Windows 7 Dual Boot with XP

Hi Robert, it is a Dell Dimension XPS 600 Gen 3 - 3.4GHz and I am somewhat familiar with the bios but not sure about these two points. I did read in the manual the following, "NOTE: If you insert a boot device and restart the computer, this option appears in the system setup menu. To boot from a USB memory device, select the USB device and move it so it becomes the first device in the list." so does that mean it will show both drives after I install the Win 7 on the one and then hookup the other and reboot? I have changed the boot sequence many times but all I have seen is boot from CD ROM, SATA drive, floppy drive, USB device etc... but it only lists the one SATA hard drive but will that change when I have two of them each with an OS? I am not too familiar with Win 7 yet so I don't know about it's boot manager but I have seen the one in EasyBCD so I imagine it is the same?

rcblythe said:

Hi Robert, it is a Dell Dimension XPS 600 Gen 3 - 3.4GHz and I am somewhat familiar with the bios but not sure about these two points. I did read in the manual the following, "NOTE: If you insert a boot device and restart the computer, this option appears in the system setup menu. To boot from a USB memory device, select the USB device and move it so it becomes the first device in the list." so does that mean it will show both drives after I install the Win 7 on the one and then hookup the other and reboot? I have changed the boot sequence many times but all I have seen is boot from CD ROM, SATA drive, floppy drive, USB device etc... but it only lists the one SATA hard drive but will that change when I have two of them each with an OS? I am not too familiar with Win 7 yet so I don't know about it's boot manager but I have seen the one in EasyBCD so I imagine it is the same?

I can't say for sure because I don't own one, but the Dell web site says that the boot menu key is F12. So instead of pressing F2 to enter the BIOS, you would press F12 and a boot menu would appear allowing you to choose. Now Dell severely limits the options available in their BIOS menus, but you should see all the hard drives in the boot menu so you can choose.

Another temporary option is to actually enter the BIOS and set the hard drive of choice as first in boot order. Usually this is two steps. Step one is to set hard drive as first in boot order. Step two is to set the order of the hard drives.

One last option, when all else fails, I have connected the hard drive to the SATA post that makes it show up to the BIOS as the first hard drive. Hope you won't have to go that far though.

Cheers!

Set the preferred HD to boot first in BIOS boot order, after DVD drive.

Then use the F12 BIOS Boot Menu shortcut key at bootup to trigger the other HD instead.

Hi Iseeuu, Ok so far it is good and I was able to install Win 7 without a problem and can boot into Win 7 just fine but my only problem now is when I boot into Win XP it is giving me an error saying to put in the XP disk because there is a problem with /ntldr so can I do this without messing up the Win 7 OS? Thanks King64 I will look at your link as soon as I install my Acrobat.

rcblythe said:

Hi Iseeuu, Ok so far it is good and I was able to install Win 7 without a problem and can boot into Win 7 just fine but my only problem now is when I boot into Win XP it is giving me an error saying to put in the XP disk because there is a problem with /ntldr so can I do this without messing up the Win 7 OS? Thanks King64 I will look at your link as soon as I install my Acrobat.

OK this is not hard to fix. First, what happens when the hard drive with XP is the only hard drive plugged in and you boot the computer?

Not sure but I could try it, almost posative that it would boot fine. I did notice that when I am in Win 7 and look at the drives the one with XP does not show so does this mean anything?

rcblythe said:

Not sure but I could try it, almost posative that it would boot fine. I did notice that when I am in Win 7 and look at the drives the one with XP does not show so does this mean anything?

That is not a good sign, no. If you can boot to XP with no problem when it is the only hard drive, the fix should be easy.

Did you install Win7 with XP HD uplugged?

Make sure XP HD is assigned a letter in Win7 Disk Mgmt.

While both HD's are plugged in: Can you post back a screenshot of your full Win7 Disk management drive map, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu attaching file using Paper Clip in Reply Box.

OK so I looked in the Win 7 disk manager and there is no letter assigned to XP so what letter do I assign it?