bootmgr and boot folder

[Gswiss]

I just installed a Windows 7 Home Premium on a laptop which is on the C: drive. I noticed that there was no Boot folder nor a bootmgr file. I activated the display of all system and hidden files.

Since I now intend to install an XP on the same computer in dual boot mode, I know that these files have to be copied to the XP partition once the XP installation is completed in order to succeed in the dual boot (along with ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini).

 

[zigzag3143]

I just installed a Windows 7 Home Premium on a laptop which is on the C: drive. I noticed that there was no Boot folder nor a bootmgr file. I activated the display of all system and hidden files.

Since I now intend to install an XP on the same computer in dual boot mode, I know that these files have to be copied to the XP partition once the XP installation is completed in order to succeed in the dual boot (along with ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini).

Hi and welcome

The normal proceedure for dual booting is to install teh older OS first. I dont think the boot folder has to be in both OS'es. Since you installed win7 first you are probably going to need bcdedit to fix the boot menu. Instructions for bcdedit are here. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2676-bcdedit-how-use.html?ltr=B

Good luck and let us know if you need help

Ken

 

[theog]

Take a look at this also:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html?ltr=D

 

[Gswiss]

Thank you for your suggestions.

I carried out quite a number of XP installs in dual boot mode with Vista pre-installed without a hitch using EasyBCD for the last touch. But I noticed that things did not work properly if the files/folders mentioned above were not copied from C: drive (Vista) to the root of the XP partition.

Since Windows 7 is basically an extension of Vista, I don't understand why Boot folder and bootmgr are not present after my installation of Windows 7.

 

[Saltgrass]

If those files are not in the Win 7 root directory, possibly they are in a 100mb partition installed by Win 7. If this is not the case, use disk management to see where the System partition is and look there for the files.

 

[gregrocker]

Use EasyBCD 2.0 beta which is fully automated and will prompt you then write the boot files to XP when you Add XP.

Since it's beta, you have to do a quick registration to sign off on the disclaimer, but it's worth it and a keeper: EasyBCD 2.0 Beta Builds - The NeoSmart Forums

These dual booting and removal of dual boot operations are now fully automated with EasyBCD (or installing Win7 last) and Win7 DVD Startup Repair to rewrite the MBR to 7 when you want to abandon XP.

 

[Gswiss]

Sorry for being late in replying. I finally managed to get everything to work fine.

I was first trying to solve the problem of installing XP on SATA disks. Even with the appropriate storage manager drivers, the F6 procedure ends up with a BSOD sooner or later. Thank goodness, I located a disk compatibility mode in the BIOS which allowed me to install a basic XP. I then switched, through the Control Panel, from IDE to AHCI, rebooted, changed the BIOS parameter back to its original value and that's it.

EasyBCD 2.0 didn't work properly under XP. Something went wrong as I couldn't boot to anything. I had to go through the Win 7 repair process. It's through the latter that I managed to fix the whole dual boot process using EasyBCD.

Thank you all for your suggestions.

FYI, Toshiba L500 and L555 portable series react all as explained above: F6 process in XP installation for Storage Manager drivers does not work.