Help needed to make my notebook DUO boot OS.

Hi.

I have a Lenovo T61.

Recently I swapped a new 200 GB HD to my T61.

Currently I have Vista 64 Bit installed.

However I would like to make my notebook duo boot to Vista (64) & XP (32).

In disk management I tried to make my create a new partition (D Drive) as well as leaving an un-partition space.

I boot my XP CD (from startup)> however I am unable to install XP on the newly created partition OR see the un-partition HD space.

It only gives me an option to INSTALL in C: which is where my current vista is on.

I mainly use Vista but would like to have XP so I can use a particular software which only works in XP.

Could someone help?

thx

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=259759

 

Be aware that resizing your Vista partition will probably screw with your MBR. The predesktop environment should be able to fix it for you, although I ended up having to use an old Vista RC1 Beta disc I had lying around for mine.

Triple booting XP, Vista, and Ubuntu with a Vista boot loader was pretty difficult, although your method should not be quite as tough. If you can't resize properly with Vista/XP you may want to use a Linux distro and repartition with Disk Druid.

 

woah, this is exactly what I am looking for. I have a T61 and just managed to install XP on Vista (just to play Worms:Amagedoan thoug lolz) and thingking about install Ubuntu 8.04
I have partition magic and should be able to re-partition. However, as I have very very little experience with Linux, I am concerned about the difficulties you mentioned above? Like, what file table (NTFS or smth like that) does Ubuntu require?

 

Ubuntu can use a variety of filesystems but not NTFS. Most commonly used is Ext3. You can make a new partition and format that partition on the Ubuntu LiveCD. GRUB should recognize the other OSs and whip up an appropriate boot menu.

 

I tried the link (dual boot vista and xp w/Vista installed.

I followed the initial instuctions. However when I boot off my XP disk and running through setup. XP setup "did not find any hard disk drives installed on my computer, Setup cannot continue. F3 to quit"

Anyone?
<UPDATE> I upgraded my HD (200GB) and changed the BIOS setting for my HD to capatability. However NOW it does NOT see the unallocated partition I made via VISTA setup.

I should also note for some reason my disk volume is 1 NOT 0.

 

It is generally advisable just to use the Ubuntu install disk to do the partitioning. I used the alternate install disk because it has more options, but you need to be comfortable with a text based environment. Ubuntu can resize your Vista/XP partitions for you and then install itself. Ideally you will want to put Ubuntu into its own physical partition. You can subdivide it into / (root) /home (my documents equivalent) and swap, although Ubuntu will work with just a root partition.

The easiest method to get the multi-boot setup working is to install GRUB or LILO (either will work) to the MBR on the first partition. This will work fine and is probably advisable, although I was never able to make Vista the default with GRUB.

I ended up using easyBCD to create a chain load environment where the Vista bootloader comes up first and has choices for Vista, XP, Ubuntu, and the Thinkvantage partition. I can click on Ubuntu and it will go to GRUB and allow me to boot Ubuntu, or go back to the Vista loader and just repeat the cycle.

My method was at least partly required because I also use TrueCrypt system encryption on my Vista partition. To my knowledge it only works with the Vista bootloader so this method was necessary for me.

 

I had this exact same problem when I did it. You will need to set your drive to compatability like you did. You will then need to boot into XP and install the proper SATA drivers from Intel. I can't recall the exact source I got them from, but I think it was the AHCI drivers from intel for the G45 chipset.

Once you get this installed go back into your BIOS. Turn off compatability mode for SATA. You should then be able to boot either Vista or XP just fine.