# strange problem installing XP SP2 (dual boot w/vista64) **URL:** \ **Category:** NYSpeed Off Topic\ **Created:** [June 12, 2008, 6:15am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896 "2008-06-12T06:15:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Dr.Stevil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Dr.Stevil](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Dr.Stevil)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 6:15am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/1 "2008-06-12T06:15:15Z")
I have Vista 64 installed and wanted to install XP on another partition for doing side work (pretty much so I don’t have a bunch of games and other stuff installed on the same system to muck it up). I split the primary partition with Vista’s disk partitioner, created a new disk and formatted it in a NTFS. I restarted the machine and booted the windows install disk. I picked the partition to install it to and it starts copying the temporary files to the hard drive for the install and once complete asks to hit [Enter] of wait 15 seconds to restart the machine. On reboot though, after it asks to “hit any key to boot from cd-rom”, when it would normally start the GUI based part of the setup it doesn’t do anything. It just sits at the DOS screen asking to hit a key to boot from the cd-rom, but 3 or 4 ANSI type colored squares show up on screen (the size of a normal “character”). The computer isn’t locked up though… the underscore after the “boot from cd” text is still flashing and I can CTRL+ALT+DEL to reboot just fine. If I try hitting enter or something though, it doesn’t do anything as far as booting the cd (actually, nothing happens) I killed the partition, created a new one and tried re-installing like 3 times and does the same thing every time. Does anyone have any ideas? I got fed up and just fixed the /boot and /mbr through the console and went back to vista for the time being. My system specs: DFI P35-t2rl BloodIron Intel C2Q 6600 @ 3Ghz 4Gb G-Skill ddr2 800mhz nVidia 8800GT 512mb WD 500gb sata HDD I can honestly say that this is the first time I’ve ever had a problem with XP. Vista installs and runs just fine though, odd (both 32 and 64). I did a search online and couldn’t find anyone that had the same problem. ---
**Author:** ![Bacon](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/bacon/32/7230_2.png) [@Bacon](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Bacon)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 6:16am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/2 "2008-06-12T06:16:48Z")
Improperly setup/corrupt boot.ini file? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Stevil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Dr.Stevil](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Dr.Stevil)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 6:18am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/3 "2008-06-12T06:18:01Z")
doesn’t XP write over it though after it copies the initial setup files? ---
**Author:** ![BuickGN](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/buickgn/32/7200_2.png) [@BuickGN](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/BuickGN)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 6:22am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/4 "2008-06-12T06:22:01Z")
steve use fdisk for that shit, best partition utility, fuck that gui shit within windows. and make sure those partitions are active, if they are not active they wont boot. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Stevil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Dr.Stevil](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Dr.Stevil)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 6:24am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/5 "2008-06-12T06:24:43Z")
well, at first I used the GUI based tool in vista. the other 2 times I used the one built into the XP setup program (which I assume would turn into the primary partition). This has always worked with past systems, so not sure why it’s giving me a problem now ---
**Author:** ![BuickGN](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/buickgn/32/7200_2.png) [@BuickGN](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/BuickGN)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 6:36am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/6 "2008-06-12T06:36:34Z")
I didnt say primary, i said ACTIVE lol ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Stevil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Dr.Stevil](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Dr.Stevil)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 6:38am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/7 "2008-06-12T06:38:04Z")
lol either way, wouldn’t XP’s setup take care of that? How can I check? The partition shows up fine in vista and the XP setup partitioner ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Stevil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Dr.Stevil](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Dr.Stevil)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 6:42am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/8 "2008-06-12T06:42:55Z")
Is it possible that it doesn’t like the nVidia card for whatever reason? That was my first thought, but who knows. Is there a way to install XP via a DOS based GUI opposed to the fancy gui? ---
**Author:** ![BuickGN](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/buickgn/32/7200_2.png) [@BuickGN](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/BuickGN)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 6:43am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/9 "2008-06-12T06:43:31Z")
i dunno i never use those to dual boot, i use fdisk and make 2 partitions both active and bootable, you can grab a HDD utility and make sure that the MBR isnt fucked up either. grab hirens boot disk, lots of good HDD utilities on there. ---
**Author:** ![BuickGN](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/buickgn/32/7200_2.png) [@BuickGN](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/BuickGN)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 6:44am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/10 "2008-06-12T06:44:17Z")
> [@Dr.Stevil](#): > > Is it possible that it doesn’t like the nVidia card for whatever reason? That was my first thought, but who knows. > > Is there a way to install XP via a DOS based GUI opposed to the fancy gui? thats not it i dont think, its the partion im thinking, but who knows without actually seeing it. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Stevil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Dr.Stevil](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Dr.Stevil)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 6:51am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/11 "2008-06-12T06:51:05Z")
I’ll give it a try, it’s worth a shot at this point. If I wasn’t so lazy, I’d just format the whole disk, install XP, then vista ---
**Author:** ![BuickGN](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/buickgn/32/7200_2.png) [@BuickGN](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/BuickGN)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 6:51am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/12 "2008-06-12T06:51:55Z")
thats what i would do, i get so sick of shit i cant figure out i just reformat and reimage. lol im lazy, got my drive in steve so im gunna reformat and get the raid going then i can do your xbox ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Stevil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Dr.Stevil](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Dr.Stevil)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 6:58am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/13 "2008-06-12T06:58:28Z")
cool, thanks kevin :tup: ---
**Author:** ![BuickGN](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/buickgn/32/7200_2.png) [@BuickGN](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/BuickGN)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 6:59am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/14 "2008-06-12T06:59:38Z")
yeah also, let me know about that other stuff too, im out. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Stevil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Dr.Stevil](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Dr.Stevil)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 7:02am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/15 "2008-06-12T07:02:40Z")
np man ---
**Author:** ![boxxa](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/boxxa/32/5045_2.png) [@boxxa](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/boxxa)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 7:10am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/16 "2008-06-12T07:10:49Z")
you two could have basically had an IM conversation in 1/2 the time. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Stevil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Dr.Stevil](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Dr.Stevil)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 7:17am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/17 "2008-06-12T07:17:14Z")
IM ports blocked at work ---
**Author:** ![BuickGN](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/buickgn/32/7200_2.png) [@BuickGN](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/BuickGN)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 7:34am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/18 "2008-06-12T07:34:44Z")
lol unblock them, edit the hosts file 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Stevil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Dr.Stevil](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Dr.Stevil)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 7:50am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/19 "2008-06-12T07:50:16Z")
lol I value my career ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Stevil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Dr.Stevil](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Dr.Stevil)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2008, 4:11pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896/20 "2008-06-12T16:11:53Z")
well you were right kevin. Installing now. I’m surprised it didn’t give an error message about it. Thanks again [Next page](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/strange-problem-installing-xp-sp2-dual-boot-w-vista64/49896.md?page=2)