Dual boot XP/Win7 will not dual boot

I have XP on my desktop computer and decided to install Windows 7 on an unused partition. It installed fine, booted up okay, but will not give me a menu to choose which OS to boot to. I found an old thread from 2010 that said to check the XP boot.ini file and add a line if it wasn't there--but everything is there as it ought to be.

When I look at disk management, Win7 is listed as C:, XP is shown as D. When I look at "Computer" (was "My Computer" on XP), XP is shown but coded in red. I can get to the files okay, but I cannot boot into it.

Eventually I want to eliminate XP, but for the time being, I need to boot into it. This is causing me serious heartburn.

Please post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image so we can see how its configured and know for sure what to advise.

Normally Win7 will establish a Dual Boot when installed second but if XP was installed to a Logical drive (which can only boot XP) then the installer wasn't able to edit the boot files on XP partition to create its normal Boot Menu. This will be obvious when we see the screenshot: The partition marked System is booting Win7. If it's not on XP then it needs to be added from Win7 using EasyBCD (click Download - no Name or Email required).

But let us see the screenshot first.

Dual booted A windows 7 64bit with an "added" XP partition last week 10/04/2014, so I believe my situation is yours in reverse :) Gregrocker advises EasyBCD. I also advise as I required this to 'reintroduce' my missing Windows 7 o/s. EasyBCD is self explanatory so should not be too difficult to navigate.

Here's the screenshot. Just wanted to add that this Win7 installation is 32 bit, not 64.

Kaktussoft said:

Partition "Longterm Backup" is marked "System" in screenshot. It has the bootmenu and bootmgr. Why do you do that? Is that what you want? If not... what partition do you wanna use for bootmgr and bootmenu?

I don't think I wanted to do that. It's the first disk listed in BIOS. How do I change that? And which partition would be best to use--XP or Win7, or does it matter between the two?

You must have installed to Disk1 with Disk0 still plugged in. The installer will then place the boot files on the first Primary partition so it landed on your backup partition on the preceding disk.

If you are ready to get rid of XP now then you can follow the steps in Recover Partition Space Used by an Older OS with Disk0 unplugged.

Otherwise ater following Kaktussoft's steps to move the Bootmgr to C, I would power down to swap the cables so that Win7 is on Disk0 and future repairs cannot derail the System flag to a preceding disk again. If not then you'll need to change the BIOS boot order to boot Disk1 now.

Then confirm in Disk mgmt that C is System Active. Mark all other Active partitions Inactive.

You may not have a Dual Boot menu for XP yet. If not then install EasyBCD to add XP from Windows 7. EasyBCD Download Registration - NeoSmart Technologies

When ready to get rid of XP you can merely delete it in Disk Mgmt, then Recover Partition Space Used by an Older OS.

Kaktussoft said:

Later you want to elimate winxp isn't it? So you will only use win7 afterwards? If so.... best thing is move the bootmgr and bootmenu to win7 partition. Steps to do: Assign a drive letter "longterm backup" partition assign the drive letter at least temporary. It can be done in disk management. What drive letter have you assigned to that partition?

Step 2 Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD
move the bootmanager to C. All was succesfull? Post results afterwards

I assigned drive letter J to that partition, then went to look for bootmgr file. Is that the actual name of the file? Not there, even after making hidden files visible. Did a search on the whole drive but nothing found. Then I searched for any file called bootmgr on Win7 and XP. On Win7 I found a file under Windows/boot/PCAT/ dated 11/20/2010--that's 4 years ago, well before I formatted this partition. In XP I found a boot.ini.backup file under Windows/PSS but no file named bootmgr. Nothing at all on Daily Backup and Multimedia Backup partitions.

Or should I have just run easybcd and let it find the file?