Setting up a dual boot system?

Question

I have a new system with vista home premium on it and want to set up a dual boot system with xp2. but have not been able to find the information I need to get started. Can anyone provide me with a link where I can find what I need?

Thanks

Answer 1

There are many software solutions to create a dual boot environment, however, over the years I've leaned that installing a second hard drive is the safest & surest method.

Most all new PCs will allow you to choose the boot device at startup (or via the BIOS). All you need to do is select the new hard drive as the primary boot device, install XP on it & go from there.
Once the new hard drive is configured as the primary boot device all you need to do is insert your XP installation CD & proceed with the setup asyu would normally.
Some may consider it tedious to have to enter the BIOS & opt for the device (& the OS) they wish to boot from, but it does offer a flawlessly solid solution.

This way there is never any risk of system (or program) files conflicting or being incorrectly manilpulated due to sharing.

An 80GB hard drive costs under $60, and a 250GB hard drive is under $100 dollars. Worst case scenario (should you choose to abandon the dual boot setup) is that you end up with a reliable back or storage addition to your PC.

regards,
Philip T

Answer 2

Don't load the two operating systems in the same partition. You should creat a new partition on your existing drive or perhaps put a secondary HD in your system to load the XP SP2 on. You can use Partiton Magic or similar disk tool to create another partition on your existing drive, but it's easier just loading it on another drive. Once you load the OS and are successful at it, you should get a Vista boot menu at startup that prompts you for the OS to boot to. I loaded Vista on an XP machine and the Vista Boot menu comes up at boot. Vista starts a little differently than XP does so even though you have Vista first then XP, the Vista boot menu will still be loaded.

Try:

http://www.theeldergeekvista.com

or

http://www.theeldergeek.com

Answer 3

First you will need a big hard drive, one with lots of space. When you start a dual-boot installation, the first thing you need to remember is that you need to install the older operating systems first. So your first step would be to install Windows XP. When you first get into the installation and it asks you which hard drive to install it to, create a partition (maybe half your drive) and leave the rest of the space free. Then install Windows XP in the newly created partition. After installation of XP, restart your system and insert the Vista disk and start the installation. Once again, when you enter the part about which hard drive to install to, create another partition with the rest of the free space and install Vista in there. After installation of both operating systems, you should be able to choose which operating system you want to go into when you first turn on your computer. It's not much to it, just time consuming.. :D Good luck!

Answer 4

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Answer 5

http://lifehacker.com/software/top/windows-vista-beta--how-to-dualboot-windows-xp-and-windows-vista-179906.php

http://apcmag.com/5023/dual_booting_xp_with_vista


I haven't tried it, fortunately, my Vista O/S has not caused me any problems thus far so I've had no desire to use Xp.

Hope the above links help you get started...