Dual boot between XP and Vista

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jonisaksson

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Hi,

I am trying to connect a second boot (Vista) to my Windows XP boot.

The Vista installation is done as a second on my main hard drive, where the first partion contains Windows XP.

I thought it was going to be as simple as just adding a second line to the boot.ini.
But that doesnt seem to do the trick as when I select Vista, the screen just goes black and nothing seems to be happening.
Any ideas on where I have gone wrong?

Here is the boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Vista"/fastdetect
 
Did you use VISTA or WXP to setup the Dual Boot? That is the standard way to get to a dual boot... and is better done with the more advanced, such as Premium or Professional. Set up the second boot and partition with the same software that did your initial install... usually you must use the newest OS...
 
usually you must use the newest OS...

I'd rephrase that to say you should always use a newer OS to create a dual boot with an older OS (or at least be prepared to clean up after when the boot doesn't work). Reason: The newer OS will always know about and how to dual boot install older OS's. An older OS wouldn't know the details about newer OS's.

Should you do things in older/newer order you'll probably end up with a bad boot loader. However, this can usually be fixed if you use the newer OS install CD to repair it.
 
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