Hi R. C.
I've read over your thread a number of times and it is beginning to sink in.
I am new to this but the only way I'll learn is to do it myself. I'm just
worried about the system not booting at all. If I slip up somewhere. I
don't think I am thick but I'm probably thick as a brick where this is
concerned.
No one has said either yes or no to the proposed installation as described
by "DL" in the first posting (other than Josh). It seems too simple that I
just disconnect the already installed Vista drive, then plug in the blank HDD
and install XP as per normal. Is this part correct??? Once the XP
installation is complete it seems to be that once BOTH OSs are installed,
then the fun and games begins, is that true?
So If I am following your instructions BOTH HDDs will have a System
Volume/Partition. The Vista volume will have a system volume - because it
was already there. Because the Vista volume was disconnected when installing
XP, the XP volume also will have a system volume. OK, if I wade through the
instructions I've been given I will find an answer to this conundrum?
I guess I can always take the PC to my local computer shop, where they will
charge me by the hour and I will have still learnt nothing. Unfortunately,
to learn something I may have to ask dumb questions, well I'm not afraid of
that. If I encounter put-downs as a result of asking, then it is bad luck,
I'll keep asking.
Thanks
"R. C. White" wrote:
Hi, David.
does the "Earlier version of Windows" option occur automatically
Yes. Setup.exe in either Vista or Win7 will automatically create this as
the first of the boot options if it detects WinXP already installed on the
computer.
On later reboots, if you select (or let it default to) Vista or Win7, this
"earlier" line will be ignored, of course, and your Vista/Win7 selection
will be loaded and started, just as you would expect. NTLDR, etc., will
simply be ignored in that case. But if you select the "earlier" option,
then Vista's bootmgr will turn control over to the saved file of the WinXP
boot sector, which knows nothing of Vista but will look for NTLDR - and
continue as though Vista/Win7 did not exist. As always in a WinXP-only
system, if there is only a single WinXP installation, the boot process will
not waste time presenting the Boot.ini menu but will simply boot the only
choice.
While you may not have tried, it, some of us have dual-booted multiple
installations of Win2K/XP. We might have (or have had) WinXP Pro (x86) plus
WinXP x64 - and maybe an installation of Win2K, all selected from the
Boot.ini menu at startup. If we added Vista to that system, Vista's Setup
would preserve that Boot.ini file. On each reboot, when we select
"earlier", that previous multiple-choice Boot.ini menu will be presented.
But if there is only a single choice in Boot.ini, that OS will be booted
automatically after we select "earlier".
RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 RC 7100
"DavidG" wrote in message
...
What can I say, the reponses to my post have been fantastic and generous.
As
is yours RC. The only thing, and I might be wrong about this, but I still
feel a little uncertain about setting up the booting side of it. What I
mean
is does the "Earlier version of Windows" option occur automatically or do
I
need to do something? How do I physically set that choice up? If I'm
overdoing the request let me know, I feel confident about the
installation,
it is just that last bit.
"R. C. White" wrote:
Hi, David.
You've received plenty of good advice here. You don't really need more,
but... ;^}
Ever since WinNT4 (which is where I jumped in to dual-booting), the
Microsoft dual-boot (actually multi-boot) system has consisted of two
parts:
The System Partition and the Boot Volume. For the official but
counterintuitive definitions of these two terms, see KB 314470 (
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314470/EN-US/ ). As others have said,
those
uninformed on such matters may think it strange that we boot from the
system
partition and keep the operating system files in the boot volume - but
those
terms are rooted in computer history and we're stuck with them. I see
this
as a figure "Y". It all stands on the upright portion, the System
Partition. The boot process starts there, then proceeds to one of the
two
(or more) branches of the "Y", depending on what we select. (In a one-OS
system, the "Y" looks like an "I", but the System Partition and Boot
Volume
still exist - and the distinction is still important.)
The System Partition must be a primary partition and marked Active
(bootable), and it must be on the HDD designated in the BIOS as the boot
device. The Boot Volume may be a primary partition, but it also may be a
logical drive in an extended partition on any HDD in the computer. If
there
are multiple Windows installations, each will have its own Boot Volume,
but
they will all share the single System Partition. (More complex
arrangements
are possible, such as creating a System Partition on each of multiple
HDDs
and changing BIOS settings to choose between them, as some have suggested
in
this thread, but let's keep it simple for the current discussion.)
The System Partition can be very small (well under 1 GB) because all that
is
required to be there are the boot sector (512 bytes) and the few
relatively
small startup files. The Win2K/XP startup files are only NTLDR,
NTDETECT.COM and Boot.ini. For Vista/Win7, they are only the file
"bootmgr"
(no extension) and the folder named \Boot, which holds the BCD (Boot
Configuration Data). No matter where you tell Setup to install Windows,
these startup files MUST be in the System Partition.
All the rest of Windows (maybe 10 GB or more for Vista) will be installed
in
a single folder tree, named \Windows, in the Root of whichever volume you
choose, which thereby becomes the Boot Volume for that Windows
installation.
This CAN share the System Partition - and that is the typical
arrangement,
especially for newbies and for new computers with Windows pre-installed.
But this means that you can't format that Boot Volume without also wiping
out the System Partition. (Win7's default installation on a new blank
computer solves this by creating the System Partition as a separate
volume
with no drive letter, then creating the large boot volume and assigning
it
Drive C:. But that arrangement is not available to us when adding Win7
to
an existing WinXP system.)
WinXP's Setup.exe never heard of Vista or Win7, of course, because those
did
not exist back in 2001, when WinXP was released. But Vista and Win7
Setup
knows how to handle an existing WinXP. That's the reason for the Golden
Rule of Dual-Booting: Always install the newest Windows last. When Win7
Setup finds an existing WinXP, it does not delete NTLDR, etc., but adds
its
own bootmgr and \Boot folder alongside them, then rewrites the boot
sector
(after saving a copy of it). Later, on each reboot, the BCD menu
includes
an option for an "Earlier version of Windows". If you choose that, the
BCD
gets out of the way and lets NTLDR present the familiar Boot.ini menu -
if
there are multiple Win2K/XP options - or continues directly into WinXP if
there is only one. Since you want to add WinXP to a system that already
has
Vista installed, you'll need to do some repair work after installing
WinXP,
but that's easier than it used to be. And upgrading from Vista to Win7
later should be easy, although Microsoft hasn't yet published the details
of
this transition.
Well, that's enough for now. We could discuss drive letters and such, or
creating multiple System Partitions on your multiple HDDs (for insurance
in
case one HDD gets damaged), but we can save those for another day.
RC
"DavidG" wrote in message
...
Hi
I'm wanting to create a dual boot for my PC. I would like to use 2
separate
HDDs. One HDD has Vista Business (current) and the other proposed HDD
will
have XP. I would like to locate some good user-friendly instructions
on
how
to do this by downloading from a web site, or maybe someone on the
group
has
a set of instructions. Could someone assist please? Is there a good
site
on
this topic?
I have tried Virtual PC 2007 but I cannot get the screen to enlarge to
any
extent. Full screen mode fails every time I try it. Anyway, I figure
the
twin HDDs would be the cleanest way to go. One more thing, I plan on
upgrading the Vista installation to Windows 7 when released, would
there
be
issues with the dual boot when installing Win 7??
Thanks