The first step that we need to do is create a new partition first, if we only have hardisk drive c: with the vista system is easy to use software without having to partition magic can be done: with the disk management as in the image below:
Disk Managementà1. Right click mycomputer then click Manage
2. Create a partition with the right-click the path c: so it will appear shrink volume
3. Determine how much capacity it's up to the next GB will be used for the XP system
4. Then type format with NTFS
5. Follow the steps as below
Now we'll shrink our volume down by right-clicking on the main hard drive and choosing Shrink Volume.
The next step might be confusing, because we need to change the cd-rom drive that's invariably taking up D: at the moment, because we want to use D: for the Windows XP partition, but it's already taken by the cd-rom drive. If you skip this step than XP will install onto the E: drive, which isn't the end of the world, but it's not quite as tidy.
Right-click on the cd-rom drive in the list and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths from the menu.
Now we'll change the CD drive to use E: by selecting that in the drop-down.
Now we can create a new partition for XP to live on and make sure that the drive letter is set the way we want. If you do not create a partition now the XP install will do so automatically, but it's easier and cleaner to do it this way.
Right-click on the Unallocated free space area and then select New Simple Volume from the menu.
Follow through the wizard and select whatever options you'd like, making sure to use D: as the drive letter.
Now you will need to close out of disk management and reboot your computer. This is because we can't do the next step until we reboot. (you can try, but it won't work)
So we've come back from rebooting… open up Computer from the start menu and then right-click on the D: drive and select properties. Give your partition a meaningful name like "XP". It would be wise to name the C: drive to "Vista" at this point as well.
Now you'll want to pop your XP cd into the drive and boot off it. You may have to configure your BIOS to enable booting off the CD drive, or if your computer says something like "Hit Esc for boot menu" you might want to use that.
Once you come to the screen where you can choose the partition to install on, then choose either the unpartitioned space or the new partition you created. Whatever you do, don't try and install onto your Vista partition! See how much cleaner it is now that we've labeled each partition distinctly?
We'll assume XP is completely installed at this point, and you will have lost your ability to boot into Windows Vista, so we'll need to use the VistaBootPro utility to restore the Vista boot loader.
Download and install VistaBootPro from vistabootpro.org
During the install you'll be forced to install the .NET 2.0 framework. Open up VistaBootPRO and then click on the System Bootloader tab. Check the "Windows Vista Bootloader" and then "All Drives" radio buttons, and then click on the Install Bootloader button.
At this point, the Windows Vista bootloader is installed and you'll only be able to boot into Vista, but we'll fix that. Instead of manually doing the work, we'll just click the Diagnostics menu item and then choose Run Diagnostics from the menu.
This will scan your computer and then automatically fill in the XP version.. click on the "Manage OS Entries" tab and then click in the textbox for Rename OS Entry, and name it something useful like "Windows XP" or "The Windows That Works"
Click the Apply Updates button and then reboot your computer… you should see your shiny new boot manager with both operating systems in the list!
If you get an error saying "unable to find ntldr" when trying to boot XP, you'll need to do the following:
* Find the hidden files ntldr and ntdetect.com in the root of your Vista drive and copy them to the root of your XP drive.
* If you can't find the files there, you can find them in the \i386\ folder on your XP install cd
This is a critical piece of information: Windows XP will be installed on the D: drive, even in Windows XP… so you'll need to keep that in mind when tweaking your system.
You can share information between the drives, but I wouldn't recommend messing with the other operating system's partition too much… it might get angry and bite you. Or screw up your files. What I do recommend is that you store most of your files on a third drive shared between the operating systems… you could call that partition "Data".
I'm going to write a number of followup articles dealing with all of the issues with dual-boot systems, so subscribe to the feed for updates.
If you have issues with your dual-boot system, I'd recommend creating a new topic in our Vista forum, and we'll try and help you.
If you have issues with using the shrink volume feature, check this article for some tips
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