Dual boot problems

I had XP Pro on Partition 1, Media Center on Partiton 2 and Vista RC2 on
Partition 3.

XP and Vista worked fine. Then I wanted to check something on Media Center
and got error after error including blue screens. Spent hours with Dell
Support. At one point they even changed the processor

Finally I wiped everything and clean installed XP , then Vista.

XP, on the partition NEXT to Vista, went all to hell just like Media Center,
also next to Vista partition, had been. But Vista ran great.

Back to Square1. I'm just running XP Pro. It's flying, but I'd like to dual
boot.

But has anyone else had these dual boot problems? Any advice?

How about VirtualPC? Is 1G RAM enuff?

I'm afraid that I'm pretty much a bucket of cold water on this one. If you
want Vista and Windows XP to co-exist as multi-boot partners on the same
system you really need to use Vista Ultimate (RTM, NOT RC2 anything) with
BitLocker enabled and hiding Vista from WinXP BEFORE you ever reboot into
WinXP, or you need to use a third party boot manager to hide Vista from
WinXP. Otherwise, WinXP will immediately set about trashing System Restore
points and Shadow Copy data on the Vista partition during its first session.

Frankly, multi-booting Windows operating systems these days just seems like
a waste for almost all purposes. (YMMV) I'd definitely go with virtual
machines, either through one of the Microsoft offerings (VPC or Virtual
Server) or through VMWare. Run Vista as the host and WinXP under a Virtual
Machine. Or don't run WinXP at all, if you can help it. Or, best yet, just
put each OS on its own physical system.

All that being said, I can't imagine what is happening on your system. I've
had plenty of experience trying to multi-boot Vista with operating systems
before I decided that it wasn't worth the effort. (It can be done, but, to
me, it isn't worth the effort.) I NEVER saw Vista cause problems within
another co-existing operating system. I mean, if you do something untoward
with the boot manager you might make another OS unbootable, but I never saw
Vista mess up the contents of another operating system's partition. Windows
XP is, however, not nearly so well-behaved. It savages anything that looks
like a restore point that it "thinks" is corrupted.

I would be very interesting in knowing whether or not it was really Vista
that caused this issue with your WinXP installations. Can't see how it could
be the case, but I'm willing to learn.

I hope someone else may have more useful information for you.

"Bill Condie" wrote:

> I had XP Pro on Partition 1, Media Center on Partiton 2 and Vista RC2 on
> Partition 3.
>
> XP and Vista worked fine. Then I wanted to check something on Media Center
> and got error after error including blue screens. Spent hours with Dell
> Support. At one point they even changed the processor
>
> Finally I wiped everything and clean installed XP , then Vista.
>
> XP, on the partition NEXT to Vista, went all to hell just like Media Center,
> also next to Vista partition, had been. But Vista ran great.
>
> Back to Square1. I'm just running XP Pro. It's flying, but I'd like to dual
> boot.
>
> But has anyone else had these dual boot problems? Any advice?
>
> How about VirtualPC? Is 1G RAM enuff?

Thanks for the feedback.

<<Or, best yet, just put each OS on its own physical system.

You mean a second HD?

I see many sites on how to dual boot successfully, but I think I'll take
your advice and forget it.

