Windows 7: Setup a Dual Boot Window 7 (main), XP Pro secondary

Have three HD's (1=W&, 2=storage & 3=want XP Pro)

This is what I did to try and have a dual boot system (Windows 7 & XP Pro). I unplugged one HD with Windows 7 & and the other for storage only. I left the 3rd HD plugged up and installed XP pro (updated and working properly independently).

I shut the PC off and plugged in the SATA cables as before (NOTE: had the master SATA cable in the 3rd HD). When I booted up, it the Boot mgr is missing. After a couple of restarts, Windows 7 booted up and the 3rd HD was showing in My Computer. I installed EasyBCD (1.7.2) in Windows 7 and tried to configure dual boot, but it wouldn't boot to XP, just Windows 7. I uninstalled EasyBCD and Windows 7 still boots up OK.

I am not that familiar with setting the SATA in the BIOS. I have attached my Mother Board layout and SATA settings.
Can someone look at it and tell me what to do in the BIOS to have a dual boot system?

You might want to post a snipping tool picture of your Disk Management window. Attach it using the paperclip.

Do you have the 100 mb System Reserved Partition? It can cause problems with XP, but if you download the latest beta EasyBCD 2, build 79, it deals better with Windows 7. You will have to join the forum to be able to download.

The basic process involves adding the XP entry to the BCD store, so it will be on the boot menu and then putting the XP boot files on the Win 7 System partition.

There will be some more folks along soon to help. But one note, the SATA cables do determine the disk number, but not the primary drive for booting purposes. That has to be set in the bios under Drive order, or whatever you show.

You may want to review the guide for seeing XP added in after 7. Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

If all 3 HDs are sata with the 7 drive seen as HD0 you set that as the default boot device in the boot section in the bios itself. You will need to unhide the XP boot files(ntldr, NTDETECT.COM, boot.ini) over to the root of the 7 drive. The menu bar>Tools>Folder Options>View is the place to go to uncheck the hide protected OS files and files with known extensions items.

Once those are copied over the boot.ini file copy will need to be edited from the default "rdisk(0)partiion 1" to "rdisk(3)partition 1" in order to use the EasyBCD to see XP added into the 7 BCD store and seen as the "previous version of Windows" option at startup.

The 1.7.2 will replace the 7 boot screen with that for Vista and Saltgrass pointed to the 2.0 beta for that. Pay attention to Method Two in the guide however dealing with XP after 7.

Thanks for the ideas and I will give it a shot. I will give an update soon.

Check out your other post:

3rd disk partition(HD) not showing up during OS install

If any further probs, post back a screenshot of your full Disk management drive map using Snipping Tool in Start menu, attach file using paper clip in reply box.

Looked it over there as well. The problem with the installation with the XP installer was likely the lack of a sata driver disk at first. Unlike the Vista and 7 installers the XP installer won't see sata drives on it's own.

The drive theme of XP on HD1 instead of HD2 with 7 on HD0. As for installing after 7 the need to unplug any drives was unnecessary while you would have had to repair the 7 mbr afterwards simply custom installing XP to one of the other drives.

With the 7 mbr corrected you then have the XP boot files already present at the root of the 7 drive to then add XP in with the EasyBCD tool. The other option to simply have XP as a stand alone would be bringing up the boot device menu to select the XP drive whenever the older version was going to be booted into leaving 7 set as the default in the bios boot order.

Thanks to Knight Hawk for your input, but I have not had a chance to try anything yet. Could someone look at my dick magagement snap shot as gregrocker suggested? I think the drives are set wrong.

As you will see, G: drive has XP loaded on it.

Assuming C is Windows 7 and D is XP, since you don't say. Why is G data drive marked active? It should not be.

Install EasyBCD 2.0 beta after doing quick registration to use beta. Remove any XP listing and then Add XP on Add/Remove tab by Name, Type. It will prompt you to add boot files, then autocomplete.

If this fails, what I would do is mark G data drive inactive or move XP drive into DISK0 slot, since the Windows 7 installer looks for first Active drive to place MBR.

Then run a Windows 7 Repair Install to correctly configure the Dual Boot as Windows 7 does when installed last.