PinkPenguin

Hey all, this helped me no end when I wanted to install XP on my PC when I already had Vista installed so I though I would share it with you.

Before doing this please make sure you have a backup of anything you cant afford to loose. This process is none destructive but better to be safe than sorry, and at least you can say I didnt warn you lol.

OK here goes:

Step 1. - Backing up
Backup, and double check your backup!

Step 2. - Getting ready
You will need to download Gparted Live CD from: http://sourceforge.net/project/showf...kage_id=173828. You will need to burn the ISO image to a CD/DVD using your burning software.

I have personally used the versions 0.3.4-7 and above and have all worked without errors.

Step 3. - Doing it
You will now need to boot from the Gparted CD/DVD you have just created. Depending on your motherboard you can either go into the BIOS and alter the Boot sequence or on some boards press F8 when it posts to activate the Boot menu.


GUI Menu

You will see the above menu, for 99% of you, select the 'auto-configuration' option.

During boot, press Enter twice when prompted to select the keymap and language settings.

When the main GUI loads, right-click on the main Windows XP NTFS partition (depending on your setup, probably /dev/hda1) and select Resize/Move.


Select and Resize/Move option

Use the slider to reduce the partition size and free up enough room to instal Vista (at least 20GB for Vista Ultimate) and click Resize/Move.


Choose your size

The changes haven’t actually been made yet, they’ve just been scheduled to run. To commit the changes and resize the partition, click Apply. GParted will ask to confirm the changes – select OK and GParted will do its thing (it took 4-5 mins to resize by 500Gb partition into 2).

Once it has completed you will need to insert your Vista DVD and restart your computer.

Step 4: - Install Vista
Once the Windows installer has started, click onto the Install now button.


Lovely Vista lol

Once the installer gets to the install location, there should now be at least two options: a partition marked as Primary and one marked as unallocated space. Select the unallocated space and click Next. The install will then commence.


Primary and unallocated

The Vista boot manager will take over the system completely, and Windows XP effectively loads via Vista. It’s all pretty seamless though, and you shouldn’t encounter any problems.

Step 5 - Editing the bootloader
Once Vista is installed and the system reboots, you’ll be presented with a boot menu with two options: “Microsoft Windows Vista” and “An Earlier Version of Windows”.


Original Bootloader

To edit Vista’s boot manager you have to use the command line BCDEDIT utility. To access BCDEDIT, run the Command Window as an administrator and type in BCDEDIT.

Unfortunately BCDEDIT isn’t an easy tool to come to terms with, especially as it’s purely command line-driven. So, a great tool to use here is EasyBCD. EasyBCD offers a GUI frontend to BCDEDIT, and makes life much easier.

Get it from: http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

To configure the bootloader open up EasyBCD and go to “Configure Boot” – you’ll see the two entries, for XP and Vista. To change the name of Windows XP, just overwrite “Earlier Version of Windows” with “Windows XP” or what ever you want to call it and click Save Settings.


EasyBCD in action

Reboot the system and the changes are applied. You have a dual-booting Vista and XP system. That's all there is to it.

What if Vista isnt for you?

Well... If you decide that dual-booting Vista and XP is not for you, EasyBCD lets you wind back the clock.

All you have to do is remove Vista’s boot manager – go to “Manage Bootloader”, select “Uninstall the Vista Bootloader” and then “Write MBR”.

Restart the machine and that’s it – the XP boot loader is the only one left on the system and XP loads. You can then delete the Vista partition and use GParted to re-extend the partition to take up the entire disk if required.


I hope this might come in handy one day, certainly did for me.

Thx

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brown bird

This guide is handy.

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"From the Nest to the Sky"

PinkPenguin

Thats where it came from except you dont need to do the diskpart bit so lol

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brown bird

Well, then you should credit the source.

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"From the Nest to the Sky"