"jimmuh" <> wrote in message
news:54164E9E-DAE8-400D-8F35-...
> I'm afraid that I'm pretty much a bucket of cold water on this one. If you
> want Vista and Windows XP to co-exist as multi-boot partners on the same
> system you really need to use Vista Ultimate (RTM, NOT RC2 anything) with
> BitLocker enabled and hiding Vista from WinXP BEFORE you ever reboot into
> WinXP, or you need to use a third party boot manager to hide Vista from
> WinXP. Otherwise, WinXP will immediately set about trashing System Restore
> points and Shadow Copy data on the Vista partition during its first
> session.
>
> Frankly, multi-booting Windows operating systems these days just seems
> like
> a waste for almost all purposes. (YMMV) I'd definitely go with virtual
> machines, either through one of the Microsoft offerings (VPC or Virtual
> Server) or through VMWare. Run Vista as the host and WinXP under a Virtual
> Machine. Or don't run WinXP at all, if you can help it. Or, best yet, just
> put each OS on its own physical system.
>
> All that being said, I can't imagine what is happening on your system.
> I've
> had plenty of experience trying to multi-boot Vista with operating systems
> before I decided that it wasn't worth the effort. (It can be done, but, to
> me, it isn't worth the effort.) I NEVER saw Vista cause problems within
> another co-existing operating system. I mean, if you do something untoward
> with the boot manager you might make another OS unbootable, but I never
> saw
> Vista mess up the contents of another operating system's partition.
> Windows
> XP is, however, not nearly so well-behaved. It savages anything that looks
> like a restore point that it "thinks" is corrupted.
>
> I would be very interesting in knowing whether or not it was really Vista
> that caused this issue with your WinXP installations. Can't see how it
> could
> be the case, but I'm willing to learn.
>
> I hope someone else may have more useful information for you.
>
> "Bill Condie" wrote:
>
>> I had XP Pro on Partition 1, Media Center on Partiton 2 and Vista RC2 on
>> Partition 3.
>>
>> XP and Vista worked fine. Then I wanted to check something on Media
>> Center
>> and got error after error including blue screens. Spent hours with Dell
>> Support. At one point they even changed the processor
>>
>> Finally I wiped everything and clean installed XP , then Vista.
>>
>> XP, on the partition NEXT to Vista, went all to hell just like Media
>> Center,
>> also next to Vista partition, had been. But Vista ran great.
>>
>> Back to Square1. I'm just running XP Pro. It's flying, but I'd like to
>> dual
>> boot.
>>
>> But has anyone else had these dual boot problems? Any advice?
>>
>> How about VirtualPC? Is 1G RAM enuff?

You're welcome, for what my input was worth. As I said, I am sorry to throw
cold water, but I think dual booting Vista with WinXP is a real PIA. If you
have a definite reason for needing both operating systems, and you need both
of them to boot from the same system, then dual booting MIGHT be worth the
hassle. I would imagine that most people would be dual booting Vista with
WinXP so that they could continue to use WinXP as their main OS while
examining Vista to see how it behaves. But if you're not careful about
protecting the Vista partiton from WinXP's overzealous System Restore
behavior, then you won't be seeing Vista in its normal state. You'll be
seeing a crippled Vista without its Previous Version features, and so on.

That's why I suggested separate systems. (I meant totally separate
computers, not separate hard drives, which would do nothing at all to protect
Vista from WinXP.) Another possibility would be using either Vista or WinXP
as the host operating system, installing a virtual machine environment
(VMWare, VPC, etc.) and installing the other OS on a virtual machine. I'm
thinking that, with these operating systems, 1 gigabyte is a little slim on
memory. I do some VPC and Virtual Server stuff with a fast notebook with two
60 gigabyte hard drives and 2 gigs of memory, and I wouldn't want to be using
anything slower. If you try this put the test OS on the virtual machine. It's
going to be the slow one. Also be prepared for a bit of a learning curve with
respect to dealing with virtual machines, if you haven't done that before. If
you're just looking at a test OS in isolation, then there's not much to do
besides install it and use it on the VM. If you're trying to do anything like
networking, then there can be a little more to it.

There are a lot of sites out there with information on dual booting. Unless
you're looking at a site that has been updated intelligently to cover the
hassles between WinXP and Vista then you're getting just enough information
to get you into trouble. As I said, Vista is pretty well-behaved with respect
to being nice to other operating systems when it gets installed. But WinXP
does the nasty to Vista's restore points and shadow copy data. I found this
out the hard way in the early days. And there still seem to be quite a few
folks who are unaware of this. For better or for worse, the System Restore
functionality in Vista has been extended to include the ability to keep
previous versions of data files available for a while -- kind of like an
extended Recycle Bin. It's an important feature of Vista and should be seen
working properly rather than crippled when you're testing the OS.

Lots of subtle and not-so-subtle differences in the OS that require, I
think, an adjustment in thinking if one is to make the best -- and safest --
use of them.

