question about installing a os

[dionysus198]

I bought a computer a few months ago that came with vista pre-installed, I have a second hd that I wiped out clean but when i put that hd in this computer, after disconecting the other one it gives me a bootmgr missing error when i boot up. I want to install xp on that second hd, I still want to keep the hd that came with the comp with vista on it, but i want a backup hd with xp on it. How do i install xp on my spare hd if it keeps giving me that error message on boot up? thanks for the help...

 

[dude_se]

set the bios to boot from CD, pop in the xp disc and install it
you could also pop both hdds in and set the spare as a slave, then boot into vista and install from there.

 

[dionysus198]

sorry bout that man, i relized after that i put it in the wrong section oh well.
I tryed that man it tells me i have a BOOTmgr file missing and it doesnt load the cd with xp on it.. I read somewhere that you can't "downgrade" to xp from vista? wtf is up with that.. I have a spare hd all i want to do is put xp on it, and have 1 hd with vista, and one with xp.. on the same comp. Do I not know what im doing or somthing? haha

 

[dude_se]

you can downgrade, but only on a new partition/format.
your using a different hdd anyway. there shouldnt be any traces of vista. this is wierd. cant you boot into vista (with both hdd's plugged in), then choose to install xp on hdd #2?

 

[dionysus198]

yes i can boot both hds, i boot my vista one up with the erased one plugged in aswell go into it from the vista hd put inthe xp disc and it says like windows cant install this copy of xp because it is older than the one thats already on there etc.. mabye i have a bad disc? i dont know i dont know whats up.. its like a simple task why cant shit just work :-\

 

[dude_se]

i think the disc is ok, it just wont let you install it which is stupid. is it a legal disc? sometimes illegally burnt ones arnt bootable.

 

[dionysus198]

k new problem guess it was the disc. I downloaded a fresh copy of XP from my college MSDN website, burned it to a dvd and i got it to work.. i got the the partitioning part and i go to hit enter to partition it and it just blue screens now.. wtf.. this is like more trouble then its worth, ha any idea why this is happening man?

I googled and found this qoute, this is exactly what mine is doing..
I get to the part of the installation process where it asks about partitioning the drive. It gives me the option to delete all the data, create a partition, or continue installation. No matter which one I choose, a blue screen comes up saying that the computer had to restart to prevent any damage from happening and there is a bunch of other stuff that I didn't write down. Does anyone know what this is all about or any other way I can get around this? Has the hard drive just gone bad? I've tried over and over again to go through the installation, but this happens every time.