Windows 7 - Dual boot from within Windows 7 - XP

Hi, firstly what a great forum - I have found so much informative stuff from here, I thought it was time to register .

Anyway if this thread is a repeat, please redirect me and delete this thread, but I could not find anything that covers my problem.

I am currently the Operations Lead for a BF2 Modification called Project Reality, which is quite a popular game, but am having a few problems at the moment.


I installed Windows 7 - build 7000 when it first came out, as a dual boot, I liked it so much I carried out a full install and removed XP.

Everything worked fine up until a week ago, where I can now longer launch the game I develop ....lol, as it runs of the BF2 exe that means it is reliant when in multiplayer mode on Punkbuster, from evenbalance.com (an anti cheat programme).

This occurred I think when I carried out a Windows 7 Update. Looking into it I now know that Windows 7 and Punbuster are not compatible, and the statement from evenbalance.com, is that they will not support a Beta OS, which is fine I understand.


Therefore I decided to create a partition in Windows 7, assign it a drive letter, and then reboot it to install XP on that new drive.

All goes fine until XP does it initial reboot to continue its install, and it comes up with

"Disk error press ctl / alt / del to restart" ............. and thats it - nothing from then on in.

I had to use the Windows 7 DVD to "repair" the OS and then get it back on.

So for some reason I can not create a dual boot from within this OS.


Can anyone advise if I am doing something wrong here, or if mentioned before pass me a link on ?



Thank you


Craig

Hi, try this, and there are more similar at the bottom of the page,hope this helps .Dual Boot XP / Windows 7 won't start

Hello Craig.

If the above post doesn't help you with your issue, you could also try the following:

1. Repeat your method until XP does its first reboot and crashes.
2. Boot again from XP CD, and at the setup welcome screen press "R" to enter recovery console.
3. In recovery console (DOS command line) , select your windows xp installation (if given) and press enter, otherwise it will just dump you to C:\, which is what we want anyway.
4. Type fixboot and press enter. (answer "yes" if asked to confirm)
5. Type fixmgr and press enter. (answer "yes" if asked to confirm)
6. Reboot from hard disk and see if XP setup can continue now.

In any case, (even if XP finally installs or not) you will need to run Windows 7 DVD and perform a repair (even if XP succeeds to install) cause you will lose the Windows 7 boot loader. But if XP succeeds, doing a Windows 7 repair will bring you Dual boot options at startup, which is what you want.

Hope it helps.

hello, I am new here but I think I can get my answers here better than any other sites. I have a brand new HP G60t laptop w/ Intel celeron running Windows 7 ultimate. I just allocated a 5gb partition and formatted it to install and DUAL-BOOT windows XP on. this is what happened during the windows XP installation, after it tells me to install XP in the 5gb partition and starts copying files and reboots for the first time, it boots to a blinking cursor on the upper-left-hand corner and that's it. WHAT HAPPENED? Please help, how can I fix this so that I can see the Windows XP GUI installation running. Thanks.