Windows 7: Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

It's always best to install the older OS first, so if you're amenable to clean reinstall then I'd follow Option One in this tutorial to have best performance.

The only way I know to always avoid problems in Dual Boot is to use separate HD's Dual-booted via the BIOS, which I understand is likely not possible on your laptop.

You can get by with a full format using the XP CD to create the target partition of the size you want before install.

Then boot the Windows 7 installer to create and format it's partition in the unallocated space you left for it. Clean Install Windows 7

If there are any install probs, Clean the boot sector from Windows 7 DVD: SSD - HDD Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

Is Vista the native OS that came with your HP?

Hi gregrocker,
thanks for the quick reply.
Vista was the original OS that came with the machine. It is now three years and 5 months old. At two years, 11 months & 2 weeks it died completely.
Luckily I had taken out a 2 year extension insurance out on it and HP replaced the motherboard and screen. I did not even realize the screen was faulty.
So basically it is a new machine.
With this Hybrid Seagate drive 7 Ultimate boots up in about 20 seconds ready to go.
I wish I had looked around earlier, it would have saved me some work.
I will do a fresh install the right way around this time.
Many thanks for your help
KingWhiskers

I have just replaced a PC that has XP installed on its C Drive.

I was to install the XP drive into my new Windows 7 X64 PC to allow dual booting.

Advice on which of the above steps I should use would be greatly appreciated

If the hard drive came from another computer an older and probably a 32 bit machine it is doubtful it will work in a new 64 bit machine as is, drivers needed for it to work will not be there.
There is nothing to stop you from using that hard drive in your newer machine and reinstalling XP on it if you have the installation disc for XP. Probably best to disconnect the hard drive with 7 on it and follow the tutorial on how to install and Dual Boot with 2 hard drives.
This seems to be the best solution
- Connect Windows 7 HDD and set as primary HDD
- Connect Windows XP HDD as secondary HDD
- Booted up workstation and it loaded Windows 7
- Follow steps 8 - 12 of How to Setup a Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

I am still a newbie at this but it looks like it is better to have the XP and 7 on different hard drives and select which hard drive to boot from in bios by pressing F9 at startup,on my HP laptop. the F9 can vary from machine to machine to get to the boot menu on my asus desk top its F8 to get to the boot menu. Your machine it might be something else.
I am pretty sure there is a tutorial on here more specific to setting up on 2 hard drives, or it might be over on the vista forum. I have seen it but I can't remember where.
Also you might have problems with drivers for your XP installation.
It would pay to research your new machine to see if it is backwards compatible to XP by looking on the manufacturers web site.
I have made my daughters HP DV9820 Laptop work with XP only after modifying .ini files to get drivers to install. I have also got it to work with 7 Ultimate with less problems but had to find drivers from other HP machines. The HP DV9820 was originally built for Vista.
So be prepared for some issues getting things to work.
I found that by searching the net with the device ID from the properties page in Device manager I was able to find solutions for all my driver problems
Hope this helps
KingWkiskers

If you move the XP HD to new hardware it is likely it will need an XP Repair Install to start up. You can try to boot it first to see. Do this with the Windows 7 HD unplugged and XP HD set to boot first in BIOS, after CD drive.

Once XP starts on the new hardware, power down to plug back in the Windows 7 HD, set preferred HD first to boot in BIOS, then boot the other HD by tapping the one-time BIOS Boot Menu key given on first boot screen.

hi
thanks for the tutorial it worked almost perfectly
I don't know why, but when I restart the coputer, I get the menu as following :
windows 7
windows xp
windows xp
windows xp
they all work but it's kind of annoying
thanks in advance

Hello Lyesaragorn, and welcome to Seven Forums.

LOL, oops. You could use the tutorial below to remove 2 of the Windows XP listings in the Windows Boot Manager screen.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...list-boot.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

it worked
thanks a lot

You're most welcome.

Hello ppl!

My HDD crushed and I bought a new 320 GB Seagate SATA drive (check my system specs). I had to disable "Native sata mode" in BIOS to install a "clean" (no service) pack version of Win XP. Afterwards, I've installed SP2 and SP3 and all the necessary drivers acquired form the HP site. I've also installed "SATA drivers" (for HP Compaq laptop see here: HP Communities - Enabling SATA Native Mode after XP Install - Enterprise Business Community) and was able to enable Native Sata Mode" in BIOS.

Now, since my HDD is 320GB, XP only recognized 120GB (or so) of my drive I've created a single partition (C: ), and after the install of SP3 it recognized the rest of the HDD space as the "unallocated" space (200GB).

I went and created a new partition from this unallocated space of 100 GB (D: ) as FAT32 and filled it with my docs (music, video, pics, docs etc...)

Now I have C: a System partition with XP installed on it, D: as "Storage" drive and 100 GB of unallocated space.

I created a new partition named it (E: ) formatted it NTFS and tried to install Windows 7 Ultimate as dual boot.

I carefully followed the instructions from initial post here and after I installed Windows 7 and restarted the computer got to the Windows Boot Manager. Now, when trying to boot into Windows 7, i get the black screen:
(I can boot into XP just fine, and the XP show E: drive and all of the files and folders of Windows 7 in place)

I've tried to boot from the Windows 7 DVD and ran System recovery which identified my new Windows 7 installation, and ran "Automatic Startup Repair" at least 4 times (as explained here: Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times ) but with no luck.

The ASR log states the error is: "boot manager cannot find os loader"

I can boot XP normally and I've downloaded EasyBSB 2.1.2. and it shows both XP and Windows 7 (7 being default) boot entries with path to Windows 7 being \Windows\system32\winload.exe

I've looked in boot.ini (via msconfig) and it looks like this:
Now, how come it does not show Windows 7? Is it because this is XP boot.ini and not Windows 7 boot.ini which "took over" the computer?

I've also tried to run:

bootrec.exe /fixmbr
bootrec.exe /fixboot
bootrec.exe /rebuildbc

after booting Windows 7 DVD and entering cmd via System recovery, but it didn't work either.

(this part is a bit foggy to me... when loading bootrec should i call:
bootrec.exe /nt60 C:\ or bootrec.exe /nt60 E:\ since my Windows 7 is installed on E partition?)

I've even tried to change the \Windows\system32\winload.exe path to \Windows\system32\boot\winload.exe using bcdedit.exe but with no luck...

Now, after two days and hours goggling, I've deleted the Windows 7 boot record, and deleted partition E: and now have only XP installed and 100 GB of unallocated space to start over .

Advice would be appreciated since I've tried to reinstall Windows 7 couple of times...

How can I repair Windows 7 boot?

Some more info: I ran chkdsk form XP and it found no errors, and since I can boot into XP just fine I presume I can rule out HDD or optical drive problems, and since I installed the Windows 7 on another computer last week and it worked fine I can assume it's not a faulty DVD...

Cheers!