Vista Dual-Booting with XP upgrading from 98

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Digitus

Member
I have Vista Home Premium Edition.

Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard Company (HP then)
Model: a1700n Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Prcoessor 4200+ 2.20GHz Memory/RAM: 894 MB
System type: 32-bit Operating System

I have been using this guide:Install Windows XP in a Dual Boot with Pre-installed Windows Vista

I used this dual-boot program (version 3.2):VistaBootPRO - Go PRO with Windows Vista and VistaBootPRO

I have some doubts. My computer whiz uncle sent me two CDs: bootable Windows Plus! 98 (Second Edition) and XP Professional Upgrade. I tried setting up 98 through the boot screen but I was not sure if it would install on my Vista partition instead of the empty NTFS partition (I thought 98 can only detect fat32 partitions?), so I cancelled. I can successfully get the dual-boot menu and get Vista.

Using the guide, I went all the way until the part about the XP installation. What should I do? Thank you.

Edit: I don't have any other 98, XP or Vista CD's/DVD. Vista came pre-installed. Also, do I need drivers or do I merely point whatever location to drivers on the Vista partition? Let me know if you need more specs of my computer. I use a Linksys wireless adapter to connect to my Linksys router FYI.
 
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Hi DIgitus, welcome to the boards
I've previously used upgrade OSs (ME from 95, XP from ME), and they've always allowed a clean full install to a new partition. (At some point it will ask to see the old CD for proof that you qualify to use the upgrade to an empty disk.)
So you should be able to do the XP dual-boot with Vista OK. Don't bother trying to install 98 first.
You can find intructions in the wiki here
http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Installing+XP+After+Vista
using EasyBCD instead of BootPRO
 
Can't complete XP Pro install.. & no Vista boot.

Well, I got a problem.....

I tried installing the XP Pro and used the 98 disk as proof. XP started copying files and it tries to reboot but that stays the same forever. I turn it off and turn it on. I get the XP Pro welcome screen and it continues setup. When it starts to install devices, the progress bar is a little over half when it fricking freezes all animation. This stays the same forever as well.

I bought an external diskette drive and got the drivers for my SATA stuff and was able to load the files for that when I pressed F6. Still the same damn thing. I can't even get Vista back because I have no OS to operate in! I did a lot of things like deleting and recreating partition and re-formatting (quick and normal). Also, the setup gives me the repair option meaning that it detected that there was something wrong with the installation thus far. I can tell you that the installation gets messed-up after my manual shutdown.

Is there a program that I can put onto a diskette, boot it up, and have it automatically reboot the damn setup at the end? My uncle knows all about this and told me that I may have to scrap the idea of having dual-boot and try to recover Vista using instructions he gave me. I don't want to give up already... I can try using 98 to install and then try to use the EasyBCD program to get Vista back or try to upgrade from 98 and see.

If I try to recover Vista, my uncle said that I will lose my programs and settings. I did back-up all of my files and crap onto an external harddrive about 3 days ago.

What should I do?
 
If you boot the Vista DVD and select the repair option, it'll just fix your Vista bootloader. The rest of your Vista system will be as you left it.

You will probably need to do the boot repair twice. (i've no real idea why - I don't program for MS - but it seems to take two goes (for me it did, and at least 2 others I've advised on here))

Since I notice you don't have a Vista DVD to hand, you can get one here
http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Recovering+the+Vista+Bootloader+from+the+DVD
follow the link to the ISO download and burn yourself a copy.

I'm afraid I've no specific idea why your XP install ground to a halt, since I've not had any similar experience myself. How old is it ? Pre SP2 ? Any chance it doesn't have the right drivers to support your newer hardware ?

I think you'll probably have worse problems trying to get 98 to install if XP is giving you a bad time.
(I was reluctantly forced onto the Windows Upgrade merry-go-round years ago when I upgraded my mobo and graphics, in the naive belief that I could carry on with 95 for ever, but it had absolutely no concept of AGP and forced me into a last minute shopping dash when I finally twigged why I couldn't get the system to run)
 
SP1; Version 2002

The XP Pro upgrade disk says "Includes Service pack 1" and "Version 2002".

I'm currently downloading the iso. I'll burn it to a CD and boot it.

Man, this is annoying.

Addendum:

Wow, I don't believe this. I burned the iso onto a CD-RW 700MB disk and I tried to boot it up but it never did. The computer doesn't detect it at all. Instead it gives the error message when the computer tries to boot into the XP entry where there is now just unallocated space. I tried pressing F12 too.

What should I do now?

Addendum:

Okay, I forgot that I needed a particular program like ImgBurn to properly burn iso images onto CDs/DVDs. When I put in the now-bootable disk, it worked for me and I only needed to repair it once.

I'm now typing from the Vista partition. I don't know if I should try installing XP Pro again... I can pretty much tell that I'll just get the same results.

Thanks for your help, Terry60!
 
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Glad I was able to help restore the status quo ante, sorry not to have helped with what you really wanted to do.

Don't give up entirely. There are guys around on here who are installation junkies. They're not happy if a day passes without having downloaded, burned and installed a new OS or SP. They will have a lot more experience with overcoming the sort of tribulation you described.

Hopefully, one of them will pick up the thread and give you some tips.

At least you're armed with the means to get back to square one without a great deal of fuss now, so experimenting shouldn't be so traumatic in future.
 
I'll try to help, but can you explain exactly what it is you want to do at this point? And why you can't?
 
He's trying to install an old XP pro SP1 onto an HP A1700N as a dual boot with the pre-installed Vista, but the install freezes half way through.
 
Try a different installation medium. Most importantly, try using a gold version of XP manually slipstreamed with SP2.
 
Well, I already installed Windows XP Pro SP2 using a different CD. It worked and I was able to operate within XP, changed some entries with BCD, rebooted, booted into Vista with no problem, rebooted to see if I could boot back into XP. I couldn't boot into either one, so I used the Vista recovery CD I burned and repaired twice to be able to boot into Vista again. I tried again but I can't boot into XP but I can boot into Vista fine.

This is what I get for when I try to boot into XP:

xperrorbp6.jpg


Do I have to manually change some stuff using some MS-DOS screen on the Vista Recovery CD?

Addendum:

Well, I copied the Vista C:\ntldr to the XP D: and tried again.

This time, when I try to boot into XP, it just reboots. I can still boot into Vista.

Addendum:

Or did I need to copy the ntldr from the XP while I am in XP over to the Vista partition? Then I'll have to repair XP and get in it.

Also, while in Vista, Vista is C: and XP is D: but in XP, XP is H: and Vista's C:. I don't know if that could be part of the problem but that's the way it always has been since I installed XP. I believe I can correct this if I deleted the XP partition, created a new one and formatted it. It should then be designated as D:.


Also, I have a wireless network adapter (Linksys WMP54G) on the computer. The instructions that came with it says to not to insert the adapter before installing from the provided CD. I don't know if I remove it and Vista won't be able to detect it or the adapter doesn't work anymore. Anyway, I need this adapter in order for me to gain Internet access in XP.
 
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