Dual booting W7 with XP!

No prob, these are very common questions asked by those of all experience levels.

If you can reimage Win7 onto a partition after installing XP then you should be able to add it from XP using EasyBCD 2.0 which will edit it's own boot files. If that fails, we can help you start Win7 on its own so you can add XP from it, which sometimes works better.

Since XP is Xpiring soon, we encourage installing it to second partition which you could of course do even if installing it first by prepartitioning.

It's frustrating that you can't just install it to the partition you created, but the XP installer is growing creaky and error messages like you got today often don't google to any solutions later than tens years ago. So the error you are getting might relate to pre-SP2 or 3, and solve itself by using a SP3 installer for your licensed version.

I would personally want to try the install first with a fresh XP installer with SP3 for your licensed version, which are available on the web. Just be sure to read the comments to assure it is not cracked or otherwise tampered, and rightclick scan with your AV and Malwarebytes

Okay thanks alot :) things are alot clearer now.

Im going to try to find a SP3 version and burn it to a disc and test if it makes a difference!

I will ofcourse come back here if encounter more problems or get stuck :)

Thanks x1000!

IM BACK!

I managed to install XP with W7 on C:. The problem was that i had used like 3 bad installers, when i finally found a good one it worked.

Now i have a epic problem =/. When i have installed XP and downloaded easybcd, i do exactly as the tutorial says (the tut u linked to previously) but i get a error message.

The message says "easybcd failed to detect a valid installation of windows nt-2003"

So i googled around a bit and think i found the problem, my "windows folder" is not called WINDOWS, it is called WINXP. Appearantly this inflicts some kind of problem with easybcd. Some guy on a forum said that i should temporarily change the name of the "WINXP" folder to "WINDOWS". So i did this and then it managed to add the entry.
After this i renamed the "WINDOWS" folder back to "WINXP" and rebooted.
When i choose Windows XP in the boot menu i get a error, i do not remember exactly what the error said but i think it was "NTOSKRNL.EXE is missing or corrupt.". So i googled around a bit and i came to the conclusion that something was wrong with my boot.ini.

EDIT: The error is NOT "NTOSKRNL.EXE is missing or corrupt.". This was a previous error that i somehow managed to get rid of. The error is now:

"The following application was unable to run because its either missing or corrupt

File:\NST\easyldr4"
I do not remember the exact words but im pretty sure thats what it said.


Something odd that i noticed which might be the problem is that the windows 7 bootloader path looks normal, but the XP looks very strange, take a look at this!



There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: Windows 7 Home Premium
Timeout: 10 seconds
EasyBCD Boot Device: C:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7 Home Premium
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Microsoft Windows XP
BCD ID: {979614b4-5e44-11e0-9a53-edb8fab1d5b9}
Drive: F:\
Bootloader Path: \NST\easyldr4


Tell me if i should provide more information! Really hope i can get some help with this as this is far out of my league :)!

Thanks in advance, Esaias.

I can already run W7. It is XP that i cannot run. Basicly you are telling me to make my W7 the active partition and then insert my windows 7 install disc and do a repair?

Im going to try it but i do not see the difference between adding it with easybcd 2.02 now (doesnt work) and after repair!

You are more experienced than me and i trust you so i will give it a shot :) Ill be back if it doesnt work.

No, you are misunderstanding. But before you proceed, did you follow the steps 7-12 in Method Two exactly as given here? Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP. Double check and, if not, do so now.

If Win7 is already running, then you don't need to run the Repairs to start it up. Just install EasyBCD 2.2 to Win7 and add XP.

Normally when XP is installed, it takes away Win7's ability to boot until EasyBCD adds it back or the repair is run.

Yes i did exactly as it said in 7-12. But i get this error when trying to add the XP entry.

"easybcd failed to detect a valid installation of windows nt-2003".

As i said above i googled for a answer and someone said that the problem was my "WINDOWS" folder or in my case my "WINXP" folder. According to him Easybcd caused this error because it did not recognize XP if the folder was not called "WINDOWS".
He said that i should temporarily change the name of my WINXP to WINDOWS and add the entry and then change it back. I did this.

Could this be the problem? Am i giving it the wrong "adress" by doing this? Does it think that it should look for a WINDOWS folder when it doesnt exist?

When i try the method of changing folder names i get the "NTOSKRNL.EXE is missing or corrupt."error .

Is there anything else that might be the problem? Is there any other way around this than to change the folder name?

EDIT: If i dont change the folder name back to "WINXP" and keep it at "WINDOWS" i am able to choose Windows XP at boot screen and Windows XP starts loading but when it is almost at the login screen it "freezes". Probably because it cant find the files since the folder is now called WINDOWS.

Just thought it was interesting that i was actually able to make XP boot.

Hm, pherhaps the installer is the problem. Im tired of this now and later today i think im going to format whole pc and install xp first and then Windows 7. Is there any cons of doing this?

Thanks for your help, esaias.