Dual boot Vista(preinstalled) XP in new partition

fuzzynco

Member
I want to dual boot a Toshiba Satalite p350-s8842 (desktop replacement 'laptop').
It came with 2 200gb hard drives, and 2 partitions on disk0,
part0 is the factory hardware part, part1 is Vista. I split part1 into 2
parts (making an empty ntfs part to install xp in).

I'd like to have each OS see its 'system disk' as C:, and have the other's
partition hidden(invisable). Part0 is a partition type neither understands so its
not 'mounted'. disk1 has 1 part and empty ntfs part.

If I need to, I can make a 4th part to hold a boot manager so the 'IPL'
code can boot to it then have it chain to the correct OS.

*sigh*

I wish I could have bought a computer with XP.
The program I need to run wont run in Vista.

The CPU is a 64bit Intel Core 2 Duo
4gb ram, Video ATI Radeon with 256mb on board ram,
802.11b/g/n intel chipset.

I'm hoping someone can tell me what I do next to
make XP installable, I have a free Part on disk0
to target but I need to hide Vista's part from the XP
installer, so XP ends up in c: not d:.

thanks
 
Unless you don't mind re-installing Vista, having XP be C: is just about impossible unless you are installing XP to the first partition on the disk. Run the installer anyway to see if C: is available. If not, an installation of XP and then re-install of Vista is the easist way to accomplish it. If you do end up re-installing Vista after XP though, note that while in Vista it'll consider itself C:, but XP well still continue to be C: whenever you boot into it. As far as hiding the partitions for the OS you are not using at the moment, You can remove letter mappings for partitions in disk management to make them inaccessible.
 
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hmms dont have install media :frowning:

can I 'move' Vista's partition so its third and an empty spot or empty partitition
is available for XP or image backup the vista partition and reinstall it from backup after
installing XP or hide it some otherway from XP's installer, maybe manually change
the partition type to something Windows wont understand and ignore,
like it does the 1st partition on the drive that the hardware folks put there?

while XP is not supposed to depend on c: being its system partition,
some apps insist on using c: regardless of what they are told.
I figured originally, if part1 vista was 'hidden' the XP installer would see part2
as the only ntfs part and make it c: (part0 being a hardware part and not
assigned a drive letter by either OS).

thanks


Addendum:


I moved Vista to the 3rd part (disk0,part2) so there is a target of disk,part1
for XP to install on. I'm hoping since WinVista still works now, I can install
XP in disk0,part2 and since its the 1st NTFS part XP will call it C:
install easyBCD in XP and rebuild the IPL / boot stuff with what XP calls
F: (D: being disk1,part0 and DVD being E: ) because its the next available
letter to allocate. that way both systems see themseves as C: and the
Other OS's boot partition as F: .

The only other thing is how to make the alternate OS's f: invisable to the
other OS's system. if xp is the system disk, (hosts the vista BCD stuff)
then it's needed to complete the boot Vista, if Vista is the system partition,
(hosts the NTLDR/Boot.ini setup) its needed to boot XP?
 
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OK -- currently I have disk0 with a small part0 that has hardware stuff the mfg put there its
a non windows ID so windows (both) ignore it, Vista/SP1 is on disk0,part1 (when it boots, its C: and XP
is D: ), XP is on disk1,part0 and when it boots its C: and Vista is D:. (I switched boot drives in BIOS
so both OSes had C: as there boot partitions). I also have an external USB drive that is intended
for backups -- it will have the windows XP's monitoring turned off. I was hopeing XP would not mess
with it then. I guess I could have Acronis' image backup app use its dedicated partition to insure windows
didn't mess with it? Have XP backup on the NTFS and Vista on the dedicated? or
split the backup drive into two parts and have Vista format 1 and hide that from XP and
let Image Backup make its own part for its use on XP? Can I target a Vista full backup to
an external drive? *sigh*

So far I have all the drivers for XP for the laptop, but ATI's wont run its utility,
I can reset windows to a HD resolution, but XP says its using a generic
VGA card and generic VGA monitor? It (Catalyst) works normally in Vista.
Could it be that the Video card is not supported for XP? ATI Radeon HD 3470 +256mb.

Device manager complains about missing drivers for IDE controllers but the devices are all
SATA and both drives and DVD drive work properly?

thanks in advance for any ideas
 
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When I installed my XP system as a dual boot (to handle my legacy software Vista wouldn't touch, and to utilize the TV function of my ATi AIW card), perversely the most trouble I had was getting XP to recognize the graphics part of the AIW. (Vista had correctly installed it from the off)
It stayed stubbornly in 800 x 600, 7 colour mode like a relic of the 1980s, despite all attempts to let windows auto install the driver from WUD.
Eventually, I took the "pick your own driver" route, and plodded through the list of ATi drivers in the list, most of which gave a failure message, but eventually I found one that caused the screen to spring into full 1680 x 1050, gazillion colour mode.
I can only advise you to try a lucky dip yourself. (Improve the odds by picking the ones that sound like they might have a chance - right radeon engine for starters)
 
oh -- windows XP says in the hardware manager (hardware off of 'My Computer',
hardware, device manager), generic VGA monitor and no video card ?!? but it will
set 24bit color depth and HD resolution., (> 1024x768). Its puzzeling why it kind
of partly works. I wonder what would happen if I were to attach a real high def
screen via the HDMI port .. is there anyway to tell if its using the onboard 256mg ram
or hardware acceration? ATI's website find driver tool gave me Catalyst 8.7 I think,
but when I did the install it claimed it failed to install, due to not finding the software...
silly me, I thought the software installer package contained the software :wink:.
 
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You've reminded me that I had problems with trying to install the Catalyst drivers from ATi, which is why I had to resort to the afore-mentioned approach. It's a long time ago now, trying to recall, but I seem to remember singularly uninformative failure messages, and the usual lack of help from ATi.
 
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