Dual boot Vista & XP using Bootit NG

Things to know, dual booting Vista and XP is okay.  Dual booting Vista and XP with Vista being the first installation is a real pain.  The reason is the Vista boot loader is newer than XP, and they aren't compatable.  step by step instructions can be found here

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm

Of course you can install XP on a new partition --> Boot-It makes that VERY simple.   And the order of the partitions makes NO difference ... Boot-It will completely isolate the OS's from each other so they'll both work perfectly and have NO interference -- none of the "lost restore points" etc. that you can get using the Windows boot manager with dual XP/Vista boots.

You do NOT want to do what's suggested above -- that's why you bought Boot-It, so take advantage of this MUCH more powerful boot loader !!

I'll provide much more detail on the process -- but first, post the exact current partition structure as shown in Boot-It's Partition Work screen.

Garycase,

Very good info as always.

per your request, I went to snap a sceenshot of Booit but then stupidly, realized it fires up before the OS so there was no way. Tried loading it from the iso disk after Vista loaded too - no luck (probably another dumb move but I thought I'd try). New download from Terabeam said it was the wrong version for my OS (32 vs 64 bit?). So at the moment I'm stumped. It's going to take me some time to figure out how to pull a screenshot for you but as soon as I do you'll get it. I may just hand type it but I need to do a few chores today. Hopefully, later today. Thanks.

OK, sorry for the delay.  Here it is:

BootIt's "Work with Partitions" screenshot:

MBR Entry 0         Partition     143989 MB   HPFS/NTFS
BootIt EMBRM       Partition     8 MB            BootIt EMBRM
MBR Entry 2         Partition     81218 MB    HPFS/NTFS
HP_Recovery-1   Partition     13257 MB    HPFS/NTFS

MBR Entry 0 has Vista loaded & running.  I hope to load XP on MBR Entry 2, the 81 GB partition. Again, I do not want to harm the Vista OS & partition which the above seems to indicate will work.  Sorry for sounding paranoid but I prefer not to have to rebuild the OS.

Boot-It's interface is (as you know) a bit "geeky" -- and one thing they haven't yet done that I wish they would is update their ability to capture screens.   You can do so with F12 -- but it only writes them to a floppy;  so unless you have a floppy drive, you're out of luck with the "simple" way of doing that.   I still add a floppy to all my systems (for less than $10 there's no reason not to) ... but with a laptop that's not an option.   Perhaps they'll at least support USB floppies in a new release !!

One of the most powerful features of Boot-It is the ability to overcome the 4-partition limit in an MBR.   To take advantage of this, you have to be sure the "Limit Primaries" box is NOT checked in the Settings.   The ONLY downside of using this feature is that you cannot then do any partition management (create/delete/etc.) from within Windows (i.e. do not change your partition structure with Disk Management).   But it gives you a LOT more flexibility -- and allows Boot-It to totally isolate all of your OS's from each other.   So check your Settings page in Boot-It, and if that box is checked, uncheck it.

Now go to Boot Edit, and create a new boot entry for XP.   Just click the Add button; and then name it what you want in the "Identity" section (e.g. "XP Pro"); select the appropriate partition in the "Boot" dropdown (that will be MBR Entry 2 in this case);  and check the "BIOS Sequence" checkbox in the "One Time Option" section (NOTE there are two boxes with that label -- you want the 2nd one).   The MBR Details on the right should then show your boot partition (MBR Entry 2) in the 0 position for HD-0, and the other 3 entries should be blank (although one may show the BootIt EMBRM partition).   If 1, 2, and 3 aren't all blank, just highlight them and click Clear to blank them.   What you want the MBR to look like is essentially the same as you see in the boot item I'll post below -- with ONLY the partition that will contain XP shown in the MBR Details.

