Friday, October 23, 2009

Dual booting Vista and XP

Today our episode begins with our trusty hero(me) and his hearty sidekick(Mutzi, sleeping) attempting to install windows vista with windows xp already installed hoping to arrive at a dual booting solution. Lets watch.

The scenario thus far:
  • An existing windows xp install on an 80 GB hard drive (IDE) volume label: WinXp
  • A free 80 GB hard drive (IDE)
  • A 1.5 TB hard drive with data
  • A 400 GB hard drive with data
Where I want to end up:
  • An existing windows xp install on an 80 GB hard drive (IDE)
  • An existing windows vista install on an 80 GB hard drive (IDE)
  • A 1.5 TB hard drive with data (SATA)
  • A 400 GB hard drive with data (SATA)
  • The ability to boot into either operating system
  • No loss of data
The steps taken:
  1. I took the precaution of unplugging the two SATA drive data cables for safety.
  2. I had to swap out the cd burner and swap in a DVD-Rom (Vista comes on a DVD).
  3. After booting up, I put the dvd in the drive.
  4. It asked if I wanted to do a compatibility check or install now. I chose install now.
  5. Chose "go online to get the latest updates for installation".
  6. Product activation time, type in the code.
  7. I accept the terms
  8. "which type of installation do you want? We chose custom(advanced)
  9. Here's the reason why I labeled my xp install "WinXp". It wants to know which disk to install to. The one not labeled "WinXp"! Duh!
  10. It's doing it's thing (the time is 2:55 P.M.)
  11. Once, twice, three times the reboot (unless I counted wrong) and.....
  12. And, Presto! Done! (the time is 3:20 P.M.)
  13. Well, I thought we were done....
  14. and presto, done, I guess (the time is 3:28)

The aftermath:
  • In device manager, the only things with exclamation marks are the RAID controller and the SM Bus controller
  • Vista works
  • Upon, restarting, WinXP works!
  • Problems: I'm using a DFI motherboard, it's old and there are no drivers for the Silicon Image 3114 SataRaid Controller.
  • Silicon Image does provide a driver
  • It still doesn't work right. When it does, I'll update
  • Mutzi, still sleeping
The afterword:

This is not the first time I have installed Vista. I just never used it and didn't care for it. Still, I own it and should use it because lots of other people don't have the option not to own or use it. It came with the computer they bought and maybe at the time it seemed like a good idea. The old saying goes "you gotta dance with the one who brung ya". So I'm gonna suffer with you. Besides, Microsoft finally gave birth to Windows 7 so I'll end up installing that again too.

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