Adding Windows XP to a PC with Windows Vista Already Installed

Mausebaer

Mausebaer

Distinguished Member
Hi,
I'm a bit confused about the instructions installing XP after Vista.

They write
"It's very important to make sure that this partition was created at the end of the drive, or else you might no longer be able to boot into Windows Vista because your partition numbers have changed."
Click to expand...
Does the XP partition really have to be the last on the drive? At the moment I have three partitions on the drive, the first (primary) with Vista on it, the second (also primary) where I intend to put XP on and a third (logical) where I want to store data later on..... This third partition is shown at the end of the drive...

Do I have to purge the third partition and extend the second one to the end of the drive? (And reduce it later to get new Space for my data-partition).
Or do they simply mean that the XP-Partition may not be the first one....?

Is there anybody who can help me and give advice?

Thanx a lot in advance,

Best regards,

Wolfgang
 
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Hi Wolfgang, welcome to NST.
Where do those instructions come from ?
It's not important where the partitions are in relation to each other.
The only problem with installing XP after Vista is that it will regress the Vista boot.
You will need to put the Vista boot process back in control, which you can do by booting the Vista DVD and using "repair your computer", "startup repair" several times, or by using EasyBCD from XP (NET 2.0 framework must be installed on XP first).
You'll find instructions in the wiki for both methods
http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Recovering+the+Vista+Bootloader+from+the+DVD
http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Recovering+the+Vista+Bootloader+with+EasyBCD
When Vista is booting again, Install EasyBCD 2.0 latest build (not 1.7) and add an entry for XP. Let it auto-configure for you and it will do everything that needed to be done manually in 1.7.

You can find guides for the whole process by following one of the early links in the sticky thread.
 
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Thanks for your quick reply. The instructions come from here:
Installing XP After Vista - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki
(The last sentence under item
Prepping the Machine for an XP Installation )


And I thought it is not written there without reason....
...or I haven't understood what they mean)

The other hint's are known to me. Anyways, it's good to know that version 2.0 does a couple of things automatically.

Thank you,

Regards
Wolfgang :smile:
 
I can only assume that Guru is warning against moving the start point of the Vista partition. That will stop it from working.
It means "get the space from the back of the Vista partition, not the front" and it should say partition rather than drive. (He's presumably assuming a Vista drive with a single partition)
If you use Vista disk management's built in shrink capability, you're in no danger. It won't let you do anything else.
 
OK this sounds plausible...
Maybe GURU should revise this hint ...

Indeed I'm using Vistas internal partition manager, and it worked quite well by now...

In any case, you swept my doubts away. :smile::smile::smile:

Thanks a lot,

Regards
Wolfgang :happy:
 
I'm sorry, but there are hundreds of historic wiki and blog entries that have been overtaken by developments in the software builds, and Guru (the sole author of it all), doesn't have the time to go back and bring everything up to date, (and only 2 of us users to lend the occasional hand with revisions).
The forum is always the best place to find the latest information.
 
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