How to install XP on a pre-installed Vista PC

Today, more and more PCs are pre-installed with Windows Vista at the factory, which is a great convenience for users - although pre-installed Windows Vista is mostly a simplified version like Home Basic - but For many users, maybe more accustomed to Windows XP, and some applications that are used daily may not work properly in Windows Vista. Therefore, many people want to install Windows XP in the system, of course, if Does not affect the Windows Vista pre-installed in the system, after all, it is expensive to buy.

Warning: Do not install Windows XP directly on a PC with Windows Vista preinstalled.

It is well known that Microsoft has adopted a new system boot management mechanism and a new BootLoader in Windows Vista. It is different from Windows. NT has included ntldr used in Windows 2000 /XP /2003, so installing Windows XP directly on a PC with Windows Vista pre-installed will destroy the Windows Vista Boot Loader.

Tip: If you want to use multiple operating systems in your PC at the same time, you must ensure that Windows Vista is the last installed system. Otherwise, if you install Windows XP after installing Windows Vista, it will cause The Windows Vista boot loader is overwritten by ntldr+boot.ini, causing Windows Vista to fail to start.

The following describes the setup steps for installing Windows XP on a pre-installed Vista PC:

1. Prepare a separate installation partition for Windows XP (if your PC hard drive is split at the factory) Multiple partitions, you can jump directly to the second step "Install Windows XP")

In the factory settings of many PCs, the hard disk is not partitioned, that is, the system only contains the "c:" disk, especially in most Extremely common on laptops. In this case, you need to split the hard disk first and prepare a separate partition for Windows XP.

1. Open Disk Manager, right click on the “C:” disk, select “Compress Volume” in the pop-up menu, narrow down the partition occupied by Windows Vista, and adjust the space for the new partition. Note: the need to retain sufficient free space for the Windows Vista partition;

2, on the adjustment of the "unallocated disk space" right click and select "New Volume", created for the installation of Windows XP New partition;

3. Recommendation: It is best to re-adjust the system drive letter. For systems with only one partition, the hard disk is usually “c:” and the DVD is “d:”. Set, in this way, the newly created hard disk partition drive letter is arranged as "e:" disk in order, in some cases there may be some hidden danger. Therefore, it is recommended to re-adjust the drive letter at this time, such as setting the hard disk partition to "c:" "d:" and adjusting the DVD drive letter to "e:". Although this step is not necessary.

To adjust the system drive letter settings, select the appropriate partition in Disk Manager, right click and select "Change drive letter and path". Of course, for the above case, that is, when the DVD has occupied the drive letter "d:", the DVD can be first adjusted to an unused drive letter, such as "z:", and then, the newly created hard disk drive letter is set to "d:", release the occupied "e:" drive letter and adjust it back.

4. Close Disk Manager and restart Windows Vista. Note that in order for Windows Vista to accept the modified hard drive settings, the system may need to be rebooted twice.