"Bill Condie" wrote:

> Thanks for the feedback.
>
> <<Or, best yet, just put each OS on its own physical system.
>
> You mean a second HD?
>
> I see many sites on how to dual boot successfully, but I think I'll take
> your advice and forget it.
>
> "jimmuh" <> wrote in message
> news:54164E9E-DAE8-400D-8F35-...
> > I'm afraid that I'm pretty much a bucket of cold water on this one. If you
> > want Vista and Windows XP to co-exist as multi-boot partners on the same
> > system you really need to use Vista Ultimate (RTM, NOT RC2 anything) with
> > BitLocker enabled and hiding Vista from WinXP BEFORE you ever reboot into
> > WinXP, or you need to use a third party boot manager to hide Vista from
> > WinXP. Otherwise, WinXP will immediately set about trashing System Restore
> > points and Shadow Copy data on the Vista partition during its first
> > session.
> >
> > Frankly, multi-booting Windows operating systems these days just seems
> > like
> > a waste for almost all purposes. (YMMV) I'd definitely go with virtual
> > machines, either through one of the Microsoft offerings (VPC or Virtual
> > Server) or through VMWare. Run Vista as the host and WinXP under a Virtual
> > Machine. Or don't run WinXP at all, if you can help it. Or, best yet, just
> > put each OS on its own physical system.
> >
> > All that being said, I can't imagine what is happening on your system.
> > I've
> > had plenty of experience trying to multi-boot Vista with operating systems
> > before I decided that it wasn't worth the effort. (It can be done, but, to
> > me, it isn't worth the effort.) I NEVER saw Vista cause problems within
> > another co-existing operating system. I mean, if you do something untoward
> > with the boot manager you might make another OS unbootable, but I never
> > saw
> > Vista mess up the contents of another operating system's partition.
> > Windows
> > XP is, however, not nearly so well-behaved. It savages anything that looks
> > like a restore point that it "thinks" is corrupted.
> >
> > I would be very interesting in knowing whether or not it was really Vista
> > that caused this issue with your WinXP installations. Can't see how it
> > could
> > be the case, but I'm willing to learn.
> >
> > I hope someone else may have more useful information for you.
> >
> > "Bill Condie" wrote:
> >
> >> I had XP Pro on Partition 1, Media Center on Partiton 2 and Vista RC2 on
> >> Partition 3.
> >>
> >> XP and Vista worked fine. Then I wanted to check something on Media
> >> Center
> >> and got error after error including blue screens. Spent hours with Dell
> >> Support. At one point they even changed the processor
> >>
> >> Finally I wiped everything and clean installed XP , then Vista.
> >>
> >> XP, on the partition NEXT to Vista, went all to hell just like Media
> >> Center,
> >> also next to Vista partition, had been. But Vista ran great.
> >>
> >> Back to Square1. I'm just running XP Pro. It's flying, but I'd like to
> >> dual
> >> boot.
> >>
> >> But has anyone else had these dual boot problems? Any advice?
> >>
> >> How about VirtualPC? Is 1G RAM enuff?
>
>
>

Bill,

Your Post was simply incredible, filled with not only wisdom, filled with
experiences learned the difficult method, and oh how accurate! been there
tried that myself. Unfortunately, too many others remain for knowing what
succinctly you described.


Again, thank you for your Post,
--
Life is Wonderful while using Vista solo !

Posting & Painting
"Painting, n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and
exposing them to the critic."

(Ambrose Bierce)




"Bill Condie" wrote:

