Yeah, me too. While you could get annoyed at the fact publishers are charging people money for upgrades and patches you wouldn't have needed had you stuck with XP, the best thing to do is stick with Vista and install XP. Get it right and you'll be hopping happily between the two Windows without a care in the world.
The first thing you need to do is work out how much room you need, and that depends on what you're planning to do with it. On its own, XP eats about 1.5GB of your hard drive, so the minimum space you need is 2GB - enough for the operating system, plus a small amount of data.
If you're looking to play all the games you put in the loft because they refused to work under Vista, as a rule of thumb you should add 2GB for every CD-based title and 10GB for those on DVD.
01. Making room for an old friend Open the Start Menu on your Vista machine, right-click the Computer entry and choose Manage from the pop-up menu.
Now click the Disk Management node under Storage on the left, right-click the drive icon where you want to install XP and choose Properties. Name the drive 'Vista' so you know which one not to delete and click OK. Now right-click again and this time choose Shrink Volume.
The amount you're prompted to enter is the amount the drive will be shrunk by, meaning it's the space you'll have left over for XP. So if you want to create a 25GB partition for XP, enter 25600 in the box (25,600MB = 25GB) and click Shrink.
02. It's all in the preparation Once your drive has been shrunk successfully, you should see a new unallocated area appear in the lower pane.
Right-click on the block and choose New Basic Partition from the pop-up menu. Accept the default values in the Wizard that appears, but when prompted for a label enter 'XP' and tick the Quick Format checkbox.
This step isn't strictly necessary - Windows Setup has no problem installing on unallocated space - but by providing a drive label you're a lot less likely to make the classic mistake of targeting the wrong partition. Doing this would wipe the Vista installation. While there are plenty of warnings before formatting begins, people do make this mistake.
03. Install XP SP2 Fetch your dog-eared XP box, put the installation disk into your optical drive and reboot your PC, making sure you boot from the XP disk rather than from Vista. Windows Setup will now run.
Once you've hit Enter to begin the XP installation, you'll be presented with a list of hard drive partitions - one of which will be labelled as 'Vista', one as 'XP' (the former identified by Step 1, the latter by step 2).
Highlight the XP entry in the list and press Enter to choose it as the target partition. Setup will begin copying files, and after a short while will launch the familiar graphical portion of the process where you'll be asked to configure various aspects of the install.
04. Restore Vista Once the installation has completed and you've finished reminiscing over the familiar look and feel of XP, you'll no doubt be shocked to find there's no option to start Vista when you reboot. And while you can still see all your files in Windows Explorer, there's no way to load anything but the older operating system because XP has overwritten Vista's boot loader. Don't panic.
To fix this, insert your Vista installation disc and boot from it. When the initial setup screen appears, click Next and then choose Repair in the lower-left.
Highlight Vista's entry in the System Recovery Options list, click Next, and then choose the Startup Repair option.
05. The boot menu Now when you restart, Vista will load correctly - but annoyingly there's now no option to choose XP. What you need to do is update the PC's boot configuration file so that when the machine starts you're presented with a menu which allows you to choose which operating system to load.
Download EasyBCD from www.neosmart.net, install and then run it. Click the Add/Remove Entries button on the left, choose the drive letter associated with your XP partition and Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3 in the drop-down menu. Hit the Add button and then Save.
Reboot and you can now choose between both XP and Vista.
A WARNING ABOUT XP Once you've created your new partition and have installed XP, be sure to remember that each time you install new software you choose the drive letter associated with XP and not with Vista.
For most users that means choosing D: as the target drive for new software - if you choose C: by mistake, whatever you're installing will end up on the original Vista partition instead. Remember to keep things separate, as it makes backups easier and you'll have an easier untangling problems should the need ever arise.
Huh? XP SP2 is an abbreviation of Windows XP with Service Pack 2. You should use an SP2 CD for all installations, as without it XP is unlikely to recognise modern storage controllers and thus won't be able see your hard drive.
A partition is just an area of your hard drive dedicated to a particular purpose and is accessed as a single unit by the operating system. These are typically accessed through a drive letter. While you can install more than one operating systems in the same partition, don't. There are 1,024 megabytes (MB) in every gigabyte (GB), so if you want to convert from GB to MB you multiply by 1,024. To convert from MB to GB divide.
