Windows 7: Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

There may be some potential problems with installing sw:

Say, in XP,
you install something with a Batch/Command file that references the Ext drive, which is H:

If the sw is executable under Windows 7, it won't work right (missing files),
because now the Ext drive is G:

The reverse situation (install under Windows 7, run from XP) would produce the same kind of results,
due to the "drive renaming".

There could be undesirable results here, if Windows 7 "writes" to E: Virtual drive, and
the same pgm executed under XP, writes to E:, which is now E: for Windows XP SP3 x86....

Just gotta 'keep an eye out'...
(The old: "Hey, where did it go?", or: "It never did that before!!!")

well as i said they all work pretty well and i dont want to mess things up thanks all for your help

Hello and thanks in advance for your help.
I got this situation with Dual Booting Windows 7 and Windows XP.
Scenario:
A Laptop with a 320GB HDD, partitioned like in the screenshot (taken from Windows 7, let me know if it's need one taken from WinXP).


In the second partition I installed WinXP and then (mean after, like in Method Two of this "How To") in the third one I installed Windows 7. No problems with the installation of Windows 7.
I've made a backup of my BCD store, and here is the actual output of bcdedit.exe:


Well my problem is like this: If after a reboot I select WinXP in the menu, the next time the system reboot (right after I finish working within WinXP), it presents the next screen:


The "\Boot\BCD", should be in the second partition i.e. the WinXP partition (drive letter "C:"), but it is missing. What I do is, to recover the Windows 7 through the Recovery Environment from the Windows 7 DVD Installation. Then manually insert the WinXP ({ntldr}) object to the BCD store, but as I already explained after a WinXP reboot I get this screen, if I reboot and work with Windows 7 everything goes normal.
So the big question is, how do I fix this...

You should be able to get the dual boot working like this:

Copy and paste ntldr, boot.ini and ntdtect.com from Xp partition onto 7 partition.

In Disk Management , mark 7 partition Active.

Boot 7 dvd and run startup repair 3 times.

7 will now be the System partition.

Add XP entry to bcd .

It doesn't solve the mystery of your physically disappearing Boot folder - but it shouldn't also happen on the 7 partition.

Exactly which 'bcdedit' command do you use for this?

And, what was in that 'First' tiny partition, forcing you to install XP to the 'Second' partition?
Seems the folder: \boot\bcd almost has to be in there.

Can you post the info? Just curious...

Thank you so much, your solution worked like a charm!. I would like clarify that the Boot folder doesn't disappear physically, just the BCD file (which is the Boot Configuration Data store).

Well, you can see the commands on the next screenshot:


My laptop is a Toshiba A205-S6812 system, and Toshiba like many others OEMs pre-installed a Windows Vista Home Premium in the second partition that later I change it to Windows XP Professional, as for your question, according to this post the 'First' tiny partition (Hidden) should be a Vista Recovery Environment. I will probably delete it.

I already (in my previous reply) explained this. And for you curiosity I will provide this two screenshots, the first one is the directory listing for the WinXP \Boot directory and the second one is for the Windows 7 \Boot directory recreated after applying what SIW2 suggest me to do.



Additionally this is how my BCD store looks now:


Sure...hope it will be useful for others...

Hi All,
i download window 7 make two partitoni m trying to install window Pro use the METHOD TWO on drive D but cant after press any key i didnt see any message.

if i delete partiton D there have unallocated space then i use method two start download then i create space to install after format start install window then 1st time restart window after continuing then again restat pc after i dont see anything.....
Pls help me out.Thx very much
DB

Hi jimmyj,

Thanks for the update - glad it's working for you.

When i try booting the XP CD(doing METHOD TWO) it gives me an error that there is already a newer version of Windows installed, can i overcome that check?
I do already know how to dual boot with several systems, since its just about partitioning it
I already got Ubuntu, but i didnt when i first tried installing Windows Server 2003...

While thinking of it, do you think Windows server 2007 would work then?