Once you've got that set up, just click OK (twice), then Resume, then highlight the XP boot (it will show whatever name you used for the "Identity" above) ==> be sure your XP CD is in the drive; and then click Boot.   IIRC you'll get a warning about the partition not having an OS ... just let it boot from the BIOS sequence => if that doesn't work (it doesn't on all systems), just reboot the system (it should boot from the XP install CD).   Now you just install XP normally ... BUT (and this is IMPORTANT) you have to be sure you choose the correct partition to install to => when XP gets to the point where it displays the disk, it will show a bunch of "unallocated space", THEN a partition of about 81GB followed  by another partition.   The partition of 81GB is where you want to install XP -- so be sure you highlight that ... then let the install proceed.   At this point you simply do a normal install of XP --> everything will work fine.

When you're done and XP is booting, you'll probably panic ... because your Boot-It menu will be gone !!   That's normal :-)   XP has overwritten the boot code in the MBR.   Just boot from the Boot-It CD and it will offer you a "Re-Activate Boot-It" option => select that (it will just take a few seconds); then remove the Boot-It CD and boot again.   Now you'll have a nice boot menu and can easily boot to either OS.   You can set a timeout for that menu in the Settings page (so it only displays for a few seconds and then automatically chooses the last OS you booted to);  or you can even put it in "IT Mode" -- so the Boot-It menu doesn't even display unless you hold down the Insert key during a boot.

There are a few other things I'd recommend you do -- but get your dual boot working first and then I'll suggest those :-)

... Forgot to post the example of the Boot Menu Edit screen I commented on above:


Boot-Edit.jpg

One other thought:   As you can see from the above, Boot-It makes it very easy to capture screen shots of any screen IF you have a floppy.   A USB floppy works fine for this ... and there ARE a fair number of times that these old workhorses still come in handy ==> you may want to consider getting one for your laptop ... then you'd have one you could use with ANY computer that needed a floppy (for F6 drivers during XP installs; for BIOS updates; for Boot-It screenshots; etc.

This is an excellent one:  http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16821103510

Garycase,

Thank you again. Very good detail.  It sounds "do-able". It will take me a little time (couple days) to find the time to test it out.  I will let you know how it works ASAP.

Garycase,

I attempted the XP load but ran into a problem.  When I get to the XP Home Setup screen I selected my 81 GB partition, It then says that Windows needs to create a partition there however when I hit enter, it still says that the partition is non windows compatible. It then shows 3 choices:

Setup Win XP on selected item press enter
Create Partition in unpartioned space
Delete selected partition

Unpartitioned Space                         149 GB
C  Partition 1 (new volume) NTFS    81GB
Unpartitioned space                         13GB

Even though I select the 81 GB partition repeatedly It still returns the same message. I did not want to select the 149 GB partition since that is my live Vista partition. the 13 GB partition is my recovery partition.  What should I do?

Are you sure you've HIGHLIGHTED the C: drive (81GB partition)?

Basically the process should be:  (a) boot to the CD as noted above;  Press Enter to set up XP now when prompted;    press F8 to accept the license agreement;  highlight the partition you want to use with the arrow keys;  then press Enter to install.   You then need to format it with NTFS (a quick format is okay, but a full format will read every sector to confirm it's okay).

Is that the process you're following??

Another thought -- your tag says "XP home SP2" => Are you SURE the XP CD you are using is indeed an SP2 version?    If you attempt to install XP Home from an original (pre-service pack) CD, it will NOT work on this disk ... as the partition is beyond the 28-bit LBA limit.   THAT may be your issue here => if so, there are a couple of ways to resolve it ... but it would explain what's happening.

Garycase,

Yes that is the procedure I followed. I thought this would be a no brainer at this point, I guess not.  I tried it again to be sure. I also checked the XP CD, is says SP2.

After I hit F8 then select the 81GB partition with enter it says:

To install XP on this partition setup must write startup files to 238473 disk 0 at ID 0 on bus 0

However this disk does not contain a Windows XP compatible partition. To continue, return to Windows XP partition selection and create a windows XP compatible partition on the disk above.

