To enable booting to Windows XP, change the boot sector using the
bootsect program on the Vista DVD: bootsect /nt52 sys

On Sun, 19 Apr 2009 12:41:22 -0500, JayEmGray
<guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote:

>
>I partitioned a 20Gb section of my hard drive and started installing
>Vista as a new installation in that area. The installation did its first
>restart then got about 20 seconds into the boot up, where the green
>heartbeat bar ripples at the bottom of the screen, then restarted. This
>has quickly become a loop I cannot get out of.
>
>Essentially, I have two issues to contend with here. How to get the
>installation to continue witout constantly rebooting or how to cancel
>the installation and get my regular Windows XP to boot up again. The
>latter option will probably be the easiest I think.

"JayEmGray" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:50c55ffcb76c42aef3917b4e18dc55cd@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

>
> I partitioned a 20Gb section of my hard drive and started installing
> Vista as a new installation in that area. The installation did its first
> restart then got about 20 seconds into the boot up, where the green
> heartbeat bar ripples at the bottom of the screen, then restarted. This
> has quickly become a loop I cannot get out of.

Hi Jay--

Try cleaning the DVD with something like Disk washer CD 6 from the center
out.
You NTFS formatted that slice of HD did'nt you?

Best,

CH

> JayEmGray

Thanks for the replies Chad and Andy. I keep a disconnected emergency HD in my PC case which allows me to run XP and internet etc., Using this, I renamed the $windows ... directories on my normal HD. On reboot, I got an install error message then was presented with a boot menu with the options Windows XP and Windows Vista Install. Think this was a result of having EasyBCD installed (providence). Anyhow, selected Windows XP and now everything is fine. Deleted the Windows Install option using EasyBCD front-end.

Still have the Vista install issue but suspect there is a driver or some piece of hardware on my system that the OS is not happy with. Will investigate later.

Cheers,

Jay