[itsjustmewarren]

Hey, I followed the steps and have hit a problem, windows vista now loads, but when I load Windows xp it says ntldr is missing or currupt. I tried fixmbr and fixboot but that didnt seem to help, its a toshiba laptop so I dont actually have the vista cds, its the recovery cds which seem to be useless in this situation. Any ideas as to what to do?

thanks

[crjdriver]

Originally Posted by itsjustmewarren

Hey, I followed the steps and have hit a problem, windows vista now loads, but when I load Windows xp it says ntldr is missing or currupt. I tried fixmbr and fixboot but that didnt seem to help, its a toshiba laptop so I dont actually have the vista cds, its the recovery cds which seem to be useless in this situation. Any ideas as to what to do?

thanks

First you need to post your problem in your own thread. Replying to a guide is not really going to get you any real advise. Next you need a real vista dvd; a recovery dvd/partition is not going to work.

[cmendez]

gswiss i tried that acronis disk director suite 2160 and it didnt work. when i put the win xp cd and it goes to the partition part.....it still doesnt see any partitions.....i dont get it.

[Sithtiger]

Originally Posted by crjdriver

Some of you may have purchased systems that came with vista pre-installed. If you want to run an older operating system such as XP or win2k [and you do not want to have to reinstall vista] then you might be interested in this guide. Note to do this you must have a vista install DVD.

I have just finished installing a dual boot; win2k and vista where vista was installed first and win2k added after. This is quite easy and does not require any third party app.

Prior to beginning this task, make a complete backup of your system. I use and recommend Acronis True Image for this task. In addition do make sure that win2k/xp has drivers available for your hardware. This is especially important if you have a laptop. If there are no drivers available, you are wasting your time.

To start we need to create a partition in which to install win2k/xp. Open disk management; start>run and type in “diskmgmt.msc” without quotes. Hit enter; this brings up disk management. Right click your drive and choose shrink from the menu. I would make the partition approx 10gig for win2k and 15-20gig for XP [depending on how much software you are going to install] Once you have completed the shrink process, create a partition and format with NTFS. [Using disk management] At this point you new partition has been assigned the next available drive letter. I like drive letters in order so I use disk management to reassign the drive letters for the optical drives so I can assign drive letters sequentially for the hard disk partitions. With the new partition now labeled D and optical drives following, it is now time to install our older operating system.

Boot with your win2k/xp CD [CD set as first boot device in the bios] Select the “D” partition as to where you will install. I will not go into detailed instructions as to how to install win2k or xp; there are many guides on the web for this purpose. Complete the install. At this point, vista will no longer boot; we need to repair the boot sector and vista’s boot configuration files. Boot into win2k/xp and open a command prompt; start>run>cmd and hit enter. We will now use Bootsect.exe to restore the Vista MBR and the boot code that transfers control to the Windows Boot mgr app.

Insert your vista dvd into the drive; cancel window that may autorun. Type this in
Drive:\boot\Bootset.exe /NT60 All hit enter
In this command drive is the drive where the Vista install DVD is located.

Next we will use Bcdedit.exe to manually create an entry for win2k/xp

Type Drive:\windows\system32\Bcdedit /create {ntldr} –d “Description for earlier Windows” hit enter.
Note in this command drive is where you have vista installed; most likely “C” The description can be whatever you want ie Windows 2000, Windows XP, etc.

We now will set the active partition. Note in this command drive is the letter for the active partition; again most likely “C”
Drive:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=X: hit enter Again this is most likely C not X.

Drive:\windows\system32\Bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr hit enter
Drive:\windows\system32\Bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} –addlast hit enter.

Now restart the system and you will have the vista boot menu giving you the choice of operating systems.

Not trying to be a smart*** or anything, and I'm just asking here. Once you install XP and then of course Vista doesn't work. Couldn't you just boot from the Vista DVD and go to repair and wouldn't it fix Vista? Or in doing so, would it also incapacitate XP too? I know that Vista's boot up repair is pretty good, and I don't know that it would work here but I suspect it would. The real question is whether it would bork up XP after fixing Vista.

[t0adman]

Okay, I got the system back from IBM and it's in OEM condition. I created the restore disks from the hidden partition on the drive and I'm ready (I think) to install XP and get the dual boot working.

However, when I put the first recovery disk in and boot from CD I get a Lenovo recovery interface. I don't see the Repair Windows option anywhere and I'm not sure how to find it. Has anyone done this on a Lenovo? How did you get past this step?

[DaveA]

The restore disks that you made are for VISTA only, you are going to have to go and BUY and copy of Winows XP.

[t0adman]

I already have the XP SP2 install disk and when I got my system back I created the Vista restore disks off the hard drive. Now I'm ready to proceed with dual boot installation of XP and Vista but the Lenovo Restore Disks don't have the Repair System option.

I've since decided to wipe the hard drive clean and install XP only. If my father-in-law wants Vista on there some day he can use the restore disks to install it. I'm done battling with this crap!

