dual-boot-change-os-name-windows-boot-manager.html?ltr=D

While not exactly what you want, the information contained therein will put you on the right track to use the BCDEDIT command.

I'll give you more information a little later, as I'm at work now, and don't have access to a Vista (or Windows 7) system to check a few things for you...

Dzomlija said:

Firestorm29 said:

Laptops are my only option right now, and the current 64-bit OS seems to have issues with some of my older programs and games, so I wanted to set-up a dual boot with windows 32-bit and 64-bit Home Premium.

I'm currently at the point where I have the 32-bit system in my other partition, but when I try to make that new partition active and reboot, the bootmgr seems to become lost and the only way to restore is using restore software.

The drive looks like this right now:

C: 331GB (has my current 64-bit OS)
D: 13.9 GB (the laptop's recovery partition)
F: 199 GB (has my 32-bit OS sitting in it, made the partition using disc manager.)

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Click to expand...

Have a look at this tutorial: http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/215641-dual-boot-change-os-name-windows-boot-manager.html?ltr=D

While not exactly what you want, the information contained therein will put you on the right track to use the BCDEDIT command.

I'll give you more information a little later, as I'm at work now, and don't have access to a Vista (or Windows 7) system to check a few things for you...

Click to expand...

This would be my first time actually setting up a dual boot system, so I'm not entirely sure what I need to do, or when I need to do it, with that second partition seemly gumming up the works when I set it to active.

I've made some progress, the 32-bit drive is now active and the bootmgr now points to it, but now I'm in a pickle where the 32-bit system immediately BSOD's after loading all the files for Safe Mode to work. I gave the partition full permissions to Everyone, so I don't think a permission is the cause.

My old OS was installed to C:\ on the old laptop, and I'm thinking this could be the root of the problem, is there anyway to fix it without a Windows installation disc? Neither company can provide me with a disc that doesn't auto install into C:, and I'd like to have both if possible.

[edit] I tried searching for .dmp files in both my C: and F: (the 64 and 32 bit folders) and couldn't find and .dmp files that date the attempts of me trying to boot the 32-bit system.) Is there any way to change how long a BSOD stays on the screen so I can read the error?