Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

How to Setup a Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP​

   Information

This will show you how to install Windows 7 and XP to dual boot with when you already have either Windows 7 or XP installed first.

   Note

With a dual boot installaton, you will have two operating systems (OS) installed. When you start the computer, you will have the choice to choose which OS you would like to start up to. This method is the easiest way of doing a dual boot with these two operating systems.

   Tip

When dual booting with another OS (ex: Vista or XP), you may not always have that OS partition show up in Computer with a driver letter in Windows 7. If this happens, then you will just need to add a drive letter to the OS (ex: Vista or XP) partition in Windows 7 Disk Management for it to show up in Computer with a driver letter.

   Warning

To stop XP from deleting your Windows 7 System Restore Points everytime XP is started, then see System Restore Points - Stop XP Dual Boot Delete to hide Windows 7 from XP.

Windows 7 Minimum Hardware Requirements


NOTE: For more information on this, see: Windows 7 system requirements

• 1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
• 1 GB RAM for 32-bit Windows 7 OR 2 GB RAM for 64-bit Windows 7
• 16 GB available disk space 32-bit Windows 7 OR 20 GB for 64-bit Windows 7
• Support for DirectX 9 graphics with 128 MB memory (in order to enable Aero theme)
• DVD-R/W Drive
• Internet or phone access to activate Windows 7.

Windows XP Minimum Hardware Requirements

NOTE: For more information on this, see: System requirements for Windows XP operating systems

• PC with 300 megahertz (MHz) or higher processor clock speed recommended; 233-MHz minimum required;* Intel Pentium/Celeron family, AMD K6/Athlon/Duron family, or compatible processor recommended
• 128 megabytes (MB) of RAM or higher recommended (64 MB minimum supported; may limit performance and some features)
• 1.5 gigabyte (GB) of available hard disk space.*
• Super VGA (800 × 600) or higher resolution video adapter and monitor
• CD-ROM or DVD drive
• Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

EXAMPLE: Windows Boot Manager
NOTE: This is the boot screen where you select what operating system that you would like to start. By default, you have 30 seconds to choose another operating system before the default operating system will start automatically.

OPTION ONE

When XP is Installed First

NOTE: If you have a RAID setup, you will need to have the Windows 7 RAID drivers on a USB flash drive available to select and load while installing Windows 7.
1. Do step 2 or 3 below for where you wanted to install Windows 7 at.

2. To Create a New Partition from the XP Hard Disk Drive
A) With your Windows 7 installation disc boot into the Command Prompt from the System Recovery Options screen.
NOTE: Make sure that the CD/DVD drive is selected first in the boot order in the BIOS.

B) In the command prompt, select and shrink the XP volume by how many MB (1024 MB = 1 GB) you want to have for this Windows 7 partition. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: You would do steps 2 to 9 in METHOD TWO at that link. Windows 7 will need a minimum of 16 GB (16384 MB).

C) Click on the X at the top right corner to close the command prompt. (See screenshot above)

D) Click on the X at the top right corner to close System Recovery Options. (See screenshot below)

E) Go to step 4.
3. To Use a Separate Hard Disk Drive than the XP Drive
A) Boot from your Windows 7 installation disc.
NOTE: Make sure that the CD/DVD drive is selected first in the boot order in the BIOS.
4. Click on the Install now button. (See screenshot below)

5. When you get to this point, select the partition (step 2) or hard drive to install Windows 7 on. (See screenshot below)

6. Finish installing Windows 7.
NOTE: You would start at step 9 in that link to finish installing Windows 7.

7. When finished, restart the computer to have the option to boot from XP (Earlier Verision of Windows) or Windows 7. (See screenshot below)

   Note

If you are only booting into Windows 7 and do not have XP listed in the Windows Boot Manager, then you can install only EasyBCD (step 8 Option Two below) to add XP (or Windows 7) while started in Windows 7 the same way to the boot list.

OPTION TWO

When Windows 7 is Installed First

   Warning

• If you have a RAID setup, you will need to have the XP RAID drivers for your specific motherboard on a Floppy disc available to select and load at the F6 prompt while installing XP.
• If you have a SATA drive, then you will need to do either one of these options to load the SATA drivers for XP for your specific motherboard.
  • How to Slipstream SATA drivers into Windows XP setup CD with Dual Boot of Windows 7 or Vista
  • How to Load SATA Drivers in Windows XP Setup on your Dual Boot PC with Vista or Windows 7 for how to load your SATA drivers from a Floppy disc at the F6 prompt while installing XP.

