Dual Booting

[EricB]

If you want XP and Vista as totally separate OSs then you would unplug the XP drive when installing Vista on the other. Otherwise the Vista boot loader and other files are copied to the primary drive with it's own boot loader as the default. EasyBCD allows you to set XP as the default OS to boot while still seeing the initial Vista boot screen.

I just set the bios boot from the other drives and disable the xp one so i don't have to open the case

 

[eyeCpc]

The fast way to see the XP mbr restored still leaves the Vista boot folder and other files intact on the drive. I've already tried to restore XP Home seen on the primary here as well as add a later XP Pro installation on a sata into the Vista boot loader. Guess again! Even with the edit of the Home version's boot.ini file a reinstall of Vista was the onlything that worked. Vista also installed it's boot loader to the XP drive there apparently.

EasyBCD was easy to configure rather then seeing XP removed from the Vista boot loader and not have it work there. The other option is time consuming for wiping both drives and performing a fresh install of each version to have each on it's own drive. Then you use the F8 for a quick boot of one or the other while choosing the XP one as default in the bios.

 

[TheMajor]

Windows (XP, 2k and Vista) always install their boot loader on the first primary partition, starting from disk 1 (eg. first primary master).

To put the boot loader on Vista or XP's own partition, unplug all disks except the OS disk and do a FIXBOOT in XP Recovery Console or use the tool that is provided when booting Vista.

You can also hide any primary partitions on the first disk using Partition Magic (or something else).

When only using XP and Vista, tools like EasyBCD are useless unless you are havin problems. The Vista loader works fine.

 

[eyeCpc]

A tool like EasyBCD allows you to assign which version will be the default OS that will be loaded. Instead of going through the previous versions of Windows option every time you want to run XP you assign that as default and simply use the arrow key to highlgiht Vista on the first when wanting to load that version.

Here XP remains the primary OS due to lack of support seen in Vista for the currrent programs in use. The Fixboot and Fixmbr commands will restore the XP mbr while leaving Vista remnants behind and should be used if you plan to remove Vista or reinstall it with the XP drive unplugged. EasyBCD solves the problem by setting XP as default.

 

[EricB]

you have to unplug an ide Xp drive to keep vista seperate or use PM to hide the xp partition. PM don't work on vista so you might have to use disc management to boot back to xp.


you can disable sata drives in the bios. I use all sata drives now

 

[TheMajor]

A tool like EasyBCD allows you to assign which version will be the default OS that will be loaded. Instead of going through the previous versions of Windows option every time you want to run XP you assign that as default and simply use the arrow key to highlgiht Vista on the first when wanting to load that version.

You can also select the default OS in Vista.

 

[eyeCpc]

You can also select the default OS in Vista.

Can you later add another OS entry into the boot loader through the msconfig or rename "previous versions of Windows" to something like Windows XP? The EasyBCD tool is a small and effective one that is easy to use right from the desktop.

 

[D.Arbib]

For what it's worth my view on dual booting two different OS's that it is better to have a plug-in hard drive for each with its own OS

 

[EricB]

For what it's worth my view on dual booting two different OS's that it is better to have a plug-in hard drive for each with its own OS

I like partition magic's way of separating them. too bad it doesn't work on vista although it can put vista on it's own little island

 

[TheMajor]

Can you later add another OS entry into the boot loader through the msconfig or rename "previous versions of Windows" to something like Windows XP? The EasyBCD tool is a small and effective one that is easy to use right from the desktop.

You can add more OS's if they are supported by the bootloader, using "bootcfg" in XP Recovery Console, or by using the "repair" thing when booting the Vista disc.
I don't know if you can rename stuff in Vista's bootloader, but you probably can. Titles are editable in boot.ini when using XP's boot loader.