windows 8 and windows xp

[chrisssssss]

can i have windowns 32 bit and windows 8 64 bit on the same computer with a partitioned hard drive

 

[WinOutreach2]

Yes, as each environment is self-contained with its own drivers, kernel, etc. you can have two operating systems on the same hardware with different architectures so long as the hardware is compatible. Configuring the boot loader is fairly easy; just remember that the Windows XP boot loader is incapable of booting modern operating systems like Windows 7 and Windows 8. To install both, simply install Windows XP first followed by Windows 8. Windows 8 setup will detect the older version of Windows and add it to the Boot Configuration Database (BCD).

If you have any issues with boot, perhaps because Windows 8 has been installed already, you can still restore the BCD and boot files for Windows 8 using BootRec and BCDEdit tools. The instructions are provided at this link. To summarize, the commands are:

bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup
c:
cd boot
attrib bcd -s -h -r
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
bootrec /RebuildBcd

You can also accomplish the same task of having both environments available using Client Hyper-V, which is available in Windows 8 Professional and Enterprise. Using Client Hyper-V you can have a virtual Windows XP environment that you can access from within Windows 8, eliminating the need to restart the system to switch environments. If you do not have Windows 8 Professional or Enterprise, you can use Add Features and an applicable product key to upgrade as explained here.

If you are unfamiliar with Client Hyper-V or virtualization technologies, there is a great video on Client Hyper-V and Why It Matters available here.