Windows 7: Dualboot

Hello I have 3 Hard Drives. I had 2 Win XP on two different hard drives. I have formated one of those hard drives and put Win 7 here. But each time I turn on pc there is no OS choosing. It just boots to the Win 7... How to enable choice of OS I want boot to?

It will only dual boot if both operating systems are on the same HD.

From what you have said, one HD has only Windows 7 and is set as the primary boot device, correct?

Should we guess which one ?

Yes, but on my previous PC I had two hard drives, one OS on each (7 and XP) and everything was fine.... Boot menu appeared each reboot.

I just need to get the choice of the OS :X

EDIT: 2Chuckr: This is my home computer, now I am working on different computer

Sorry Schaft, but that's not correct.

They can be on different HDD's

Windows 7 doesn't even have to be on the active partition, as long as the Windows 7 boot files are on the active partition.

To answer the OP

To incorporate XP in the boot sequence, you could download easybcd.
You can add OS's to the boot sequences with it, among other things.

If you need help with it, check back here.

Or you could simply enter the BIOS at boot time to determine which drive you want to boot to...

Go in the bios every time you want to boot the other OS??
I don't see how that would be useful.

Wouldn't dual booting be a more practical solution?

Hi there

Something is screwed up -- download EasyBcd - this should fix it.

The only requirement is for the BOOTLOADER to be on an active partition -- otherwise OS'es can be on ANY hard disk you like (or at least AFAIK on the first 4) -- the Bootloader will ensure that the Windows OS booted will see the OS disk as drive "C".

Note also that in this scenario your 2nd or 3rd OS (if Windows systems) will see the drives (apart from its own "C" drive) with different letters -- for example drive "E" on OS 1 might be Drive "F" on OS 2.

Cheers
jimbo

Hey Jimbo, you sound like a parrot.

This what you wrote,

.

This is what I wrote a few posts back

No hard feelings, just too funny!

This works, but only if you have an independent boot record on each drive. To accomplish that you have to physically disconnect drives B and C whilst you are installing on drive A - etc.
I personally like this method of installation and switching the OS via the BIOS boot sequence. No mess with the boot record and when you want to uninstall one system, you need not fumble with the boot record either. But you have to open the box and pull the appropriate wires during the installation of each OS. I guess it is either that or EasyBCD.