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Solve : Dual Boot Vista/XP - Possible??

Answer» <html><body><p>Dual Boot Vista/XP - Possible?<br/><br/>After 3 days of refreshing my Windows knowledge, following detailed instructions from apcmag.com Dual Boot Superguide, and downloading every suggested software, I'm about to conclude that this just isn't possible.<br/><br/>Using a new Dell XPS 410, 320GB hard drive, preloaded Vista Home Premium 32 Bit Version 6.0, DVD &amp; floppy drives, 2 GB memory.<br/><br/>Dual boot software: GParted 3.4.9 partition editor, EasyBCD 1.7.1 boot editor, Windows XP Home Edition OEM, and the SATA AHCI/RAID drivers from Dell.<br/><br/>I believe the problem lies with the disk partitioning. My hard disk came with 3 Primary Partitions: 1)FAT16, 2)Recovery 10 GB, and 3)OS (Vista) 288 GB. When I repartition the 288 GB sector with GParted to make room for the XP system it creates a Logical Drive (145 GB) rather than a partition. <br/><br/>According to Vista's Help &amp; Support there can only be 3 primary partitions on a basic disk. They will always be the first 3 partitions and can be used to start an operating system. Additional partitions will be Logical Drives and will <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/function-11303" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about FUNCTION">FUNCTION</a> <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/like-537196" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about LIKE">LIKE</a> primary partitions except that they CANNOT be used to start an operating system. Gee whiz! I can't very well delete the FAT16, Vista Recovery, or the Vista Operating System and still call it a "Multi-boot" now can I?<br/><br/>Does anyone know what I've missed? Or, do I get the feeling that Bill Gates is my old uncle resurrected that used to have me pull his finger after a big Thanksgiving dinner.<br/><br/>My thanks in advance <br/>You're right, with that partition setup a dual boot is not possible.<br/>I wonder if Dell do this deliberately, or just don't realize that it really gets on people's nerves?<br/>Your only option is to delete one of the partitions.<br/>What's the FAT16 partition used for? And do you definitely need the recovery partition, i.e. is it one of those partitions usually supplied in place of an OS disk?I HAD EXACTLY THE SAME PROBLEM WITH AN HP PAVILION, HOWEVER, MY HARD DRIVE HAD ONLY TWO PARTIONS ON THE MASTER, RECOVERY 9 Gb, OS etc 90 Gb. WHEN I TRIED TO PARTION THE SECOND DRIVE AND INSTALL XP, VISTA WOULD NOT LET ME DO THAT. DUNNO WHY. IT SEEMS AS THOUGH VISTA IS SELF PROTECTED AND DOES NOT ALLOW ANOTHER OS TO EXIST. I FINALLY GAVE UP. GOOD LUCK. I WILL BE WATCHING YOUR RESPONSES. JIMProblem solved!<br/><br/>I guess Microsoft's comments about partitions was not totally accurate (that's being charitable).<br/><br/>Further web forum searching provided a couple of hidden pearls of wisdom that should be engraved in stone for anyone using the abcmag dual boot instructions and EasyBCD.<br/><br/>1. XP has a problem handling really big drives. I reduced my partition (logical drive) from 145 GB to 36 GB. I'm not sure this alone would have cured my problem but with 2. below the system now works.<br/><br/>2. Windows XP installation will notice that C: is the primary (boot) partition and since it's also a NTFS partition it will put it's file NTLDR in there. Setting E: or F: as the XP drive in Easy BCD will break your Windows XP nicely since it won't find a NTLR on these drives.<br/><br/>Make sure drive is set to C: for Windows XP in Easy BCD:<br/><br/>Being a newbie I think I submitted my topic in the wrong <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/section-25668" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about SECTION">SECTION</a>. Sorry<br/><br/>FAT16: As I understand it, this is your disk's "phone directory" and MUST be present. At least that was the case "back in the day". Not sure about VISTA but I would never touch this partition.<br/><br/>BillyBee<br/>Glad to hear you got it up and running.<br/><br/>But i'll have to say the reason these pearls aren't cut in stone is because they are inaccurate.<br/><br/>XP does not have a problem with big drives. This was one of the <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/major-552614" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about MAJOR">MAJOR</a> improvements in the Windows OS that MS insisted on. Prior to XP only NT based systems could handle the newer large HDD's<br/><br/>No matter where a Windows install goes to or which partition it is on Windows will always write system files to the root directory of C:. Even if you had more than 2 installs of Windows regardless of what flavor this will occur for each installation.<br/><br/>There is no need for a FAT 16 partition on your HDD. Partition info resides in the master file table in the beginning sectors of a drive. This is created when the partitions are set and before an OS is installed.<br/><br/>Vista although it handles the boot sector a bit <a href="https://interviewquestions.tuteehub.com/tag/differently-2581005" style="font-weight:bold;" target="_blank" title="Click to know more about DIFFERENTLY">DIFFERENTLY</a> than older Windows OS's will still also write info to the root sector of C: as well.<br/><br/>As stated though glad you're up and running.</p></body></html>


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