Hi there. I've just bought a new PC. It came with windows vista premium 64 bit, but I have a copy of windows xp pro 64 bit and i'm trying to install it on a 160GB HDD that I just installed. I boot with the XP disc, and it loads all of the setup files, then it says "setup is starting windows", and i get the "blue screen of death" telling me to check or remove any new hard drives and to try using CHKDSK /F. Any ideas? As far as I can tell, this other HDD i just installed is fully functional, i can transfer files back and forth and windows vista says i have the latest drivers for it. I would like to install windows xp on this 160gb hdd, so simply removing is not a solution.
Usually, the case is that you have to install Windows from oldest to newest and lowest grade to highest. This would mean that you would need to install XP Pro 64 bit and then install Vista.
Since that PC came with Vista already installed, there is no way to install a clean install of Vista. When you get a PC with any OS pre-loaded, you really do not own the OS. You would still have to buy the CD in order to do a clean install.
With XP, I remember if you used a program to read the key, you could use someone else's CD to install Vista, but use your key. I don't know if Vista works this way. I use Windows 2000 Pro, XP Pro, and XP 64 Pro on my PCs, so I have no idea about anything related to Vista.
Edit:
I wonder, if you can modify Boot.ini in order to get a Dual Boot Screen. If so, maybe installing XP 64 on the second HDD with the Vista HDD removed would work. Then you could modify boot.ini and get them both to work. I've never tried anything like that, but who knows :P
You can install XP after Vista I think, but only if you isolate the drives. Literally unplug the one with vista on it to install XP, and select which OS you wish to boot from in the BIOS, that's how I do it. It could of course be that your components aren't compatible with XP 64-bit. It wouldn't be surprising, almost nothing is compatible with XP-64.
