problems installing XP on HP Pavilion w/ Vista Ultimate

  • Thread starter Thread starter dastrick
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noisewreck said:
To add to what Randy says, you cannot go from 32 bit OS to 64 bit OS or vice versa w/o reformatting the drive, unfortunately. This is due to the difference in memory addressing scheme used by the two different environments.
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whoa whoa whoa, what is going on in this thread? I didn't even catch this, I'm sorry guys I don't mean to be rude here but there is a lot of misinformation being spread in this thread.

while true a 32 bit os and a 64 bit os cannot exist on the same partition, no two os's can exist on the same partition, I have several machines with 64 bit and 32 bit os's running in multiple boot configurations, again the issue comes down to reducing the original os's partition to create room for a new os, and then having a boot loader capable of recognizing the two systems.

you can not change a 64 bit to 32.

but you absolutely do not need to reformat the whole disk to install a 32 alongside a 64.
 
If you are willing to use a boot manager, then it shouldn't matter if you install XP or Vista first. The trick is what you do to your partitions before you install anything. Create your 2nd partition using something like "GParted" which is a Linux based bootable partitioner that works and looks similar to the Partition Magic boot discs. You create your partition, set it to "boot" (same as "active") and set the other to hidden. When you install XP or Vista it will think its the only OS on your drive so you don't get the Windows boot screen getting in the way. You then install your boot manager (I'm using GAG) and then add both OS's to the menu. You will then have both installed and completely seperate from each other. Thats basically how it's done and there's a bit more stuffing around but it works great and after about 2 years it hasn't given me any problems (or should I be saying so far, so good?).
 
that says nothing about reformatting a drive...

to repeat myself

you can not change a 64 bit to 32.

but you absolutely do not need to reformat the whole disk to install a 32 alongside a 64.
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'nuff said
 
To add to what DuddyGuy and Bill have already said, you HAVE to have a third party boot manager in the mix if want 32/64 os's on different partitions. The windows one will not cut it and will give you MBR problems
 
noisewreck said:
You're right! :)

Good catch. I am glad you clarified a misconception on my part and clarified it here for others.
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Sorry if I got a little frustrated there, I know you were just trying to help, It just kind of irks me when people reformat there factory installs and possibly don't end up going the whole way of restoring all the drivers for the comp or end up losing data or some level of functionality that they had before either due to laziness or just simple lack of knowledge, so I generally try to advise against reformats for people unless they are absolutely necessary, and in this case it seemed like having 2 os's one for general use and one for music would be the way for him to go... so hope theres no hard feelings there!:)

To add to what DuddyGuy and Bill have already said, you HAVE to have a third party boot manager in the mix if want 32/64 os's on different partitions. The windows one will not cut it and will give you MBR problems
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thanks for this info, I wasn't aware of that particular issue as I don't use ms. It is good to know and does make sense, I could see the vista boot loader having some issues with that.
 
I own an HP notebook w/Vista, however there is no revovery disk option, only a restore option (which is simply on a small partition on the HD). It will not create a disk set that will let you re-install Vista, it will only restore the hard-drive back to it's original state when purchased ( restore not installation).
Also, If you are going to install XP on a system that HP shipped with vista, you may not be able to get the drivers for the XP. I was going to do this with my notebook (dual boot XP/Vista). Since my notebook came with two drives, I was going to use the second drive for XP. When I contacted HP to get the drivers, I was told that HP would not support that configuration (even though their documentation stated that it did). However, after several lenghty conversations, I was provided drivers (2 or 3 sseperate occasions) but none of them worked. So, I would strongly, suggest that you ensure that you can get the appropriate XP drivers for your hardware configuration before you attempt this (sadly, you won't know if the drivers will work until you began or complete the installation).... I don't think HP ships XP on any of there boxes now, so they may not provide your with drivers for boxes shipped with Vista..... just a thought......,
Final comments...., there are definitely methods to get both OS loaded, but if you can't get the correct drivers, why bother......?
 
Thats a good point you've raised. I've had 2 HP laptops that people wanted me to put XP on after they decided they didn't want Vista. After a look in a few forums I managed to find links to everything (it was a bit of a pain in the ass but they are out there). The graphics card had to be installed manually even though they were definately the correct drivers but everything else was OK.
 
DuddyGuy said:
so hope theres no hard feelings there!:)
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No worries man, it's all good :)

Some good suggestions in this thread. One, albeit somewhat costly option would be to purchase a second 2.5" hard drive, swap them out, and install the new configuration on that one. If there are issues with drivers and such, you'll simply be able to pop the original drive back in and you'll at least have a useable computer. If all goes well, you can still use the second hard drive. All you'll need to do is get an external case for the 2.5" drive, and connect it via USB. Might be good to have anyways for backup purposes.
 
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