1. To Create a New Partition from the Windows 7 Hard Disk Drive
NOTE: If you want to install XP on a separate internal hard drive instead, then skip this step and go to step 2.
A) In Windows 7, select and shrink the Windows 7 volume in Disk Management by how many MB (1024 MB = 1 GB) you want to have for this XP partition. (See screenshots below)
NOTE: You would do all of Method One at that link.





2. Insert your XP installation disc, then restart the computer and press any key to boot from it when prompted. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: Make sure that the CD/DVD drive is selected first in the boot order in the BIOS.

3. From XP Setup, Press Enter. (See screenshot below)

   Warning

• If you have a RAID setup, you will need to have the XP RAID drivers for your specific motherboard on a Floppy disc available to select and load at the F6 prompt while installing XP.
• If you have a SATA drive, then you will need to do either one of these options to load the SATA drivers for XP for your specific motherboard.
  • How to Slipstream SATA drivers into Windows XP setup CD with Dual Boot of Windows 7 or Vista
  • How to Load SATA Drivers in Windows XP Setup on your Dual Boot PC with Vista or Windows 7 for how to load your SATA drivers from a Floppy disc at the F6 prompt while installing XP.

4. Press F8. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: On some multimedia keyboards, you may need to press the F-Lock or Function key before pressing F8.

5. Select the partition (step 1) or hard drive that you want to install XP on using the arrow keys and press Enter.

6. Finish installing XP.

   Tip

If you get Error loading Operating System after XP restarts:

• Using your Windows 7 installation disc, boot to the command prompt at startup.
• Type in these comands below, and press enter after each one.
  • bootrec /FixMbr
  • bootrec /FixBoot
  • bootrec /RebuildBcd
• Exit the command prompt and restart the computer.
• At this point, Windows 7 should boot up the same way before trying to install XP.
• Continue to step 8 below and run EasyBCD from Windows 7 instead.

7. In XP, download and install .Net Framework 2.0 (32-bit) version or .Net Framework 2.0 (64-bit) version first, and EasyBCD (free version) for your 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x86) XP.
NOTE: In XP, Net Framework is required to be installed to run EasyBCD. After you click on Register (at bottom of link) for the free EasyBCD, registration is not required to download it.

8. Run EasyBCD (free version).
NOTE: This is required to repair the Windows 7 boot file and add XP to the Windows Boot Manager list.

9. On the left side of EasyBCD, click on the Add New Entry button. (See screenshot below)
A) In the top section under Operating Systems, click on the Windows tab. (See screenshot below)
B) To the right of Type, select Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3 from the drop down menu. (See screenshot below)
:warn:WARNING: Be sure to leave the Automatically detect correct drive box checked.

C) To the right of Name, you can leave the default Microsoft Windows XP as the name to be displayed in the Windows Boot Manager, or you can type whatever name you would like to have instead. (See screenshot below)
D) Click on the Add Entry button. (See screenshot below)

10. On the left side of EasyBCD, click on the BCD Deployment button, select (dot) the Install the Windows Vista/7 bootloader to the MBR option, and click on the Write MBR button. (See screenshot below)

11. Close EasyBCD.

12. Restart the computer to have the option to boot from Microsoft Windows XP or Windows 7. (See screenshot below)

   Tip

If Windows 7 will not start up when selected, then use your Windows 7 installation DVD to do a Startup Repair.

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Setup a Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Setup a Dual Boot Installation with Windows Vista and XP
• How to Do a Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Dual Boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu
• How to Correctly Setup a Dual Boot with Windows 7 and LinuxMint13
• How to Change Time to Display Operating Systems at Boot in Windows 7
• How to Change the Listed OS Arrangement Order in Windows Boot Manager Screen
• How to Change the Default Operating System to Start in Windows 7
• How to Delete an Operating System Listed in Windows Boot Manager
• How to Change the OS Name in Windows Boot Manager
• How to Do a Clean Installation with Windows 7
• How to Install Windows 7 FAST without a DVD or USB Device
• Install Windows 7 Without Using Any External Device
• How to Setup Windows 7 to Boot from a VHD (Virtual Hard Disk)
• How to Create a Windows 7 VHD at Boot to Start with from Boot
• How to Do a Custom Installation of Windows 7
• How to Load SATA Drivers in Windows XP Setup on your Dual Boot PC with Vista or Windows 7
• How to Slipstream SATA drivers into Windows XP setup CD with Dual Boot of Windows 7 or Vista
• How to Load SATA Driver Using Shift+F10 to Open Command Prompt
• How to Recover a Partition Used by an Older OS in a Dual Boot
• How to Properly Delete a OS in a Dual Boot
• How to Stop System Restore Points from being Deleted in Vista and Windows 7 when Dual Booting with XP

