Dual boot winxp & win 7

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  1. Posts : 33
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
       #1

    Dual boot winxp & win 7


    I've got 2 drives with OS on them - my old one with winxp, and my new one with win7. I was thinking it could be a good thing to be able to boot the winxp drive, if I'd like to run something from that installation. Is this possible? How would you configure this?
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  2. Posts : 6,243
    win 7 ultimate32bit, Win8.1pro wmc 32bit
       #2

    hi quano, you could use bcdedit to acheive what you are after BCDEDIT - How to Use hope that helps :)
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  3. Posts : 33
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Can't get it to work, my computer will instantly reboot when selecting the Windows XP option in the boot loader. I tried setting the drive to another drive letter in bcdedit, which doesn't have win xp on it, and then the boot loader gave me an error message instead when I tried to load winxp. So I suppose it is sort of working, it just crashes or somehow fails to load winxp when using the correct drive letter. Any ideas?

    The drive letter I'm supposed to give it is the one that shows up as winxp in windows 7, right? Because previously, my winxp drive was C drive, but in win7 that drive seems to be E, looking at the contents.
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  4. Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       #4

    Hello quano, welcome to Seven Forums!



    Leave both drives connected and do a startup repair on the Windows 7 with the W 7 install disk, that should get you the boot option menu at bootup; have a look at the tutorial at the link below.

    Startup Repair
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  5. Posts : 6,243
    win 7 ultimate32bit, Win8.1pro wmc 32bit
       #5

    yes the ntldr labels the xp installation as "E" drive , did you run the bcdedit as administrator and followed the guide to the letter, i myself have never used bcdedit ,so dont feel competent enough to assist you any further but please be patient another member will be along shortly and pick up on the thread

    along came BFK while iwas typing my reply thanks BFK
    Last edited by pebbly; 04 Apr 2010 at 07:10. Reason: added info
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  6.   My Computer


  7. Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       #7

    pebbly said:



    along came BFK while iwas typing my reply thanks BFK


    That's how a team works pebbly!
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  8. Posts : 33
    Windows 7 Home Premium x64
    Thread Starter
       #8

    Bare Foot Kid said:
    Hello quano, welcome to Seven Forums!



    Leave both drives connected and do a startup repair on the Windows 7 with the W 7 install disk, that should get you the boot option menu at bootup; have a look at the tutorial at the link below.

    Startup Repair

    Thanks!

    Startup repair did not find any issues.


    The first article doesn't seem to cover my problem, as it assumes only one OS is installed. Besides, I did what it said (installing win 7 on a new drive), yet I did not get a boot screen like the one there. Instead it boots directly into Win7 (by default).

    EasyBCD - I already tried this when using bcd. It's still a bcd-method, and it does not work.

    Maybe something isn't quite right with my harddrive setting, as it doesn't even show up in bios when selecting boot device. I don't know if all drives are supposed to be shown there or not. I've got 5 drives, and the only one showing up is the win 7 drive. Yet they're all accessable in win7.
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  9. Posts : 11,408
    ME/XP/Vista/Win7
       #9

    All HD's need to show in your BIOS.

    Which EasyBCD are you using?

    When using EasyBCD are you doing Step 14/15?
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  10. Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       #10

    Did you re-boot after the "startup repair"?



    Right click computer, manage, disk management, please post a screen shot / snip.


    A Preferred Method of Uploading/Posting Screen Shots
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