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Vista+XP+Dell

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jstutman

Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2001
Jon, I searched.... Its new :)

I just recieved a Dell with Vista Business from Dell. Arrived today :)

I/We as a company have specific hardware/software that has specific OS issues, as the company who makes the laser systems does and will not support Vista (as well as only using serial)

As support for these has been removed from vista, I would like to dual boot XP/Vista

I know that you can have a system with XP on it, then put Vista on another partition (this works fine cause of the new vista bootloader)

However...What if the machine had vista on it already?

I could wipe the hdd....
Install XP
Then install vista and that would work.

However....I dont believe Dell's Vista disk is a full OS as it does not act as one. It dont give me the options that my full version of Vista ultimate does.
(full vista, allows new partition for vista)

Dell's OEM version only says delete HDD and install Vista.
Is it possible- to make this work?
(I have a feeling dell will hear about this)

Vista specifically states that XP/Vista dual booting is possible but Microsoft/Dell has made this feature impossible with there "special" version of the disk.

Does anyone have a secret/special/idea on how I can load "xp pro" then use the dell disk to install the "dells special version of vista" on another partition?
 
As long as you have a regular copy of XP, it shouldn't be a problem. Leave Vista as it is and install XP on the 2nd partition. You have to use Vista's boot loader either way. After you get it working, be sure to get a copy of VistaBoot Pro.

As for making the partitions the way you want them, you can use Partition Magic. It doesn't officially support vista at the moment, but it has worked for me.

As for the OEM Dell disc, unless they changed it with Vista. The disc just has a few extra options, such as an embedded key and bios check and shouldn't wipe the drive. It's not a recovery disc but an install disc.

That last bit could be wrong, just stating from my experience with dell (my notebook, and my brothers desktop).
 
With Dell you have to pay attention to the OS they give you. Sometimes you get a system restore disc and sometimes you get the reinstall CD (actual OS disc). However if it is a restore disc Dell will usually offer the reinstall disc for $10.

Either way just install XP second and it will work perfectly fine.
 
Thanks everyone, The disk I recieved is the reinstallation disk "reinstallation of microsoft vista business edition"

I think I can figure it all out, the only thing is since I have the reinstallation disk, I would assume its safe to delete the recovery partition that dell made on this laptop.

Steps...
Shrink the Vista partition to 50 gigs
Format Another partition NTFS 50 gigs (install XP Pro)

Boot into XP and run VistaBootPro and run "reinstall vista bootloader"

Then, it should say "load windows OS" and "load legacy OS"

depending on which I need....Click and bang.
(this laptop config is the same as our XP unit-safe to say there is drivers)

Thanks everyone
 
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