types of partition labels

can some one tell me what exactly primary, logic partition, and all that such means? I want to have XP and vista both on my notebook but I don't know which format to use when I add XP

 

Are you planning on using Vista's boot manager or a third-party boot manager (like OSS)?

If using OSS (or another non-MS boot manager), you would normally install each Windows OS into their own Primary partition. If you want isolated installations, then you setup OSS to hide the other OS partition (XP can't see Vista, Vista can't see XP).

If you use Vista's boot manager, then you would install XP first and then Vista. Vista will take over the booting of XP and you'll be given the choice of which to boot when you start your computer. In this case, only the "booting" partition needs to be Primary.

In most cases, installing Windows to Primary partitions is best. In Windows, Logical partitions are usually for data/storage, etc.

 

you recommend OSS? not familiar with them. I have paragon partition manager.
What is OSS?

 

OSS is short for Acronis OS Selector which is part of the Acronis Disk Director Suite.

If using Vista's boot manager, adding XP after Vista is installed is more difficult than adding Vista afterwards since Vista will recognize that XP is installed and XP won't recognize Vista.

Depending on exactly you want to do, the instructions are very different. For example, here is a thread on installing XP on a separate drive with Vista on the main drive: Need help with dual boot Vista & XP

The instructions are basically the same for installing to a separate partition on the same drive, you just don't have to make any changes to the Disk Order as it's all on one drive.

 

have you resized and split partitions with OSS? I believe the last time I tried this to resize the vista partition and split part off to be used for XP It ended up frozen and I had to start a from scratch. Does OSS have a boot CD creator, to run OSS from CD/DVD on boot, as I imagine it would be more prone to error doing it with windows open, if at all possible. I have acronis too, but I am not as familiar with it. I've used paragon before in the past with no problems until I played around with vista partitions.

 

DD will resize and split partitions. OSS is just the boot manager.

I prefer to resize rather than split, if possible.

If you create a new DD CD with Media Builder, you can include the OSS programs (install, activate, etc.). It's a good idea to do so since you may need them. OSS can be fussy sometimes when it come to OS detection. It may find your OS when you install it from the CD or it may find it better if installed directly from Windows (assuming only one Windows is installed).

To resize the Vista partition, either just use Vista's Disk Management to shrink it or boot to the DD CD and do it from there. If you try and do the resize from Vista, Vista will have to reboot to DD to make the changes anyway. If you use DD, you may need to do a Vista boot repair after the resize so Vista will boot (normally, this only needs to be done once).

 

What would be the steps if I went with XP then installed vista?
I have XP on disk, I also I have a copy of vista ultimate I haven't gotten to toy with yet. Assuming the patches work. So I may install XP then vista. I have a dell custom order and it came with a back up CD so I should be fine so long as I don't toy with the backup partition right? Also when you resize a partition it automatically splits the partition does it not? Maybe my error was in letting it format the created space during the resize. I'll leave it unformatted next time since it will be formatted during the install anyways. I get a little gun-ho with disk management. I spent quite a bit of time on a computer once trying to chance the main drive letter to a preferred letter, lol. Wanted drive X for XP and drive L for linux. I think after all was said and done it changed the labels to D for windows and C for the second windows partition(file storage)

 

Take a look at this thread: Second Partition Active. It outlines a manual installation as needed when OSS can't see your DVD drive. It's the method I usually use as it offers more control and gets OSS out of the "installation" step of the new OS.

If OSS supports your DVD drive, you can also do it through OSS by right-clicking on the Vista DVD menu entry, set the options as needed and install Vista. Then, when it reboots and detects the Vista installation, make sure the Vista OSS menu entry has the correct values set.

Unless you absolutely need access to your other Windows partition, it's a good idea to keep the partitions hidden from each other. For XP, hide the Vista partition. For Vista, hide the XP partition. If you install Vista and it can see the XP partition, it will install the boot loader to the XP partition and it will be a mess to fix so OSS will work.

