I'm confused???

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I should know this (being A+ certified and all) but I'm a bit confused with the following...

I'm trying to create a new partition on my hard drive (Vista Premium) so I can load XP (Spent hours building a 2k3 server to find Vista Premium doesn't support domains! ). I currently have 3 partitions:

EISA Config - Recovery (10gb, Primary) - OS (220.08gb Primary)

and 2.64gb of unallocated space (Ready for the XP partition). Now the disk is set as a Basic Disk but when I right click the unallocated space it only gives me the option to set up a new Simple Volume.

I thought Dynamic Disks used volumes and Basic Disks used Primary and Extended partitions?

I'm probably missing something obvious here, anybody know what I'm doing/interpreting wrong?

 

Yup, I just need XP there to gain knowledge of Domains, AD, etc...

I think my real question is how do I create another Primary Partition, its my understanding that I can have up to 4 Primary partitions?

 

I would start again.. install XP first, as it's the older of the two OSs.. format the drive and create a partition that's half the size of the hard drive. Then install Vista, it will recognise a previous version of windows because it's aware that XP exists. create a partition in the unallocated space and install Vista on that. You will then have a stable dual boot platform.

 

I select 'New Simple Volume' and it creates a Logical Drive?? It is my understanding that logical drives are created in an extended partition, this is all well and good but I need a new Primary Partition??

Sounds like I might have to resort to this, I might just see if I have enough spare parts to build a new machine?

 

You could always use a virtual drive.

 

Sparky you legend Great find pal, I did search around Google and this forum a bit but found nothing. I now have another primary partition

Now, as I'm going to try and install XP after Vista would it be advisable to use a 3rd part duel boot utility?

EDIT: Rep left Sparky

 

Right, after the trouble getting a Primary Partition with vista I'm now stuck installing Windows!

Every time I boot from installation CD it loads the initial files and then BSOD. I have tried more than one copy of XP Prof and also a copy of 2k Prof, same thing...BSOD??

Has anyone seen this before?

EDIT: I'm pretty sure its a problem with XP/2k not having the drivers for some of my laptops hardware, getting a Boot Device Error? I might just give CPR to one of my old PCs?

 

it might be that you need to install drivers for the hard drive, if it's an older motherboard with a SATA controller. the driver was supplied on a floppy and needed to be installed at the beginning of the OS install procedure by pressing F6 like you would for SCSI drivers.

 

Thanks Bluerinse , I'll have a go at this...

 

Ok, I'm all sorted and duel booted now. Thanks for the help guys

Thought I would retype the problems solved and fixes found to help others with the similar problems:

Scenario: Duel booting Vista and XP (With Vista installed first)

Problem 1 - Creating another primary partition in Vista
Solution - Credit to Sparky for this find....

Problem 2 - BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) after the initial load of drivers during text mode windows install.
Solution - Spot on Bluerinse...

but this created problem 3...

Problem 3 - This XP installation was on a Dell Studio 1735 which doesn't have a floppy drive required to load the SATA driver.
Solution - Slipstream the drivers into the XP installation (Create a new XP installation disk which loads the SATA drivers needed automatically) using nLite see below for guide.

Problem 4 - With XP now installed I needed to get my laptop booting Vista again.
Solution - Boot from the Vista installation disk, select 'Repair your Computer' and then 'Repair Startup'

Problem 5 - Enabling Duel Booting (Allow the option to boot to either Vista or XP on computer startup)
Solution - Download EasyBCD to edit the Vista boot files.

Helpful links:

Step by Step Guide: Duel booting Vista and XP (With Vista installed first)
A Guide to nLite

Job Done, hopefully this helps someone out there

 

Great stuff

 

i normally suggest to people dat wenever they want to multiboot they shld mk use of VMware(it simulates at a minimum the instruction set of the computer it emulates and presents the apperance to the user of a differnt computer) tech in dat case u dont need to partition ur harddrive and also u can b able to run multiple OS at the same time instead of choosin a particular OS at the boot prompt. am presently runnin a VMware on my Vista Home Premium on which i installed UBUNTU, XP & WINDOWS 2003 SERVER ENTERPRISE EDITION. NOTE THAT VMware 5.0 will not install on Vista but only on Xp but VMware 6.0 will install on Vista. hp this helps.

 

I was considering VM but to be honest it was nice to get some experience in duel booting. I have a book on Virtualisation which I shall be reading up on after my N+ in a couple of weeks. Cheers for the advice anywho

 

I used to use Partition Magic many years ago (I don't know if it is still around today)

This was really good as you could easily create and manage multiple partitions, and iirc you could resize partitions without loosing the data.

Also made multi-boot machines easy to create and use as well. Might be worth having a look if it is still available to buy as it was great

 

Yeah, I seem to remember using Partition Magic a few years ago, Vista's supposed to be really good for non-destructive partitioning though so I stuck with that.