Dual Boot Vista 64 & XP Seperate Hard Drives

Colyn Gypsy

New Member
Please be patient! New to all of this!
Here's my scenario!

- I have a new PC.
- 4 GB RAM
- 2 500 Gb seperate hard drives.
- Vista 64.
- Apart general computer stuff, it's being set up for home recording studio.

MY PROBLEM.

-Even though I thought I had carefully researched my hardware requirements,e.g. a ESI 49+ USB keyboard controller, Sonar software, it appears that I have compatibilty problem with ESI keyboard controller. Even though I even contacted ESI, and they replied that there would be no problem with the keyboard controller. Well, they were wrong. And found out after that, they haven't and have no intention of developing 64 bit drivers. OK, will live with that!

Now I got suggested that perhaps a generic 64 USB driver may fix the problem,(Cypress Generic USB device), but unsure as to taking this path.

So to avoid any other hardware or software problem, the friend who built this system for me, decided that perhaps Dual Booting the system would be the way to go. Fine by me!

Now Vista 64 is already installed on one drive, the other drive is empty. He hasn't done a dual boot before so were both learning. So we installed XP disc, it allowed me to install on the empty drive, all good so far, copying files,etc. But then it needed to reboot, and then when back installing the XP software again! I understand now that there is a problem with Vista 64 being on there first, but is there a way to install XP?

I would like to have Vista 64 on one hard drive, and XP on the other, so then I can install all of my music software and hardware without a compatibilty problem.
Is this possible? And if so, how do you change between drives, and will it still allow it to boot to Visat first, or is it optional? I hope someone can help, and remember, I'm new to this(as we all were once), so I'm going to need some clear instructions, as I don't want to stuff up!! Thanks. Colyn Gypsy.
 

My Computer

My Computers

System One System Two

  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
    Manufacturer/Model
    Custom
    CPU
    Intel i7-8700K 5 GHz
    Motherboard
    ASUS ROG Maximus XI Formula Z390
    Memory
    64 GB (4x16GB) G.SKILL TridentZ RGB DDR4 3600 MHz (F4-3600C18D-32GTZR)
    Graphics Card(s)
    ASUS ROG-STRIX-GTX1080TI-O11G-GAMING
    Sound Card
    Integrated Digital Audio (S/PDIF)
    Monitor(s) Displays
    2 x Samsung Odyssey G7 27"
    Screen Resolution
    2560x1440
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung 990 PRO M.2,
    4TB Samsung 990 PRO PRO M.2,
    8TB WD MyCloudEX2Ultra NAS
    PSU
    Seasonic Prime Titanium 850W
    Case
    Thermaltake Core P3
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H115i
    Keyboard
    Logitech wireless K800
    Mouse
    Logitech MX Master 3
    Internet Speed
    1 Gb/s Download and 35 Mb/s Upload
    Other Info
    Logitech Z625 speaker system,
    Logitech BRIO 4K Pro webcam,
    HP Color LaserJet Pro MFP M477fdn,
    APC SMART-UPS RT 1000 XL - SURT1000XLI,
    Galaxy S23 Plus phone
  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro
    Manufacturer/Model
    HP Envy Y0F94AV
    CPU
    i7-7500U @ 2.70 GHz
    Memory
    16 GB DDR4-2133
    Graphics card(s)
    NVIDIA GeForce 940MX
    Sound Card
    Conexant ISST Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17.3" UHD IPS touch
    Screen Resolution
    3480 x 2160
    Hard Drives
    512 GB M.2 SSD
Dual Booting Vista 64 & XP problems

I'm running Vista 64, and have been trying to dual boot, therefore installing XP. I have 2 separate 500GB hard drives, 4GB RAM. I need XP has I am having compatabilty problems with my external hardware, which is not Vista 64 compatible. So thats why I wish to install XP on my other hard drive.

Now I've followed instructions that I have found on this forum on installing XP after Vista. I can understand that it will work, but am having no success as yet! After inserting the XP disc, it begins the process of formatting and copying files, which is cool. But when it reboots the computer, it begins asking me to boot from cd which then begins, copying and formatting the files again. Or else if I don't enter a key to boot, it just does nothing. I considered the disc may be faulty, but two things swayed me from this. 1- why would it begin the first part at all; 2- I have used this disc less than a few months go, but also I have two XP discs, and it seems to much of a coincidence for them both to be faulty.
Can anyone help or have some advice. My computer is new, and I'm a novice at this! Would appreciate any and all suggestions! Thanks! Colyn Gypsy.
 

My Computer

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