Dual Boot (OS) on Sony Vaio VGN-C250N/B Laptop???

Question

I have windows vista preinstalled on this new new laptop that I bought. There were no cd's included with the laptop because everything is inside the invisible hard disk partition, including the installer of all drivers.

Now I am planning to install a secondary OS (Windows XP SP2) for dual OS/dual booting. I was done doing research on how to install Windows XP with Windows Vista preinstalled on my system. I was wondering if it is possible for me to do it provided that the installers of all the drivers (soundcard, videocard, modem, etc) for my system are all inside my invisible partition and not in a cd.

In particular would I be able to install those drivers in the newly installed Windows XP?

P.S. I dont have any experience reformating and installing OS yet.

Anyone shares the same experience with me? Or anyone can help?

Any help from anyone will be much highly appreciated. Thanks.

Answer 1

the other person is partially right
you should make the recovery disks 1st
most give you a recovery cd or have you make one from the laptop ( there always is one of the 2 )
then under vista
go to the control panel
make note of all the drivers you need
key being

video
audio
nic
chipset
modem / soft modem
any other specialty item such as finger print scanner
then google for the xp drivers
if you lucky they might be on Son'y website for an slightly older model of the same laptop
as no one is making vista only hardware right now

the other person was wrong in that a generic xp cd ( as long as it's bootable ) will work
just install to a different folder
do not install to the same windows directory ( or of course you'll lose vista )
it's best if you can make a folder on the laptop driver with al lthe xp drivers for it extracted and ready to install
do the xp install
then upgrade or install drivers in any component that has a yellow flag under it under device manager
i just did this with my Toshiba A205-S4639 laptop, except I eliminated vista all together
the hardest driver to get working right was the audio
a 3nd reinstall fixes this
the video was a bit tough to find but i found a stable driver

Answer 2

It's not nearly as complicated as some people will make it sound.

All you really need to do is turn your computer on. Put the Windows XP Installation disk in your system, but don't close the CD drive until the system has logged you off and saved your settings.

Reboot. "Click any key to boot from CD"

WindowsXP will go into its install act.

One of the first things it will ask is if you want to create another partition or install in the previous partition where it has already detected an OS.

You'll, of course, choose to Create another partition (say 40GB, or 4000MB), and you will tell Windows which how much of your disk space you want that partition to take up.

After you choose to Format the new partition with NTFS (not "quick format"), you're on your way. That's it. The rest of the installation goes normally.

None of the drivers on the Vista partition will be affected by anything you do on the installation where XP is installed. Each side is in its own world. I.E., upgrading Vista apps and drivers will have no affect on XP, and vice-versa.

From then on, you will always be given a choice on start-up as to which OS you want to boot to.

Answer 3

Read The Friendly Manual (RTFM) for your Laptop, to make your own recovery disks FIRST.

Then: Call the manufacturer for tech support, they will tell you what you need to do this. BTW, you can't use a generic XP disk.

.

Answer 4

get the HP .. it has a extra suitable reveal, extra USB ports, a much wider array or ports extra often than no longer, and centrino is an excellent plus .. i might easily pass with the HP ;] EDIT - dell laptops are rubbish imho ;]