Windows 7: Dual boot ... XP and 7 ... XP as primary

Ok, I've about had it with Windows 7... way too many problems and way too much time soaked up accomplishing nothing. I'm going back to XP where everything worked and kept on workking.... But I still need Windows 7 for compatibility testing of software I'm working on.

Can anyone point me to a good walkthrough of setting up XP and Seven in dual boot with XP as the primary/default OS?

Just read something like this:

How to Dual Boot Windows 7 with XP or Vista - windows 7 - Lifehacker

Or something better like this - Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

Put them on separate HD's, set XP as primary HD to boot first (after DVD drive), then if needed trigger Windows 7 using one-time Boot Menu key.

Tell you what... I did a rough setup shortly after opening this thread and XP went in really nicely, less than 5 minutes to install a stripped down version from CD. When I put in Windows 7 it #$%#$ up my permissions and I suddenly couldn't access my backup drive and my newly created partitions were telling me I didn't have access... So, rather than get into another month long battle, I trashed the whole thing, put in XP, restored my backups and now it's all up and running as I write this... All I need to do tomorrow is reinstall my software and I'm back in business just like this last month never happened.

Sorry to hear about your problems, but if you'd bring each problem here to the forums as they arise then we could help you work through them instead of just hearing how bad they are.

There isn't much triumph returning to an XPired operating system which won't even be supported in a year.

Stick with it, in the end you will win!
You have to remember what one of the prime directives for MS is to increase computer sales and IT department size.
I was installing Mac and PC when Win 95 came out. Our support for 95 was like 10X the Mac and the boss said that given the profit difference we would do no more Mac systems. There is money to be made or spent here, what side do you really want to be on?

If the two hard drive option is available to you it is best.
That way you can have your XP and eat it too.

Well, that's the thing... I still have people using win2000 and refusing to upgrade unless something "clearly better" comes along... and it hasn't. The flat truth is that if Win2k would support HDAudio and SATA drives, I'd still be usiing it myself.

Operating systems don't expire... They don't just quit working because Microsoft stops pushing out automatic updates (one of their worst ideas, btw).

I put a new video card (Nvidia GE 8400 GS, from ASUS) in a win2000 computer just the other day and guess what... the drivers loaded right up and it worked perfectly from the git go...

XP has a few years in it yet. As long as new hardware comes with compatible drivers it will stay alive and well.

But I'm not done with Windows 7 yet... I have clients using it, I will be carefully tracking the problems they have (I keep a service data base) and perhaps around the SP2 level I'll have enough confidence to try it again.... But for now I desperately need to get back to the productivity position that XP gave me. I can't be messing with drivers and bugs and lockups and permissions and networking and multimedia screwups forever, these machines are my living and my family's entertainment system... They are at the core of almost everything we do... they HAVE to work.

CommonTater, finally you gave up on 7 for now, eh?

Care to share what the "final push" was?

zzz2496

Dual boot was a bit of a disaster... Seems Windows 7 has no problem messing with XP's permission to access things and promptly prevented me from writing to my backup drive... Even XP wouldn't access it... Not Good!

But you are right. There are --as always-- hidden agenda at work and bumping hardware sales and giving the geeks jobs is definately part of it.

It's like the switch to HDTV... they could have gradually phased it over, introducing dual mode TVs and then slowly phasing out the old analog ones, keeping both sets of transmitters active until most everyone was switched over... and we would have thanked them. Instead they set a date, made people buy a LOT of televisions, scrapping a LOT of perfectly good televisions that now inhabit landfills all over the world... and all in the name of selling television sets. (My family and I looked at this, saw it coming and said ... "Ok, well dump our old analog TVs... but we're not replacing them. So we've been a TV-less family for the past couple of years... and loving it!)

Microsoft --and the computer industry in general-- is not beyond such tactics and in fact the "Hardware compatibility tools" for XP, Vista and 7 were just that... a way to convince people to pay to have their machines upgraded or buy new computers, and quite often unnecessarily... I have an old 386 stuffed in a box someplace in the garage that runs XP Professional just fine.... So yes, there are market forces and profit grabs at work here as well.

If MS wanted to truly serve our best interests they would incrementally improve on the 2000 setup, moving it in small steps from it's origins to something very Windows 7 like... by releasing a series of paid updates... Want Aero? $49.95 and you got it... But no, they had to do this "leap in technology" thing that really amounts to an incredibly clever marketing tactic... Get a rock stable system out there, watch your profits nosedive; just like they did with XP. Introduce a piece of crap (Vista), let it piss people off... then ride in on your white stallion and it's Windows 7 to the rescue... People overlook (or don't know) how stable XP was and get all excited that MS has fixed the Vista problem.

Of course it's a marketing strategy... one enacted in years, not hours... It's kinda like Munchousens by Proxy for the digital world.... and you're right, it does work.