Thanks for the guide! I installed Windows 7 (clean copy, not pre-installed) on a new hard drive, followed Method 2 and it worked exactly as described. Windows 7 and XP now co-exist perfectly on my computer. Seemed a lot cleaner than having XP installed first.
Anthropos,
I didn't do exactly what you did: because I didn't have a second SATA cable to hand, I tested my XP-on-the-slave-drive by disconnecting the master HDD and connecting the slave in its place.
The XP installation booted perfectly, and though I did run into trouble with some hardware mismatches (no Ethernet, no PCI) they didn't stop XP running.
Perhaps you could try that?
Bert
Hmm, well - this drive is an older one, no SATA connection. Plus, if I set it as priority over the other HDD in the boot sequence and it didn't boot, what difference would disconnecting the other drive make (no offence)? But I will give it a shot, thanks.
None taken, and I don't know the answer to your question. But it has to be worth giving it a go, doesn't it? Just in case there is some sort of conflict between the two installations. Maybe another possibility would be to set up the machine with just the old HDD and then reinstall Windows on it in situ.
You're welcome.But I will give it a shot, thanks.
Bert
Well, no luck... When disconnecting the new HDD didn't work I tried to repair XP. I changed the boot sequence to load from the dvd drive and then the old HDD. I booted up the XP installation disk and attempted to repair the old installation - it finished the file copying and restarted, and lo and behold XP began booting. However, It didn't get past the load screen before I got a flash of blue screen and white text (possibly BSOD, but then the PC automatically restarted -it happened too fast for me to read the text). So I tried it again. I got a message this time that "windows has already attempted to repair this installation - do you want to try again?" So I did, with the same results. I think I may have to just reinstall winXP altogether? Hopefully it's compatible with my new system...
Sorry to hear that it didn't work. Maybe you'll have better luck with a complete reinstall; in any case it has to be worth a try. What are the specs of the PC you're trying all this on?
Bert
Well the complete reinstall of XP worked. I can now boot from my old HDD and run winXP. What I'd really like is to not have to change the boot sequence to do it!unfortunately I can't get my modem working in XP right now so I have to boot back up to windows 7 in order to get online, lol. But since I can access both HDDs from either OS I can download easyBCD here and then reboot to XP (or does it make a difference? I'm only planning on running it in XP because the guide said to...)
Hi Anthropus,
In your case, it's simpler to install Easybcd 2.0 on 7 .
Then use Add/Remove entries to add XP to the 7 boot menu.
EasyBCD 2.0 Beta Builds - The NeoSmart Forums
Anthropos,
Please see my posts (pgs 47-50)...I was having somewhat similar problems to you (although not on an old PC), and basically this exact type of setup. I have Win7 64-bit Ultimate on one drive, and XP Pro SP3 on a physically separate drive. I am running dual boot successfully. Check out my posts to see if they answer all of your questions...if not, we'll figure out where to go from there.
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