litleboy

I bougth an Acer 5520 Laptop. Windows installs from the HD on the first boot It has two partitions. Cant find where is the OS installer.

I want to install Windows XP64 on the other partition. I allready unhide all folders and still cant find the windows installer.

Right now I use the second partitios for storage. do I need to make an other partition to install XP64? or I can use it as is.

any one knows a website with a step by step to install an other OS.

thks.

AJLynn

So it has one partition called C and one called something else like D or E? And Windows is installed on C? Is it Vista or XP?

I have a friend with a laptop that came like that, the second partition was called "Data" and was just extra hard drive space. This can have a second OS installed, in theory it should work with no problems - just run the installer off the CD and choose the second partition as the one to install to, and the installer should configure it so that when you boot you select the OS. However. Things can go wrong here. I do this sort of thing myself, knowing that if something gets messed up I'll figure out how to fix it, but it sounds like you don't know the Windows boot loader already so I recommend you buy your favorite Windows geek a 6 of beer and get him to sit on the couch with you while you do it.

STRAT

why not just erase the whole shooting match and install XP64 by itself? i wanted to install XP64 next to my existing XP32 when i received it a couple weeks back. someone asked why, then i asked myself why. so i just installed XP64 over 32. never looked back. to all intents and purposes it looks exactly the same. so far having zero software or hardware problems either.

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litleboy

I consider my self a semi-geek LOL, most of the time a fix my problems, but I'm new to laptops and vista. and never installed two OS so just wanted some kind of advice before spending one day figuring what what wrong . yes the laptop its jut like you describe, the second partitions says DATA and vista installs from the boot, no CD included. so I was trying to find the installer folder in C but couldn't.

I don't want to install vista because I think I need to get familiar little by little, I don't like it, but we are force to move to it by the market.

I don't have important information on the laptop, but I don't want to lose the vista installer, If I had a CD I wont be worry. is there a chance that the installer is in the data partition in a new kind of hidden folder in vista?

thks for the reply.

AJLynn

If you look at Disk Management (or whatever the heck it is in Vista) you might find a mysterious third partition on you hard drive, which doesn't have a drive letter, which would be where the Vista installer is...

litleboy

you where rigth AJ there is a 3rd partition w/ no volume name, 10Gb status says Eisa Configuration

AJLynn

That's it. "Eisa Configuration" is a type partition manufacturers use for utilities or recovery volumes that you can go to from the BIOS or boot menu without a disc. Turns out a lot of people lose those discs, though I don't find it difficult to put them in a drawer and not lose them.

litleboy

Installed WIN XP64 pro on the second partition, now I cant boot on vista, it goes directly to XP, at the disk manager I try to active the vista partition but doesn't change. how can I make it boot on the OS I want?

thks

AJLynn

There's a file, probably hidden by default, called c:\boot.ini. You need to edit that to have entries for both XP64 and Vista. I don't know what goes in a ista entry. I think you should get some expert help on that, because it's fairly easy to mess up and if you do mess it up your system becomes unbootable and you need to boot from a recovery disc and replace the file. (So make sure you have a recovery disc and a backup copy of the file...)

litleboy

yes, it's like you say, the problem, looks like vista doesn't use the boot.ini anymore, and it gets way complex because I dont have an instalattion DVD/CD.

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_v...ide.htm?page=4

I'll try today at let you know.

thks for your help.