Dual Boot XP x32 / 7 x64 (not seen before)

Hi everyone,

That's my first post here, I looked everywhere for a solution for my problem but it seems to be unique (and sorry if it's not, mea culpa):

1. I made a clean install of XP x86 on my IDE 80GB HDD. I have created a new 20GB partition (C) for my XP, and with the remaining space I created another one for 7 (I didn't formatted it, but it was created on the XP installation process).

2. Once installed, I also installed all the essential drivers for my XP to run (video, chipset) but DID NOT installed the SP3 (just on SP2 with no minor patches).

3. I've booted the computer several times before changing the BIOS again to look for my DVD ROM for a 7 install.

4. Began installing the 7 on D: (that partition I've created on XP installation, and no, I didn't installed it on XP partition C:).

5. Installed 7 normally, booted again, but without changing my BIOS - it was still showing that "Press any key to start from the DVD". Windows 7 loaded fine, but without the OS selection screen.
(edit) I've passed by this step and did NOT hit any key so I booted 7 from HDD

6. Activated my 7, restarted, changed the BIOS to boot from the HDD.

7. Now XP booted up, without showing OS Selection screen.

8. Changed the BIOS again, went for the 7 startup repair, it didn't found XP, neither seemed to repair anything, even when I did fixMBR and fixBoot. I've tried it several times with no success.

Attention points:
When I choose to boot from the cd and wait for it to pass by do HDD, I have a Seven boot;
When I choose to boot directly from the HDD, it gives me XP;
I also tried fixing the 7 bootloader with easybcd with no results.
(edit, and this one seems to be important) When I boot from 7, 7 partition is C:. When I boot from XP, XP partition is ALSO C:.

So... Any ideas? I've already lost 5 hours of my life on those 8 steps hehe

Here again, running 7 solo, same issues SOLO.

I simply can't boot 7 without letting my BIOS look for a DVD boot, bypass and find the 7 on my partition (now I have a single partition C: with 7 on it). My Mobo (EVGA x58 SLI) acts weird about IDE: it has only one, and it's not southbridge that controls it, but a jmicron chipset that controls half of my SATAS and the IDE.

Maybe that's something to do with installing a 7 on an IDE that shares my DVD drive connection? (my DVD is IDE too, though the jumpers are fine on master/slave. You must be thinking "why the heck don't you buy SATA HDDs and DVD drives?", well that's for next month hehe

Thanks in advance!

Hi Night Hawk,

Thanks for trying to help me, but I've done the 7 repair steps on dual and single boot builds and it simply doesn't find any problems to repair. I went to cmd through 7 setup and reconfigured BCD manually with no results too.

The solution will be the 7 DVD on my drive each time I boot and BIOS bypassing it, this way I can initialize the 7. Not a nice thing, but it'll have to be this way 'till I can purchase a SATA drive to retire my IDE HDD from the same IDE of DVD, wich I believe it's causing all these problems. DO you have any other suggestions?

Thanks!

After those problems with dual boot I've noticed that one possible issue has to do with DVD + HD on the same IDE cable on vista/7 loaders on my mobo architecture, since when I was trying to dual boot XP + 7, it was only recognizing the XP (I had XP first, then installed a fresh 7 twice after many tests and repairs with no results) and now that I have only 7 on a single partition on my IDE (fresh installation), it's like 7 isn't there: when I try to boot directly from IDE I get a system boot failure screen, my system finds it ONLY if my BIOS is like this:

boot 1: DVD drive
boot 2: IDE HDD
Look for other devices: Yes
(My mobo doesn't have floppy connections nor BIOS settings for that.)

Boot up with 7 DVD on my drive, wait for the "press any key to boot from DVD...", let it timeout, look for HD, 7 running. I had to do the same with dual boot, thought that was the problem but now I see my problem isn't about dual booting, since 7 is solo now.

No, it gives me system boot failure, I could only boot by letting the DVD loaded...

Yesterday I borrowed a SATA HDD and disconnected my IDE HDD. I've installed 7 normally and everything was nice, I could boot 7 with BIOS looking for HDD first. So my problem IS the HDD and DVD on the same IDE connector, might have something to do with EVGA x58 mobo series, but I'll never know hehe.

Something really strange happened, though I have to confirm first because I'm confused right now: after testing it with SATA HDD, I plugged my IDE again (obviously disconnecting the SATA and coming back to "original" config), and my 7 did boot normally with IDE HDD + IDE DVD, looking for HDD FIRST. I'll let you know as soon as I confirm it tonight.

My IDE cable is brand new, came with the mobo... Everything is new, except for that #$@% IDE HDD...

I was wrong. I can't boot with IDE first, but I've noticed I can boot with my SATA first then IDE second (yes, I had a SATA all this time, but it's full and I don't wanna use it for 7). It solves part of my problem, at least I'm not having to wait for that annoying "press any key to start from the DVD" screen on POST anymore.

Thanks for the interest on my case, Night Hawk. It might be interesting to test 7 boot issues with a HDD and DVD drive on the same IDE with another mobos, unfortunatelly I don't have time to do this. I hope I can help people having the same errors as I did with this post!

Regards,
Ricardo Pires