windows xp & vista in one computer (multi-boot)
 

I am going to buy a computer with Vista pre-installed and I will install XP in that same computer as well. I have two hard drive. One will come with the computer with Vista installed already. The other is now only a storage drive (no OS). I will install XP in that storage drive. Do I need to re-format that storage hard drive? I thought I could just insert my XP CD (full version) and install it. Is it that simple?

Microsoft website says that I have to give one partition for each of them. But this is not a brand new hard drive. I am using it as storage drive so it has been partitioned when I first installed it, right? Do I have to do this again?

They say to install older versions first. Well, since vista is pre-installed, I can't change that part. I will just have to install XP after Vista. Is that OK?

I reckon the XP install will mess up with the BIOS booting records. I know it does that with Linux installs (you need to install first XP and then whatever Linux distro you want, otherwise XP will erase the tool Linux uses to boot up).

At any rate, you could do so by installing GRUB, which is the tool for multi-booting that most Linux distributions use. I don't know how does one install it without a Linux distro, but it should probably involve floppy disks or booting from CD, or something like that.

Uhm, okay let's walk you through this.

First off, you don't need two hard-drives to install both Vista and XP on the same computer. And you don't need two partitions in the secondary HD to do so as well. I'm not very familiar with Vista ( all I know is that two hours for an install is ridiculous ), but if it follows around the previous base used for other Windows products, you could even install two Vistas on the same HD.

Well, anyway. About installing XP without having to do a format on your secondary HD, you can only do it if your Windows installation permits. I say this because some big companies don't actually "Install" XP, they just copy a partition already made through a program called Ghost. If you're using that method, then you'll have to format. If your Windows CD lets you choose where you want to install it and gives you info/options with regards to partitions and etc. ( in other words, a real WinXP installation ), then you'll be able to do it without having to format.

But again, going back, you could install Windows Vista and Windows XP on the same HD if you wanted ( I'd personally do this, since one, you don't need to worry about your OS corrupting your stored data and two, it's probably easier ). If you have an original WinXP install CD, plug it in, it'll probably say you already have Windows installed, and it'll ask you if you want to create a new partition to install XP in. Then from that point on, it's your choice really.

However, I need to say that I have no idea if partitioning a HD while there's stuff in it will cause any problems, especially OS-related problems. You'll probably ask someone with expertise on that field.

And about installing XP after Vista, if you do it in two separate partitions, I wouldn't think of a reason why that would be a problem.

Edit:

Well, WK just tackled this issue up above. Since I don't have knowledge on the issue, I'd suggest you go with his info.

I have actually installed XP after Vista (triple booting machine... Linux, vista, XP).

Heres what happens:
Windows XP install kills the Vista boot loader. You can NOT boot Vista from the XP boot loader. Even if you use grub as WanderingKnight suggested, grub can only chainload to the Vista/XP boot loader. Once you install XP after Vista, if you chainload to Vista, it'll boot XP and only XP.

On the Vista DVD there is a BOOT folder. Within that folder, there is a command line app called bootfix. Run that after installing XP to restore the Vista boot loader. The vista boot loader can boot XP but you'll need to manually configure it. It does not use the boot.ini of old.

You can use this to make it easier: http://www.vistabootpro.org/

I will make copies of the data so even if I have to erase data on any hard drive, go ahead. So it seems that putting xp and vista on two seperate hd might be a good idea.

I will have to look into this. If installing xp is going to kill vista boot loader, then two hd installation should prevent this from happening, right?

After installing two OSs and have problem with boot selection, you can fix it and make a boot selection using this.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

This helped me to make triple boot on my computer (Ubuntu, Vista, XP.)

Not unless you physically unplug or disable the first drive via the bios. I installed XP on a second drive and it wiped out the vista boot loader on the primary drive.

Ok, I just worked out my other computer problems so I am back. :D One last thing, I hope, do I need to have drivers ready for XP?

I'd say it wouldn't hurt. Sometimes the vendor drivers work a bit better than XP core drivers... sometimes not.

((though this whole exercise makes my head hurt .... dual boot XP/Vista???))

Yeah, it actually sounds like a bad dream of some sort. I'll say, isn't it better if you actually try installing it first on a separate HD (while removing the XP one), test your hardware/applications and then decide if you wanna go back to XP or not? I'm guessing it'll save you lots of trouble.

They maybe a little side topic but I'll be buying a laptop with windows vista preinstalled so may question is can it detect the external harddrive that got formated from a window XP based os or will it cause problems?

It *should* be fine. Vista would be completely toast if it couldn't read drives formatted by earlier Windows systems. NTFS is pretty solid such as it is.

But I heard that for laptop, this coule be more of an issue than desktop. I don't know. I also heard from someone who actually tried doing this dual-boot system thing and said that store-bought computers can't be done because their mother board is built for Vista and Vista only. Why would they want to do that? How silly!

If it exists (something which I haven't heard of and find kind of hard to believe), it's called product pushing. It's the same as DirectX 10. There's absolutely no proof that Windows XP is incapable of handling something like that, however, they are releasing it only for Vista. In fact, Microsoft released Halo 2 as "Vista only", but with a small crack it runs perfectly on XP.

An update. I tried several times already but I kept getting this error message when I installed XP. After I put in the CD, and it started, downloading this and that, then I got an error. I forgot to write it down. I may try again in the future, unlikely though. Thanks for all your help.

If anyone wants to try, I am using EasyBCD - http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1 . Even after installing Windows XP Professional on a secondary partition after the Vista installation, it worked perfectly.

It seems that no one has addressed why we must use third party software to direct BCD to other OS's. Vista's Boot Configuration Data has replaced the boot.ini that has followed NT 5.0 for several years to allow for booting between multiple Operating Systems. Windows 2000, XP, and 2003 allow the use of boot.ini coupled with NTLOADER, msdos.sys, and several other configuration files found on the System Disk (primary active partition). Vista uses BCD another type of boot loader. This causes problems when you are trying to access older Operating Systems from Vista's boot loader. Unlike the ease of editing the boot.ini, you cannot simply redirect BCD to other Operating Systems due to incompatibility. At any rate, EasyBCD and other third party programs allow other Operating Systems to exist within the same computer as Vista. This allows the boot.ini file to be written to the primary System Partition.

In the end result, Microsoft is making things difficult again.

Yep, as it always has. Pressure up the regular users a bit and they'll switch, even if they have don't like the new operating system. Unfortunately, people are so computer illiterate that most don't even know that free (as in freedom) alternatives like Linux exist.

Linux is a great alternative. You can make many flavours of Linux and the GUI like Kde look like Vista if you wanted to - without the massive overhead.

i dual booted a system only last week
i partitioned a hard drive and installed vista first on one partition and then xp after on the other partition
it came up with an error when booting so i used an app to get it to ask if i wanted xp or vista
but yes i installed vista first and got no trouble at all
last time i tried to install xp first i got nothin but trouble

Great work. This can be used as documentation for anyone who wants to do the same. :)