Best approach for XP dual boot?

L

larva

Member
I've got a laptop (ASUS F3SV) with Windows Vista installed, and I'd like to install a copy of Windows XP (and maybe a Linux distro in the future). Currently the drive is partitioned with a recovery partition, the Vista partition, and a data partition.

The approach I was going to take was:

- create a version of XP with the correct SATA drivers for my laptop
- partition the data parition to add a new partion for Windows XP
- install XP to the new partition

After this point, I was wondering if the next best action would be to use EasyBCD in Windows XP to get dual boot set up. It seemed like this might be easier than trying to somehow get back into Vista (Using a Vista recovery CD maybe?).


The one overriding concern I have is that by doing any of this... I'm going to mess up the set-up for using the ASUS recovery CD with the recovery partition should I ever need to use it in the future.


Any thoughts?
 
Hi Larva, welcome to NST.
Once you've installed XP into the space you create, you can use EasyBCD from XP or a Vista DVD (or our recovery disk) to put the Vista bootmgr back in control.
Use EasyBCD 2.0 latest build from Vista when it's back, to add an XP entry to the BCD, and let it auto-configure the XP boot for you.
If the OEM has customized the extended boot menu as its means of accessing the OEM recovery/restore facility, then that will be compromised by putting a vanilla Vista boot in control. If they use a different method, all well and good.
If you have (wisely) made yourself a set of portable backup CDs from the recovery partition, then you should be bullet-proof as regards any future need to factory-reset the PC, though I would burn another set (perhaps to DVD this time) as a belt-and-braces insurance.
 
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Terry60 said:
Hi Larva, welcome to NST.
Once you've installed XP into the space you create, you can use EasyBCD from XP or a Vista DVD (or our recovery disk) to put the Vista bootmgr back in control.
Use EasyBCD 2.0 latest build from Vista when it's back, to add an XP entry to the BCD, and let it auto-configure the XP boot for you.
If the OEM has customized the extended boot menu as its means of accessing the OEM recovery/restore facility, then that will be compromised by putting a vanilla Vista boot in control. If they use a different method, all well and good.
If you have (wisely) made yourself a set of portable backup CDs from the recovery partition, then you should be bullet-proof as regards any future need to factory-reset the PC, though I would burn another set (perhaps to DVD this time) as a belt-and-braces insurance.
Click to expand...


Hi Terry, thanks for the reply.

I might start by looking into a backup. Does anyone know if I can create the backup CDs (of the recovery partition) from Windows Vista (HP)?

Another alternative I can look into is some imaging software. Does anyone know of some good (preferably free) imaging software?

Lastly I may also try to get a hold of ASUS support and see what they say about the recovery disk. I'm not sure how far I'll get with that though.
 
Generally, one of the options if you go into the OEM recovery partition, is "burn a portable copy".
That's what I was referring to.
They produce a bootable disk which you can use to do the full set of OEM recovery functions, including "factory reset" in the event that your HDD suffers a catastrophic failure preventing you from using the HDD hidden partition to recover the PC.
Any other kind of backup imaging software won't give you that ability if you can't boot the PC to access the image.

Do ASUS give you a set of portable media with the PC ?
Most OEMs are too mean and expect you to burn your own from the hidden partition.
Unfortunately a large proportion of OEM users who end up here, neglected to bother with that elementary piece of PC life-insurance and are caught between a rock and a hard place.

If you've got a professional set provided with the PC, you can probably ignore my advice to burn a second backup copy.
 
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Terry60 said:
Generally, one of the options if you go into the OEM recovery partition, is "burn a portable copy".
That's what I was referring to.
They produce a bootable disk which you can use to do the full set of OEM recovery functions, including "factory reset" in the event that your HDD suffers a catastrophic failure preventing you from using the HDD hidden partition to recover the PC.
Any other kind of backup imaging software won't give you that ability if you can't boot the PC to access the image.

Do ASUS give you a set of portable media with the PC ?
Most OEMs are too mean and expect you to burn your own from the hidden partition.
Unfortunately a large proportion of OEM users who end up here, neglected to bother with that elementary piece of PC life-insurance and are caught between a rock and a hard place.

If you've got a professional set provided with the PC, you can probably ignore my advice to burn a second backup copy.
Click to expand...

Yup, ASUS supplies a recovery DVD disk with the notebook.

Last night I phoned both the store where I purchased the notebook, and the ASUS support line. I basically asked them:

"If I decided to completely wipe my notebook, including the hidden recovery partition, so I could install Windows XP and maybe dual boot with Linux - would I still be able to restore Windows Vista using just the recovery disk?"

The answer from both the store and support line was that yes, all I needed was the recovery disk. (With both phone calls, the person on the line confirmed it with another individual - so that's four people that confirmed it :smile: ) It must just put an image of the original setup with Vista back onto the machine.

Addendum:

SIW2 said:
The best imaging software is Macrium Reflect . They do a free version , which is all you need.

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

I am also fond of the Paragon backup apps. - but the free version they do is very limited. Macrium free is much better.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link! I'll definitely look into this. It would be nice to save my current set up with all the files, drivers, applications, set-up, etc. Time to see which is cheaper... an external hard drive... or a whole bunch of DVDs!
 
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