NeoSmart EasyBCD is one of the better utilities that help Vista users tweaking their boot loader settings and is essential when dual booting with XP.
Questions, questions
Vista Repair doesn't work and it keeps loading XP.
Answer: There's a small chance the Startup Repair option within Vista Repair won't work. In which case, you'll need to choose Command Prompt instead and type:
bootrec /fixmbr bootrec /fixboot
This should solve the problem.
Can't I make XP use drive C: instead?
Answer: No.
How do I put everything back the way it was?
Answer: Run EasyBCD and remove the Windows XP entry. Return to Disk Management, right-click on the partition you created and choose Delete Volume. Right-click the Vista partition and choose Extend to reclaim the space.
How can I make XP's partition bigger?
Answer: Boot Vista, open the Management console, and right-click on the XP partition under the Storage node. Extend the partition as you did in Step 1.
am I the only person who hasn't had any problems running older games under vista? :s
Yes!!!
I have a triple boot partition on my system at the moment with XP, Vista and Linux. Haven't accessed Vista in months actually, some of my most used progs haven't been updated to play nice as yet.
Nice article, wish I had something similar when I did my system. My install was all trial and error
am I the only person who hasn't had any problems running older games under vista? :s
I haven't had any desperate problems, most I have been able to fix with the compatibility options.
I have been using Vista Ultimate 64Bit since it came out and only two programs have refused to run (both around 15 years old and most likely designed to run in a 16bit environment).
Anyway I have always kept an old rig to play older games .
This was what I used a while ago to get a upgrade version of Vista to work and keep my original XP.
Unplug original XP disk, Install clean XP to new disk, and then upgrade to Vista, plug in old XP disk again, boot using vista and repair the boot menu). I promptly deleted the Vista partition and stuck with XP...
On a slight tangent, With SP3 due for XP, why bother having to install using a SP2 disk and then upgrade to the SP3, why not slip-stream SP3 into the SP2 installation and burn a new disk, hay presto, a one stop SP3 install from scratch. I did this for SP2 (slipped SP2 into a SP1 disk) These are the steps I followed http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/windowsxp_sp2_slipstream.asp Easy to do 'n all....
I haven't had any desperate problems, most I have been able to fix with the compatibility options.
I have been using Vista Ultimate 64Bit since it came out and only two programs have refused to run (both around 15 years old and most likely designed to run in a 16bit environment).
My point exactly, every game that looked like it would be a problem, an alteration in compatability mode or a patch sorted it out no problem at all. I've just installed vista on the last XP machine in my house, and Im having no trouble at all... maybe Im just a lucky SOB
am I the only person who hasn't had any problems running older games under vista? :s
Your not the only one my friend, all 2 of my vista issues (fable and kotor2) were caused by creative not fixing the soundcard drivers, simply stopped using it and switched to on board.
In fact i'd say i had more issues with xp overall.
Its just the cool thing on the 'net to hate vista.
Why use vista at all? I say just uninstall that crap and get xp then you dont have to fiddle with all that
DX10, small one. Bioshock, Call of Juarez and Hellgate London are the games on my machine that have been enhanced by the beastie so far, and I haven't had any trouble with others that I didn't have in XP.
Plus the OS is very stable, searches out files in microseconds, has a very helpful dedicated games folder and overall has a very nice look and feel which makes XP feel positively clunky. What the fug would I want XP for? I despise all the Luddites who run the OS down when they've actually had b-all substantial contact with it.
Vista works fine with all my games. No problems at all.
So, you won't catch me installing XP back on my machine thank you very much. I'm glad to see the back of it.
Don't be put off upgading by the negative comments you might read. Vista is a fine operating system and very stable. And that's before SP1 has come out too. XP was a pile of crap before it's SP1.
my system came with vista preloaded and no vista cd. do you have any tricks around that on bringing vista back
I'd advise you to wait for Service Pack One in the first quarter of this year. there is a new maintenance application called “Create a Recovery Disc”, which you can use with system recovery options if you don’t have an original Windows DVD or you can’t access OEM recovery tools.
