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Old Zorin Forum archive → Installation

Dual Boot Zorin and Windows XP?

kane93

Thu Mar 08, 2018 4:40:03 am

I'm trying to install Zorin 10 lite or 12.2 lite on an older Windows XP notebooks and dual boot. It's a Centrino CPU, so I have to hit tab to force the installation. Problem is, I don't get the option to install alongside XP. I really don't want to reinstall XP and the drivers again. So I'm looking for a way to partition drive C: without losing data. And C: is the only partition currently.
I haven't found any good options yet. Is there any partition freeware I can use, or a way to do it from the live system?

Swarfendor437

Thu Mar 08, 2018 1:07:14 pm

Hi, did you mean 'Centrino'? Can you first give us some more information?:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5449

Thanks.

kane93

Fri Mar 09, 2018 3:33:37 am

Swarfendor437 wrote:Hi, did you mean 'Centrino'? Can you first give us some more information?:

viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5449

Thanks.


Yes it is...It's a Gateway 3522GZ with the Intel Centrino M 1.60 ghz CPU. I've also tried installing Windows 7 from CD and USB drive. I get some error message. Apparently you can't install Windows 7 on this either. That's why XP is still on this Notebook.

Intel Centrino M 1.60ghz
734 MB RAM
Intel 82852/82855 GM/GME Graphics controller
Intel Chipset 925x/xe
55 GB HD

Swarfendor437

Fri Mar 09, 2018 1:11:37 pm

Hi, I think one of the things you have to bear in mind is the small drive space you have. The first thing I would do is to run chkdsk to make sure the hard drive is in a healthy state, then run defragmentation of the drive. Once done, reboot into Windows XP and if it is Home version, boot into Safe Mode to 1. log in as Administrator, 2. Setup password for Administrator. Why M$ did that with XP Home I'll never know! Next backup your hard drive as an image - you could use Easeus Backup Tool for example, to an external drive or large capacity thumb drive so you can always reinstall if things go wrong.
Next Boot into Windows (you may need to log in as Administrator, but not sure if it will allow you to do the next bit in safe mode - Use Windows Disk Management tool to shrink C:\ drive then report back with what space it is going to give you. ;)

kane93

Fri Mar 09, 2018 8:05:04 pm

Swarfendor437 wrote:Hi, I think one of the things you have to bear in mind is the small drive space you have. The first thing I would do is to run chkdsk to make sure the hard drive is in a healthy state, then run defragmentation of the drive. Once done, reboot into Windows XP and if it is Home version, boot into Safe Mode to 1. log in as Administrator, 2. Setup password for Administrator. Why M$ did that with XP Home I'll never know! Next backup your hard drive as an image - you could use Easeus Backup Tool for example, to an external drive or large capacity thumb drive so you can always reinstall if things go wrong.
Next Boot into Windows (you may need to log in as Administrator, but not sure if it will allow you to do the next bit in safe mode - Use Windows Disk Management tool to shrink C:\ drive then report back with what space it is going to give you. ;)


Thanks for the reply. There's nothing i need to back up. It was a fresh install of Windows pro service pack 3, and all the drivers for this specific Gateway laptop. Those drivers are on a USB drive, and XP is on disc. I just didn't want to reinstall windows, along with the drivers again.

I looked into disk management before and, I couldn't do anything with the hard drive, most of the options were grayed out. All I could do was open, explore, change drive letters and paths, properties, and help.

But I didn't do this from safe mode. I should have Admin status already though.

Swarfendor437

Sun Mar 11, 2018 2:48:25 am

OK, thanks for clearing that up. It sounds like that the Notebook has some sort of lock on it but I suspect that as Windows XP needs 40 Gb of space for install and swap etc you are going to struggle to do that. My advice would be to purchase an external drive, disconnect your internal hard drive to the notebook, attach external drive and install Zorin Lite on that. Then, download EasyBCD (Free version) from NeoSmart Technology which when run for the first time will backup your existing mbr. Next attach your external drive and add the boot parameters to EasyBCD. ;)