have vista, want xp to dual boot

B

birdman664

New Member
I just bought a new laptop computer with Windows Vista. A lot of programs I use and need for work on operate with Windows XP. Therefore, I want to install Windows XP and have a dual boot.

I have seen many posts with Windows XP as the current OS and Windows Vista as the OS being installed but not the other way around.

I think I need to partition the hard drive, boot from the XP CD, and install XP on the new partition, but I'm not sure if this will work.

Would this be the way to do this??

If so how do you partition the hard drive with Vista? I do not at any time want to erase the current version of Vista.

Will there be a problem with the drivers for the hard drive since XP may not have them built in?

Thanks for any help.
 
what is your current need to run windows xp? Microsoft released virtual PC for free off their website. You can run a virtual machine of windows xp with in vista itself. Now, of course there are some limitations but it negates the need to dual boot. You should have at least 2 gigs of ram though to do this, IMO, but you could feasibly run it on less.

I have a dual boot system that I am using right now but it dual boots Linux and Vista. Since I need XP to run I just created a virtual machine of windows xp with in vista using MSVPC, which is a free download. I can now run all legacy apps with in the virtual machine. It is kind of buggy since vista is buggy but I can run the virtual machine with out having to reboot.
 
Most importantly, the software that allows me to connect to my workplace from home will not install with Vista. I wish I had known this before making the computer purchase.

I am not familiar with this virtual machine but I will look into it. But I only have 1GB RAM.
 
Last edited:
what software do you use, there is a plethora of VNC type software out there that will probably work.
 
I am not sure about the software actually. It is distributed from the IT department and I dont have a copy. They told me its not compatible with Vista.

Back to the original question...would this be a big problem attempting to install Windows XP in dual boot?

Thanks for the replies.
 
I would ask IT first of all if they would do it since its their job lol. But no its not hard you just need to get a partition program and partition the drive and then install xp on that partition it will then be picked up by the Boot Loader in Vista and ask if you want to boot into vista or the earlier version of windows.
 
I just did it last night and it works great.

The only problem is when I run XP, a lot of the drivers are not installed. I tried putting in the drivers CD that I received with the computer but it does not work. I tried looking for them manually on the CD but I could not find them. I am assuming these drivers are only for Vista.

I guess I just need to determine the exact hardware in my computer and find the drivers. I was thinking I could use a program called Everest Home Edition to determine my hardware.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top