Questions before I even start

M

mr_fm

Member
I just have a couple of questions before I attempt to do a dual boot with vista-xp on different harddrives.

When I installed XP I disconnected the vista drive (sata) and installed xp on an ide drive. I have been "dual booting" by changing hardrive order within the bios (is it really that bad to dual boot by doing this?). Am I going to now have trouble getting EasyBCD to set up a bootloader?

Also, I've had people tell me that setting up a dual boot bootloader may mess up the restore capabilities withing Vista. Is this true?

Those are just a couple of things I was looking for clarification before I even start. Thanks for any help.
 
Hi mr_fm,

Changing the boot drive order in the BIOS can result in an unbootable system if you try to repair one or the other OS, it's highly not recommended.

It doesn't make a difference if you use this method or the "switch the boot drive" method, your Windows Vista system restore points are getting trashed every time you boot into Windows XP thanks to a bug Microsoft refuses to fix.

Anyway, you can read up on how to dual boot here: Windows XP - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki
 
Thanks for answering! I've noticed the great support you give here at the forums. Good work.

So are the Vista restore points only trashed when you boot into XP? So if I have a bootloader that auto boots into vista after a default time then it won't affect the restore points?

The reason I ask is because vista is booted into 9 out of 10 times. Generally only when I play games do I restart and select the xp drive. So as long as having a bootloader doesn't affect vista restore points then thats the route I'll go.
 
One last question; I understand the basics of going through XP to set up the vista boot, etc, but I may have to modify my boot ini.

I have my vista on a sata drive that was pre-partitioned with a recovery partition and vista partition (so vista os: drive c, 1st partition; recovery: drive c, 2nd partition).

XP is on an ide drive with 2 partitions (fresh install xp pro on first partition, xp home from my previous comp on second partition).

So if I need to manually edit my boot ini how would I write the operating systems lines?
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows Vista Home Premium" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Pro" /fastdetect

edit:
actually I'd have to be able to boot into the recovery partition too if necessary.
 
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EasyBCD couldn't have been any easier! Set up was a breeze. The wiki was very helpful.

Now for a question now that I'm done:

Do I have to leave the xp harddrive as the main boot drive in the bios?
 
Well, that's up to you.

If it's all working now with the XP drive as boot, I probably wouldn't touch it.

But you can go ahead and change it to the Vista drive, IF you're willing to go through this all over again :smile:
 
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