Dual Boot Win 7 and XP

Here's a snap shot of my hdd setup.

I'm not sure why XP didn't mark itself as a System drive since you had the others unplugged during install.

If it is booting independently via BIOS (Boot Order or F8 Boot Menu) then it should be ok, however it should read System Active to know for sure it will boot on its own when the other HD's are removed and it is set first to boot in BIOS.

Perhaps just an anomaly. But I'd test it on its own to know for sure.

It says Active. Does it usually say the full term you used? "system active"? Also I'm not sure if this would make any difference, but the xp installation is with an IDE connection on the second IDE connection on MB. I have a CD drive connected on the first IDE connection on the MB. My Win 7 HDD, Storage, and Bluray are connected via SATA cables.

Yes but they are sometimes incorrectly labeled.

The true test is if it will boot on its own, which means the boot files are indeed on the partition and therefore it is System Active.

I'll give it a try later. Right now I'm scanning my pc with ad aware. And I'm tired. Ready for bed. Thanks for the advice.

metalmania31 said:

So I already have Win 7 as my main install, but I'd like to add XP back as some of my old games don't work in Win 7 no matter what. Would it be possible to install XP by unplugging my Win7, plug in a different HDD and install XP then plug my win 7 back in. Will that work at all?

I'm not a gamer but got Windows 7 pro specifically in case I needed XP mode. I haven't had the need but was thinking of installing anyway.

Hikertrash said:

metalmania31 said:

So I already have Win 7 as my main install, but I'd like to add XP back as some of my old games don't work in Win 7 no matter what. Would it be possible to install XP by unplugging my Win7, plug in a different HDD and install XP then plug my win 7 back in. Will that work at all?

I'm not a gamer but got Windows 7 pro specifically in case I needed XP mode. I haven't had the need but was thinking of installing anyway.

I tried that with simcity4. It would not install. Google search turned up many people with the same issue. I don't know the specifics, but yeah that game won't install with Win 7 no matter what. Plus I was curious about how it would work to install XP after Win 7 on a separate drive.

gregrocker said:

Yes but they are sometimes incorrectly labeled.

The true test is if it will boot on its own, which means the boot files are indeed on the partition and therefore it is System Active.

I used the same method to install Ubuntu on another old hdd and I unplugged my Win 7 drives and XP indeed does boot up on it's own correctly. Now I'm playing around with Ubuntu 10.10. To boot up to either OS I just hit F8 and select the drive I want. This is cool. :)

Much cleaner multi-booting method, too.

Especially with hot-plugging enabled by AHCI, this is the way to go with separate HD's - and I would only multi-boot with separate HD's.