Adding XP to Vista: Dual-boot or virtual?
Jan 2, 2009 | 9:35 pm
#16
Join Date: Sep 2002
Location: Hoboken, NJ; Pembroke Pines, FL
Programs: CO Gold, SPG Gold
Posts: 2,940
1) The laptop is a Dell Latitude E5400, with a Core 2 Duo P8400, 4 Gb RAM, 160 Gb 7200 RPM HD, Vista Business 32-bit. I gave it as a gift to my daughter. She wanted Vista (bored with XP?). I've enjoyed playing with it - it's fast, light, and gets 5-6 hours from the 6-cell battery (she didn't want the 9-cell, too heavy).
3) The Dell is sold with Vista or with XP Pro, and Dell has all the XP drivers on their website.
3) The Dell is sold with Vista or with XP Pro, and Dell has all the XP drivers on their website.
2) The applications requiring XP are a) a Cisco VPN client, b) an in-house built FoxPro app that she must post to, and mostly c) a corporate IT group that requires XP in house, and this laptop will spend lots of time in house.
But never one to take the easy route, we left the Vista partition first and installed XP in the space freed by the Vista shrinking operation. What an experience! First, I got a BSOD at the Loading Windows stage of the install. Thinking it was a bad CD, I found another and got the same results. Researched it online to discover it needed drivers for the SATA HD. You know - press F6 at the beginning of the install to supply drivers for the disk. Only one problem - no floppy drive, and the F6 process requires a floppy.
More research revealed a freeware utility called nLite that allows you to add drivers, patches, even service packs to a Windows distro, creating an image file (ISO) which you then use to burn a new Windows CD. Used that for installing and had no problems.
More research revealed a freeware utility called nLite that allows you to add drivers, patches, even service packs to a Windows distro, creating an image file (ISO) which you then use to burn a new Windows CD. Used that for installing and had no problems.
Actually had fun - it was a lengthy project, completed from the living room couch while flipping between bowl games and Iron Chef America reruns.
Jan 4, 2009 | 4:54 pm
#17
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Seattle, WA
Programs: HHonors Diamond
Posts: 731
Original OS makes a difference
IF Vista Business came pre-installed on the laptop, you'll be running into potential problems by installing XP second to create a dual-boot scenario. You always want the older OS to have been installed first and then add the more recent OS second and so on and so forth. Also, you'll be better off having the second OS on a completely different drive as well, but given you're on a laptop, using something like Acronis software to create the second partition as a primary ought to suffice (since I don't believe many laptops take more than one hard drive).
Good luck.
Eric
Good luck.
Eric
May 28, 2009 | 12:29 pm
#18
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 1
Thanks to this thread I was able to solve a problem that was plaguing us for some time. We originally worked around the BSoD by changing the BIOS to use IDE for the hard drives, but of course the real answer was to load the correct SATA controller drivers during Windows XP setup. The good news is that you do NOT have to slip stream your Windows XP install if you have access to a USB floppy drive. Here are the steps I used:
1. Go to support.dell.com and download the Windows XP --> SATA Drives --> Intel - Driver (not Application). The most current version as I write this is 8.8.0.1009, A06.
2. Run the file you just downloaded and extract the contents to a convenient location (e.g. a folder on your desktop).
3. That should yield 8 files which should be copied to a blank, formatted floppy disk.
4. With your USB floppy drive connected to the laptop, boot the system from the Windows XP installation CD using the F12 Boot Menu option. This avoids inadvertently trying to boot to the floppy disk you just created.
5. Early on in the XP setup process, along the bottom, you should see something about pressing F6 to install additional drivers. Press F6 and wait for setup to finish trundling along.
6. Eventually setup will prompt you to provide the drivers you promised by pressing F6. I think you have to press the S key and then it will scan your floppy disk for drivers.
NOTE: Setup is NOT smart enough to know which driver it needs so do not assume that the driver it has highlighted by default is the correct one. In this case it is definitely not.
7. Using the arrow keys, scroll up through the list of drivers and select Intel ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller. This was near the top of the list, maybe 4 or 5 in the list.
Windows will copy the driver and continue with the installation. If you get far enough along that you can press F8 to accept the license, then you have made it passed the BSoD point and should have smooth sailing.
Good luck!
Regards,
Chris Dunbar
Earthside, LLC
1. Go to support.dell.com and download the Windows XP --> SATA Drives --> Intel - Driver (not Application). The most current version as I write this is 8.8.0.1009, A06.
2. Run the file you just downloaded and extract the contents to a convenient location (e.g. a folder on your desktop).
3. That should yield 8 files which should be copied to a blank, formatted floppy disk.
4. With your USB floppy drive connected to the laptop, boot the system from the Windows XP installation CD using the F12 Boot Menu option. This avoids inadvertently trying to boot to the floppy disk you just created.
5. Early on in the XP setup process, along the bottom, you should see something about pressing F6 to install additional drivers. Press F6 and wait for setup to finish trundling along.
6. Eventually setup will prompt you to provide the drivers you promised by pressing F6. I think you have to press the S key and then it will scan your floppy disk for drivers.
NOTE: Setup is NOT smart enough to know which driver it needs so do not assume that the driver it has highlighted by default is the correct one. In this case it is definitely not.
7. Using the arrow keys, scroll up through the list of drivers and select Intel ICH9M-E/M SATA AHCI Controller. This was near the top of the list, maybe 4 or 5 in the list.
Windows will copy the driver and continue with the installation. If you get far enough along that you can press F8 to accept the license, then you have made it passed the BSoD point and should have smooth sailing.
Good luck!
Regards,
Chris Dunbar
Earthside, LLC