If you want to have a dual boot system with Windows XP and Windows Vista, then you must first install Windows XP and then Windows Vista.
Windows Vista uses a newly designed boot loader and if you install Windows XP after Windows Vista, then it'll overwrite Windows Vista boot loader and you'll not be able to boot into Vista.
If you have installed XP after Vista and you are not able to boot into Vista, then follow these simple instructions and you'll get the Vista boot loader back:
1. Download "VistaBootPRO" or "EasyBCD". Both are excellent software which can reinstall Vista boot loader within a few seconds.
2. We selected "VistaBootPro" for this tutorial. Install it and run the software.
3. Now click on "Bootloader" button as shown in following screenshot:
4. Select "Reinstall the Vista Bootloader" option and click on "Configure It" button.
5. Thats it. It'll install the Vista Boot loader. You can also edit other settings like boot loader timeout, default boot entry, boot entry labels, etc.
You can also repair Vista boot loader using Vista Setup DVD but the above mentioned method is the easiest method and works even you don't have the CD/DVD.
This article was posted by VG in following section: Troubleshooting, Windows Vista, Windows XP.
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sam
Hi,
It's just a very nice n useful post....I got stuck in the same situation when trying dual booting XP n Vista in my HP DV6701-AU notebook which comes with preinstalled vista..n surprisingly I'm not supplied with the Vista Installer DVD. I only made 2 recovery DVD from my system..
Again,I have a query regarding XP drivers for my above mentioned notebook(HP pavilion dv 6701 au).
From the hp website I couldn't get the required drivers for Audio,graphics,video and all the important ones which are XP compatible.It will be of much help if someone could suggest on how to get those...
Thanx in advance,
Sam
sam
sorry!!
the drivers for "dv6000 CTO" didn't work in my machine(dv 6701 au) ...while running the drivers like nVidia Geforce series video driver or the Audio drivers it throws error that no compatible drivers were found and the set up got to be exited!!
Could u plz suggest anything else??
George
Thanks. Worked flawlessly. Very nice.
Osku Kaskisola
I cant download that ! It costs money !
Saurabh Gupta
Hi VG bro,
It's my 1st problem regarding WINDOWS VISTA. I had installed win. vista on my system and xp was installed on the other partition. Vista installation overwrote the XP boot mgr and den i was not able to use XP. I hv removed vista for now and started using XP after editing boot.ini.
Plz tell me what to do, so that i can use vista as well on my XP machine.
[i]By the way der are no smileys on ur site...?[i]
Thnx.
VG
^^ You'll need to repair XP boot loader using its CD then use VistaBootPRO to reinstall Vista boot loader.
Saurabh Gupta
Thnx bro, u r simply Genius man!
u've got sol. 4 everything, i gonna try dis now n hopefully it gonna work like ur other tweaks Thanks 4 ur help ice again!!!
Saurabh Gupta
Hi VG,
I did d same thing but VistabootPro again overwrote d XP boot mgr as der is no option of choosing OS while booting and now i can use vista only.
Plz help as i dont want to format my drives again.
Thnx.
VG
^^ First reinstall XP boot loader using solution of Point 10:
http://www.askvg.com/frequently-asked-problems-with-solutions/
And then use VistaBoot PRO to reinstall Vista boot loader.
BANDIT
Hello to all XP lovers.
The above one is a solution but not worthy. U will have to install XP and Vista again if u follow the above steps.
I have XP and Vista both on laptop and it is not required that u install XP before vista.
u just have to install Easy BCD Boot Loader in Vista.
then install XP in new drive. then u will see that only XP gets started and no option to choose Xp or Vista.
Then just repair Vista from recovery dvd and u will get into Vista
Then u start Easy BCD boot loader and click on Add/Remove Entries.
Select the drive in which u installed XP. and enter a name for it( as u wish) and click Add.
and then u reboot ur system and u will get the Boot Options from where u can choose which Operating System u want to boot.
N'joy XP.