Dual boot XP/Vista on Vostro 1500

All you'd need to do is once you get it open it up and stick your Windows XP disk in (I hope you have a licence key for it that isn't already registered to another motherboard!) and let it boot from disk. Partition your drives and let XP install on one of them. Once installed do the same wiht the Vista disk, obviously without repartitioning again.

If I were you, I'd create 3 partitions: XP, Vista and "data partition" where you can share your personal user files across both OS.

Good luck!

That would lose any factory partitions, wouldn't it?  (MediaDirect, Diagnostics, restore if there is one). 

This would be a last restort for me.  I would rather leave everything else in place for now, except maybe the restore partition.

pk

I am absolutely no expert but I want to do the same thing on my Dell Inspiron 530.

I have learned that you should absolutely not wipe your HD. There are 2 things on there that you need to keep if you want to be able to get Dell help later. I don't know how it will be with your portable but here is what I had on mine:

One 320Gb harddrive with on it 3 partitions:

One 63Mb primary partition with EISA : this you should absolutely keep it is used by Dell

One 10Gb primary partition with Recovery : with this you can reset your system to the state it was in when you received it. Some say you could copy it to a CD and erase it to win disk space but I can certainly spare those 10Gb so I keep it on.

The rest was C partition.

With Vista you can make new partitions. At that I ran into problems. I managed to make 3 new partitions of about 40Gb but couldn't reduce the C partition under 153Gb. Untill now I haven't found a solution for that problem.

However in your case you could reduce C, make a new primary partition,

Install XP over Vista on C and then install Vista on other partition. Vista will then create a multiboot.

I haven't done it yet so on the last part experts may correct me.

Anyway one thing is sure: don't touch EISA partition.

As this is a Dell forum I hope some Dell people are reading this.

This is my first experience with a Dell computer. When ordering I wanted a partitioned disk but that was not possible. I would have expected some help on the partitioning part but they refused to give it. I think everybody agrees that the best way to organise your computer is to work with a separate data partition. As Dell puts an essential partition on their computers they should at least help people so that this partition is not wiped when trying to partition or organise a dual boot.

I assume the EISA partition is the diagnostic partition?

I am thinking that this partition can be recreated using the Media Direct CD?

Let's say that I am starting with a blank HDD after having wiped it clean.

From what I can gather, I would boot to the Media Direct CD, where I can create both the Media Direct and the diagnostic partitions (and others?).  Then, i can install XP in one partition and Vista in another. Then, after all is installed, I can install the Media Direct software for the appropriate OS?  Does it matter which OS?

However, how does this affect the MBR?  Vista will see XP and create a boot menu, right?  Does this change to the MBR affect MediaDirect and diagnostics?

PK

As I said - I'm no expert. I didn't even know what Media Direct CD was so I googled it and came on a Dell Support page.  http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?docid=041031D196A7CAC0E0401E0A551752CE&c=us&l=en&s=gen

I understand that this Cd comes with a Dell PC with XP on it and my guess would be that you couldn't use it on a Dell with Vista.

In my previous post I described my PC. I think yours will probably have the same 3 partitions.

Meanwhile I have been able to reduce my C partition to 80Gb.

It seems to me that if you work with dual boot you would need to have your data on a separate partition.

I have added a partition containing 3 logical partitions for data, backup and media.

If I want to make a dual boot (I am beginning to have my doubts because I'm quite happy with Vista) I will expand the Recovery partition (which is totaly useless as I got a true reinstall DVD with Vista from Dell) and put XP there.

I hear from experts that you do not have to install XP first if you get a bootmanager.

I don't know if you can get one for free. System Commander 9 was recommended to me but it costs some 70$.

You will certainly need to get the XP drivers for Vostro 1500 before starting all this. Download them and put them on a USB stick.