Vista - Dual Boot - Vista Home Premium & XP Pro

My laptop came with Vista Home Premium x64 preinstalled. It shipped without
separate OS disks but it has a service partition which allows the user to
create recovery disks to reset the notebook back to its factory settings in
case of a hard drive failure or to simply reset the system from the service
partition without the use of the recovery disks.

Now that I have been using the system for several months, I would like to
install a 32 bit Windows XP Professional OS on the laptop in order to be
able to use some programs that will not run under a 64 bit OS. I have
installed Virtual PC on the notebook but because of the USB limitations of
VPC, only part of the 32 bit software issues were resolved. Some programs
require that I attach external devices, e.g. a GPS device, to the notebook
and the software will not work under the 64 bit OS and it will not work on
the VPC 32 bit Win XP Pro either.

My intention is to uninstall the VPC and install the 32 bit Win XP Pro
license on the note book.

Here's my problem: How do I do this without the Vista Home Premium x64 OS
disks? Vista was preinstalled and I do not know how to create a new
partition on the hard drive to install the 32 bit Win XP Pro OS.

In article <E7F2C476-7BDE-440F-9EA3-A44333D03415@xxxxxx>,
"VistaUser" <wpla@xxxxxx> wrote:
Both the XP that came with VPC and the Vista you bought with the machine
are just OEM licenses. In contrast to the retail version they AFAIK
forbid what you want to do. It may still be technically possible, but I
don't know how.

--
Tobias Weber

VistaUser wrote:
You don't need the Visa disks. You need to partition your hard drive and
install XP on the new partition. Before you do this, you should check on
your laptop mftr.'s tech support site to make sure there are XP drivers. If
there aren't, forget about it.

I like Acronis Disk Director for partitioning but Vista can do simple
partitioning natively. You should be able to shrink the Vista partition to
make room for XP. There are quite a few links explaining this here:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...ta&btnG=Search

The optimal way to multiple-boot different operating systems is to install
the oldest MS one first, but with some extra work you can install XP after
Vista is already there.

Dual Booting Windows Vista & Windows XP -
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/dualboot.html

Install Windows XP On A Machine Already Running Windows Vista (MVP John
Barnett) -
http://vistasupport.mvps.org/install...ning_vista.htm

Again, it is *imperative* that before you do any of this you:

1. Check to make sure XP drivers exist for your machine.
2. Make recovery disks for your current operating system.
3. Back up your data before continuing with partitioning because Stuff
Happens.

If there are no XP drivers for your laptop, you might want to try VMware
Workstation instead of VPC. VMware handles USB quite well and IMO is more
elegant and sophisticated than VPC. They have a trial version I believe.

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!
FAQ - http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/#FAQ

In addition to the excellent post by Malke, be aware that each time you boot
into XP you will lose the shadow copies and restore points in Vista.

"VistaUser" <wpla@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:E7F2C476-7BDE-440F-9EA3-A44333D03415@xxxxxx

If you don't have a Vista installation DVD, then a problem you will encounter when you install XP afterwards in the second partition is this will wipe out the Vista bootloader and so then you will only have the ability to enter XP. You need to run Startup Repair in order to correct this. But without the Vista installation DVD, you will only be able to do this if you go to this site to download the makings for a Vista recovery CD (and it is a CD, not a DVD) and then burn it to the CD:

Windows Vista Recovery Disc Download &#x2014; The NeoSmart Files

Have you contacted the manufacturer to find out whether OS install disks or
a recovery DVD is available? You would be in trouble if you had to replace
your hard drive. If they won't provide you with anything then the recovery
partition is probably 10 GB or so, much of it empty space, and you could
easily back it up to a DVD. You could also back it up to an external USB
interface hard drive.

There is another way to install an earlier operating system without
interfering with Vista or its Boot Manager. Once you create your second
partition, go into Disk Manager, make that partition "Active", reboot and
install XP on it. The new XP install won't interfere with either Vista or
its Boot Manager. If you want to get back to Vista, simply make the Vista
partition active again and reboot the machine. If you later decide you want
a multi-boot user interface, you can install one using VistaBootPro or
BCDEdit, the tool that ships with Vista.

Chances are also real good that your laptop has a SATA drive in it and that
it is easily removable. SATA drives of reasonable size are pretty cheap
now. If you are going to use 32-bit XP most of the time then you could swap
in a new drive, install XP, and put the Vista system on the shelf for the
next time you need it. There are many ways to skin a cat.

Earle

"VistaUser" <wpla@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:E7F2C476-7BDE-440F-9EA3-A44333D03415@xxxxxx

"Malke" <malke@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OH8Z6hyUJHA.4272@xxxxxxThanks for the in depth reply. I will study it before I attempt to install
the second OS on the notebook. I will check with Hewlett Packard regarding
the XP drivers. I assume you're talking about drivers for the hard drives,
DVD drives, video, sound, etc.

I made the recovery disks as soon as I began using the notebook. As a
matter a fact, I believe that HP actually put a "create recovery disk"
option in the initial setup of the PC, right out of the box. I seem to
recall a prompt on first boot asking if I wished to create the disks. I had
a choice of creating a three DVD set of recovery disks or a nine CD set. I
have the three recovery DVDs.

I learned the hard way, way back in the DOS 3.2 days that one NEVER installs
an OS on a computer that already has data on it without backing it up. I
have all my data backed up and I have the CDs for every program I have
installed on my computer.

The notebook has two separate hard drives. Would installing the second OS
on the second hard drive [d:] prevent the problem you mention. I have never
run a dual boot PC. Would installing the second OS (Windows XP Pro) on D
contain Windows XP to the D drive so that restore points for Win XP would be
written to the D drive while restore points for Vista would be on C?

"John Barnes" <jbfoofy@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OP2jO3yUJHA.5344@xxxxxx

Installing on separate drives will not prevent the problem. Here is a workaround that is published as a tutorial on this forum:

System Restore Points - Stop XP Dual Boot Delete

It makes no difference what partition it is installed on, even other hd's,
Vista must be hidden to make it safe. Those methods mentioned are the ones
that work.

"VistaUser" <wpla@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:AF49E0CC-D8A4-4BC0-A994-4F9B89ED048A@xxxxxx