Dual Boot XP & Windows 7 Question

I have two computers; each system has two HD’s with XP on one disk and Windows 7 on a second HD. In both cases, Windows 7 was installed after XP was installed and running for some time. When I boot pc#1, a menu pops up and I’m given the choice of booting XP or Windows 7. PC#2 does not give me any choices – I must go into the bios and switch drives in order to boot either XP or Windows 7!!

I’ve tried to add a new line to the XP boot.ini file (see below) but I get an error something like ntoskrnl missing.


[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
new line here
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows 7" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

Windows 7 doesn't use boot.ini for its boot. The easiest way to fix your issue is by installing a third party program call EasyBCD in Windows 7 and add the XP installation using it.
Download EasyBCD 2.0.2 - NeoSmart Technologies

Thank you for the suggestion, I will give that a try.

You don't have to switch boot order every time in the BIOS; use the one-time BIOS Boot Menu key instead to boot the HD which is not set first to boot. This keeps the HD's independent to come and go as you please. Creating a Windows-managed Dual Boot with EasyBCD will interlock the HD's so that surgery is requierd to remove one.

That was an excellent suggestion - got dual boot working in a matter of minutes!!

Thanks again