1. In Windows XP, partition your hard drive. You can use Partition Magic, which costs $50, or the free GParted Live CD, create a new "primary" partition to install Vista on. Make it at least 20 GB in size. (I normally make it 50 GB)
2. To install Vista on the new partition, place the Vista CD in the CD drive, and point it to your newly-created partition as the installation destination.
3. Choose your operating system on boot. Once Vista is installed on your newly-created partition, on boot up, you'll get a choice to start XP or Vista. Default is Vista. This can be changed using Vista's boot manager.
I tried installing XP Home on a created partition on my VISTA OS (ACER laptop) only to discover I no longer had a modem (so I couldnt get on the internet anymore). So I had to use VISTA since it did recognize the modem. Aso, I couldnt play my XP games in the XP OS I had installed. I kept getting a error when I tried to load a game. I even tried using Dameon tools to play them virtually in my XP partition etc. No luck again.
While in Vista, open Device Manager, and find out the name of the modem. Then go to the Acer site and see if they have a driver that supports XP.
Without knowing the which modem you have, it's a difficult to help you.
Here is a list of drivers for Acer: http://tinyurl.com/25x9jj
Originally posted by smg: I tried installing XP Home on a created partition on my VISTA OS (ACER laptop) only to discover I no longer had a modem (so I couldnt get on the internet anymore). So I had to use VISTA since it did recognize the modem. Aso, I couldnt play my XP games in the XP OS I had installed. I kept getting a error when I tried to load a game. I even tried using Dameon tools to play them virtually in my XP partition etc. No luck again.
Thanks alot CTerrian. You are the first person to help me with this. My laptop is an ACER Aspire 5570Z. My modem is Agere. In properties under General its called Agere Systems HDA Modem. Under Diagnostics its Hardware ID is: HDAUDIO\FUNC_02&VEN_11C1&DEV_3026
I went to Acer and downloaded the drivers for an Acer 5570 laptop for Win XP OS (because they didnt have anything listed for 5570Z). I asumed that 5570 and 5570Z would be almost the same since there were only 2 items listed for 5570Z (Emanagement something & a security patch I believe and that was all they had for that model which is mine). In fact while I was in the 5570 section, I downloaded everything they had that was for XP OS for that model (5570). They had 2 drivers for the modem for XP OS. So I don't know which is the correct one to use. One is:
TM4220_MODEM and the other one is AS3680_MODEM. I appreciate this help very much friend.:)
Simply choose the Aspire-5570 and then choose the Agere Modem driver v2.1.63.0 modem. You will see the driver is for XP. Download it, and try it. You won't hurt anything. Let us know if that works.