Vista is annoying... need XP

[onzarob]

I run vista ultimate on my laptop and have done since January. No real problems Vagcom with ebay bought USB lead works well.

Carl if you want to increase your volume size then use diskpart, its part of windows and works perfectly.

the difference between a partition and a volume is the partiton is the space allocated for use on a hardisk, a volume is the size of the partion used for dos/ntfs. if you increase the partiton size you still need to expand the volume to use it.

If you want to dual boot XP and windows 2003 you need both partition to be fat32, I'm not sure if Vista is the same, i would suspect that your voulme is ntfs and you can't downgrade it to FAT32 without reinstalling the os

[onzarob]

press F8 for boot choices.

sorry i posted the rest before i read your help

[onzarob]

this article may help you, form what i can gather the boot ini has gone in vista, but i haven't got the time to look into detail, maybe later.

http://chris123nt.com/guides/Beta1_5112/

[Loofer]

been doing a little reading around. its actually the bootsect.exe file I need. If you have Vista on a CD/DVD then you will find it in the Boot folder. Please PM me.

[dessimpson]

been doing a little reading around. its actually the bootsect.exe file I need. If you have Vista on a CD/DVD then you will find it in the Boot folder. Please PM me.

I've got Vista Ultimate on DVD. If it's just that file (bootsect.exe) that you need then i can e-mail you it. Just give us a shout

[dessimpson]

eezupp, you're right,
All versions of the office software for XP won't run on a vista platform or runs but with problems.
Surprised this has been allowed to reach the shops, getting a cheap laptop for your VAG tacho seems a sensible strategy
Gazza57

Have you tried office 2007??
It's sooooo different to all the previous versions that it might actually be worth the ridiculous price that microsoft charge. (p.s. I haven't bought it myself but we have it at work (I use Open Office ))

[Loofer]

Thanks Rob and Dessimpson for the offers of help. After a 6-8 hour ball ache I fninally manged to get Vista back up and running.

Vista uses MBR (Memory Boot Record) to boot up. XP uses the boot.ini file. Apparently XP overwrites this MBR so you no longer can boot Vista.

So you need a copy of this Bootsect.exe file and enter the following comman in DOS
bootsect.exe /NT60 ALL
The command is preceeded by the directory/ies where the file sits.

This file can be found in the Boot folder of the Vista CD/DVD you get when you bought it.

If like me, however, it came preloaded, then its unlikely you will be able to find this file.

What you need is a program called VistaBootPro. It can be downloaded for free. It has this file, but you ca just use the friendly interface to do the same job.

I didn't have net access when XP was loaded so I had to use my work laptop to access net. Unfortunately I can't instal programs using that laptop (limiteduser account priviledges).

After trawling loads of tech forums asking around for a copy of this file I had a much needed and delayed brain wave

I d/l VistaBootPro, burned it to CD and installed on my personal laptop.. well I tried to but it needed .Net Framework 2.0
so I d/l .Net on my work laptop, b urn it to disk and installed on my personal lapto... well tried to.. but now I neede Windows Installer3.0
so you can guess what I did next...

Finally installed VistaBootPro and now I'm back on Vista

I've sill got XP on my oher partition but now that wont boot from the selection menu. I hink I'm just gona format that partition and leave XP.

Thanks again all

[dessimpson]

Here's instructions on how to do it


http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp


Try again or give up???

[Loofer]

waheyyyy... I've finally done it

After alot of google'in and trial n error I've finally got both versions running

In the BCDedit.exe (using command line prompt)
I typed
bcdedit /set {ntldr} device boot

rather than
bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=d:
(where D:\ was the drive where XP was installed)

The former command got it to work because it boots from the 'active' partition.


As for the old laptop I won on eBay.. I contacted the seller and offered to pay £10 via PayPal as a nominal sum to release me from any obligation to buy. Better than paying the full £43. Win Win!!

[onzarob]

Vista uses MBR (Memory Boot Record) to boot up.

MBR is Master Boot Record

secondly I havn't read any of the info, but i would assume that the best way to dual boot is install XO first then vista. You would then not have this issue as Vista now hows to boot XP and read the partiton.

I know your laptop already had Vista installed so this was not an option, I personally wouldn't of done it taht way, I would buy VM Workstation V6 and run it as a virtual machine.

I done this and it is ace I run a MCE XP machine at home with a 2003 server virtual machine on it running webmail and a webserver, saves having two pc's burning electricity!!!