Windows 7 - Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

You need to make sure the 7 partition is the System partition.

Look in Disk Management - you will probably see the XP partition labelled as System.

If so, rt click the 7 partition and Mark it Active.

Then run startup repair from the 7 dvd 3 times.

You should then boot into 7 - see it is labelled System - then you are OK to do what you want to the XP partition.

Hope it helps

Hello 7thangel, and welcome to Seven Forums.

No, it shouldn't be a problem at all since they will be installed on separate hard drives or partitions.

when installing XP on a second boot, do not forget to setup sata and the windows updates service packs before you configure the boot, otherwise windows will have errors on reboot

Thank you SIW2... mission accomplished. I really appreciate your help.

You're welcome. Glad it's working for you.

Thanks for this guide, but I keep on running into the following problem: I had Win 7 already installed, so went for method 2, trying to install XP on second hard disk. What happens is that during installation process after the first reboot, the system boots into Win 7 instead of continuing installation of XP. I already tried giving the second hard disk higher boot priority than the first (with highest still given to CD-rom), but it didn't help. The partition I prepared for XP is at the "end" of the second hard disk. Can this be related to the problem? Thanks, Stefan

As long as XP is installed on a Primary partition - mark it active.

Set XP HD first in Bios boot order.

Install XP.

Then set 7 HD first in Bios boot order and add XP to 7 boot menu - using Easybcd 2.0 .

http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=642




Hope it helps

will try immediately, thanks Edit: No, unfortunately it still reboots to Windows 7 Edit2: I think the problem was that I didnt assign a drive letter to to Win 7's 100 MB hidden partition. I guess I even had read about this in one of the posts here bur got wrong which partition was meant. Edit3: Unfortunately it still doesn't work. I'm taken to Win 7 again during XP installation and am told I have to use system restore to be able to boot it properly.

I went through method 2 and when it came time to install XP the disc only recognized 103000 or so of the 503766 bytes that were in the partition I set up for XP. I am not sure why, but I still proceeded with the steps hoping it was somehow supposed to read the wrong number (Ha!). XP loaded the neccessary files and when it restarted it went right back to the initial installation screen showing that I had 103000 or so bytes available and asking me if I wanted to do it all again. At this point I figured that there was not enough space available and I tried going back to Windows 7 in an effort to change the partition so that it would work. Unfortunately, Windows 7 will not boot up now...in fact, without a boot disk in my DVD drive, nothing boots up at all. All that I get is a black screen with a blinking cursor in the top left corner. I have run Windows 7 startup repair numerous times (on my fifth right now) and nothing. After it makes repairs it requests a restart and then goes right back to the install screen. Will I have to reformat and reinstall Windows 7? Will it even recognize all the space on my drive if XP couldn't? Without a disc in my DVD drive my computer does nothing now...Any and all help is greatly appreciated. And thanks!!!

Hi Matthew,

please post a screenshot of the Disk Managemenet window.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...en-forums.html