Installing Both Vista And Xp On Same Computer

[Riley'sLife]

Will installing XP onto a partition of my HD cause any problems or conflicts? I already have Vista Ultimate installed and it is so slow.

[cdnvic]

Will installing XP onto a partition of my HD cause any problems or conflicts? I already have Vista Ultimate installed and it is so slow.

No, it won't cause any issues. I've the same setup but Vista is running much faster. What are the specs of your system?

[Florin]

Keep in mind that the order of installation should be XP, then Vista...if you install XP after Vista, you'll lose your Vista bootloader and it won't be easy to get back into Vista again.

[bdenner]

Have a read of this. Instructions for DualBooting with both Xp and Linux including adding a partition if you don't have one. Link

Edited October 11, 2007 by bdenner

[sjaak327]

I would not install it onto the same actual partition, but have separate partitions.

[Riley'sLife]

My system is Asus Laptop with Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz, 4Mb L2 cache, 800MHz FSB, 965GM chipset, 1024 RAM, 160Gig HDD partitioned into 3 (51.3GB) drives (one empty the other two with 32 and 36Gig free), 218mb Vram -512 Turbo cache, Geforce 8400 Graphics card.

According to the Vista meters, RAM consumption is 87% when idle, to 91% + when using Word etc. Is this normal??

It's so slow. I have ordered an additional 1GB RAM, but it won't arrive for a week or more(I'm out in the booneys!).

In an effort to speed up Vista I have looked at Services, in System Configurion. There seem to be many services running- more than 80!!. I have no idea what most of them mean so I haven't changed anything (too scared I'll b#gger it all up!!). I have chopped some of the Startup items.

Some of my games don't work with Vista, nor does my controller, so that's why I want XP too (also I hope it will be quicker!).

cdnvic could you tell me how your system differs from mine if you can, as you dont seem to have a problem with Vista speed.

Thanks for the info everyone.

[cdnvic]

That kind of resource usage is definitely not normal.

My system isn't as robust as yours, Acer 380 with Athlon64x2 4200, 2GB DDR2, and an overclocked 7300GT, and at idle with nothing running except antivirus (NOD32) it idles at 36% ram usage, about 46% with Thunderbird, YIM, and Firefox with four tabs open. (All figures include aeroglass enabled) After a bit of using Firefox it will creep up to the low 50s.

What kind of programs are running in the background? Some AVs like Norton can be a real resource hog.

http://www.iobit.com/ <--- download and run Advanced Windows Care. It will look at your system and see if there's something running that shouldn't be, as well as optimize your system. Give it a try and see what results you get. It explains in plain English what startup programs you need and what you can turn off.

[Riley'sLife]

I have Norton and also AVG running so maybe that's all making it slow? Do I need both?

My Startup also includes Windows Defender, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Gamma Loader, Power for phone, nVidia, Realtec audio, plus some Asus stuff that is quite useful- like Multiframe. So, nothing too hungry there really.

That URL is just what I need. I'll check it out now. Thanks for the help.

[cdnvic]

Ok, now we see the problem. Two antiviruses on one machine is a recipe for trouble. They pick up on each others signature files and fight with one another. You need to get rid of one of them. I'm not a fan of either of those AVs but if you want one or the other, Norton has a superior detection rate even if it uses more resources. I would advise removing AVG, then re-evaluate the system performance.

[Riley'sLife]

A-haa!! So that's the problem. The AV programs were installed from new by the shop when I bought the laptop last month. I previously used NOD32 on my old laptop. When I bought the new one I asked for NOD32 to be installed. "Cannot, not work with Vista" was their reply. I thought it was strange at the time and I should have queried their statement but I guess I have grown tired of trying to get correct information from wonderful Thai experts and I just let it go. They said they will install the best AV software for me.

Interestingly, this shop also told me that the reason my old laptop had major problems was because I had Win 98 and XP both installed on partitioned drives. Hence the reason for my original question.

I will do as you suggest cdnvic. I think you are correct in your diagnosis, as I have far less installed on Startup than I had on my old laptop which ran much faster than this new laptop.

TV to the rescue once again. Thanks.

[cdnvic]

Just for the record, NOD32 works on Windows 95/98/Me/2000/XP/Vista/MS-DOS as well as Linux, BSD, and Novell.

[Riley'sLife]

Hey cdnvic, you are my hero!!!!

I just got rid of AVG and my laptop is transformed. It actually works at normal speed now. Unbelievably, the laptop has been back to the shop twice already to try and fix this slow speed problem with no significant results.

Thanks a million!

Cheers Rick

[ajarnmark]

Well I have XP, Vista and Linux (Ubuntu) on the same machine and they work fine. I am planning to install Mac OS X 10.4.8 soon (only if I have more time).

To install multiple operating systems, we need many primary partitions and Gpart is one of the good software for partitioning. However, do NOT play with this if you do not know about the structure.

My system is P4-3.2GHz, 1GB DDRII, 160MB SATA, 250MB IDE, with ASUS P5VDC-X.

Vista is faster than XP and works fine, I am very happy except for one small issue for enabling the mic. I use symantec antivirus on vista, mcafee on xp and NO antivirus on linux.

I am evaluating vista and linux, and quite happy with the speed. Soon I will dump XP in favor of these two operating systems. Anyone else follow the lead?

[cdnvic]

Hey cdnvic, you are my hero!!!!

I just got rid of AVG and my laptop is transformed. It actually works at normal speed now. Unbelievably, the laptop has been back to the shop twice already to try and fix this slow speed problem with no significant results.

Thanks a million!

Cheers Rick

Cool. Glad things worked out