Another XP/Vista dual boot issue

Indeed it seems a lot of heads turned when we proposed our solution.

For the most part, EasyBCD's trick for hiding the Vista partition from XP works great, but the only problem is the that the way Microsoft implemented the entire concept of a bootloader in their operating systems (old and new alike) make it necessary to add an extra step along the way:

Vista Bootloader:
.....Boot Vista
.....NeoGrub
..........Boot Windows (Hide Vista)
..........Unhide Vista

As you can see, booting into XP and hiding the Vista partition is but one step. But when you want to boot back into Vista, you'll have to first hide the Vista partition, go back, and press boot Vista.

See this thread for all the answers on this particular topic. It's very thorough, doesn't leave much room for questions: http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=602
 
Very thorough I see.

I may need a refill of Ativan (stat!) to keep my pressure in check before I begin.

The capitalist in me says you should write a small script and charge a few pesos. I'd pay for that privilege.

Scott
 
LOL... I'm planning on writing a program, but it will be free like EasyBCD, I just don't have the time right now. (soon, soon)

Everything you'll find on our site is free - we accept donations though (not that anyone bothers). The way we figure, if we write the app and charge money, we'll make a quick buck for a week or two until someone makes the same thing for free - so might as well just have it for free from the get-go :smile:
 
Haven't tried it in Firefox, only IE7 and Opera.

Thank you for your donation Scott - much appreciated!
If there's anything else I can do to help, just let me know.

As for the program, I'll probably work on that when EasyBCD 1.61 goes gold - while the translators prepare for our first multi-lingual release to open the 2.x series :smile:
 
With pleasure.

For anyone else reading that has been assisted by this invaluable app, I hope you do the same.

Prost !
 
As for the program, I'll probably work on that when EasyBCD 1.61 goes gold - while the translators prepare for our first multi-lingual release to open the 2.x series :smile:

Wow... That sounds interesting... hmm... very interesting, I can't wait! :lol:
 
I do have a slightly OT question.
I'm in the habit of reformatting our laptops every 6-9 months. The most recent activity was simply adding a Vista partition to our existing XP. In the future do you have an opinion on which OS to install first? Does it matter?

Scott
 
I'm of the same habit :smile:

The golden rule of dual-booting is oldest to newest.

When you format (and I recommend you also zero-out your MBR, that's giving you all this trouble with unknown boot devices - EasyBCD can do that for you too!), create a partition - install XP. Create a partition, install Vista.
 
I don't know if this was discussed already.

I installed Vista(D: Drive) and XP (C: drive) they both work fine, but it was my assumption that when I start Vista it would be the C: drive and I will be able to rus all the programs that I already have on C.
 
Hi Chelle,

No, it depends on your MBR configuration. Vista sees itself as D:\, but you can feel free to install apps to C:\, they'll work just fine from there so long as they're installed from within Vista.
 
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