Installing XP on a seperate partition

[nashcore]

Hi,

I got my new Vaio last week (Windows 7) and I've been having trouble installing some programs that I need. I'd kind of expected this and I'm quite fond of XP so I partitioned the hard drive so that I could install XP as well.

     I put the XP 32-Bit disk in and restarted the computer and when it said to "Press any key to boot from disk" I did but it just froze on that and I had to turn the computer off to exit that screen. I've tried it again but with the same results.

     I wasn't sure if it was that the computer itself couldn't install a 32-Bit operating system or not so I tried again with the 64-Bit version of XP. This time, when I pressed any key to boot from disk it started up but after a couple of minutes it blue screened and I had to resort to turning off the computer to get away from THAT screen too. I tried this again but, again, with the same results.

Ideally I'd like to install 32-Bit because I'm not sure about the compatibility of some of the programs I need and I know they work on 32. If that's not possible then 64-Bit is fine, I just need to get around that blue screen problem.

Can anyone offer any help?

Message was edited by: nashcore

[Thalamus.]

Hi Nashcore,

welcome to Questions & Answers..:smileyhappy:

What model vaio do you have.?

You have SATA HDD in your Vaio and unfortunately XP will not detect them..

You will have to supply the SATA drivers during setup or XP..

[nashcore]

Hi, and thanks for replying.

It's F Series, VPCF13C5E.

Should I be able to start the install process while running 7 and select the right partition but I can't because it doesn't recognise SATA or is it only possible to do it by booting the disk at the system start up?

[Blencogo]

Have a look at this tutorial. It should solve all your problems.  You need to scroll down to METHOD 2 - When Windows 7 is installed first.

As Thalamus said, you have a SATA drive which is not supported in XP so you have to press F6 during the XP installation and load the SATA driver - this is explained fully in the tutorial.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

[nashcore]

Thanks for this, it looks promising.

The only major problem so far seems to be that the screen is still freezing on "Press any key to boot from disk...". I press a key but it just doesn't do anything. Even after going through that tutorial and creating a new disk to boot from I still can't get past there.

This problem only seems to be on the 32-Bit disk but I'm almost certain now that I need 32-Bit to run the programmes I need.

[nashcore]

Okay, I tried the disk on another computer and it just did the same thing so I tried an older disk that I'd made which started the install but then blue-screened before asking where to install. I used this disk to make a new disk with the SATA drivers on as is explained on that sevenforums link.

     Unsurprisingly, this disk didn't work but did get past the "Press any key..." screen. It just blue screened at the same point as the disk without the drivers.

So in summary, I think I have a working XP boot disk but I can't install because about a minute into the setup I get a blue screen and have to turn the computer off.