> Thanks for the feedback.
>
> <<Or, best yet, just put each OS on its own physical system.
>
> You mean a second HD?
>
> I see many sites on how to dual boot successfully, but I think I'll take
> your advice and forget it.
>
> "jimmuh" <> wrote in message
> news:54164E9E-DAE8-400D-8F35-...
> > I'm afraid that I'm pretty much a bucket of cold water on this one. If you
> > want Vista and Windows XP to co-exist as multi-boot partners on the same
> > system you really need to use Vista Ultimate (RTM, NOT RC2 anything) with
> > BitLocker enabled and hiding Vista from WinXP BEFORE you ever reboot into
> > WinXP, or you need to use a third party boot manager to hide Vista from
> > WinXP. Otherwise, WinXP will immediately set about trashing System Restore
> > points and Shadow Copy data on the Vista partition during its first
> > session.
> >
> > Frankly, multi-booting Windows operating systems these days just seems
> > like
> > a waste for almost all purposes. (YMMV) I'd definitely go with virtual
> > machines, either through one of the Microsoft offerings (VPC or Virtual
> > Server) or through VMWare. Run Vista as the host and WinXP under a Virtual
> > Machine. Or don't run WinXP at all, if you can help it. Or, best yet, just
> > put each OS on its own physical system.
> >
> > All that being said, I can't imagine what is happening on your system.
> > I've
> > had plenty of experience trying to multi-boot Vista with operating systems
> > before I decided that it wasn't worth the effort. (It can be done, but, to
> > me, it isn't worth the effort.) I NEVER saw Vista cause problems within
> > another co-existing operating system. I mean, if you do something untoward
> > with the boot manager you might make another OS unbootable, but I never
> > saw
> > Vista mess up the contents of another operating system's partition.
> > Windows
> > XP is, however, not nearly so well-behaved. It savages anything that looks
> > like a restore point that it "thinks" is corrupted.
> >
> > I would be very interesting in knowing whether or not it was really Vista
> > that caused this issue with your WinXP installations. Can't see how it
> > could
> > be the case, but I'm willing to learn.
> >
> > I hope someone else may have more useful information for you.
> >
> > "Bill Condie" wrote:
> >
> >> I had XP Pro on Partition 1, Media Center on Partiton 2 and Vista RC2 on
> >> Partition 3.
> >>
> >> XP and Vista worked fine. Then I wanted to check something on Media
> >> Center
> >> and got error after error including blue screens. Spent hours with Dell
> >> Support. At one point they even changed the processor
> >>
> >> Finally I wiped everything and clean installed XP , then Vista.
> >>
> >> XP, on the partition NEXT to Vista, went all to hell just like Media
> >> Center,
> >> also next to Vista partition, had been. But Vista ran great.
> >>
> >> Back to Square1. I'm just running XP Pro. It's flying, but I'd like to
> >> dual
> >> boot.
> >>
> >> But has anyone else had these dual boot problems? Any advice?
> >>
> >> How about VirtualPC? Is 1G RAM enuff?
>
>
>

jimmuh,

Your Post was simply incredible, filled with not only wisdom, filled with
