Before I started any of this my computer came pre-installed with Vista. This is what I've done so far: I put in a 2nd hard drive (My 1st one is SATA, 2nd one is IDE) and formatted the 2nd in NTFS format. Installed Windows XP Pro SP3 onto the 2nd hard drive with the CD. Went through the whole setup process and finally got onto the XP desktop. Rebooted my computer and I expected it to boot into XP since I over wrote the Vista boot loader but it went into Vista? So I turned off my PC, selected the hard drive in my BIOS with XP to boot. The loading bar shows up and after a couple of seconds my computer restarts every time I try to load XP, Vista loads fine automatically. So this is where I am stuck. I thought that installing XP it would override Vista and boot first but it doesn't. Then in XP I would use VistaBootPRO to allow dual booting but obviously I can't go into XP in the first place. I think the problem is either: I need to get a different copy of XP, or XP isn't supported by my hardware but when I go to the HP site they only have drivers for Vista not XP. But when installing I was on the XP desktop with no problems so I don't totally think it the drivers. Any help?
I have a few questions about your install. Did y do the format on the ide drive thru the window's install. Also are u sure that u selected the right drive letter when installing xp and not install xp on a partion on the sata vista drive. I am just asking to clear something up for me cause i have a dual boot with vista set on a sata raid 5 and xp on a sata drive. Will try to help u any way i can.
I tried two different times installing XP, once formatting through Vista, and the other through the install CD and still didn't work. I know XP installed to the right drive and the right partition because I can see all the files and folders that were created from the install CD when I'm on Vista when I went to the partition in My Computer Thanks for trying to help me!
Ok if you are willing to try a few things we will get this fixed. If it was me i would try using the hdd utility tools and do a low lvl format or in other words zero the drive that u have xp on. Then continue using the hdd tools to set it up. If i remember correctly i read somewhere that u should unhook your Vista drive and only leave the drive that u want to install xp hooked up. Redo the xp install and if successful enter xp a few times. Once successful rehookup your vista drive. If this does not work let me know i will check my books. I have had some training in windows and will see what i can find on the web for u. Good luck
I was just thinking of a few more things first was there anything on the ide drive before u started. Thats why i thought it might be good to zero the drive. If you could give me some info on your bios that would help because i know when i first set up my dual boot i had an issue. Also the boot sequence for vista and xp are very close and if you are using your bios to switch drives you should not need to use Vistabootpro.
Found a site that might help u http://forums.cnet.com/5208-12546_102-0.html?forumID=133&threadID=264088&messageID=2583952
Alright, Today I tried a 3rd time, did exactly the same thing I have been doing. XP installed correctly but did not boot first again(I had to pick the hard drive in my BIOS). XP now boots fine from the BIOS, not like before where in didn't boot at all after install! I loaded up VistaBootPRO in XP and this message comes up: "VistaBootPRO has detected that your BCD Registry is either missing or corrupt. It is recommended that you fix this problem in order to supress this mesage on fujrther uses." I pressed OK like 5 times and then it says the application cannot run because I am not the administrator even though I clearly am. It wont run so I go back into Vista and run VistaBootPRO, this time the error message is: "VistaBootPRO has detected that Vista is either not installed or is installed on a hidden drive. You may experience minor problems using VistaBootPro and/or making changes to your BCD Registry" I continue anyways, run the diagnostics and it finds the Vista loader and "Earlier Windows Version". I save the changes and reboot my computer. I choose the Earlier windows version in the Vista bootloader and it says that ntdl is missing even though I know its on the XP partition for sure, double checked. I think HP crippled my computer/Bios! Honeslty with all these problems I'm having, thanks for your help but I think I am fine just regularly booting into Vista and if I want to boot into XP just pick the hard drive in the BIOS to boot from since I wont use XP that often Thanks. I was just looking at others files needed that may have not copied correctly to the XP drive like ntdl, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini; those are in my xp root partition but bootmgr is only in my vista partition not xp, should I copy that over or will it mess up?
Honestly i don't bother using vistaboot pro i find it to be too much of a pain I just usualy switch drives thru the bios. sorry i could not help u more.
