Vista - Dual Boot Challenge

I'm trying to do a dual-boot on a test machine. The reason why it's a
test machine is because I am testing to see if I can figure out how to
dual-boot XP and Vista with Vista installed first. My computer has Vista on
it, and I've been thinking about dual-booting it with XP, but I don't want
to do it if I have to wipe my hard drives and start over, so I decided I
would test it out on a test PC first.

Okay, so I went ahead and installed XP on another partition from Vista.
As expected, Vista would no longer boot, so I did a repair for the booting
of Vista. I now managed to get Vista to boot. I installed a 3rd party
boot-loader utility to create the XP boot entry. That's fine, but when I
try to boot XP, it says NTLDR is missing. As expected, if I do a repair
install on XP, then Vista won't boot any more, then if I fix Vista's boot
loader, then XP won't boot anymore. I'm kind of stuck in an endless loop.
Any suggestions? Thanks.

Travis King wrote:=====================
Maybe the following links will offer some ideas:

How to dual boot Vista and
XP (with Vista installed first)
-- the step-by-step guide
http://www.apcstart.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp

VistaBootPRO
http://www.vistabootpro.org/index.php
(scroll down to the download link)

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! -
Digital Image MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

Actually, the website you had for instructions on dual-booting was the exact
website I was at to do this dual-booting. Also, I tried Vista Boot Pro and
the utility the website mentioned. Thanks.
"John Inzer" <oobie@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:eBkfEMxMIHA.4712@xxxxxx

Try this method

http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vi...n2k-after.html

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca


"Travis King" <Anonymous@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ervTXHxMIHA.820@xxxxxx

wipe contents of your drive then install xp,with vista disc create a second partition then intall vista on that then when you boot up it will ask if you want to run vista or xp,by doing this vista should boot up first if u dont select anything, thats what mine does

hope this helps at all.

Travis King wrote:===========
Sorry...for wasting your time.

--

John Inzer
MS Picture It! -
Digital Image MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

It's okay... You were only trying to help.
"John Inzer" <oobie@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23ADX$2xMIHA.1188@xxxxxx

What about running XP in a virtual machine on your Vista box? I realize it's
not quite the same as dual booting, but if you can't figure out the dual
booting thing to your satisfaction, virtualization is an option.
There are several virtualization products, including one made by MS itself,
that are free.



"Travis King" <Anonymous@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ervTXHxMIHA.820@xxxxxx

The manual command prompt work did the same thing. Vista will boot fine,
but XP says that NTLDR is corrupt or missing, so Windows XP can't start. I
guess they aren't kidding when they say you should install the OS before the
new OS. When I beta tested Vista, I had XP first then Vista, so that worked
fine, but the other way around is nothing but headaches. Thanks.
"Kerry Brown" <kerry@xxxxxx-tems.c*a*m> wrote in message
news1E36B4C-74D9-4EEB-BF4C-1C5D27217812@xxxxxx

The key is that you need to know which is the active partition, not where XP
is installed. It sounds like one of two things is happening. You have set XP
to boot from the XP partition not the active partition. The XP boot files
are on the active partition which is probably the Vista partition. The other
possibility is the boot.ini file is pointing to the wrong partition.

--
Kerry Brown
Microsoft MVP - Shell/User
http://www.vistahelp.ca


"Travis King" <Anonymous@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:upJEFjyMIHA.6060@xxxxxx