experiences learned the difficult method, and oh how accurate! been there
tried that myself. Unfortunately, too many others remain for knowing what you
succinctly described.

PS: Moments earlier intended Posting you, by accident wrongly Posted to a
follow-up Post.

Again, thank you for you informative wisdom filled Post,
--
Life is Wonderful while using Vista solo !

Posting & Painting
"Painting, n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and
exposing them to the critic."

(Ambrose Bierce)




"jimmuh" wrote:

> I'm afraid that I'm pretty much a bucket of cold water on this one. If you
> want Vista and Windows XP to co-exist as multi-boot partners on the same
> system you really need to use Vista Ultimate (RTM, NOT RC2 anything) with
> BitLocker enabled and hiding Vista from WinXP BEFORE you ever reboot into
> WinXP, or you need to use a third party boot manager to hide Vista from
> WinXP. Otherwise, WinXP will immediately set about trashing System Restore
> points and Shadow Copy data on the Vista partition during its first session.
>
> Frankly, multi-booting Windows operating systems these days just seems like
> a waste for almost all purposes. (YMMV) I'd definitely go with virtual
> machines, either through one of the Microsoft offerings (VPC or Virtual
> Server) or through VMWare. Run Vista as the host and WinXP under a Virtual
> Machine. Or don't run WinXP at all, if you can help it. Or, best yet, just
> put each OS on its own physical system.
>
> All that being said, I can't imagine what is happening on your system. I've
> had plenty of experience trying to multi-boot Vista with operating systems
> before I decided that it wasn't worth the effort. (It can be done, but, to
> me, it isn't worth the effort.) I NEVER saw Vista cause problems within
> another co-existing operating system. I mean, if you do something untoward
> with the boot manager you might make another OS unbootable, but I never saw
> Vista mess up the contents of another operating system's partition. Windows
> XP is, however, not nearly so well-behaved. It savages anything that looks
> like a restore point that it "thinks" is corrupted.
>
> I would be very interesting in knowing whether or not it was really Vista
> that caused this issue with your WinXP installations. Can't see how it could
> be the case, but I'm willing to learn.
>
> I hope someone else may have more useful information for you.
>
> "Bill Condie" wrote:
>
> > I had XP Pro on Partition 1, Media Center on Partiton 2 and Vista RC2 on
> > Partition 3.
> >
> > XP and Vista worked fine. Then I wanted to check something on Media Center
> > and got error after error including blue screens. Spent hours with Dell
> > Support. At one point they even changed the processor
> >
> > Finally I wiped everything and clean installed XP , then Vista.
> >
> > XP, on the partition NEXT to Vista, went all to hell just like Media Center,
> > also next to Vista partition, had been. But Vista ran great.
> >
> > Back to Square1. I'm just running XP Pro. It's flying, but I'd like to dual
> > boot.
> >
> > But has anyone else had these dual boot problems? Any advice?
> >
> > How about VirtualPC? Is 1G RAM enuff?

