I currently have 2 hard drives, my Main hard drive hosts Windows Vista Home Edition.
My Slave Drive hosts, Windows XP Home edition. My Question is, How do I switch between the two operating systems to be able to use programs on My Slave drive that are not supported yet with Windows Vista?
The Vista automatically boots when computer is turned on and I don't know how to switch between the two.
Can anyone help with this? Thank You.
Lisa R.

In the beginning, you had XP on drive C, right? You then replaced this drive with another drive in order to install Vista, right? You then added the original drive C as slave drive, right?

i_XpUser

Yes I had windows XP on the C Drive, I moved it to my F drive. Then Installed the New Vista on the C. I have always used F to store all graphics related software and programs in case I had to do a reformat of C, so that I wouldn't loose my stuff.
All I need to know is how to boot the XP in F drive when I want to use XP instead of Vista.
I use a Program called Incredimail and this is not compatable with Vista.

i am using vista x64 ultimate edition so not sure if everythings is da same to ur home edition. it should be da same.. however..if you want da computer to boot to xp when u turn it on...heres what you need to do.
when u boot up to vista.. go to.
-control panel
-double click on system..
-u r at system properties now
-click the setting under startup and recovery
-so now just tick the box beside"time to display list of opersting system" and give it 30 sec so you have 30 sec to chose what OS you want to boot when u start up ur comp.
now just click ok and save da setting and restart your comp and it will allow to you go back to XP.
hope that help you

lazzieboi
that don't work on a master/slave system

"The Vista automatically boots when computer is turned on and I don't know how to switch between the two."

That's because the system's boot routine information happens to reside by default on the system drive or partition - in this case the Vista disk & it currently does not include any reference to XP, you'll need to fix that.

Below is a fix from M$.

Note: Since you are doing this from Vista, run them at a command prompt that has elevated user rights.

To do this, click Start, click Accessories, right-click the command-prompt shortcut, & then click Run as Administrator.

1. Use Bootsect.exe to restore the Windows Vista MBR and the boot code that transfers control to the Windows Boot Manager program.

To do this, type the following command at a command prompt: Drive:\boot\ Bootsect.exe –NT60 All

In this command, Drive is the drive where the Windows Vista installation media is located.

2. Use Bcdedit.exe to manually create an entry in the BCD Boot.ini file for the earlier version of the Windows operating system. To do this, type the following commands at a command prompt.

Note: In these commands, Drive is the drive where Windows Vista is installed.

• Drive:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit –create {ntldr} –d “Description for earlier Windows version”

Note: In this command, Description for earlier Windows version can be any text that you want. For example, Description for earlier Windows version can be "Windows XP” or “Windows Server 2003."

• Drive:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit –set {ntldr} device partition=x:

Note In this command, x: is the drive letter for the active partition.

• Drive:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit –set {ntldr} path \ntldr

• Drive:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit –displayorder {ntldr} –addlast

3. Restart the computer.

If you think this is too hard, you can always google up VistaBootPro or EasyBCD for a easier method.

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Saber - As always you posted helpful instructions for multiboot but I fail to see how it will help the OP. The problem is here:

Yes I had windows XP on the C Drive, I moved it to my F drive. Then Installed the New Vista on the C.

Even if she succeeds in following your fix, XP will not boot at all because of the inherited drive letters in the registry. IMO she will have to reinstall XP but again it won't work because it's preinstalled.
i_XpUser

XpUser..........cough.......VistaUser........cough........LOL

Well I don't know about that & maybe the OP will clarify that after trying it out. I have two separate systems here - each multibooting both XP & Vista.

System A - Partitions: C: XP Pro & D: Vista Ultimate.

System B - Partitions: C: XP Pro & F: Vista Enterprise.

Interestingly & as listed above - System B boots both XP & Vista just fine with the applicable drive letter enumerated, I must also add that Vista even registers & retains F: as the system drive letter when operating from within the Enterprise environment.

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