XP definitely does not remove my restore points in Vista using the 2 separate OS installs with only 1 drive installed process. Although I must admit that I no longer use restore points as I make backups with Norton Save & Restore.

Interestingly, I currently have Vista and XP installed using the first option, on the same physical disk in different partitions. When in XP, the XP partition is drive C: and the Vista partition is drive D:. But, when in Vista, the Vista partiton is drive C: and the XP partition is drive D:

That is interesting. In my installation, Vista is on C: and XP on D: no matter which OS is running.George

Hmmm... What order did you install them? In my case, XP was already on the drive, in the first partition. Vista was installed second, in the second partition.I believe the drive letter that Vista uses for it's own system drive is controlled by a setting in the BCD. (From a command prompt (run as administrator,) type BCDEDIT to see what's in your BCD, if you wish.) There may have been an option during the installation that allows one to select the drive letter to be used. I don't recall it, but then, my memory isn't what it used to be.Regards,...jim

Hmmm... What order did you install them? In my case, XP was already on the drive, in the first partition. Vista was installed second, in the second partition.

Yes, my XP was installed first.However, I am at present trying to clone the drive and on the cloned drive, from the boot menu I can select either XP or Vista but only Vista will load, XP will not.George

XP definitely does not remove my restore points in Vista using the 2 separate OS installs with only 1 drive installed process. Although I must admit that I no longer use restore points as I make backups with Norton Save & Restore.

It is a well known problem with XP Vista dual boot setups and Microsoft has a couple of suggested work arounds that involve messing with the registry. It occurs because XP doesn't recognise the format Vista uses for restore points and therefore treats them as corrupted and deletes them - no problem the other way, Vista doesn't delete XP restore points. However I was wondering, if you have completely independent installs on separate physical drives with the other OS disconnected during the install process, whether this hassle can be avoided?Bruceb

I believe a simple solution, if your BIOS supports it, is using the Select Boot Device (or something like that) dialogue that you bring up for example with an Alt-F8 on my ASUS P5E3 Premium during boot up. You can install XP on one drive. Vista on another, etc, and simply decide which one will the most commonly used, set that in the default position and that's it. You now have OS' that are unawares of each other. Seems a simple solution if your BIOS offers boot device selection during boot up.Noel

Thanks Noel but see post #3 that's where this whole thread started for me :( If you had both HDD's plugged in when you installed Vista or XP then you haven't got a completely separate install as the last installed OS will always write something to the MBR of the other OS's drive. This is why I said only have the one HDD installed when installing the OS. It's not a major problem, but it just makes things a lot simpler and cleaner if you do do it that way from the beginning.

Thanks Noel but see post #3 that's where this whole thread started for me :( If you had both HDD's plugged in when you installed Vista or XP then you haven't got a completely separate install as the last installed OS will always write something to the MBR of the other OS's drive. This is why I said only have the one HDD installed when installing the OS. It's not a major problem, but it just makes things a lot simpler and cleaner if you do do it that way from the beginning.

Yeah, I would also disconnect one drive before doing this just to make sure, then use the BIOS boot device select from there.

It occurs because XP doesn't recognise the format Vista uses for restore points and therefore treats them as corrupted and deletes them - no problem the other way, Vista doesn't delete XP restore points. However I was wondering, if you have completely independent installs on separate physical drives with the other OS disconnected during the install process, whether this hassle can be avoided?

Even if you have independent installs on 2 separate hard drives (by keeping the other drive disconnecting during the install), restore points in Vista will still be deleted by XP once you boot up XP with the Vista drive connected. I know this from personal experience. :( Basically the bottom line is, if XP sees Vista, it will delete Vista's restore points. Vista's restore points are written in a different "shadow copy" format that XP doesn't recognize. XP thinks it is corrupted data and simply deletes it. There are a few work-arounds to this problem, all of which unfortunately have their drawbacks.1. One option to keep the Vista drive disconnected whenever you boot up XP, so XP never sees the Vista drive. This is a hassle to do every time and not really practical.2. Another option is a registry tweak explained by Microsoft. The disadvantage here is that whenever you use XP, you will not be able to access any data on the Vista drive.3. The third option is to use the Bitlocker function on Vista. However Bitlocker only comes with the Vista Ultimate and Enterprise editions. And even using Bitlocker, you still will not be able to access data on the Vista drive if you are in XP.So three solutions, all with their disadvantages. The best solution would have been for Microsoft to add an update to XP that would allow it to recognize Vista's restore points. So far this has not happened, even with the release of the SP3 update for XP. :( You can read more here:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926185

Even if you have independent installs on 2 separate hard drives (by keeping the other drive disconnecting during the install), restore points in Vista will still be deleted by XP once you boot up XP with the Vista drive connected. I know this from personal experience. :( Basically the bottom line is, if XP sees Vista, it will delete Vista's restore points. Vista's restore points are written in a different "shadow copy" format that XP doesn't recognize. XP thinks it is corrupted data and simply deletes it. There are a few work-arounds to this problem, all of which unfortunately have their drawbacks.1. One option to keep the Vista drive disconnected whenever you boot up XP, so XP never sees the Vista drive. This is a hassle to do every time and not really practical.2. Another option is a registry tweak explained by Microsoft. The disadvantage here is that whenever you use XP, you will not be able to access any data on the Vista drive.3. The third option is to use the Bitlocker function on Vista. However Bitlocker only comes with the Vista Ultimate and Enterprise editions. And even using Bitlocker, you still will not be able to access data on the Vista drive if you are in XP.So three solutions, all with their disadvantages. The best solution would have been for Microsoft to add an update to XP that would allow it to recognize Vista's restore points. So far this has not happened, even with the release of the SP3 update for XP. :( You can read more here:http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926185

Thanks. Well option 1 is quite impracticable and as I have Vista Home Premium option 3 is out also so that leaves option 2. However,in my case the only stuff on the Vista partition will be the Vista install so no problem if XP can't access it. Just one question, if your XP system restore only scans the XP system partition (which only has the XP install) will it still delete Vista restore points?Bruceb

Even if you have independent installs on 2 separate hard drives (by keeping the other drive disconnecting during the install), restore points in Vista will still be deleted by XP once you boot up XP with the Vista drive connected. I know this from personal experience. :(

Is this true if you boot using the BIOS only?

Just one question, if your XP system restore only scans the XP system partition (which only has the XP install) will it still delete Vista restore points?

It is not XP's System Restore that is causing the problem. So even if you turn off XP's System Restore on other drives and partitions, XP still will delete Vista's restore points. It is the programmed behavior of XP itself that is causing the problem.Whenever XP boots up, it looks for all drives and partitions in the system and obtains the file system information on each of these, so it can correctly register them to allow you to gain access to these volumes in the OS. When it sees a Vista partition (at bootup), it recognizes it as an NTFS volume, but cannot recognize the file structure of Vista's 'shadow copy' restore points and sees them as invalid and corrupted data - and then immediately deletes them.It is important to note that the deletion of the Vista restore points takes place during XP's bootup process, and has nothing to do with XP's own System Restore process. So whether you turn off XP's System Restore to any or all of the partitions, this will not stop XP from deleting Vista's restore points.

Is this true if you boot using the BIOS only?

No, if you boot up just only into the BIOS, you are safe. If you boot up into Vista in a dual-boot setup, you are safe. If you boot up into Linux with an multi-boot setup, you are safe.:( But once Windows XP starts booting, if it ever sees a Vista partition or drive, XP will delete ALL the Vista restore points on that volume. :(