jimmuh,

In my view, you illuminated a situation with knowledge by throwing *hot*
water into a much not needed state of affairs practiced by many folks lacking
full understanding for what they desired attempting.
--
Life is Wonderful while using Vista solo !

Posting & Painting
"Painting, n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and
exposing them to the critic."

(Ambrose Bierce)




"jimmuh" wrote:

> You're welcome, for what my input was worth. As I said, I am sorry to throw
> cold water, but I think dual booting Vista with WinXP is a real PIA. If you
> have a definite reason for needing both operating systems, and you need both
> of them to boot from the same system, then dual booting MIGHT be worth the
> hassle. I would imagine that most people would be dual booting Vista with
> WinXP so that they could continue to use WinXP as their main OS while
> examining Vista to see how it behaves. But if you're not careful about
> protecting the Vista partiton from WinXP's overzealous System Restore
> behavior, then you won't be seeing Vista in its normal state. You'll be
> seeing a crippled Vista without its Previous Version features, and so on.
>
> That's why I suggested separate systems. (I meant totally separate
> computers, not separate hard drives, which would do nothing at all to protect
> Vista from WinXP.) Another possibility would be using either Vista or WinXP
> as the host operating system, installing a virtual machine environment
> (VMWare, VPC, etc.) and installing the other OS on a virtual machine. I'm
> thinking that, with these operating systems, 1 gigabyte is a little slim on
> memory. I do some VPC and Virtual Server stuff with a fast notebook with two
> 60 gigabyte hard drives and 2 gigs of memory, and I wouldn't want to be using
> anything slower. If you try this put the test OS on the virtual machine. It's
> going to be the slow one. Also be prepared for a bit of a learning curve with
> respect to dealing with virtual machines, if you haven't done that before. If
> you're just looking at a test OS in isolation, then there's not much to do
> besides install it and use it on the VM. If you're trying to do anything like
> networking, then there can be a little more to it.
>
> There are a lot of sites out there with information on dual booting. Unless
> you're looking at a site that has been updated intelligently to cover the
> hassles between WinXP and Vista then you're getting just enough information
> to get you into trouble. As I said, Vista is pretty well-behaved with respect
> to being nice to other operating systems when it gets installed. But WinXP
> does the nasty to Vista's restore points and shadow copy data. I found this
> out the hard way in the early days. And there still seem to be quite a few
> folks who are unaware of this. For better or for worse, the System Restore
> functionality in Vista has been extended to include the ability to keep
> previous versions of data files available for a while -- kind of like an
> extended Recycle Bin. It's an important feature of Vista and should be seen
> working properly rather than crippled when you're testing the OS.
>
> Lots of subtle and not-so-subtle differences in the OS that require, I
> think, an adjustment in thinking if one is to make the best -- and safest --
> use of them.
>
> "Bill Condie" wrote:
>
> > Thanks for the feedback.
> >
> > <<Or, best yet, just put each OS on its own physical system.
> >
> > You mean a second HD?
> >
> > I see many sites on how to dual boot successfully, but I think I'll take
> > your advice and forget it.
> >
> > "jimmuh" <> wrote in message
> > news:54164E9E-DAE8-400D-8F35-...
> > > I'm afraid that I'm pretty much a bucket of cold water on this one. If you
> > > want Vista and Windows XP to co-exist as multi-boot partners on the same
> > > system you really need to use Vista Ultimate (RTM, NOT RC2 anything) with
> > > BitLocker enabled and hiding Vista from WinXP BEFORE you ever reboot into
> > > WinXP, or you need to use a third party boot manager to hide Vista from
> > > WinXP. Otherwise, WinXP will immediately set about trashing System Restore
> > > points and Shadow Copy data on the Vista partition during its first
> > > session.
> > >
> > > Frankly, multi-booting Windows operating systems these days just seems
> > > like
> > > a waste for almost all purposes. (YMMV) I'd definitely go with virtual
> > > machines, either through one of the Microsoft offerings (VPC or Virtual
> > > Server) or through VMWare. Run Vista as the host and WinXP under a Virtual
> > > Machine. Or don't run WinXP at all, if you can help it. Or, best yet, just
> > > put each OS on its own physical system.
> > >
> > > All that being said, I can't imagine what is happening on your system.
> > > I've
> > > had plenty of experience trying to multi-boot Vista with operating systems
> > > before I decided that it wasn't worth the effort. (It can be done, but, to
> > > me, it isn't worth the effort.) I NEVER saw Vista cause problems within
> > > another co-existing operating system. I mean, if you do something untoward
> > > with the boot manager you might make another OS unbootable, but I never
> > > saw
> > > Vista mess up the contents of another operating system's partition.
> > > Windows
> > > XP is, however, not nearly so well-behaved. It savages anything that looks
> > > like a restore point that it "thinks" is corrupted.
> > >
> > > I would be very interesting in knowing whether or not it was really Vista
> > > that caused this issue with your WinXP installations. Can't see how it
> > > could
> > > be the case, but I'm willing to learn.
> > >
> > > I hope someone else may have more useful information for you.
> > >
> > > "Bill Condie" wrote:
> > >
> > >> I had XP Pro on Partition 1, Media Center on Partiton 2 and Vista RC2 on
> > >> Partition 3.
> > >>
> > >> XP and Vista worked fine. Then I wanted to check something on Media
> > >> Center
> > >> and got error after error including blue screens. Spent hours with Dell
> > >> Support. At one point they even changed the processor
> > >>
> > >> Finally I wiped everything and clean installed XP , then Vista.
> > >>
> > >> XP, on the partition NEXT to Vista, went all to hell just like Media
> > >> Center,
> > >> also next to Vista partition, had been. But Vista ran great.
> > >>
> > >> Back to Square1. I'm just running XP Pro. It's flying, but I'd like to
> > >> dual
> > >> boot.
> > >>
> > >> But has anyone else had these dual boot problems? Any advice?
> > >>
> > >> How about VirtualPC? Is 1G RAM enuff?
> >
> >
> >