---------

Letting Windows format the partition to which it's being installed is generally a good idea. It can help avoid certain problems.

Resizing a partition doesn't split the partition in the sense of creating two partitions out of one. I just prefer to do each step one step at a time and apply the changes after each step. This give me more control and also lets me know if a step is done properly before the next step is processed.

 

what about the boot option vista carries? installing XP then installing vista on a seperate partition? Would I still need a MBR manipulation or would Vista take care of it? Would I be able to view both Drives from the other?

 

ok heres what I did I used paragon to resize a partition, set the label and all, then clicked the instal OS feature they had which said it would hide the partition for me while installing the new one, it auto reboots, however, whant XP finishes loading all it's crap and displays the disk drives available apparently it set the ENTIRE disk to hidden.. I can only see my USB drive. I tried to use the CD that normally works, its like paragon on disk... It says it's loading al the stuff then just stops on a black screen.
So at this point I am utterly screwed. Where do I go from here.
I didn't go the XP then Vista route because the vista copy I had I was having problems with

 

oh and btw it will load to the boot loader program and even listed vista still there... however when I press enter it hour glasses for one sec then forgets I pressed it apparently

 

and when it offers the pc will boot n 15 14 13 etc.. it just restarts at 15 when it hits 0

 

How new is the notebook? Perhaps it needs XP drivers loaded in order to be able to see the internal drive. If you don't have them, you can usually download them from the manufacturer and F6 them in when you boot from the XP CD.

For the installation, the XP partition should be Primary and Active. Any other Primary or OS partition should be hidden. Also, if there are any partitions in front of the XP partition, they should be hidden. The XP partition should be the first Primary, Active, unhidden partition found by XP's installer.

 

it's a new dell. I have a drivers CD. so I should try to boot into the install of XP then press F6 then do what?

 

I just shoved in the OS disc that came with the system. When I pressed F6 or F2 for XP's boot nothing happened. Hoping this will help me correct something.

 

As far as I know, XP has to have the drivers on a floppy disk or they have to be slip-streamed into an XP install CD.

When you boot the XP CD, there is a message for about two or three seconds at the bottom of the screen that asks if you need to add drivers and to press F6 if you do.

 

yea I saw that screen and I pressed F6... a few times... nothing... tried the same with the F2 feature. It ignores it. I used my OS disk to reinstall vista and I installed it on the partition I was going to add XP to and it seems to have installed fine. It now displays Windows boot manager, gives me the choice of vista or vista"recovered" but when I try to load the vista recovered it resets. So... Blah... Just isn't working out for me. Dual operating system are not as easy as they were back in the days of win2k. I think I need a Phd.

 

Where I stand so far is my reinstall of VISTA(luckily dells business computers ship the OS on disk) works fine, Adding everything to it now. The original one I tried to fix with no luck. I'm guessing I'll just Format that into a storage drive. I'll try the XP CD again then and see if it notices the HD.. the notebook I ordered was capable of XP as well, thats why I bought it, so I could run both... any idea's toss them.

 

Hi stopthenrewind,

Ideally, the best solution, is to start with a clean Hard Drive. A Clean Hard Drive referring to a Hard Drive that is free of all formatting or partitions.

Then you would first partition the Hard Drive. before doing a format and installation of Windows XP on the first partition. This gets Windows XP version installed. XP needs to be installed first, then install Windows Vista.

Vista will control the Boot where you can boot into Windows XP or Windows Vista.

When installing Windows Vista, you should not hide Windows XP partition, because Windows Vista, will install its Boot manager into the Root Folder of C:\ allowing it to control the boot.

This procedure gives you the best of both worlds.

Note: If the Hard Drive is large enough to support a third partition, I would either use it for Drive Images or to put My Documents folder on it. This way, you can access the same My Documents folder, regardless of whichever operating system, you have booted into.