Windows 7: XP and Windows 7 Dual boot issue

Hi,

Hopefully someone can help me out here....

I originally had win XP installed in my computer... I upgraded to Windows 7 through the internet download process.

A while after I found this tutorial and decided that I wanted to dual boot XP (I have the original XP disc) in my machine. When I tried installing XP and it got to the point where it need to restart to continue the installation, it never proceeds. It just stays black with a cursor display.

When I try to restart the computer without the XP disc so I can try and get into 7 it also doesnt boot up and just gives me the cursor blinking.

Any idea what happened?

Ive tried reinstalling XP many times without any success.

Try installing the XP first and then install Windows 7
Unlike Windows 7 - XP is not backward compatible and its messing up the boot sector for Windows 7

Put your Windows 7 disc into the drive,when the pc is loading up press F12 to open boot options>boot from the dvd drive.

When you get into the Windows 7 disc>click repair>Select yourwin7 os>next>Run start up repair x3 (it sometimes take more than one attempt.)

If that does not work,go back into the repair console and enter the command promt section and type bootrec /fixmbr
This should try fixing the boot loader,and then you can select which OS to boot into.

Also can you download Partiton Wizard Boot dosc from another PC and burn it.
Free Download Partition Wizard

Boot from this>select 1 for resolution>OK to the warnings.
Then have a look at your disc management.
Both partitons should be set as primary and active and NTFS.
If you change any of the options using partiton wizard make sure you click apply after each change.

I dont have the windows 7 disc as I downloaded it when it came out from microsoft.

I could go into the repair console though through the win xp disc that I have. I tried going around to the partition for Windows 7, but it told me that I needed an Admin password, which i have not set up. Is there a generic password like 0000 or something like that?

If i do that I will lose the information that I have stored on the win 7 partition, because I would have to reformat.

It's pretty important to have a 7 disc.

Microsoft Fixes Windows 7 Student Edition Upgrade Problems

Then you have the system recovery options available.

Another important thing is to make regular backup images of your partitions - you can always restore a recent image if you get into trouble.




PARAGON:

Paragon Backup & Recovery 10 Free Edition

How to Create an Image with Paragon B&R 10

How to Restore Data with Paragon B&R 10


MACRIUM:

Macrium Reflect FREE Edition - Information and download

How to create a disk image with Macrium Reflect

How to create the Macrium Linux rescue CD

How to recover your PC using the Linux rescue CD

Is the MS tool to write flash stick or DVD as good as UltraISO or Imgburn to recommend?

This looks great and seems to include everything needed to image target partitions and restore to HD. Would this also be the best option to copy over an OS partition now? Anything missing?


Thanks for these great finds.

Well.. backup would be great if I could get into windows. I will try the ISO and see if that helps!!

Thanks!!!

Here are links to download and burn the Win 7 Repair Console to CD: Multi-boot/Dual-Boot Windows XP on Windows 7

When you can get to your Windows 7 ISO or files, here is how to compile either into a bootable ISO which you can burn from the same program:

Make bootable iso from student d/l

Bootable ISO - Create from Installation Files

All of these are also from SIW2's posts and tutorials.

If you hit shift + F10, at the black screen, does it do anything?

If your hit ctrl+alt+del, does that do anything?

Do you know anyone that has a Win 7 DVD, any version...?

Just for your general reading pleasure ...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529