INSTALL WINDOWS XP ON VISTA INSTALLED PC AND DUELBOOT

You bought a new laptop or PC with pre-installed Windows Vista. You want to Install Windows XP in that and use duel boot option. Here is my way of doing it. No third party softwre required. You need only the CDs of Windows Vista and Windows XP.

This is a bit complicated and advance level operation, so be careful about the procedure. If you miss any of the following lines, you are going to end up with a PC without Operating System. Before starting, I declare that the following procedure is to be executed on your own risk and I will not be responsible for any after effects.

Let's start, if you are confident. I assume that you are confident in installing Windows XP.

Let's imagine that Vista is installed in the C drive.

1. Free up another partition or create a partition using Disk management utility of Vista. Format that partition and mark it as active if possible. Let's assume that we are going to install XP onto the D drive, so assign the drive letter D to newly created partition..

2. Boot from XP CD and install it onto D drive. That means after copying the required files for installation, the system will ask you to proceed further fo installation by asking you to accept the EULA (End User License Agreement). On accepting the agreement by pressing F8 key, the System will search for previous installations of Windows and will show you the active partitions. Here select D drive and proceed further and the normal installation continues.
3. After the ritual restarts finally XP gets installed on your D drive.
4. When you restart the PC, it will automatically boot onto XP. That means your Vista is lost to XP.
5. Don't panic.
6. Logon to XP and insert your Vista CD in the CD drive.
7. Open command prompt by typing cmd on the Start Menu> Run
8. Type the folowing commands, enter one by one:-
X: (Here X: is the drive letter of your CD Drive. eg. F:, G:, H: etc)
cd boot
bootsect /NT60 All
9. You will see some positive and negative messages.......
10. Close the command prompt and restart the PC.
11. Now you will automatically boot onto Vista, i.e. XP is lost to Vista.
12. Again don't panic.
13. Logon to Vista.
14. Go to Start Menu > All Programs >Accessories> Command Prompt.
15. Right click Command prompt and select Run as Administrator.
16. Vista will prompt for confirmation and the command prompt opens up.
17. Give the following commands in the command prompt (enter one by one).
(a) C:\windows\system32\bcdedit -create {ntldr} -d "XP"
(b) C:\windows\system32\bcdedit -set {ntldr} device partition=D:
(In step b, D: is given as the XP is installed in D: drive)
(c) C:\windows\system32\bcdedit -set {ntldr} path \ntldr
(d) C:\windows\system32\bcdedit -displayorder {ntldr} -addlast
18. After executing the above commands close the command prompt and restart the PC.
19. You will get a Duel boot screen showing both Vista and Previous Versions of Windows.
20. Select Previous Versions of Windows and press
21. Normally you will boot into XP. If you are able to boot into XP, its great. Restart the PC and select Vista from the Duel boot screen and se whether Vista is working OK....... It,s done.
22. But after selecting XP, if you get a black screen with following error message, we have to do a little more:-
File: \ntldr
Status: 0 xc000000f
23. Don't worry
24. Press the magicl keys, CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart the PC.
25. Select Vista from the Duel Boot screen and boot onto Vista.
26. After logging onto Vista insert the Windows XP CD in the CD Drive.
27. Repeat step 15.
28. On command prompt give the following commands (enter one by one):-
(a) X: (Here X: is the drive letter of your CD Drive. eg. F:, G:, H: etc)
(b) cd i386
(c) copy ntldr D:\
(d) copy ntdetect.com D:\
(e) C:
(f) attrib -s -h -r boot.ini
29. Close the command prompt.
30. Open My Computer and open C drive.
31. You will see a file named boot.ini in C drive.
32. Double click boot.ini, it will open in notepad.
33. See the folowing lines and amend it accordingly.
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
(See the partition(2) section, it's (2) bcoz our XP is in D drive. If XP is in E, it will be (3))
34. After amendments close the notepad, it will prompt you to save changes. Save it.
35. Copy the boot.ini file and paste it in D: drive.
36. Repeat step No.15.
37. On command prompt, execute folowing commands (enter one by one):
(a) attrib +s +h +r boot.ini
(b) attrib +s +h +r ntldr
(c) attrib +s +h +r ntdetect.com
38. Close the command prompt.
39. Restart the PC.
40. On the Duel Boot Screen, select Previous Versions Windows, it will boot onto XP. Or if you select Vista, it will boot onto Vista.........

Enjoy and let me know ....... how was it?

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