Windows 7 - Dual booting XP and 7?

So I'm currently dual booting XP and 7, so far no problems other than the fact that every time I want to boot into XP I have to change my SATA settings in the bios menu to ATA instead of AHCI I believe, is there any way around this?
Thanks

The AHCI driver needs to be loaded in XP. This is normally done when installing the OS, you have to add the driver during the installation.

In some cases you can install the new AHCI driver, when it asks for a re-boot go to BIOS and change the ATA setting to AHCI, then it should boot with the AHCI enabled. If you get a blue screen just re-boot and change the BIOS setting back to what it was previously.

This doesn't work on all computers, though I have done it on a Dell.
Backup your entire HD before trying this, preferably stored on a different physical HD.

The safest way is to re-install XP.

Hi there

if you SLIPSTREAM the SATA and chipset / AHCI drivers into your XP installation and update your system you should be fine. Then you won't need to change the BIOS.

Slipstream use nLite.

To save finding drivers etc just go to the Driverpacks site -- they are ALL there with a tutorial on performing the slipstream.

Just google on Driverpacks / slipstreal / nLite

Here's a link to get you started.

Integrate Drivers into Windows XP installation Disc | AgniPulse.Com

XP - even at SP3 level doesn't know anything about SATA drives.

The mandatory driverpacks are the Chipset LAN and Mass storage. I'd just add the lot - you only need to run your install once - it's not like you are installing loads of times.

Incidentally install XP FIRST then Windows 7 --saves messing around afterwards with easyBCD to fix the boot menu.

(Another solution is to re-install Windows 7 without the AHCI option - but as you've got SATA drives I wouldn't do that as you are throwing away disk performance).

Cheers
jimbo

Just a thought, but why not go VM with XM, and place it under Windows 7? No real reason to dual boot any longer, and I bet all your boot up woes would be resolved, and your time to boot into XP would be reduced too since you would no longer have to mess with BIOS settings.

Except for the many good reasons to dual boot... Not to mention you would be hindering the performance of Windows XP by running it within Windows 7.

And what if Windows 7 failed to boot one day? You certainly wouldn't be able to launch your VM.. But you could easily boot into XP as a spare.

You are such a pessimist! When was the last time Winders failed to boot?

Haha, i had windows blue screening me every time I tried to boot it at one point no matter what I did. I ended up just replacing the hard drive.

At any rate I'm using Sun VirtualBox to run XP at the moment. The only problem I'm having is I wanted to dual boot XP so I could run the driver XBCD for my modded xbox controller so I can use it to play games on my computer, since it doesn't work well on Windows 7, or at least I haven't gotten it to. Anyways got off-topic, the only problem is getting it to read the USB devices too, in this case the xbox controller.
I know the controller works because I tested it on an XP laptop and it worked fine.

Definitely good to have a backup OS. I'm in the same situation.

I had XP installed and then installed Windows 7 on a different hard drive. Then I decided to "upgrade" my XP to XP Pro w/SP3 and when I boot up I no longer have the option to go into Windows 7.

Good thing there is really nothing on my Windows 7 install, however, so I can probably just re-install Windows 7.

Now, if I can just use the Windows 7 boot disc to make Windows 7 and XP both bootable, that would be sweet.

You won't be hindering the performance of XP as an OS at all by running it in a VM...that's the point of Intel's VT technology. You also are forgetting, with a dual boot system, it is possible to render both OSes as non-bootable very easily as well. These boards are littered with people who have done just that.

So yes, dual-booting is dead, and it would be nice to see more people leaving it as dead, and using the newer, more convenient technology in front of us. VMs offer many benefits that a dual-boot system doesn't offer, starting with simplicity.

Well, well, well. This acutally is what I did. Just booted up from the Windows 7 CD, chose to do a "System Recovery" and it found my Windows 7 installation. I selected the "Startup Repair" and rebooted. Now I can access both Windows 7 and XP, with Windows 7 being default.

I know this is not a big problem (after all) but if you do end up installing WinXP after Windows 7, this is how you would get back to being able to get into Windows 7 without any third-party doo-wap.

Just to be thorough, here is a link to some tutorials on this forum that walk you through a repair. I didn't use them since most of my research on XP/Windows 7 conflicts seemed to lead down the wrong path and I was dreading the worst ... but, this simple process works.

System Recovery Options
Startup Repair