[crjdriver]

Originally Posted by t0adman

I already have the XP SP2 install disk and when I got my system back I created the Vista restore disks off the hard drive. Now I'm ready to proceed with dual boot installation of XP and Vista but the Lenovo Restore Disks don't have the Repair System option.

I've since decided to wipe the hard drive clean and install XP only. If my father-in-law wants Vista on there some day he can use the restore disks to install it. I'm done battling with this crap!

You are not reading the guide. Restore disks will not work; you need a real MS vista disk.

[dirtyfellaw2]

Hello GSwiss, you seem to be knowledgeable with Inspiron 6400 problems.
Can you outline how to resolved those problem.
I recently got a E1505 Inpiron 6400 with Vista Home Premium pre-installed.
Would like to dual boot with XP.

You help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

[Focuws]

I hate Stiky keys

[Gswiss]

Originally Posted by dirtyfellaw2

Hello GSwiss, you seem to be knowledgeable with Inspiron 6400 problems.
Can you outline how to resolved those problem.
I recently got a E1505 Inpiron 6400 with Vista Home Premium pre-installed.
Would like to dual boot with XP.

You help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!

Pls refer to

http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vi...ml#post5041755

[aussiekiwi]

I recently purchased a new system that came with Vista preinstalled what are the steps I need to take to load XP on my sytem as XP is a better OS. I have NO drivers as like I said it came preinstalled. Please help as Vista is driving me NuTs!!!
Please reply to waresman@hotmail.com

[Krisper]

Originally Posted by crjdriver

Some of you may have purchased systems that came with vista pre-installed. If you want to run an older operating system such as XP or win2k [and you do not want to have to reinstall vista] then you might be interested in this guide. Note to do this you must have a vista install DVD.

I have just finished installing a dual boot; win2k and vista where vista was installed first and win2k added after. This is quite easy and does not require any third party app.

Prior to beginning this task, make a complete backup of your system. I use and recommend Acronis True Image for this task. In addition do make sure that win2k/xp has drivers available for your hardware. This is especially important if you have a laptop. If there are no drivers available, you are wasting your time.

To start we need to create a partition in which to install win2k/xp. Open disk management; start>run and type in “diskmgmt.msc” without quotes. Hit enter; this brings up disk management. Right click your drive and choose shrink from the menu. I would make the partition approx 10gig for win2k and 15-20gig for XP [depending on how much software you are going to install] Once you have completed the shrink process, create a partition and format with NTFS. [Using disk management] At this point you new partition has been assigned the next available drive letter. I like drive letters in order so I use disk management to reassign the drive letters for the optical drives so I can assign drive letters sequentially for the hard disk partitions. With the new partition now labeled D and optical drives following, it is now time to install our older operating system.

Boot with your win2k/xp CD [CD set as first boot device in the bios] Select the “D” partition as to where you will install. I will not go into detailed instructions as to how to install win2k or xp; there are many guides on the web for this purpose. Complete the install. At this point, vista will no longer boot; we need to repair the boot sector and vista’s boot configuration files. Boot into win2k/xp and open a command prompt; start>run>cmd and hit enter. We will now use Bootsect.exe to restore the Vista MBR and the boot code that transfers control to the Windows Boot mgr app.

Insert your vista dvd into the drive; cancel window that may autorun. Type this in
Drive:\boot\Bootset.exe /NT60 All hit enter
In this command drive is the drive where the Vista install DVD is located.

Next we will use Bcdedit.exe to manually create an entry for win2k/xp

Type Drive:\windows\system32\Bcdedit /create {ntldr} –d “Description for earlier Windows” hit enter.
Note in this command drive is where you have vista installed; most likely “C” The description can be whatever you want ie Windows 2000, Windows XP, etc.

We now will set the active partition. Note in this command drive is the letter for the active partition; again most likely “C”
Drive:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=X: hit enter Again this is most likely C not X.

Drive:\windows\system32\Bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr hit enter
Drive:\windows\system32\Bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} –addlast hit enter.

Now restart the system and you will have the vista boot menu giving you the choice of operating systems.

Hi, You must be amazing. I took my new windows vista to Staples...they had it for 3 months. I bought the disk for windows XP. They were suppose to uninstall Vista and
install windows XP. They couldn't do it. They said something about the driver being different. So I'm back to my new Vista and still can't download Pogo games. Your
explaination is too hard for me to understand. Thanks that I know it can be done.

[ostlandr]

I managed to get Virtual PC running on my new Vista home premium box (Microsoft tries to steer you into upgrading to Vista Ultimate- gee, I wonder why?)

If you have enough memory (2 GB is the absolute minimum IMHO) and have the media and license for an earlier Windows version (or even a Mac OS) then in theory you can have the earlier version running under Vista as an emulator (like Dosbox or those nasty, awful, illegal Gameboy emulators )

Unfortunately for me, WinXP came pre-loaded on my old PC, which I am still using, and the disc for Win95 has grown legs. . .

[ihatevista]

Hi
i have pre-installed vista and hate it i want xp back all i got with system is a disc thats called windows vista any time upgrade is that the disc i need ??? help