I currently have two hard disks in my computer:



c: - running vista operating system no problems - Primary master - (80gb)

d: - completely empty - Secondary Slave - (200gb)



And obviously a dvd drive (Secondary master).



My aim is to put XP onto d: as it is blank.



I run the dvd with the xp disc in on startup and it starts going through the setup process. I reformat d: during the setup process just to make sure and tell it to install on to that drive/partition. It copies all the xp setup files onto the d: and then its time for the reboot. When it reboots, it asks if i want to boot from the cd so i leave it to count down and then boot from the hard drive in order to start the GUI part of the XP setup but all that happens is the screen goes blank. It is set to boot from the primary master after the dvd drive but it doesnt start the setup process. I think its got something to do with the vista booting process on the c: but i dont know what to do or how to get around it.



Help please.

This would defintely help you. Please read it here

After the reboot your computer might be reverting to the c: drive as a priority after your DVD drive.
You may need to go into you BIOS settings, look for where your set boot priorities. and make sure you D: drive(I understand it is your slave drive) is listed before your c: drive. You should be able to finnish loading XP on you D: Drive that way.

One other thing. If you want to use Vista you will need to go back into your BIOS and give your c: drive boot priority over your d: drive.

the link that binoj_daniel gave you is the best thing to look at. It will tell you all the steps needed to dual boot.

Yes, that link will help you. To dual boot, you need both operating systems installed on the same physical disk (If I recall correctly, thats what I was told in my A+ OS class, but there are probably some workarounds (like the BIOS thing))

But working off of that assumption, what you need to do is partition the hard drive (like the tutorial shows) into two. Install XP on the newly formed logical drive (probably will be E (which is still part of the original C: drive. BIOS sees it as one drive, thus it tries to boot from the disk, and hits two options, giving the user the choice. The OS' see two drives, however. If I recall how this whole thing works). Thats all there is to it!

I installed XP first on my machine. It was a lot easier. But this can be done! Don't worry!

If you have any problems, feel free to ask more questions!

Best of luck!

--The Comodore

no they can be on different disks, i have mine set up like this

Agreed with Chris. Seems like an issue with the MBR being corrupted. One thing with a dual boot scenario is that the older OS is installed first. Try this: Boot to the Recovery Console from the XP CD, type fixmbr, followed by fixboot C: and fixboot D: - this will knock the Vista Bootloader off the system. Next, install XP on D: after reformatting it. Once this is done, your system should be able to boot to XP directly, but Vista will not be bootable (the files will still be there). Next, reboot using the Vista DVD and install it on C:. I recommend you backup your data and then reformat C: using the Vista setup process. When the system reboots, you should have your dual boot setup.

just don't bother if it won't install as it may accidentally mess up ur vista MBR and cause more trouble. If u still want to, remove vista, install xp FIRST, then INSTALL VISTA SECOND, as vista's boot manager isn't backwards compatible with xp.

Hey guys,

I am trying to do a dual boot on my PC and am running through some issues I can't read anywhere about of. I bought a PC with windows vista home premium installed and now want to do a dual boot configuration. So I partitioned my HD and have 17GBs free for the HD partition to run windows XP home edition that I have just purchased, not an OEM version, with service pack 2. Now when I try to install XP, I select to boot from CD/DVD drive and then I go into this page that it starts loading all the files. Then the final thing it says, it now starting windows, or something similar, and then I get the famous blue screen of death and can't go on from there...

Anyone else have had this problem? I am completely stumped here and have no idea what to do!!

Thanks

Mephisto666