Dual-booting Vista.

[bluestarultor]

So, the new Dell I have came with the infernal one. Luckily, I have my old HDD intact and ready to plug in as an external. The issue is:

It only wants to boot Vista!


Now, granted, I was running XP Home, and it says I'd need XP Pro, but I disabled the freaking Vista drive in the BIOS, and see no reason it shouldn't work. I'd really like to keep running XP, even primarily, since it handles my software better.

A little help?

[Eltargrim]

You were sure to set boot device priority in the BIOS to external?

EDIT: Also consider what bootloader you're using. I find that Linux has some good ones.

[bluestarultor]

Yep. I don't know what's handling it, though. Here's the basic layout:

Old laptop IDE drive
> Adapter
>> USB cable for data (male)
>> Second USB Cabe off the first (male)
>> USB cable for power

I have yet to experiment with removing the second data cable, but I'm afraid that it might be needed, since the adapter end of it has more than 4 contacts.



EDIT: Let me clarify what happens. If I try to boot XP normally, it'll load a couple bars, then restart. If I try safe mode, it'll start loading the Windows system files, catch, and then restart. Could I be missing a system file? Admittedly, the casing was a pain and a half to put together, and I can only hope I didn't touch a contact, since I had nothing good to ground myself against like I'm used to with my desktop.

[Fifthfiend]

Could it just be the booting over USB that's causing the problem? I'm not particularly knowledgeable in this area but that doesn't really sound like a great way to be going about things.

[Nikose Tyris]

Also, did you change your BIOS settings to "Boot via USB" and disable all other boot options? I was just fucking around with boot settings on my laptop to see what might cause it and that's the only way I was able to boot from an EIDE at all.

[bluestarultor]

I can try disabling all else. Thanks Nikose.

@ Fifth: It's meant to be done that way, as an external hard drive. Probably why it takes up two data slots.


Edit: Nope, disabling all the other stuff doesn't help. I wonder if I'm missing a system file somewhere...

[FloralVikings]

Try physically removing the drive with Vista on it. Logically it won't work, but Microsoft doesn't exactly adhere to the rules of logic.

[bluestarultor]

Right now, I managed to share my stuff with myself safely enough. What I really want it for is the way it runs my software. For now, at least I have access to my files until I can do more research.

[Cati]

Originally Posted by bluestarultor

So, the new Dell I have came with the infernal one. Luckily, I have my old HDD intact and ready to plug in as an external. The issue is:

It only wants to boot Vista!


Now, granted, I was running XP Home, and it says I'd need XP Pro, but I disabled the freaking Vista drive in the BIOS, and see no reason it shouldn't work. I'd really like to keep running XP, even primarily, since it handles my software better.

A little help?

I don't know the PROPER way to do it, but I do like Nikose said; I double-boot Linux from an external hard drive by changing the boot order in the BIOS -- have it load USB devices before the internal hard drive. That way, if my external hard drive is connected, I get Sabayon. If it's not, I get Vista. It's easier on my brain.

Although I don't know why Vista would still boot if you have the Vista drive disabled, er. That shouldn't actually be possible...? *brain explodes*

[Ryu Van Burace]

I had a buddy who had close to the same thing albeit he was using a desktop, not a lappy. He reckoned this helped alot:
http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp