Dual Boot Windows XP And Vista

Dual Boot Windows XP And Vista

Even though Windows Vista has been around for close to two years, there are still many people who can’t bear to get rid of Win XP due to its stability and better hardware support. Luckily you can get the best of both world by creating a dual boot between Vista and XP.

Here is the tutorial to create a dual boot Vista/XP system. It is divided into 3 scenarios: Installing XP/Vista on a blank unformatted hard disk, installing Vista with XP pre-installed, installing XP with Vista preinstalled. You will find yourself in one of these scenarios.

Installing windows XP and Vista on a blank unformatted hard disk

Step 1: Insert in the WinXP installer CD and boot up the computer into the blue WinXP installer screen.

Press Enter, follow by F8 to reach the hard disk selection screen.

Press C to create a partition. Enter the partition size for WinXP. Press Enter

It will prompt you again to allocate partition size for the remaining space. This time, enter the partition size for Vista and press Enter. Vista will need at least 15 GB of hard disk space.

Once done, the installer will bring you back to the hard disk selection screen, now with two partitioned hard disk.

Select the partition that you going to install WinXP and press Enter.

When it prompts you for partition format, select “Format the partition using the NTFS file system“.

Proceed with the Win XP installation.

Step 2: When you have completed the WinXP installation, insert in the Vista installer CD and reboot the computer into the Vista installer mode.

Follow the instruction on the screen until you reach the point where it asks you to select the partition. Choose the partition that you created for Vista.

Proceed with the installation.

When it is done, it will reboot and you will be able to choose if you want to boot up Win XP (Earlier version of Windows) or Vista.

Dual boot Vista with Win XP pre-installed

Let’s say your hard disk is already installed with Win XP and you want to create a dual boot between your existing Win XP and a new installation of Vista, here’s how you do it.

Follow the instruction here to create a new partition for your Vista installation.

Once you have created a new partition, follow the Step 2 above to install your Vista (make sure you select the correct partition when installing Vista, else you will erase all the data in the WinXP partition).

Dual boot WinXP with Vista pre-installed

If you have bought a new system that comes with Vista pre-installed and you want to create a dual boot between the existing Vista and a new installation of Win XP, here’s how you do it:

Follow the instruction here to create a new partition for your WinXP installation. (Alternatively you can use the Disk management in Vista to resize and create the partition).

Once you have created a new partition, follow the Step 1 above to install your WinXP (make sure you select the correct partition when installing WinXP, else you will erase all the data in the Vista partition).

After you have installed WinXP, you will find that it has erased the bootloader and you can’t boot into your Vista anymore. To fix this, put in your Vista CD and boot the computer into the installer screen.

Choose Repair your computer

Highlight the Vista partition and click Next

Click on Startup Repair from the list of option

The installer will now restore your Vista bootloader. When it is done, it will prompt you to restart your system. Click Finish to restart.

It should boot back to Vista now.

In your Vista, download and install EasyBCD

Launch the application.

On the left pane, select Add/Remove Entries. On the right pane in the Add an Entry section under the Windows tab, select Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3 under the Type dropdown bar. Name it Windows XP and click Add Entry.

Close the EasyBCD application and restart your system. You should be able to select to boot into Windows Vista or XP now.

That’s it!

Properly Maintain Hard Drives with Defraggler

Properly Maintain Hard Drives with Defraggler

If you read our earlier article about tuning up your PC with CCleaner, then you already know about the high calibre of software that is developed by Piriform. I’m definitely a big fan of the CCleaner product. I’m sure you can guess that it was a no brainer that when Piriform released their next masterpiece, I just had to try it out!

Enter Defraggler, a powerful and easy-to-use defragmentation tool for your Windows managed hard drives. This defrag tool really sets itself apart from it’s competitors by being a quality product with the perfect price tag – free. This tutorial will give you a nice overview of the Defraggler tool, as well as provide you with the necessary knowledge to use it effectively on your home computer.

First off, lets get to the meat and potatoes. Why do you need to defrag? Simply put, your Windows file system frequently fragments it’s file system by placing pieces of each file that it writes to disk into the first available spots.

The result is an increase in the time it takes to access a file, because the file can be cut into pieces and spread about the physical disk. By defragging your disks, files are relocated so that all of the pieces are in the correct order and placed next to one another. Defragging can easily extend the live or your hard disks and improve system performance.

Install Defraggler

You can get started by downloading and installing the latest edition of Defraggler. I won’t bore you with the details of the installation, because it is incredibly straight forward. I strongly encourage you to keep all of the default settings when you install the application, it will make things a whole lot easier.

Launch Defraggler

You can launch Defraggler from the desktop icon or the Start Menu. Once open, you’ll be presented with the main window, as shown below.

Analyze

As you can see, it’s very straight-forward. Start by selecting the disk you want to perform maintenance on in the upper portion of the window. Next, click the Analyze button to have Defraggler assess the current condition of the file system on the selected drive.

This shouldn’t take very long to process. Once complete, you’ll see a report similar to the following screenshot.

Defrag

You can click the View Files button, if you are interested in seeing which files are actually strewn about the drive. That step is only for interest sake and has no impact on the defrag process. To start the process, click on the Defrag button.

Depending on the size of your drive, the amount stored on it, and the amount of time since the last defrag, this process could take a considerable amount of time to complete. It’s also resource intensive, so don’t start this task while you have a lot of work to do.

Save it for when you might have some downtime and can afford to be away from the computer for an hour or more. Mine didn’t take very long to complete, only about 15 – 20 minutes. Here’s a sample of the report you can expect to see once the job is done.

That’s it. Pretty simple stuff.

You should repeat this process for each drive on your system. You can even defragment your portable USB drives. Even though you have done a great service for your PC, you’re not done yet. Performing a defrag is a great step in the right direction, but to properly manage your system you need to defrag on a regular basis. Defraggler can help!

Scheduled Maintenance

Clicking on the Settings menu, then Options, will open up the main Options dialog box. Click the Schedule tab to set up a schedule that works for you.

Select the drive that you want to schedule maintenance for via the Drive dropdown list. A good place to start is Local Disk (C:). Next place a checkmark in the checkbox labelled Schedule defragmentation for chosen volume. This will activate the lower options, allowing you to specify an interval. This part is personal preference, but I prefer to defrag my drives on a weekly basis. For most users, this will be acceptable.

Now you just have to pick a starting date and time. Do yourself a favor and select a time when the system will not be in high demand from it’s user(s). If you have more than one drive, repeat the process by selecting a different drive from the dropdown list and follow the steps you followed for the first drive.

As you can see in the pictures below, I staggered the days that my drives are defragmented, mainly because of the resource requirements to get the job done.

Just click Ok and your system will do the rest.

There are some advanced components that come with Defraggler and one of them is to check the drive for errors. You can access this utility via the Action menu.

Checking for errors can take a significant amount of time. In fact, I’ve seen it take a couple of hours to actually finish, so don’t start this task unless you have plenty of time to kill.

Summary

Defraggler is an important addition to your PC toolkit. The benefits of learning to use this tool will definitely be seen through extended hard drive life and improved file access performance. It’s easy to use, free to download, and you can set it and forget it.

Desktop Applications Portable…without the OS

Desktop Applications Portable…without the OS

What happen if you are accessing a public PC and it doesn’t have the applications you need to open your file? Well, there is really nothing that you can do about it, except to remind yourself to bring all your applications with you next time you are on the road.

While I have mentioned that Damn Small Linux is a simple, small system that you can bring on your travel, there is also another alternative – portable apps.

What is portable apps?

As its name implies, a portable app is a computer program that you can carry around with you on a portable device and use on any Windows computer. When your USB flash drive, portable hard drive, iPod or other portable device is plugged in, you have access to your software and personal data just as you would on your own PC. And when you unplug the device, none of your personal data is left behind.

Thanks to the team from PortableApps.com who has compiled a suite of portable application where you can just download to your USB drive and use it everywhere on a Windows computer. (Sorry, no Linux).

The suite comes with a rather complete range of sofware, ranging from browser, email client, office suite, calendar/scheduler, instant messaging client, antivirus to backup utility and integrated menu.

Some of the included apps are:

• 7-Zip Portable
• AbiWord Portable
• Audacity Portable
• ClamWin Portable
• Command Prompt Portable
• FileZilla Portable
• GIMP Portable
• KeePass Portable
• Miranda IM Portable
• Mines-Perfect Portable
• Mozilla Firefox, Portable Edition
• Mozilla Sunbird, Portable Edition
• Mozilla Thunderbird, Portable Edition
• Notepad++ Portable
• Nvu Portable & KompoZer Portable
• On-Screen Keyboard Portable
• OpenOffice.org Portable
• Pidgin Portable
• PokerTH Portable
• PuTTY Portable
• Sudoku Portable
• Sumatra PDF Portable
• Virtual Magnifying Glass Portable
• VLC Media Player Portable
• winMd5Sum Portable
• and many more…

Download PortableApps.com Suite here. (89.5MB for standard suite and 30.4MB for Lite suite)

Password Protect Your USB Drive Without Administrator Privilege

Password protecting my USB drive is often the most important thing that I do when I went on travel. With all the confidential information in the USB drive, the last thing that I want to see is to lost it and have others to access all my precious data.

Although I have previously covered two useful software for encrypting USB drive: Windows 7 BitLocker and TrueCrypt, one thing that prevented me from using them on the move is that these two software require administrator privilege (or the ultimate version of Windows 7) to use, which in most Internet cafes, you don’t have access to.

There are also several others encryption software out there, but the one that worked well for me, and apparently free and does not require any administrator privileges is Rohos Mini Drive.

What Rohos Mini Drive does is to create hidden and encrypted partition on the USB flash drive memory. When you plug in your USB drive, you won’t get to see the hidden partition. Only when you run the Rohos application (within the USB drive) and enter your password, then will the hidden partition appear. Since the Rohos application does not require access (or modification) to the computer’s system, it doesn’t require any administrator privileges to run it. This is great for those who need to access their encrypted data on a public computer that they don’t have administrator access to.

Installing Rohos Mini Drive

The initial step to create an encrypted USB drive requires you to install and run the application in your own computer. This will require administrator privileges.

Download Rohos Mini Drive (Windows only).

Double click the application to install it in your computer.

Once the installation is done, insert in your USB drive. You don’t have to reformat the drive, but you have to make sure that there is enough space to create the new partition.

Open the Rohos Mini Drive application from the Start menu.

In the main window, click Setup USB Key

Rohos Mini Drive will proceed to detect your USB drive. Click Change to edit the partition configuration.

In the configuration window, you can configure the Disk letter that the hidden partition to be mounted to, the encrypted partition size (maximum 2GB), the file system type and the encryption algorithm. The last thing is to point the installation location to your USB drive. The encrypted file will come with a .rdi extension.

Click OK to proceed.

Back to the USB Key Creation window, enter your password and make sure that it is a safe one. Click Create Disk.

Encryption completed.

Now open your Windows Explorer and navigate to your USB drive. You should see only the Rohos Mini application (which was not there originally).

Double click the Rohos mini application. Enter the encryption password when prompted.

You should now see your hidden partition prompted in the drive letter that you have chosen earlier.

You can install all your portable apps or store your confidential data on the hidden partition now.

What other software do you use to encrypt your USB drive?

Boot And Install Windows 7 From USB Flash Drive

Boot And Install Windows 7 From USB Flash Drive

Previously, I have discussed the way to create a Windows 7 USB installer drive using the command prompt. Even though I have make it easy to follow, there are still some of you having some difficulty in the process. Recently, I have come across this little cool portable application that is able to do all the things covered in the previous tutorial in a breeze and without the command prompt.

The application that I am talking about is WinToFlash. This is a small application (only 2.1MB) that allows you to convert your Windows installer CD/DVD to a bootable USB drive. Not only is it easy to use (nearly idiot-proof and does not require you to have any technical knowledge), it is also fully portable – No installation is required and you can bring it wherever you are.

Preparation

Before you start, here are some stuffs that you need to take note of:

1) You need to have a USB drive of at least 3GB space in order to create a Windows 7 bootable USB drive.

2) The process will format and wipe off all your files in the USB drive. Remember to backup before you proceed.

3) You need to have a Windows 7 installer DVD and an optical drive to read the DVD. If you have only the ISO file (downloaded directly from Microsoft), you can use Virtual Clone Drive to mount the ISO in your computer.

Installation

Download WinToFlash

Put in your Windows 7 installer DVD and plug in your USB drive.

Unzip the folder to your desktop and run the WinToFlash.exe file

Some of you might see the “WinToFlash DLP_NotFound” error message. You can safely ignore this error message.

On the main screen, click on the Window Setup Transfer Wizard. This will bring you to the wizard mode where it automates (almost) the whole process for you.

On the next screen, there is an option for you to go into the Advanced mode and tweak some of the settings. You can ignore that (if you are not into tweaking) and click Next to proceed.

Point the Windows file path to the Windows Installer DVD directory.

Point the USB drive to the USB directory.

Click Next.

Accept the agreement.

Preparing your USB drive. Make sure you have backup all the important files before you proceed. This will erase all your data.

Transferring in progress. This might take a while. Go for your coffee break.

Once you see the following message, the whole process is done. You can now boot Windows 7 from the USB drive.

Some computers require you to change the bootup setting in the BIOS before you can boot from USB. Look into your motherboard/computer manual for more instruction.

Codysafe – Carry Your PC Wherever You Go

Codysafe – Carry Your PC Wherever You Go

We have work to do and we have places to go for completing those tasks. So it is an obvious necessity to carry your working tools along. If that means digital documents, our USB drives comes to rescue. And very recently, the dominance of portable tools has also made the job a lot more easier, but wouldn’t it be nice, if you could simply insert your USB drive, start a single app and then all other documents and tools (on your USB drive) could be opened as easily as opening the Widows start menu? Or what if there is a built-in antivirus and disk maintenance tool ? Isn’t that a lot more safer and easier? CodySafe is one such free tool that does all of them.

CodySafe is a menu app for Portable Applications. This software tool turns any portable drive from a simple data carrier to a computer-on-stick. You can easily organize all your portable applications into a menu where you can access it quickly and easily.

Configure CodySafe USB Drive

1. Download the portable tool CodySafe. Its only 2.08 Mb in size and pretty light-weight too.

2. Insert the drive in the USB port and double-click the application file, to install the app. Follow the guidelines, as instructed during the installation. I would recommend you to select all the tools when prompted to choose.

3. The setup will automatically locate your drive and will ask you to proceed. If you have multiple drives inserted, then please choose the appropriate drive where you want to install CodySafe and proceed.

4. In the final step of installation you will get an option to give your newly created CodySafe Drive a name (optional). Try something new. Press Finish, when done.

Add Programs to Codysafe Dock

Now that you are done installing the CodySafe, you will find an icon in the Windows tray. Click on it and you will see a dock opening. This is the CodySafe Dock. It looks somewhat like the Windows Start Menu. Its empty at the start. Let me show how to fill it up.

I’ll be adding a portable Chromium Browser for demonstrating. Download the portable app and copy the whole pack to a folder named “Program Files” in my USB drive’s root directory.

1. Start CodySafe by clicking its tray icon. As the dock opens, press “Options”.

2. In the Control Panel, click on the section named “Applications Manager”.

4. Now as it opens, go to the tab, “Add Application” and locate the application(chrome.exe) within your USB drive. Use the “Browse” button. Now press the “Apply” button to save the changes.

4. In the “Application Management” tab you can manage your applications. You can also configure CodySafe to auto-start some applications. You can add those in the “Autorun Management” tab.

Others Things Worth Noting :

Find If Lost :

This is a useful feature that creates and saves your identity information in the USB drive as a readme.txt file. So, in case, you have lost your storage device and if someone have found it, they will get to know about its ownership. The Codyssey team (CodySafe developers) offers bounty to the person if he/she returns the drive to you. Well, I do not know, how good this works in reality, but I must say, its obviously a nice initiative.

Disk Doctor :

We are all aware of the fact that, USB drives most generally get infected by some common viruses like, conficker, backdoor trojan etc. This Disk doctor is nice addition to the CodySafe suite which prevents such intrusions. But this is not all, apart from virus protection (ViruSense) it also offers disk diagnosis tools that performs disk check and also attempts for recovery of data from bad sectors if found any.

Create a Virtual Machine of Your Existing Windows Operating System

Create a Virtual Machine of Your Existing Windows Operating System

A virtual machine is a software, that lets you create and run a separate operating system in your existing computer system. You can boot the virtual machine from the parent operating system and run just like another software application.

For example: If you are using Windows xp, you can install popular virtualization software like Windows virtual PC, Vmware workstation to create a virtual machine within your current operating system. Now in that virtual machine, you can install any operating system e.g Windows xp, vista. You can run these operating systems in a new explorer window within Windows xp.

The problem with virtual machines is that you have to install an operating system from scratch. This includes loading the operating system from cd or dvd, installing all the drivers and system software etc. This can be very time consuming and is not a quick job.

How to Convert your Existing Operating System into a Virtual Machine

Microsoft has a free application named Disk2vhd, which can create a virtual machine of your existing operating system. The utility is a portable application and does not require any installation. You can run the virtual machine on any computer you want.

Following are the steps involved to create the virtual machine of your existing Windows operating system:

1. Download the Zip file (751 Kb) and extract it. After that, just run the Disktovhd. exe.

2. The application will show you the available drives in your computer.

3. Select the drive which you want to migrate as a virtual machine. In this case, i would want to create a virtual machine for my Vista installation, hence i have selected the D drive.

4. Specify the path where you want to save the virtual hard drive (vhd) file. The file would be of large size and almost equal to the size of the operating system drive.

5. Hit the Create button. It would take some time to create the vhd file (mine took 25 minutes).

The software will clone a virtual hard disk of the drive selected and save it in specified location. After the vhd file has been created, you can use any virtualization software to mount the virtual hard disk and run the operating system as a virtual machine.

For example: I mounted the virtual hard disk on Microsoft Virtual PC and ran Windows Vista as a virtual machine under Windows xp. The software can convert the chosen hard drive into a vhd file, even if it is under use.

How can the Virtual machine be useful

Using a virtual machine has many advantages, especially when you are tech savy. Consider you are working in Windows xp and need to test a small Windows application compatible with Windows vista only. In that case you have to boot your system and start Windows vista again. A virtual hard disk of vista will come in handy here as you can start testing the vista compatible application by starting a virtual machine in xp.

Another situation where virtual machine can be a real time saver is when you are using multiple computers. Suppose you want to work in your friends computer with all your installed software and applications. In that case, just create a virtual hard drive of your operating system and carry the vhd file in a usb stick. When you are using the friend’s computer, just mount the virtual hard disk and use all your installed software.

Disktovhd can be used to create virtual hard drives of Windows xp, Windows vista, Windows server 2003. If you are using Ubuntu, check out how to create an Ubuntu virtual machine.