It then returns me to the previous partition screen with the 149 GB Vista partition selected. I am reluctant to proceed beyond this point for the above mentioned reasons. Thoughts?

Garycase,

Sorry for the delay.  Thunderstorms knocked out my DSL yesterday.

It worked like a charm.  I deleted the existing 81 GB partition and added a new one. Followed your directions and wallah!!  It dual boots.  A beautiful thing. I guess it was a bad partition. Thanks for the assist.  

Question:  What does the BIOS Sequence one time option do? Please let me know if there is anything else I should do such as what you alluded to earlier.

There's nothing else you "have" to do, but there's a bit of organization that I think makes things a bit nicer ...

You now have a nice dual-boot system with partitions basically like this:
MBR Entry 0         Partition     143989 MB   HPFS/NTFS
BootIt EMBRM      Partition     8 MB            BootIt EMBRM
XP      -                Partition     40000 MB    Free Space
------------            Partition     41xxx MB     Free Space
HP_Recovery-1   Partition     13257 MB    HPFS/NTFS

First (this isn't what I'd do) ... if all you want is to make the XP partition use all of the available space; all you have to do is "point" to the XP partition in Partition Work and click ReSize => you can then make it use all that free space after it.

But here's what I'd do:   If you separate your OS and data on different partitions; then you can keep current "known good" images of your OS, and if anything ever gets corrupted (virus, malware, bad update, or simply a new program that goes awry) you can simply restore the image (< 10 minutes) and there is NO impact to your data (since it's on a separate partition).   Moving "Documents" (Vista) and "My Documents" (XP) is very simple;  and it's not too much trouble to relocate other data that's not kept in the Documents folder (e.g. e-mail; addresses; etc.).   For Vista, a 40-50GB partition is PLENTY for the OS (and LOTS of programs);  for XP about 10GB less is fine.   Further, I would use the SAME partition for data for both of the OS's => then when you boot to either one you'll have all of your data handy.   On this system (the one I'm typing this on), I can boot to XP Pro, XP x64, Vista Ultimate, and Vista Ultimate x64 and all of my data's there no matter which system I boot to (including the same e-mail client, etc. -- although you can't do that if you use OE, since Vista has Windows Mail instead).

So basically, if that was my system, I'd structure it something like this (rough sizes on the partitions -- I didn't try to make them exact):

MBR Entry 0         Partition     50000 MB    HPFS/NTFS
BootIt EMBRM      Partition     8 MB            BootIt EMBRM
XP      -                Partition     40000 MB    Free Space
MyData               Partition     135000 MB  HPFS/NTFS
HP_Recovery-1   Partition     13257 MB    HPFS/NTFS

... and I'd add MyData to BOTH the Vista and the XP boot entries [Go to Boot Edit, and add that partition to the 2nd entry in the MBR Details -- just highlight the blank entry, then click Fill]

To change your current system to look like that you'd have to do the following actions:
(1)  ReSize MBR Entry 0 to 50000MB
(2)  Slide the BootIt EMBR partition so it has zero free space before it
(3)  Slide the XP partition so it has zero space before it
(4)  Create the MyData partition using all of the free space
(5)  Add the MyData partition to the boot items for both Vista and XP
(6)  Boot to one of the OS's (doesn't matter which) and format the new partition.   Note that you CAN use Disk Management (in both XP and Vista) to assign the drive letter you want to this partition -- but remember to never use Disk Management for any other partition work ... only use Boot-It to create, delete, resize, move partitions.
(7)  Now just organize your OS's -- move My Documents, etc.

... and don't forget to create images of both OS's => I'd create a new folder on the MyData partition called OSImages and keep a current image of both XP and Vista in that folder ... but you also want those images stored somewhere else (an external drive is fine) => so when your hard drive fails (not IF, but WHEN ... hard drives DO fail ... and even if yours never does, you should ALWAYS have good backups that assume your drive is going to fail TONIGHT)