Safe Dual Boot Question

steve-pressman said:

I have win 7 on my SSD drive and I also want to install Win XP on my 1TB drive, I know what to do and how, my question is that I have noticed that the installation folder 100 MB from Win 7 is also located on my 1TB drive. Can I still install XP on that safely? I don't want to dual boot off the SSD.

Steve

You need that 100 Mb folder. If you create a seperate partition for XP shouldnt be a problem, but backup just in case.

Ken

Steve, can you please post back a screenshot of your full Disk Management drive map, using SNipping Tool in Start Menu?

If the 100mb partiition you refer to doesn't show, then please install free Partition Wizard to get a Snip since it should show it.

It is highly unusual for Win7 installer to place the 100mb on a separate HD from Win7. I personally would remove it and recover the SYstem MBR into Win7, unless you use bitlocker or want the "Repair My Computer" console which it places on Advanced Boot Tools accessed by tapping F8 at startup.

If you want, we can give you the steps to recover the System MBR into Win7 so you can delete the 100mb partition, then unplug Win7 while you install XP to the 1tb HD. Or you can even move the 100mb onto Win7 HD using PW bootable CD if you prefer.

Ken and others may have a different perspective but I think your best move is to delete the SysReserved partition from DISK0 and recover the MBR into Win7.

This way you benefit from having the OS's on two separate HD's which can boot via the BIOS and remain independent to come and go as you please.

Back up your files and a Win7 Backup image so you can start over if necessary.

Use Partition Wizard bootable CD. Rightclick Sys Reserved partition>Delete, OK. You can Resize the adjacent partition to include the deleted space or make a partition space for XP at the same time, but use the booted XP CD later to Create and Format the XP partition as the partition table is slightly different.

Now rightclick Win7 partition>Modify>Set to Active, OK, Apply all steps.

Make sure Win7 HD is set to boot first in BIOS setup, after DVD drive.

Now boot Win7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD, click through to Recovery Tools list to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times to write the MBR to Win7 now that it is marked Active.

When installing XP, unplug the WIn7 HD so that XP creates its own System Active MBR and the two remain independent booting via the BIOS.

Set your preferred OS HD to boot first (after DVD) in BIOS boot order, then boot the other HD using the F-key given for Boot Menu on the first bootup screen.

If you don't want to lose the Sys Reserved partition, then it is possible to copy it to DISK1 after Resizing Win7 to make room for it. You'd need to repair the MBR afterward using DVD.