Partitioning question

[docwebster]

Is it possible to basically partition an already formatted and installed with Vista hard drive to have an XP install as well?

Comments

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

In principle, yes, there's nothing stopping you, but you'll almost certainly have to use a third-party boot manager. Oddly, it's slightly easier with Windows 7, whose bootloader actually groks the idea of having two different versions of Windows installed on the same machine and lets you choose which to boot.

[docwebster.livejournal.com]

Any such boot managers to recommend?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, you could put a tiny Linux partition on there (Damn Small Linux perhaps) and use LILO or Grub, or the Partition Magic people sell something called PQBoot that ships along with Partition Magic (which you're presumably going to be wanting anyway). If you need to repartition the disk without blowing away your existing install, and don't already have an in-place partitioner, the obvious solution is to buy Partition Magic and use PQBoot. If you want to go with LILO or Grub for booting, there's a free partitioner called EASUS Partition Manager that's basically a freeware partition magic clone.

I'm not sure of this part, but you may even be able to install Grub from Windows.

[docwebster.livejournal.com]

Thank you, young Wallace. Have a gorilla.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Thanks, but I've switched to baboons. They're milder, you know.