New 7 install on added HDD,Dual Boot XP Pro

I tried to use a tutorial from your Windows 7 help and support, titled "Windows 7- Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP", without success. This is a Dell Optiplex GX280 with a possibly failing Seagate drive with Xp Pro on it, so I bought a Western Digital 1TB and a Dell Windows 7 Pro OEM DVD. I did the "7" install first as was recommended by Microsoft but first partitioned (3) the new WD HDD and installed 7 PRO, then read the tutorial, so I unpartitioned the rest of the drive and proceded to "shrink" the remaining to provide a 100 GB partition and followed the tutorial from there. It was supposed to give me the list of partitions on re-boot to choose from and then press F8 to install to that partition, having the install disk in the drive. It instead provides a dual boot option between the two operating systems which are on two separate drives. It offers Windows 7 Pro or the "older OS" but no option to choose the shrunk drive. Do I need to disconnect the old drive to get this tutorial to work?

whs said:

You are complicating the matter. Disconnect the failing drive and install Win7 normally on the new drive. Then reconnect the failing drive. Now you switch between XP and Win7 with the BIOS boot sequence.

Thank you whs, I tried to do my homework and have gotten multiple opinions but disconnecting the (possibly failing drive) was one that I neglected to do. I will add more to the surfer dude's wonderful welcome in the next post.

Bare Foot Kid said:

Hello Prospector, welcome to Seven Forums!


Power down the PC and disconnect the old HDD first, connecting the new HDD to the #1 SATA port of the motherboard and making sure it's set as the second boot device, after the CD/DVD drive in the PC BIOS setup.

If you do want to do it the correct way and install XP first, then install XP to the first partition on the HDD so it will get the C: drive letter so there will be no confusion when installing programs/apps to the XP partition.

After XP is installed and booting good on its own; use this tutorial at the link below to create a partition and install Windows 7 to the created / first partition of the new HDD and be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.


Clean Install Windows 7 : Ahead of XP

Thank you Bare Foot Kid, In the midst of my confusion, there is one thing that I need to share and find out about. In my Bios, there is SATA 0 and now SATA 1 onboard.The problem that I may still have is this: When changing the boot order, my bios does not list both! It allows you to change the boot order of the one SATA listing. In the "Drives" portion it does allow you to turn each on or off only. Also, I can not find the Microsoft KB article that I was directed to but it basically said that if you install XP first before Windows 7 then something gets deleted by XP and that is why I installed "7" first. My notes are a mess and I have not been able to find the link which I wrote down. Also, I have two days worth of work updating windows 7 and if I do a fresh install again then I have lost a lot of work. I am on a slow dial-up ISP, being disabled makes these things very difficult. Besides, I have not had a good sleep for days with this "mess" that I have been overwhelmed with. Also, Your site will be on my list to read since we serve the same master!

Is this want you are looking for:
System Restore Points - Stop XP Dual Boot Delete - Vista Forums

Prospector said:

Yes, I believe that the dual boot delete was the issue that the Microsoft KB article was warning about. I have not yet looked at the link that you provided but now after about 1.5 hours of sleep, I'm ready to get with it, once more.
Thanks,
David
Bare Foot Kid asked for a screen shot and I believe that I have uploaded 2 different formats I hope that I did as asked. This is my first effort
.

1) Remove Disk0 (80gb) & replace with Disk1 (1tb)
2) Setup your dual boot.
3) When the dual boot is working OK, plug in the failing HD & Copy/Paste data.