"duel boot" or "partition"

[Tbag]

I am buying a laptop soon which will come with Vista and I wondered if I could install XP Pro over it but people have said it can get messy doing that and you wil have to look for all the drivers. Im so inexperienced when things get too technical I might stay away from this option.

Someone then suggested duel booting Vista with XP Pro. What does that mean? Ive heard of a partition where the hard drive becomes 2 seperate drives.

If I did that will it be like using XP as normal whilst still having Vista installed but hidden and not in sight anywhere unless I want to use it? How would you switch between the 2 if you wanted to use Vista sometime?

Is this right what ive said so far or dont I know what im talking about?


btw please dont be too technical in you answers

[Nelson37]

Bad, bad idea.

Even worse for a laptop where necessary drivers may not exist at all. No video driver for XP means no video when running XP. Kinda hard to compute with a blank screen.

For someone with limited technical experience, the negatives grow.

Find out if the unit is available with XP pre-installed. This will speak to driver availability.

Did I mention this is a really, really bad idea?

If you really want to do this, and the drivers exist, consider purchasing a second hard drive and laptop caddy for this purpose. Usually one screw and a 5-second swap. FAR safer.

[Tbag]

Bad, bad idea.

Even worse for a laptop where necessary drivers may not exist at all. No video driver for XP means no video when running XP. Kinda hard to compute with a blank screen.

For someone with limited technical experience, the negatives grow.

Find out if the unit is available with XP pre-installed. This will speak to driver availability.

Did I mention this is a really, really bad idea?

If you really want to do this, and the drivers exist, consider purchasing a second hard drive and laptop caddy for this purpose. Usually one screw and a 5-second swap. FAR safer.

wow that bad, your refering to installing XP over Vista right? or is that partitian idea bad too?

[JohnnyMalaria]

I agree with Nelson37. If it were a desktop, fine (my is a pentaboot (5 OSes)).

My wife was provided with a Dell laptop with Vista but it needed XP to run specific software. I tried a virtual machine at first but it had unsolvable crappy mouse behavior). So I partitioned the hard drive (to keep Vista since my wife's company didn't provide the install disks) and tried to install XP. It failed because it needed a driver for the SATA hard drive and no such driver is available for XP to mere mortals. So, a case of drivers preventing installation. You could try it but don't expect it to work.

If you still want to go ahead, don't do the install over Vista option - a guaranteed nightmare. Check the vendor's website to see if XP drivers exist. Make sure none are needed at install time unless you can put the driver on a floppy (yep, a floppy - not a flash drive or CD-ROM). Painful. If you can't, you'll have to create a new XP installation CD with the drivers slipstreamed. Huge pain.

FWIW, after much bitching and moaning to my wife's company, they finally decided to get the official XP installation disks from Dell.

[DB83]

I do not know enough about Vista as to why it would be a bad idea but, as said, the potential lack of drivers for XP should be enough to deter you.

Now if you really want to do it there are several things you would need to do.

1. Partition the drive. Yes, that will create two separate drives from one. The existing partition which is fully allocated to Vista would have to be shrunk by the amount of space you estimate you would need for XP - the OS, the programs etc.

2. Install XP on the freed up space on the drive.

3. Edit the startup files to give you a start-up menu.

When you would start up the computer you would make a selection as to which OS to start.

Whichever OS is selected, you only see the programs that are installed for it. So if you have a program to rum on both the it would have to be installed twice.

No data is shareable between the two OS's so even if you wanted to run the internet/email from both then everything would have to be duplicated.

[prouton]

I'm also in the "don't do it" camp, especially as you're wanting to install WinXP after Vista has been installed. This could result in Vista becoming un-bootable. If you think you're going to try it, make sure you've got a "bare metal" recovery option -- as in, if the hard drive had failed, how would you reload/recover the system.

By the way, its "dual boot" as in two...although you might end up with a "duel boot" (as in fighting).

[Tbag]

It looks like it going to be a pain and I havent even got it yet.

From the looks of it most people here dont like Vista, so what do you guys do that buy laptops around now where Vista is installed? (What if they dont offer XP like some do)

[Nelson37]

My answer is real simple.

