Dual boot on new pc

aSc1@3

aSc1@3

New Member
I now that there are other dual booting threads, but they don't really help me.

I have an emachines w3611 computer with manufacturer hardware and vista home basic. My old computer is dead, fried mobo, but i know that the harddrive with xp works. can i put that hd in this computer and make it dual boot with xp and vista??
 
Once you add the old drive on the new system you need to plan on a fresh install of XP due to being on a totally different system. Once you load XP in a dual boot plan on losing all Vista system restore points when first booting into XP since that will cancel those out.

At the present time one tool for preserving those is still in beta for the present time. But the tool does work when used according to instructions. You can review the entire thread on how that works even when dual booting with two drives at http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1692

Once you see a fresh clean install of XP with the drive on the new system Vista won't load. You will then have to use the startup repair tool hopefully on the recovery disk for the system there. If you lack that you will simply have to unplug the present drive when installing XP as a separate stand alone on the old drive and use eitther the boot device menu or change the boot order in the bios to go back and forth between versions.
 
pc eye, will that only delete restore points, or will it delete everything? and also, is there any way i can restore xp to its previous stae after install, like can i get back all my games, programs, documents, etc?
 
When moving the drive into a new system and seeing a fresh installaion of XP on the drive you would have to reinstall all programs all over again. You will starting all over again with a brand new system registry there.

Before that takes place if you can get XP to load once on the new system(note the word IF) you can use the file and settings transfer wizard for backing things up. Once Windows sees a new copy you can often restore those by using the wizard a second time. That however is a time consuming process.

Without reformatting the drive and seeing a new install the current non MS created folders will still be found on the drive itself. The best option however in case the need to see a fresh primary is to back everything up prior to going ahead with this however to avoid any losses. Often the current primary is reduced in size for seeing a second storage partition created for this if not using another means like an external storage device.

As far as the current Vista installation that would simply see all restore points initially lost once booted in XP for the first time. The beta tool eventually to be released would then be used to hide Vista from XP in order to preserve the new points created from then on in Vista.

An actual dual boot of OSs is best seen when you have the means to restore both OSs in case something goes wrong. If you can't recover the Vista installation once trying to establish a dual boot you will likely lose a lot there as well as voiding any warranty. This is something that has to be planned out ahead of time.

The alternative would be isolating the Vista host and simply reinstalling XP by itself as an option by using the F1, F12, or whatever assigned if a boot device menu for selecting the drive from a list would see XP run without effecting Vista. That is a little more awkward however since most go for a dual boot configuration while protecting Vista's own restore points. XP would still need a clean start either way however.
 
Well, in that case, wouldn't it be easier to partition the drive in the emachines, and insatall xp on that?
 
so why can't an older install of windows be used? with PATA, slave/master n' you could just boot off whatever drive you wanted, regardless of what computer the drive came from, not that that's really totally relevant here.

Is there's not a program you can install and then tell it ¨there's windows on this drive, give me the option to boot from there¨? I thought computers might have got passed this nonsense by now
 
The problem there is the preinstalled OS on the present host or boot drive. Even when multi-booting here with four hard drives(2 ide, 2 sata) with the fourth set aside for storage only each version of Windows wanted the first primary. On the currect build now seeing only 2 sata drives(plus and external) XP was placed a second primary seeing problems. It is now in a dual boot with Vista being on the second drive.

The hard drive to be set as the default when more then one is installed is moved to the top of the list found under the boot order>hard drives in the bios when pressing the enter key while the hard drives item is highlighted. When the next windows opens you will then see all drives listed where using the Numpad + and - keys are used to move one drive to the top there. Once you use the exit and save changes option or press F10 to exit the bios setup that becomes the drive searched for the mbr or chain loader information in the case of a dual or multi boot.

When custom installing a second version of Windows onto a second primary you would first want to backup things on the current Vista primary since you will need to shrink that down in order to see the second created on the same drive. You also have to take into account the hidden volume storing restoration files taking up a certain amount of drive space from the total.

The hardest part is adding XP into Vista's own boot loader since you first would have to restore that after installing XP. Once Vista is booting up normally you then use something besides a BCD editing tool to see something more like Grub4Dos add a new chainloader where you then add the XP entry as an option. The tool then converts the XP boot.ini file itself as well as adding the entry into a modified bootmgr file for Vista.

Once done correctly the quick screen for selecting the second OS namely XP with Vista first and advised to be default appears just after the post tests. You can adjust the amount of time that will be displayed to that lowered from the default 30 seconds if preferred.
 
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