Installing A New OS With Another OS

This article might help. It shows how to dual boot XP and Vista:
    http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10877_11-6157570.html

I already hav vista in d system, and nw i want xp but dnt wanna loose d vista. Get it!

The rule of the thumb here is always to load a previous/earlier version before the more recent one, otherwise the Vista gets corrupted. So every previous explanation is spot on.

The basic fact is to install two operating system in the same machine
Lower OS must be installed before the higher one, in this case you have to install WinXp first b4 installing Vista.
Now that you ve installed Vista first You can get another HDD and install Xp and during booting you enter setup and choose either of the 2 hard disk you want to boot from
the 2 HDD should be connected 2 diff IDE channel and set the jumper to master
Alternatively using an Os ghosting software to ghost WinXp into the HDD containing the Vista after creating a folder it will reside if the HDD does not hav more than one partition, u can modify the AUTOEXEC file to invoke that Win XP at booting or you can write a batch file that will be able to copy essentail files to your win registry and as well enable it to be called up at booting so that you can select either of the operating sys to boot into.
B4 u follow this second option you must back up all essential files as you may not yet be used to this option.

Hi, If u already have vista installed, no problem just follow the instructions at dis site, they guide you on what 2 do.

www.pro-networks.org/forum/about88231.html

had the same problem wit my laptop, followed der advise and it worked, am using vista n xp pro together.

I think if you go with the above solutions the gurus in the house has give, you will be fine, but if you re an advance user, and u run vista first or you have partition your entire hard drive to install vista, you can always find your way around it without formating your hard drive to dualboot both vista & Xp. All the above recommendations are right and that's microsoft recommendation for standard users, 

For Advance users, you can either have any of the vista or xp boot first,  run fresh startup installation, i.e boot from the installation CD, follow the installation procedures and insist you want to install the os on same partition but different installation folders,  In your C: drive where you have your windows installation folder, i.e "WINDOWS",  You can specify different folder to sit the new install os and proceed with your installation. Remember the both os will use the same boo.ini file
. when installation finish, go an manipulate your boo.ini files  (becarefull in this area as you may stop your both os from starting up) to change the time limit and the order of boot process.

waiver: DO NOT FOLLOW THE ABOVE STEP IF YOU RE NOT AN ADVANCE USER OF MICROSOFT WINDOWS OS

Kind of on the same theme, how about "dual booting" my desktop that has (gasp) Windows 2000 and I want to add XP?

I refuse to upgrade to Vista yet.

exactly!!!!

There is no boot.ini file anymore. you can use the cmd line tool even beter. So, here was my (resolved) problem. I laptop came with vista preinstalled,I ran into a few compatability issues so i wanted to still use windows xp.i decided to partition the hard I used the build in partition maker to first
shrink the size of my current partition,
and second
format the empty space as ntfs

then i installed windows xp (from boot)

Now, that made it apear that windows vista was gone, as it would not be posible to put in into windows xps boot.ini file

i could get vista up by puting in the dvd and repairing it

i could get xp back up by puting in the xp cd and repairing it

it was clear the only option was to use vistas boot manager.

SO, i will tell you how to ADD xp (or anything else really) to your vista booter.

1. Open a Command Prompt window with elevated privileges.

The Command Prompt window must have elevated privileges, even if you are a member of the Administrator group on the computer.

1.


Click the Start button, point to All Programs, and then click Accessories.

2.


Right-click Command Prompt, and then click Run Elevated. (aka run as administrator)


Next, see what you have to work with

type in
"bcdedit /enum all"

This will pop up all the bits of things you can add and use (hopefully you will see something like "windows legacy os" or "earlier version of windows"
that is the one you will be interested in

right now, make note of the identifier (copy it)
you will need it later, it will be somehting like "{

8602c25-5097-11da-99de-000802209f1b}

after
you know what you want to add, you need to copy your current

configuration

to do this
tpye in

"bcdedit /copy {current} /d AnyName" and obv you can change
"anyname" to "whateveryouwant"

now here is the quicy
part

we need to add our {8602c25-5097 etc} to apear
after our {current} configuration
so, we need to add the
option for windows xp to apear below the windows
vista

to do this
"bcdedit /displayorder
{current} {instert your big number here}" where that umber i had you
copy earlier
is suposed to go in the second
bracket

After all these steps completed,you should reboot your computer.