For all the people positive about Vista, I have a good comparison. I got a new XP PC at work and a new Vista PC at home, both are the same spec (Core2Duo 6300 with 2 GB RAM) and the PC at work is so much faster! (and this is after cleaning up the Vista installation of all unnecessary fluff)
For all the people positive about Vista, I have a good comparison. I got a new XP PC at work and a new Vista PC at home, both are the same spec (Core2Duo 6300 with 2 GB RAM) and the PC at work is so much faster! (and this is after cleaning up the Vista installation of all unnecessary fluff)
Ive got a similar comparison.
Xp at home - AMD 1.67ghz, 512MB RAM 4-5year old Vista on Laptop - Intel dualcore @ 1.76ghz each & 2GB RAM 6 months old
Guess which one is faster?? Give up? Its the 5 year old XP PC.
But now ive done this, my Laptop is tonnes faster! Thanks for one of the best articles ive ever used guys!
splendid article guys. great job. one issue's missing and that's that some mobos have already a boot manger integrated in bios which is activated at startup and there is no need for a boot manager software to be installed.(i.e. Asus M2N32SLI-Deluxe). kiss. Catalin@Romania
splendid article guys. great job. one issue's missing and that's that some mobos have already a boot manger integrated in bios which is activated at startup and there is no need for a boot manager software to be installed.(i.e. Asus M2N32SLI-Deluxe). kiss. Catalin@Romania
Very true, would also like to add this is typical Microsoft...
"Now when you restart, Vista will load correctly - but annoyingly there's now no option to choose XP."
How simply (relativley) would this have been to resolve, they simply dont want to make it easy for you to use the old OS or different OS.
03. Install XP SP2 Fetch your dog-eared XP box, put the installation disk into your optical drive and reboot your PC, making sure you boot from the XP disk rather than from Vista. Windows Setup will now run.
I haven't completely understood this step. How exactly do I boot from the xp disk rather than from vista one? Is it the option activate partition in the disk management window? Because when i press that option i get a warning saying that i should only activate a partition if it has an OS running on it. But since XP partition is clean it doesn't have one right? Could someone clarify this for me please? Because when i tried rebooting comp with xp installation disk on but without xp partition activated the setup said there was no HD to install it on (I have yet to try it activating XP partition as for i am waiting for your replies). I'm sort of a computer noob and i'm always afraid of screwing it up.
For all the people positive about Vista, I have a good comparison. I got a new XP PC at work and a new Vista PC at home, both are the same spec (Core2Duo 6300 with 2 GB RAM) and the PC at work is so much faster! (and this is after cleaning up the Vista installation of all unnecessary fluff)
Except that it's not a fair comparison at all because your system at work is extremely unlikely to be running identical processes to the one at home. My work PC upstairs has loads of different gubbins on it to the family PC downstairs.
I like Vista. It's pretty and it works well, even in system eaters like EQ2, which despite its age remains the hungriest game on the market on its highest settings, giving pause even to an 8800GTX.
Great article, haven't been back to Vista for months now. Don't care what some people are saying here, Vista is a bag of manure. No support for older Windows help files, no firewire networking, half my programs don't work and it crashes more frequently than a drunk driver. Good riddance.
I tried to do this but barely got started... i put the xp disc in and rebooted and it started loading files and then says starting windows and then an error message comes up and says a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer... Help! Please!
I tried to do this but barely got started... i put the xp disc in and rebooted and it started loading files and then says starting windows and then an error message comes up and says a problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer... Help! Please!
I had the same problem as Jayru, which I've encountered over and over for the past few days as I've tried other things to get around it. The error code I got was *** STOP: 0X0000007B (0XF78D2524,0XC0000034,0X00000000,0X00000000).
Is there any place I can look this us to see what it means?
be careful. There is the possibility you receive "Error loading OS" after first WinXP reboot. If it happened to you, just copy XP boot files from Vista boot drive ( C: ) to "XP" partition.
Hi all I have a machine that has 4 x 500gb drives that show as one drive via raid and one 500gb external drive. I have now got to the point where I boot of XP but XP does not see the drives as one but four drive that are not formatted is it ok to run the raid set up after booting fro XP if not will this work if I install XP on the external drive Cheers Peter
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