Dual-boot XP and Vista Problems

[nero2]

Hey guys. I'm trying to dual boot XP Pro and Vista Business and can't get the default bootloader to see Vista. Currently I've got XP installed on a partition one hard drive, and Vista installed on a partition on another drive. If I boot the computer with the Vista CD in the drive (but not boot from the CD) I will see the Vista bootloader and can boot fine into either XP or Vista. If I take the DVD out of the drive, I don't even see a bootloader and XP starts up right away. In XP I've tried modifying the boot.ini, but I can't figure out what the correct setting to put is (isn't there a utility within windows that lists drives and partitions in that multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(X) format?).

 

[Cutthroat]

You are supposed to install the older OS first, then Vista's bootloader would have overwritten XP's and you would use Vista's as default. However, I've been in the same boat as you, I never did find a way to list the partitions so you can add an entry to XP's boot.ini. The easy way is boot from the Vista DVD, go to the repair options, it should automatically notice Vista's BCD is missing and want to fix it for you.

 

[homercles337]

It could be your BIOS. I just did a dual boot (with vista on a fresh disc) and can only change the boot option when i specify the HD boot priority in the BIOS. I havent look much beyond this though so there may be another workaround as cutthroat mentions.

edited for clarity.

 

[Cutthroat]

Originally posted by: homercles337
It could be your BIOS. I just did a dual boot (with vista on a fresh disc) and can only change the boot option when i specify the HD boot priority in the BIOS. I havent look much beyond this though so there may be another workaround as cutthroat mentions.

edited for clarity.

That's the best way, if you install each OS on a separate drive, without the drive the other OS is installed on connected at the same time. That way you can use your BIOS boot options, and if you want to remove an OS you can just format the drive.