Windows 7 - Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

Hello Steven, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Double check in Windows 7 to make sure that the new partition is not "unallocated space" and that it has a drive letter. If it does, could you post a screenshot of your disk management (diskmgmt.msc) windows for us to see your drive layout to see what may be wrong.

Thx for the quick response

Here is the screenshot of my disk mgmt screen

Steven,

Try deleting the XP partition so that it's only unallocated space to see if it shows up during the XP installation that you can then select it and press C to create a partition from it.

This might have already been covered, but I gave up reading all of the posts after 20 pages.

I have a gateway computer with Windows 7 64 bit installed and 1TB hard drive. I have tried in vain to install XP 32 bit as a dual boot. On my first attempt, I got through method 2, step 5 just fine. But then I got the blue screen of death when the GUI portion of the XP install should have appeared. I fixed that by going into the BIOS and changing the "on board SATA mode" from "RAID" to "Native IDE". XP then loaded and I finished the rest of the steps and everything seemed to be great.

Then I restarted the computer and chose Windows 7 at the boot prompt. I got a black screen of death and then realized that I had not changed the BIOS setting back to "RAID". So I changed the BIOS and Windows 7 booted fine, but now XP will not boot, even if I change the BIOS setting to "Native IDE".

I would greatly appreciate any help.

thanks,
sean

Still not working.

Steven,

I'm afraid that I'm stumped as well as to why it's not showing up for you.

Hello,

I currently have Windows 7 and need to dual boot with Windows XP because I have a program that currently only works with XP or Vista. I have a copy of Windows XP, so I figure I will just use that.

My first question is: Is it possible to partition my hard drive without having my hard drive being wiped(or will all my programs and files be removed)? Or do I need to create a restore point, or do I have to reinstall Windows 7 after the partition?

Thank you in advance,
Dave

Hello Dave, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Yes, you can use step 1 in METHOD TWO of the tutorial on the first page to shrink a partition to create another one for XP to be installed on.

You could also install XP Mode if your computer supports it, then install the program in that and be able to run the program in Windows 7 as if it was running in XP.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Shawn,

Thank you for the quick reply. My computer cannot run the XP mode software, so I guess I will have to create a new partition. I was just worried because most of the information I have read states that my current files will get deleted when I either shrink or create a new partition. When I shrink the partition, does it just take the space you want to use from all the empty space and leave the current files alone? So, my computer will be exactly as it is, but have another option when I boot it up now?

Sorry for the basic questions, I just don't feel like reinstalling a lot of the software I have on my computer.

Thank you,
Dave

Dave,

No problem.

Yes, it will only shrink the patition by how many MB that you specify and will not affect the files on the partition that you are shrinking. After you shrink the drive, that new space will be unallocated space. You will then create a new partition from that unallocated space. The tutorial link in METHOD TWO will help show you how to step by step though.