Agree that Jim...'s post was informative, but my experiences have been
different.

My two test boxes for Vista was one host box with XP x64 and one with X86.
Staying away from use of the restore/backup systems in Vista, I successfully
ran dual boots with XP x64 and all Vistas on the XP host, and all Vistas on
the XP x64 box without any problems whatsoever. Both Win explorers showed
both partitions and allowed use of spyware programs on the host which would
scan the XP partitions and the Vista ones.

As far as using VM's, have used both VPC and vmware, and trying Vista as a
Guest works poorly because of the lack of signficant amounts of RAM available
for Vista. However, placing XP x86 on as guest runs perfectly. My experience
showed poorly regarding speed with VPC 2007, but Vmware without a lot of
programs in XP x86 as guest ran like a virgin sheep.

"Vista Ready" wrote:

> jimmuh,
>
> Your Post was simply incredible, filled with not only wisdom, filled with
> experiences learned the difficult method, and oh how accurate! been there
> tried that myself. Unfortunately, too many others remain for knowing what you
> succinctly described.
>
> PS: Moments earlier intended Posting you, by accident wrongly Posted to a
> follow-up Post.
>
> Again, thank you for you informative wisdom filled Post,
> --
> Life is Wonderful while using Vista solo !
>
> Posting & Painting
> "Painting, n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and
> exposing them to the critic."
>
> (Ambrose Bierce)
>
>
>
>
> "jimmuh" wrote:
>
> > I'm afraid that I'm pretty much a bucket of cold water on this one. If you
> > want Vista and Windows XP to co-exist as multi-boot partners on the same
> > system you really need to use Vista Ultimate (RTM, NOT RC2 anything) with
> > BitLocker enabled and hiding Vista from WinXP BEFORE you ever reboot into
> > WinXP, or you need to use a third party boot manager to hide Vista from
> > WinXP. Otherwise, WinXP will immediately set about trashing System Restore
> > points and Shadow Copy data on the Vista partition during its first session.
> >
> > Frankly, multi-booting Windows operating systems these days just seems like
> > a waste for almost all purposes. (YMMV) I'd definitely go with virtual
> > machines, either through one of the Microsoft offerings (VPC or Virtual
> > Server) or through VMWare. Run Vista as the host and WinXP under a Virtual
> > Machine. Or don't run WinXP at all, if you can help it. Or, best yet, just
> > put each OS on its own physical system.
> >
> > All that being said, I can't imagine what is happening on your system. I've
> > had plenty of experience trying to multi-boot Vista with operating systems
> > before I decided that it wasn't worth the effort. (It can be done, but, to
> > me, it isn't worth the effort.) I NEVER saw Vista cause problems within
> > another co-existing operating system. I mean, if you do something untoward
> > with the boot manager you might make another OS unbootable, but I never saw
> > Vista mess up the contents of another operating system's partition. Windows
> > XP is, however, not nearly so well-behaved. It savages anything that looks
> > like a restore point that it "thinks" is corrupted.
> >
> > I would be very interesting in knowing whether or not it was really Vista
> > that caused this issue with your WinXP installations. Can't see how it could
> > be the case, but I'm willing to learn.
> >
> > I hope someone else may have more useful information for you.
> >
> > "Bill Condie" wrote:
> >
> > > I had XP Pro on Partition 1, Media Center on Partiton 2 and Vista RC2 on
> > > Partition 3.
> > >
> > > XP and Vista worked fine. Then I wanted to check something on Media Center
> > > and got error after error including blue screens. Spent hours with Dell
> > > Support. At one point they even changed the processor
> > >
> > > Finally I wiped everything and clean installed XP , then Vista.
> > >
> > > XP, on the partition NEXT to Vista, went all to hell just like Media Center,
> > > also next to Vista partition, had been. But Vista ran great.
> > >
> > > Back to Square1. I'm just running XP Pro. It's flying, but I'd like to dual
> > > boot.
> > >
> > > But has anyone else had these dual boot problems? Any advice?
> > >
> > > How about VirtualPC? Is 1G RAM enuff?

Yes, Vista will mostly behave itself properly co-existing with WinXP in a
multi-boot system -- even without the types of protection I outlined. But I
think that most "systems people" (and maybe most people in general) are best
served by learning about a new OS by seeing it fully functional. Vista left
unprotected and multi-booted with WinXP is not fully functional. As a matter
of fact there are some reports that indicate that running Vista in such a
situation without disabling System Restore and the Volume Shadow Copy service
can lead to some pretty weird behaviors. I know nothing about that, however,
because the mere fact that System Restore was interfered with was enough to
put me off of the multi-boot arrangement. My express purpose was to learn
about Vista, and I wanted to do that without interference.

To tell you the truth, I am a little underwhelmed by System Restore, and
particularly by the expansion of its duties in Vista. I have security /
privacy concerns about the way the Volume Shadow Copy service does its thing,
and I imagine that I'll have to deal with that over the months to come. That,
in addition to curiosity, is why I have to learn how it works on a single
boot system.


"JackM" wrote:

