I want to dual boot xp pro and vista. I have heard this and heard that but would anyone tell me what really seems to be the best order. XP first and then vista? If there is a best way where do I find the instructions on how to do it without any problems? Thanks.

I have both installed, but I don't use dual boot because always there's some "interference" between them, mainly with AV programs. I use Partition Magic, but there's a drawback too, you need a partition with FAT32. I created one with 1Gb and installed Win98, only to support the multiple Boot. I have a primary HD where they are installed and a secondary HD shared to both systems. Works perfectly and you can see (measure) the performance from both OS, since I have the same programs installed on them. Even this way, Vista makes changes on XP partition, changing NTFS structure. Images below

Traditional NTFS (windows 2000) with a large (green/white) reserved area:
Click to view attachment


BTW, sorry by my English, I tried my best.

Vista NTFS with a reduced reserved area:
Click to view attachment

i have xp pro and vista ultimate on my 120 gig hdd right now doing a dual .
the older os Always goes First. if you do vista first then most likely when you do xp its going to mess up the boot sector on vista and you will have to perform a repair install .


unless you went around this all wrong , you shouldnt get any problems because the two Os will be on two different partitions

It doesn't matter which one you install first! Visit Here
You should install XP first and then Vista....

It looks like both will work but it looks like installing xp makes it a little easier. Where can I go to find the directions to get the install done. I have two 500gb hdd. I will partition one to make three different partitions. One for xp, one for vista and one for documents. The other hard drive will be for video and music etc.

Ummm, it's pretty easy. You don't need step-by-step directions if you've installed before.

Simply start XP installation. Go ahead and create your 3 partitions you mentioned from the XP setup: first for XP, second for Vista, and third for documents. Determine how much space you'll need for XP and Vista before you start. Otherwise, repartitioning may render Vista incapable of booting (unlike XP, which will boot). Vista needs at least 12 gb (I'd give it 15 - 20 gb; for a drive with 500 gb capacity no need to be stingy).

Let XP install.

Start Vista installation. Tell it to install to second partition. It should do everything automatically. It will setup it's boot manager automatically so you can boot either XP or Vista.

That's all there is to it.

I use grub4dos bootloader to boot XP and Vista. Using grub4dos avoids those repartitioning mishaps with Vista which relies on the GUID to boot.

See links in my signature for multi-booting with Grub4Dos, if you're interested. I would get very familiar with it first before attempting to do it.

(And yes, installing XP first will be the easiest method as you won't have to fix the bootloader. Vista is capable of booting XP but XP is not capable of booting Vista. Therefore, you want to install Vista last as it will install it's bootloader which can boot XP.)

I thought there was more to it. That is pretty easy. Just one question though about the repartitioning mishaps you were talking about. If you don't mind what are they? Thanks.

If you were booting Windows XP and repartitioned your system, Windows XP will boot without complaining.

However, if you have Vista installed and repartition your system, then Vista may not boot. The reason is Vista booting is tied to a unique GUID. The unique GUID is determined (partly) by the partition offset. If the partition offset changes, then the GUID is no longer the same and Vista will not boot. You can fix this but it's an annoyance to have to fix it.

I'm not too sure of this but theoretically, it's the beginning partition offset that is used to calculate the GUID, not the ending. Therefore, you could shrink a Vista volume to free space at the end. But if you move the beginning position of the Vista partition, then the GUID would be affected.

Therefore, it's recommended that you be careful not to repartition.

For more information, see http://www.multibooters.co.uk/.

So I can't use dual boot unless I use bartpe?

No, you don't need bartpe to dual boot if you are simply installing xp, then vista as mentioned in post 7. if you repartition and lose the ability to boot, then you need to either restore the bootloader or use grub to boot.

How do you restore the bootloader and how do you use grub? Thanks for all the great info by the way.

Before you ask, please use the search function. All of your questions have been asked before and there is plenty of info here.

How to restore bootloader - that was answer by Neo in post 5 in this post.

How to use grub - did you check my sig - all the links are there.

Yes, I see that. Just missed it I guess. A lot of writing on these pages and doing searches takes time and I must have not typed it in correctly. I will try to look closer next time.

I have dual booted and all seems to be working fine but I have a question. On my xp side my drives are different then on my vista side. I loaded xp first so c: was xp. Then I loaded vista later and when I was on my vista side vista became c: at least on vista side. I then formatted E: and my other hdd F. I looked at my drives on vista and here is what they are-
C: Vista
D: XP
E: Music and documents
F: Pictures, videos and programs files

When I go to my xp side the drives are arranged differently.
C: XP
D: Music and documents
E: Vista
F: Pictures, videos, and program files
It seems to be working fine but is this the norm. I tried to arrange it right but this is how it turned out. Anyone care to explain? Thanks.

If you installed Vista by booting from CD, it will alway make it the C: drive. If installed by starting setup from within windows, it will make itself whatever drive letter it is installed to.

You cannot change that. You should not change drive letters for Vista and XP. Leave them as they are. The other drive letters can be changed so they are consistent in both Vista and XP by right clicking my computer --> manage --> disk management --> assign the drive letters you want by right clicking on the partition.