How to Setup a Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP
Information
This will show you how to install Windows 7 and XP to dual boot with when you already have either Windows 7 or XP installed first.
Note
With a dual boot installaton, you will have two operating systems (OS) installed. When you start the computer, you will have the choice to choose which OS you would like to start up to. This method is the easiest way of doing a dual boot with these two operating systems.
Tip
When dual booting with another OS (ex: Vista or XP), you may not always have that OS partition show up in Computer with a driver letter in Windows 7. If this happens, then you will just need to add a drive letter to the OS (ex: Vista or XP) partition in Windows 7 Disk Management for it to show up in Computer with a driver letter.
PC with 300 megahertz (MHz) or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233-MHz minimum required;* Intel Pentium/Celeron family, AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended
128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)
1.5 gigabyte (GB) of available hard disk space.*
Super VGA (800 × 600) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor
CD-ROM or DVD drive
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device
EXAMPLE: Windows Boot Manager NOTE:This is the boot screen where you select what operating system that you would like to start. By default, you have 30 seconds to choose another operating system before the default operating system will start automatically.
OPTION ONE
When XP is Installed First
NOTE:If you have a RAID setup, you will need to have the Windows 7 RAID drivers on a USB flash drive available to select and load while installing Windows 7.
1. Do step 2 or 3 below for where you wanted to install Windows 7 at.
2. To Create a New Partition from the XP Hard Disk Drive
B) In the command prompt, select and shrink the XP volume by how many MB (1024 MB = 1 GB) you want to have for this Windows 7 partition. (See screenshot below) NOTE:You would do steps 2 to 9 in METHOD TWO at that link. Windows 7 will need a minimum of 16 GB (16384 MB).
C) Click on the X at the top right corner to close the command prompt. (See screenshot above)
D) Click on the X at the top right corner to close System Recovery Options. (See screenshot below)
E) Go to step 4.
3. To Use a Separate Hard Disk Drive than the XP Drive
A) Boot from your Windows 7 installation disc. NOTE:Make sure that the CD/DVD drive is selected first in the boot order in the BIOS.
4. Click on the Install now button. (See screenshot below)
5. When you get to this point, select the partition (step 2) or hard drive to install Windows 7 on. (See screenshot below)
6. Finish installing Windows 7. NOTE:You would start at step 9 in that link to finish installing Windows 7.
7. When finished, restart the computer to have the option to boot from XP (Earlier Verision of Windows) or Windows 7. (See screenshot below)
Note
If you are only booting into Windows 7 and do not have XP listed in the Windows Boot Manager, then you can install only EasyBCD (step 8 Option Two below) to add XP (or Windows 7) while started in Windows 7 the same way to the boot list.
OPTION TWO
When Windows 7 is Installed First
Warning
If you have a RAID setup, you will need to have the XP RAID drivers for your specific motherboard on a Floppy disc available to select and load at the F6 prompt while installing XP.
If you have a SATA drive, then you will need to do either one of these options to load the SATA drivers for XP for your specific motherboard.
1.To Create a New Partition from the Windows 7 Hard Disk Drive NOTE: If you want toinstall XP on a separate internal hard drive instead, then skip this step and go to step 2.
A) In Windows 7, select and shrink the Windows 7 volume in Disk Management by how many MB (1024 MB = 1 GB) you want to have for this XP partition. (See screenshots below) NOTE:You would do all of Method One at that link.
2. Insert your XP installation disc, then restart the computer and press any key to boot from it when prompted. (See screenshot below) NOTE:Make sure that the CD/DVD drive is selected first in the boot order in the BIOS.
3. From XP Setup, Press Enter. (See screenshot below)
Warning
If you have a RAID setup, you will need to have the XP RAID drivers for your specific motherboard on a Floppy disc available to select and load at the F6 prompt while installing XP.
If you have a SATA drive, then you will need to do either one of these options to load the SATA drivers for XP for your specific motherboard.
Type in these comands below, and press enter after each one.
bootrec /FixMbr
bootrec /FixBoot
bootrec /RebuildBcd
Exit the command prompt and restart the computer.
At this point, Windows 7 should boot up the same way before trying to install XP.
Continue to step 8 below and run EasyBCD from Windows 7 instead.
7. In XP, download and install .Net Framework 2.0 (32-bit) versionor.Net Framework 2.0 (64-bit) version first, and EasyBCD (free version) for your 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x86) XP. NOTE:In XP, Net Framework is required to be installed to run EasyBCD. After you click on Register (at bottom of link) for the free EasyBCD, registration is not required to download it.
8. Run EasyBCD (free version). NOTE:This is required to repair the Windows 7 boot file and add XP to the Windows Boot Manager list.
9. On the left side of EasyBCD, click on the Add New Entry button. (See screenshot below)
A) In the top section under Operating Systems, click on the Windows tab. (See screenshot below)
B) To the right of Type, select Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3 from the drop down menu. (See screenshot below) WARNING:Be sure to leave the Automatically detect correct drive box checked.
C) To the right of Name, you can leave the default Microsoft Windows XP as the name to be displayed in the Windows Boot Manager, or you can type whatever name you would like to have instead. (See screenshot below)
D) Click on the Add Entry button. (See screenshot below)
10. On the left side of EasyBCD, click on the BCD Deployment button, select (dot) the Install the Windows Vista/7 bootloader to the MBR option, and click on the Write MBR button. (See screenshot below)
11. Close EasyBCD.
12. Restart the computer to have the option to boot from Microsoft Windows XP or Windows 7. (See screenshot below)
Tip
If Windows 7 will not start up when selected, then use your Windows 7 installation DVD to do a Startup Repair.
System Manufacturer/Model Number Started out as an AST180 OS Windows 7 Ultimate x64 | Windows XP Pro x86 | Windows Vista Ultimate x86 CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 5200 2.7 GHz Motherboard Acer EM61SM/EM61PM Memory 3G RAM Graphics Card ATI HD Radeon 4670 Screen Resolution 1280x1024
Keyboard Microsoft Media Pro 3000 Mouse Logitech MX310 PSU Corsair 450VX 450W Hard Drives Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache, 160 GB Seagate
i am currently running windows 7 as the main OS and want to install XP as a dual boot. i've followed all the steps above but after loading the win xp files and trying to boot into xp i get a msg that says "error loading operating system" . any ideas?
Good Morning everyone, I have installed Win 7 first on my laptop and I installed xp secondly. I rebooted and it only boots to xp. I noticed that Win 7 is on C and XP is on E drive . But when I was on Win 7 ,XP was on drive D . I followed the above tutorial and downloaded BCD and followed it and only got to boot to Win 7 . No options were given to choose an OS at boot up. Im now in XP and cant get back to Win 7. I went ahead and put in my Windows 7 disk and it repaired itself but when I did the tutorial it booted back to XP . Any help will be greatly appreciated.
I have updated the tutorial to help with this. In METHOD TWO step 10, check to make sure that you select the drive letter that Windows 7 was installed on. Normally this would be C:
i reinstalled windows xp again and followed all the steps above. but now when i choose to boot into win xp from the boot manager i get this error message
"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt.
<Root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
Please reinstall a copy of the above file."
i have reinstalled this file from the winxp cd but still no fix. any ideas?
Since you can only boot into Windows 7, do steps 8 on in METHOD TWO to add XP back to the boot file. It sounds like you may have missed step 12 & 13 before.
Information
Note
Tip
Warning
OPTION ONE 
WARNING: Be sure to leave the Automatically detect correct drive box checked.
