How to Dual Boot Windows XP and Windows 8. The only thing that is required in order to dual boot is a hard drive with at least 20 Gigs of free space, it will work with a bit less but this is the minimum I recommend.
Dual Booting Windows XP and Windows 8
To get started we need to separate 20 Gigs from the Windows XP hard drive, to do this we need to create a new partition. You can do this by downloading a free program called Partition Magic
Once you Download and installed double click to run. you will see a snap shot of your hard drive on the bottom portion right click and select re-size from the context menu
You are now going to need to shrink the drive C: 20 Gigs for your Windows 8. To shrink the drive grab the Handle and move it creating a 20 Gigs partition. Remember that there is 1024 megabytes in a gig so in our example we shrink 20 gigs which is20480 megabytes because 20*1024=20480.
Note: You cant make the partition smaller than the used space on the drive.
Then Click OK, Apply, Yes to the warning and finally click yes again so the changes can take effect.
The Computer will re-start and you would have a partition to install Windows 8
Installation Process of Windows 8:
If you haven’t yet downloaded a copy of the Windows 8 Developers Preview Click here and grab yourself a copy. Once you have burned the ISO to a DVD you might have to into the BIOS and Change the boot order but since you dual booting pre-beta software we’ll assume you capable of that much. If you see the words “press any key to boot from CD or DVD” quickly press any key on your keyboard to begin installation.
Once you have selected your languages then your are ready to install Windows 8. So click the install button to get started.
You will be asked to accept the license agreement, fill the check box and click next to move on to the installation. You should choose the Custom installation option.
Note: You will have to make a critical decision. If you Choose the wrong partition to install Windows 8 it will result in data loss so make sure to choose the one that we created earlier.
Once you have selected the partition, click next. The installation will start.
Once the installation in complete you will be asked to give your PC a name, then click on the next button.
Choose express settings but feel free to choose custom option and specify your own settings.
Create a local account. We want a local account so we’ll click the link that says Don’t want to log in with a Windows Live ID.Then we’ll choose local account on the next page.
Video Tutorial:
