Windows 7: Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

Yea... hitting F12 at the right moment and booting to the XP HD may be easy for me. But its not simple and clear cut like it needs to be for my wife and parents.

I would like for there to be an option to select from like they are used to. Can we make this happen?

Then post back a screenshot of your full Disk Mgmt drive map from XP with both drives plugged in, as well as EasyBCD 2.0 listings. Use Snipping tool in Start Menu, attach using Paper Clip in Reply box.

Was XP HD plugged in when you installed Windows 7 on the other HD? It should have configured a Dual Boot unless probs exist which may be revealed by the screenshot.

OMG... My brilliant nieghbor who claimed to have done this 1000x times said to right click my windows7 drive and say make active then reboot.

Now my system wont boot into windows7. It says missing boot file and to hit cnrtl alt del to restart...

Why did i listen to him !! ugh

Since you've now marked Windows 7 partition Active, power down to unplug the XP HD then boot to the Windows 7 DVD or Repair CD to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times on Windows 7: Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times

Once Windows 7 starts on its own, power down to plug back in XP HD then boot either via the BIOS, or install EasyBCD 2.0 to Windows 7 to Add XP which is easier to accomplish.

here is a screenshot of my disk mngt window
as of now, the pc will boot to win 7 but easybcd still dont add the dual boot option
havnt tried the 3 repair

Since the repair was run with XP drive still plugged in, it's removed the System Active boot files from XP to Windows 7.

See if you can now remove XP listing from EasyBCD Edit Boot Menu tab, then Add it back.

If not, unplug Windows 7 HD, set XP HD as first to boot in BIOS setup, run an XP Repair Install: Repair Windows XP - How To Perform a Repair Installation of Windows XP - Part 1 of 2

After XP is repaired and System Active itself again, power down to plug back in Windows 7 and boot either via BIOS.

good god. 19 step xp repair is needed? with a special xp disk with special drivers becuase i have a sata HD !?

making the Windows 7 partition active and unpluggin the xp drive then the Windows 7 3 repair wont work anymore like you mentioned before?

and when i went into eaxybcd edit boot menu tab, xp wasnt there. when i add it and write it, its gone after the restart.

You have already repaired Windows 7 to make it System Active. It boots correctly. It can't be repaired any more than that.

The issue now is XP, which has lost its System Active status when Windows 7 was repaired while XP HD was plugged in.

This is OK if XP will now boot via the BIOS one-time Boot Menu Key, or EasyBCD 2.0 will Add XP and then Save it until it restarts to a Dual Boot menu.

If not then all I can suggest is to Repair XP which will allow it to boot via BIOS.

I will perform the XP repair this weekend and post the results. Thank you so much for your help.

Steve

gregrocker if you're still there ...

here is screenshot of my 2 500gb HD's.

http://img69.imageshack.us/img69/2649/25612521.jpg

On disk 0 are the 2 part's from install of Windows 7-64 Home Prem. OEM.
On disk 1 are the 2 part's from Partition Wiz backup of disk 0 + ntfs stuff from an old system.

I need dual-boot Windows 7 and XP.

I should start by consolidating the Windows 7 into a single partition?

Any guidance, suggestions, etc would be appreciated. This looks like a nasty little mess.

Thx,
P