Perplexed, Win XP & Win 7 Dual Boot

Hey everyone,

New to the forums, I've been reading a great guide on installing Win 7 or XP for use in a dual-boot environment. I've also read through about 40 posts trying to figure out why I'm in the current situation I'm in.

Problem: I do not get the boot-selection screen when booting into Windows XP.

I've had XP SP3 installed for a while now and just installed a brand new HDD for use with a Win 7 Pro (64-bit) OS.

I've tried repairing the MBR using the original XP CD to no avail. I ended up manually installing the Win Recovery Console using the XP CD so NOW I get an OS selection upon boot - BUT - it only gives me XP Pro or the Windows Recovery Console as choices. NO Windows 7 anywhere to be found.

When going to My Computer > System Properties > Startup and Recovery, I only see Win XP Pro and the Win Recovery Console (latter wasn't there before I manually installed it).

HOW do I get Windows 7 to appear in the boot-loader selection screen?

System Details:

HDD1 = Win XP SP3
HDD2 = Storage
HDD 3 = Win 7 Pro 64-bit

Currently, the only way I can access Win 7 or XP is by manually selecting the boot-priority in my BIOS. (Gigabyte MA790X-UD4).

Some help is greatly appreciated from the experts!

Thanks in advance,

DAK

Thanks greg.

I switched the Win 7 HDD to my SATA 2_0 connector (swapped XP SATA cable for Win 7 HDD, as you suggested), ran a repair install and still DO NOT get the bootloader screen.

Should I format the drive and fresh-install Win 7? For some reason, I don't think that'll work.

Perhaps disconnecting the third drive (storage) will work?

Added: I'm thinking, disconnect the STORAGE volume, plug Win 7 HDD into SATA 2_0 and plug Win XP HDD into SATA 2_1???

How do I get to the DVD Recovery Tools list or the Windows 7 DVD Repair Console?

gregrocker said:

Are you able to boot into Win7 now?

Since you say you were able to run a Repair Install I'm assuming you can get into Win7.

The repair install should have correctly reconfigured the boot. Something previously configured in the XP boot must be blocking that.

You are correct that a clean reinstall of Win7 probably couldn't do much more for the dual boot than the repair install.

Download EasyBCD and post back a screenshot of the listings from its front page. If one OS is obviously missing then you can add it on the Add/Remove tab.

Yes, I'm in Win 7 now... Posting a screen from EasyBCD...

EasyBCD main screen shows:

There is one entry in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader Timeout: 30 seconds.
Default OS: Windows 7

Entry #1

Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

dakrisht said:

How do I get to the DVD Recovery Tools list or the Windows 7 DVD Repair Console?

You boot into Win7 DVD, select language/keyboard, on next screen look at bottom left and select "Repair My Computer"

It will scan for an installation to fix, sometimes offering a repair up front.

The Recovery Tools list is reached by clicking through to them.

dakrisht said:

gregrocker said:

Are you able to boot into Win7 now?

Since you say you were able to run a Repair Install I'm assuming you can get into Win7.

The repair install should have correctly reconfigured the boot. Something previously configured in the XP boot must be blocking that.

You are correct that a clean reinstall of Win7 probably couldn't do much more for the dual boot than the repair install.

Download EasyBCD and post back a screenshot of the listings from its front page. If one OS is obviously missing then you can add it on the Add/Remove tab.

Yes, I'm in Win 7 now... Posting a screen from EasyBCD...

EasyBCD main screen shows:

There is one entry in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader Timeout: 30 seconds.
Default OS: Windows 7

Entry #1

Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

OK, now determine the true Drive letter of XP (check in Computer),

Add it on the Add/Remove tab of EasyBCD by name, type (XP) and drive letter. Save and reboot.

gregrocker said:

OK, now determine the true Drive letter of XP, and Add it on the Add/Remove tab of EasyBCD by name, type (XP) and drive letter. Save and reboot.

I see D:\ in My Computer as being the Win XP drive (browsing through its contents...) not sure if this is the "true drive letter"... I added a new entry in EasyBCD, selected D, specified Win XP... Rebooting now, let's see what happens...

OK, I got the boot loader screen now, as is in EasyBCD - however I get an error when selecting Win XP SP3 - "Windows failed to start..." File:\NTLDR, Status: 0xc000000f, Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the app is missing or corrupt...

I have a feeling repairing XP is the next thing to do...

If not, the XP Repair install will correct whatever mess was made of its bootloader that is blocking these normal fixes.

But first, you referred earlier to installing an XP recovery console. See if you can locate that to remove it entirely as it is likely to conflict with Win7.

In XP, the repair install is done from boot. But it is not the first offered "Click R for Repair."

Instead you proceed as if to install until it discovers the installation and asks you if this is where you want to install, THEN you select "R" for Repair instead and it does an Upgrade install as with Win7 keeping everything in place but reinstalling the OS and reconfiguring the boot.

In the tutorial linked for Dual booting XP-Win7 with XP installed second, it basically gives the same process with EasyBCD which we have just done adding XP by name and drive letter to the boot menu. It will of course need to be done again since XP will have a completely fresh install of the OS and boot.

At that point there should be nothing blocking the correct boot menu being configured.