Windows Dual Booting Advice Vista 64 & XP 32

Discussion in 'Tech Support' started by Tarbee, 10 Sep 2009.

  1. Tarbee

    Tarbee What's a Dremel?

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    Please help!

    I have the following PC set-up and would really like some guidance on how best to set-up a dual boot as I have no idea what the best/easiest way is? I have read various articles but it doesn't seem a straightforward thing to do and I don't want to screw-up my Vista installation at all.

    My set-up is:

    OS Vista 64 Home Premium
    MB Asus P5Q Deluxe
    CPU Q6700 2.66ghz
    RAM 4gb Corsair xms2
    Sound Card Asus Xonar D1
    Video Card Nvidia Geforce 9600GT
    Hard Drives 2 x 500 GB Western Digital WD5001AALS (Sata)
    LG & Samsung Optical Drives

    I would ideally like to use a 80gb IDE hard drive from another PC I have, to install the 32 bit XP OS but its not essential I just want something that will definitely work!

    Any help or advice would be very much appreciated!

    Cheers!:lol:
     
    Tarbee, 10 Sep 2009
    #1
  2. Golygus

    Golygus Minimodder

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    First link in google for me was this tutorial. Give that a whirl :D
     
    Golygus, 10 Sep 2009
    #2
  3. mm vr

    mm vr The cheesecake is a lie

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    Is there are reason why you want to dualboot with XP?
     
    mm vr, 11 Sep 2009
    #3
  4. Tarbee

    Tarbee What's a Dremel?

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    I play older dos based games and Grand Prix 4 which has been a pain on Vista 64 for me. Every time I go to play it it crashes to the desktop and a loud buzzing noise starts and wont stop so I have to restart the PC. Have looked into various ways to try and fix it but nothing seems to work.

    Just want to be able to play some older stuff that I know will work on XP!

    Wondering if I should get a separate hard drive and then use: EasyBCD 1.7.2 ?

    If I disconnect my VISTA HD and install on another HD XP and then use the EasyBCD will that do the trick?:geek:
     
    Tarbee, 11 Sep 2009
    #4
  5. Tarbee

    Tarbee What's a Dremel?

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    I have now managed to install Windows XP on a seperate IDE drive, my Windows Vista being on a Sata drive.

    Problem I have now though is the following-get a message on boot-up of XP saying that 'hal.dll file' is missing or corrupted?

    At present I'm using Vista but want to use XP as well anyone know how I can do this without screwing up Vista OS as well?

    Any help is much appreciated!

    Many thanks!:geek:
     
    Tarbee, 16 Sep 2009
    #5
  6. Tarbee

    Tarbee What's a Dremel?

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    Anyone help please?:)
     
    Tarbee, 17 Sep 2009
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  7. Golygus

    Golygus Minimodder

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    at a guess I'd say you disconnected the SATA drive, while installing XP on the PATA drive.

    If that's the case, the boot.ini settings will be messed up, and be the cause of your hal.dll error.

    once fixed (fixmbr from recovery console should do the trick), then you can boot into xp, and use easyBCD as describe in the tutorial I linked to. Page 4 iirc.
     
    Golygus, 18 Sep 2009
    #7

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