Help with dual boot

[kwheeler7]

I have a new computer with Vista Home Premium installed. I would like to set up a dual boot with XP. I have read and understand how to do it, shrink volume, rename drives, etc.. What I need is if there is any way to take everything from my old Xp machine and load it on the new partition on the Vista computer. I have some programs and data that I no longer have the program disks that I cannot replace. I currently have my new computer with Vista installed, my old XP computer and an external drive that contains a 10G image of my XP computer, The image was created with Acronis True Image.

Thanks in advance for any help

[ijwcomp]

I am not really an expert in this sort of thing but I imagine that it wouldn't really work as you will get into driver/activation issues unless the new computer is the same as the old one. (I know that OEM's use this sort of thing and load the same image to like millions of computers that are the same model)

You could try to copy the program from the Program Files (the whole folder) and paste it into the Vista machine and try it. Some programs will work, some will break. (programs that put everything needed to start the program into the program files folder will most likely work, others that put files in the system32 or WINDOWS folder will not work properly)

[TechFind]

If i remember well acronis does support resize partition so you can restore an image of another disk to the new partition.

As for windows xp you must NOT RUN but do a reinstall : boot from win xp cd - in first screen press ENTER for setup - in second

screen press R for repair - now continue like clean install...

BEFORE all that you sould read articles about installing XP after VISTA:

1)http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/install-windows-xp-on-your-pre-installed-windows-vista-computer/

2)http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm?page=1

3)http://www.pronetworks.org/forum/about88231.html

.

.

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In these articles you replace install with reinstall

I hope its usefull.

[kwheeler7]

Thanks, I will read up on it and see what I can come up with.

[MSFVS]

Hi kwheeler7, hello everybody !

I can hardly add more to what's been replied here. I can only tell about my own experience with the dual-booting process.

I have both XP and Vista installed on different partitions.

When I once started my XP > Control Panel > System > and set the time to 0 to display boot options, I found that I could boot my XP only, pressing F8 did not display an entry to choose to boot Vista, and reverting to the default time to display boot options did not allow me to boot Vista. Thus, I could not switch to booting Vista. And there's no microsoft utility to do that.

I found EasyBCD by NeoSmart Technologies

and

VistaBootPRO by ProNetworks

I tried all those versions and found EasyBCD 1.1 to be the best utility for dual boot, with all features working, in XP and Vista.

So, I successfully use EasyBCD 1.1 for the dual boot purpose.

Run EasyBCD

Click "Configure BCD" tab

In the "Default OS", choose your OS to boot next time

Click "Save settings"

EasyBCD 1.1 is the best version.

On your post, kwheeler7, what do you actually want to do :

What I need is if there is any way to take everything from my old Xp machine and load it on the new partition on the Vista computer. I have some programs and data that I no longer have the program disks that I cannot replace. I currently have my new computer with Vista installed, my old XP computer and an external drive that contains a 10G image of my XP computer, The image was created with Acronis True Image.

Thanks in advance for any help

If what you want to do is to install your old XP of the old xp machine, from the Acronis image, then you can't do it, for your old xp machine's hardware does differ from your new machine's.

Just freshly install XP to a partition, I prefer XP on Disk C, and Vist on any other, 'cause unlike XP, Vista sees any partition on which installed as C.

If you have documents within the image, then find a way to read from the image, or temporarily extract the image to a different partition, copy the documments you need, and delete what you don't need.

Regards,

[TechFind]

If what you want to do is to install your old XP of the old xp machine,

from the Acronis image, then you can't do it,

for your old xp machine's hardware does differ from your new machine's.

but my friend of course you can:

1) put image on a disk

2) put disk in a pc

3) DO NOT start pc

4) boot from winXP CD

5) first screen press ENTER NOT repair

6) second screen press R NOT esc

7) continue installing

8) all drivers,programs,everything sould be as they where.

That's install-repair or reinstall

[kwheeler7]

Thanks for all the help. I decided I will keep both machines for the time being. I added a KVM switch.

[MSFVS]

If what you want to do is to install your old XP of the old xp machine,

from the Acronis image, then you can't do it,

for your old xp machine's hardware does differ from your new machine's.

but my friend of course you can:

1) put image on a disk

2) put disk in a pc

3) DO NOT start pc

4) boot from winXP CD

5) first screen press ENTER NOT repair

6) second screen press R NOT esc

7) continue installing

8) all drivers,programs,everything sould be as they where.

That's install-repair or reinstall

Am I loosing your point, friend, in that it is possible to make image of XP on one machine and then install XP from the image onto another with completely different hardware ?

This is to ask:

- if for example one has a desktop with Pentium 4 + NVIDIA + Realtek + XP Pro on partition C, and a notebook with Core 2 Duo + ATI + Creative + Vista on partition C, can he then make image of XP and then use the image to install XP to the notebook system ? Will XP installed this way function ?

Anyway, kwheeler7's way is better.

[TechFind]

If what you want to do is to install your old XP of the old xp machine,

from the Acronis image, then you can't do it,

for your old xp machine's hardware does differ from your new machine's.

but my friend of course you can:

1) put image on a disk

2) put disk in a pc

3) DO NOT start pc

4) boot from winXP CD

5) first screen press ENTER NOT repair

6) second screen press R NOT esc

7) continue installing

8) all drivers,programs,everything sould be as they where.

That's install-repair or reinstall

Am I loosing your point, friend, in that it is possible to make image of XP on one machine and then install XP from the image onto another with completely different hardware ?

This is to ask:

- if for example one has a desktop with Pentium 4 + NVIDIA + Realtek + XP Pro on partition C, and a notebook with Core 2 Duo + ATI + Creative + Vista on partition C, can he then make image of XP and then use the image to install XP to the notebook system ? Will XP installed this way function ?

Anyway, kwheeler7's way is better.

Begin with

check this out :http://www.acronis.com/enterprise/products/ATIES/universal-restore.html

and google "reinstall windows xp"