Get a different laptop or keep using the old one. Vista is quite simply unacceptable.

[prouton]

First of all, no operating system lasts forever. I've never been an early adopter of new OS's, in large part because I'm cheap, but also because a working system is of more value to me than having the latest and greatest whatever-it-is. Eventually, however, the system gets upgraded to bring me back into some sort of currentcy. Heck, I had to give up a perfectly healthy and useful Win95 system because of a USB device I needed to attach.

Vista does have a couple of ways that can be a problem, and they largely have to do with the redesigned driver model. Some old software and moderately old hardware will fail to work because of lack of support by the respective manufacturers. Like what, you ask? Well, Acrobat Distiller 5 can't be made to work under Vista. But then, it is four levels and many years out of date. Does it work under WinXP? Sure does. Oh well.

So by all means check your software and hardware for Vista compatibility, but unless those things are show stoppers you probably should just bite the bullet and move forward. There are lots of things you can turn off in Vista in order to make it more responsive, or to look more like the "beloved" WinXP. As many people have already stated, WinXP was greeted with torches and pitchforks because it was so much worse than their beloved Win98 or Win2K. Such is (tech) life...

[AlanHK]

There are lots of things you can turn off in Vista in order to make it more responsive, or to look more like the "beloved" WinXP.

Go to http://www.msfn.org/board/forums.html and you can find lots of advice and utilities for stripping down Vista and making it work better.

First thing you need is to make sure you have a backup and restore solution that you can run from a CD/DVD.

[lacywest]

If I liked Vista ... as much as I like WINXP ... I would do it for the heck of it ... but you didn't say what laptop you are getting ... the hardware on your laptop maybe only workable with Vista and be a pain in the butt finding drivers for WinXP.

Making a second partition is not hard and if I lived close by and you and I knew each other ... I say what the heck lets do it ... If it doesn't work out ... who cares.

Just reinstall Win Vista back on ... again.

I got some ACERs AST180 desktops on Ebay that are installed with Vista Premium and some did not work ... which I was aware of ... I took the motherboard out of one of them and replaced it with a ABIT mobo ... and am using it just fine.

But I dont like WIN VISTA at all ... I truly do not like it ... I took the hard drive out [leaving WINVISTA on it] and put another harddrive in it and installed WINXP Pro ... ACER has the drivers for WINXP also ... at their website.

But unless you mention what make of Laptop your getting ... I can't say much here.

Here is a thought ... go the website of the Laptop your thinking of getting and take a look if WINXP drivers are there besides Vista drivers. ACER shows both are available for the hardware they have in their AST 180 machines.

[MaDmiZe]

Most of the dell's up till last week could be ordered with Vista or XP. I have installed xp on 10 or 12 of these machines, regardless of the original operating system.....but I have the Dell xp cd. Oh and vista does stink.

[Afterburner]

I purchased a new Toshiba with Windows Vista Premium, after 1 day I decided that I would go through the trouble of installing XP Pro. Little did I know at the time I would spend a week digging up drivers from Toshiba and other Manufacturers (hardware) websites. After completing this venture the laptop is much faster (no test results posted) all the way around, from booting to running apps.
Don't forget, if it does not work out, just restore the system with OEM restore disc.
As they say "nothing ventured, nothing gained"
Better yet, buy one with XP installed. Dell has a few with XP Home and XP Media edition, Newegg.com also has Toshiba, Lenovo,H.P. Acer and a few others.

[Tbag]

I contacted my nearest Sony Centre about installing XP and they said:

It usually is possible if the laptop had Windows Vista Business installed originally. You need to have Windows XP Professional discs and the drivers need to be available. You can check the drivers are available on www.vaio-link.com .

I'm afraid its not a service we offer at Leeds Sony Centre, as we do not have Windows XP Professional.

How come he says its possible if it has Vista Business, why does it matter if it was Vista Business or Premium?

If I did look for the drivers will they ALL be available to download online somewhere for sure?

[AlanHK]

The notebookreview forum is probably a better place to ask these questions.
They have a Sony subforum and even a current thread: Downgrade Any Sony Vaio To Xp