Adding XP to a new Vista Laptop - possible?

porty

New Member
Hi all, I'm a new poster.

I'm organizing a new laptop for a friend. I'd rather give her a machine with XPPro than Vista, but I haven't been able to buy a notebook with XP, so Vista (Home Basic)it'll have to be.

My question: Can I add XPPro to this new laptop? If it's possible, I'd like the machine to boot into XP as default.

Advice would be appreciated :smile:
 
Hi Porty, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies!

You can do that and more with EasyBCD, our tool for a perfect multi-boot system.

Just re-partition your hard drive and install XP to the new partition you just created. Use Acronis Disk Director or Paragon to do this.

Once you have XP installed and running, install EasyBCD (grab the latest 1.61 build from here)
EasyBCD | Manage Bootloader | (Re)Install Vista Bootloader
EasyBCD | Add/Remove Entries | Windows | Windows XP | Add Entry
EasyBCD | Change Settings -> Set XP to the default.

Reboot and it should work :smile:
 
gparted disk partitioner

Gparted Live CD is free and can be downloaded from SourceForge.net.

It boots your system into a user friendly partitioner manager.
 
thiss is exactly the problem I am grappling with. My machine came with two partiotns, C and D already set up, can I use them? Also do I just install XP or do I do it through easy BCD? Sorry to appear dense, but I get a little scared of wiping the vISTA off altogether. (Although some think this would be a great idea.
 
Hi timddeb, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies.

Just boot from your XP CD and direct it to install to drive D:
Then install .NET 2.0 and EasyBCD in Windows XP
EasyBCD | Bootloader Management | Reinstall Vista Bootloader
EasyBCD | Add/Remove Entries | Windows XP | Add Entry

Then reboot and you're set.
 
timddeb i would wager to guess that the 2nd partition is a recovery partition. Like it is on most laptops now-a-days. If that is the case you will want to make sure that you backup that data to a external hard drive or other source so that you can still use it in case you Vista install gets corrupted for whatever reason.
 
thanks. When I read the manual there is a recovery partition but it is hidden, this has 70GB on it. the c drive is 70GB and the whole hard drive is 160GB so I reckon the 20GB is in the recvery drive. Strewth I can remember when 20mb was un upgrade!!! I reckon most of my grey hair is caused by Windows
 
lol - and when you didn't need a DVD to ship an OS :tongueout:

At any rate, if that's case you should be good to go with installing XP to drive D:, good luck.
 
As CG said with the recovery partition hidden you should be all set to just setup XP on the 2nd partition. Just wanted to make sure no one lost the recovery partition since it has happened to many times at other places where people have formatted it and installed XP only to need it at a later point.
 
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