Perplexed, Win XP & Win 7 Dual Boot

dakrisht · 12 Dec 2009

gregrocker said:

I've got a zip file around here of the 3 boot files which include boot.ini. wouldnt hurt to replace them in both drives with fresh copies in case boot.ini is damaged.

almost threw them out the other day. here they are: Attachment 41689

unzip and replace them in the root of both XP and Windows 7 drives, copying through explorer in Computer.

NO boot.ini in here btw, only two files...

gregrocker · 12 Dec 2009

Can you Copy them into Win7 root from XP side?

Forget the zip file as boot.ini isn't there

Just try copying them through explorer and restart to see if you can boot xp. Worked before.

dakrisht · 12 Dec 2009

gregrocker said:

Can you Copy them in there from XP side?

Forget the zip file as boot.ini isn't there

I can copy the three from the XP side into the 7 side... Doing this now...

dakrisht · 12 Dec 2009

After coping them, XP still doesn't boot. Just restarts the system and goes back into the bootloader selection screen... Perplexing just like the title of this thread!

7 lists the XP install and root drive as D:\ BUT I'm manually booting into XP now to see what XP has it under... I think that could be the problem, not sure.

Yeap, it's listed as C:\ (in XP) so both OS' obviously use C:\ while 7 seems to think that XP is on D:\

Could this be it?

gregrocker · 12 Dec 2009

How do you manually boot into XP? If doing it via BIOS shortcut F-key, what is wrong with that? Just set Win7 as default.

It is normal in XP/7 dual boot for each to see itself as C when you are in it.

Unless someone else has a better idea, I would repair install XP and add it using Easy which is all I can think of right now. Something is blocking it. Or "manual" boot.

If anyone can confirm that Win7 64 bit needs to be the first drive slot, then you can try that config and change it in Easy, too.

It's gettin late and I'm gettin sloppy after 16 hours of this so need to sleep on it.

dakrisht · 12 Dec 2009

Again, thanks for all your help.

I'm manually going into the BIOS and selecting the 2nd drive (XP Drive) to boot first instead of the 7 drive at the moment...

Will try a repair of the XP system tomorrow, time to get some rest...

gregrocker · 12 Dec 2009

Actually, removing dual boots is such a hassle we advise those with separate HD's to use the BIOS booting method.

THere should even be a shortcut F-key, given on the first bootup screen as Boot Menu or some such thing, often F10 or F12, that you can tap at bootup to choose other than the default boot drive.

So if this the worst case scenario for you, I wouldnt' worry about it because now your drives can come and go without being interlinked as the other Dual Boot config does.

If you want to remove the dual boot menu just use EasyBCD.

Night.

dakrisht · 12 Dec 2009

gregrocker said:

Actually, removing dual boots is such a hassle we advise those with separate HD's to use the BIOS booting method.

THere should even be a shortcut F-key, given on the first bootup screen as Boot Menu or some such thing, often F10 or F12, that you can tap at bootup to choose other than the default boot drive.

So if this the worst case scenario for you, I wouldnt' worry about it because now your drives can come and go without being interlinked as the other Dual Boot config does.

If you want to remove the dual boot menu just use EasyBCD.

Night.

You make a good point. I might have to scrap the boot menu all together and F12 into my OS of choice...

I've gotten so used to the VMWare way of life (15+ OS' running atop multiple hypervisors, easy transfers, migrations, volume exchanges, virtual switches - aka madness - rarely a problem) and MS does it again with a painful boot menu config, when it should be a piece of cake...

Windows 7 looks solid so far, really want to see what a 64-bit version of 7 with 8GB RAM can do...

Thanks again for your help...

-K