Windows 7 - Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

Trevor. I appreciate the suggestions you made to Crusnik, but I too have run into that exact problem of not getting XP to do a restart after it reaches the final installation stage.

I have used the Windows 7 disc to repair so I can do a Windows 7 boot at least.

Afterwards while in Windows 7 I have found that the XP files are all on the new partition I made in Windows 7. In fact, using bcdedit while in Windows 7, I was able to get a bootladder that showed both Windows 7 and XP when I did a restart. But when choosing XP it would never boot in to XP. It would just give me an error and freeze and i would have to do a repair with the Windows 7 disc to start all over again.

Did this entire process a half dozen times, from the very first step to the last. Each time redoing each step anew.

I do believe that it would have worked if I would have installed XP first and then Windows 7, but I didn't.

I believe this all has to do with the issue that XP never really really completes a full installation since it was unable to restart at the final stage. Wish I could just get that XP to restart after the install...Dang.

Any further thoughts or similiar problems or comments is appreciated.

I had this same problem installing XP. Started install three times and got the same message. On the third try I got up to get a cup of coffee and when I got back the installation had resumed on it's own.
I think the trick is to "not" hit any key to boot from disk

As I said above, my XP install went perfectly except that it didn't recognise the PC's Ethernet port or any of the PCI devices. Unfortunately, Hewlett Packard confirmed that XP drivers are not available for my particular model, so that would seem to be that.

Thanks for the various bits of advice.

Bert

TrevorOzzy, Thanks for your suggestion. Your method worked perfectly. I know have a Windows 7 and XP dual boot.

doncarlos, you need to install XP let it restart. repair the Windows 7 boot manager with the Windows 7 installation disc. boot into Windows 7 then use easybcd to create an entry for XP in the boot manager. Then restart, select XP in the boot manager with the XP installation disc in the drive. Don't press any keys and XP will complete its installation.

Sorry to jump on the band wagon so late, but my question is a little different. I have basically moved my old PC's hard drive which has windows XP installed on it, as a slave drive into my new PC which has windows 7 installed on the Master drive. How can I set up a dual boot option now (or is it even possible)? I would really like to accomplish this because I have (EDIT 1: 64 bit) windows 7 and many old programs I was using on XP will not install or function properly on my new OS. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

EDIT 2: By the way, I've tried booting with my windows 7 disk to use the repair option but my slave drive (with the winxp install) is not visible and I'm not sure how to change this.

EDIT 3: sorry to keep editing but I figure the more info I give the better. I wanted to mention that the slave drive is functional and once 7 is booted up I can access my slave drive and all files on it. So I'm pretty sure that it auto-installed correctly. It's not a SATA drive, btw.

Thank you!

Anthropos,

I'm sure someone wil give you the info you need, but while you're waiting, just to check that the XP installation is fully compatible with your new PC (and I hope you're luckier than I was) why not temporarily change the boot-up sequence in your BIOS so that the slave drive is first in the chain?

Bert

Bert, thanks I will test that out first.

I kept getting the BSOD when trying to get my laptop running windows 7 to dual boot with XP. I ended up installing Sun's VirtualBox and using that to run XP as a VM. Works fine and was a bit cheaper to buy a copy of XP than it would have been to have purchased the upgrade to Window's Professional so that I could have used Windows 7 XP mode.

Well, I changed the boot sequence but it won't boot from the XP hard drive. It just goes to the "windows stopped unexpectedly" screen but it won't even boot in safe mode. Probably because the hardware is much too different in this new PC from my old one?