> Agree that Jim...'s post was informative, but my experiences have been
> different.
>
> My two test boxes for Vista was one host box with XP x64 and one with X86.
> Staying away from use of the restore/backup systems in Vista, I successfully
> ran dual boots with XP x64 and all Vistas on the XP host, and all Vistas on
> the XP x64 box without any problems whatsoever. Both Win explorers showed
> both partitions and allowed use of spyware programs on the host which would
> scan the XP partitions and the Vista ones.
>
> As far as using VM's, have used both VPC and vmware, and trying Vista as a
> Guest works poorly because of the lack of signficant amounts of RAM available
> for Vista. However, placing XP x86 on as guest runs perfectly. My experience
> showed poorly regarding speed with VPC 2007, but Vmware without a lot of
> programs in XP x86 as guest ran like a virgin sheep.
>
> "Vista Ready" wrote:
>
> > jimmuh,
> >
> > Your Post was simply incredible, filled with not only wisdom, filled with
> > experiences learned the difficult method, and oh how accurate! been there
> > tried that myself. Unfortunately, too many others remain for knowing what you
> > succinctly described.
> >
> > PS: Moments earlier intended Posting you, by accident wrongly Posted to a
> > follow-up Post.
> >
> > Again, thank you for you informative wisdom filled Post,
> > --
> > Life is Wonderful while using Vista solo !
> >
> > Posting & Painting
> > "Painting, n.: The art of protecting flat surfaces from the weather, and
> > exposing them to the critic."
> >
> > (Ambrose Bierce)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > "jimmuh" wrote:
> >
> > > I'm afraid that I'm pretty much a bucket of cold water on this one. If you
> > > want Vista and Windows XP to co-exist as multi-boot partners on the same
> > > system you really need to use Vista Ultimate (RTM, NOT RC2 anything) with
> > > BitLocker enabled and hiding Vista from WinXP BEFORE you ever reboot into
> > > WinXP, or you need to use a third party boot manager to hide Vista from
> > > WinXP. Otherwise, WinXP will immediately set about trashing System Restore
> > > points and Shadow Copy data on the Vista partition during its first session.
> > >
> > > Frankly, multi-booting Windows operating systems these days just seems like
> > > a waste for almost all purposes. (YMMV) I'd definitely go with virtual
> > > machines, either through one of the Microsoft offerings (VPC or Virtual
> > > Server) or through VMWare. Run Vista as the host and WinXP under a Virtual
> > > Machine. Or don't run WinXP at all, if you can help it. Or, best yet, just
> > > put each OS on its own physical system.
> > >
> > > All that being said, I can't imagine what is happening on your system. I've
> > > had plenty of experience trying to multi-boot Vista with operating systems
> > > before I decided that it wasn't worth the effort. (It can be done, but, to
> > > me, it isn't worth the effort.) I NEVER saw Vista cause problems within
> > > another co-existing operating system. I mean, if you do something untoward
> > > with the boot manager you might make another OS unbootable, but I never saw
> > > Vista mess up the contents of another operating system's partition. Windows
> > > XP is, however, not nearly so well-behaved. It savages anything that looks
> > > like a restore point that it "thinks" is corrupted.
> > >
> > > I would be very interesting in knowing whether or not it was really Vista
> > > that caused this issue with your WinXP installations. Can't see how it could
> > > be the case, but I'm willing to learn.
> > >
> > > I hope someone else may have more useful information for you.
> > >
> > > "Bill Condie" wrote:
> > >
> > > > I had XP Pro on Partition 1, Media Center on Partiton 2 and Vista RC2 on
> > > > Partition 3.
> > > >
> > > > XP and Vista worked fine. Then I wanted to check something on Media Center
> > > > and got error after error including blue screens. Spent hours with Dell
> > > > Support. At one point they even changed the processor
> > > >
> > > > Finally I wiped everything and clean installed XP , then Vista.
> > > >
> > > > XP, on the partition NEXT to Vista, went all to hell just like Media Center,
> > > > also next to Vista partition, had been. But Vista ran great.
> > > >
> > > > Back to Square1. I'm just running XP Pro. It's flying, but I'd like to dual
> > > > boot.
> > > >
> > > > But has anyone else had these dual boot problems? Any advice?
> > > >
> > > > How about VirtualPC? Is 1G RAM enuff?

>>I had XP Pro on Partition 1, Media Center on Partition 2 and Vista RC2 on
Partition 3.

XP and Vista worked fine. Then I wanted to check something on Media Center
and got error after error including blue screens. Spent hours with Dell
Support. At one point they even changed the processor

Finally I wiped everything and clean installed XP , then Vista.

XP, on the partition NEXT to Vista, went all to hell just like Media Center,
also next to Vista partition, had been. But Vista ran great.

Back to Square1. I'm just running XP Pro. It's flying, but I'd like to dual
boot.

But has anyone else had these dual boot problems? Any advice?

Bill:

IMO, your problem is not necessarily the dual boot setup.
What you might do is leave XP as a clean install, install Vista as a clean
install, then add a program in one op system and test, then repeat. I
assume that you are treating each op system as anonymous: meaning, that if
you want the same program in both op systems, then you are installing it
separately in both op systems. What defragging app are you using?

On this Dell Dimension 9100, I use Vista's dual boot mgr to boot between two
copies of Vista RTM, XP Home, XP Pro, and two copies of Win2k3 server.
Works great.