 

[gregrocker]

Transfer the Win7 installation including MBR, Track0 and Active flag, auto-drive letter to preserve C boot. If necessary confirm Active partition and Run Startup Repair til it boots.

Then apply XP to its partition without any if those except auto drive letter selection to preserve C. Afterwards from Win7 install EasyBCD to add XP to Boot Menu.

Based on the hundreds if not thousands of posts I've helped solve in this thread the possibility of something unseen in your config interfering with this is good. But I'm giving you generalized steps since I only had enough time to read your screenshots now tonight.

Norton is one of the least favored apps here during our entire run.

 

[pungineer]

I thought I had it working, but now XP is not booting up.

It goes through the loading screen with no errors, but when it goes to the login screen for entering the password, it just stops with the blue XP screen and no window to enter the password.

 

[gregrocker]

Please post back the requested screenshot of Win7 Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

In addition confirm which steps you followed which I gave in the post above, and if not exactly what you did to get the Dual Boot working.

 

[pungineer]

I do finally have it working.

After so many iterations, it is difficult to define the exact sequence, but I might try to duplicate it on a new drive.

W7 seems to have problems when an image is restored to a partitioned drive. The first step after restoring the image is to use the DVD to repair the install and startup. If this isn't done, when it did start, it frequently created a new desktop and lost all my settings. I don't think it thought the W7 install was legitimate.

Once the restored image boots successfully, create a new image to use for any future dual boot restores, if necessary.

Next restore the XP image. This will result in the system directly booting into XP.

Finally, use the W7 DVD to:
1. Do an automatic repair if one is found.
2. Open a command window from the repair console and do bootrec.exe /fixmbr and bootrec.exe /fixboot.
3. Use the recovery console and run the Startup Repair.
4. You should now be able to boot directly in W7, where EasyBCD can add the XP boot option. Note: The XP partition may require a drive letter to be added from Disk Management before EasyBCD can find it.

I will see if I can easily duplicate this on another clean drive just to verify the process.

I have attached the image you requested.

 

[gregrocker]

Looks okay but why are there page files on Disks 3 and 4?

 

[SIW2]

W7 seems to have problems when an image is restored to a partitioned drive.

Of course it does. Windows needs to know which device it is on.

 

[pungineer]

I thought that restoring an image to a partition would result in the partition appearing the same to Windows as if it had been restored to a single drive.

My understanding was that spreading the page file among multiple drives improved performance.

 

[gregrocker]

It shares the boot manager if it's on the same drive, which isn't necessary if it's on a separate physical drive.

As to the paging file being moved, I would not mainly because I've never seen it improve performance.

 

[pungineer]

Sorry, I don't understand why the page file would affect the boot manager or vice versa. Doesn't Windows stop using it at shutdown and start again after booting?

 

[gregrocker]

Paging file doesn't affect the bootmgr. You asked why an image didn't appear to Windows as if it was on a single drive and I replled that it must share the boot manager if it is on the same physical drive.

I also said I would not share the paging file.

 

[pungineer]

I was able to get a bit more direct dual boot procedure using XP and W7 image files:

1. Restore the W7 image. (Select all options: Set Active, MBR, etc. Do NOT try to boot into W7.)
2. Restore the XP image. (Select all options: Set Active, MBR, etc. This will result in the system directly booting into XP.)

Use the W7 DVD repair options to:
3. Do an automatic repair if one is found.
4. Open a command window from the repair console and do bootrec.exe /fixmbr and bootrec.exe /fixboot.
5. Use the recovery console and run the Startup Repair.
6. You should now be able to boot directly in W7, where EasyBCD can add the XP boot option. Note: The XP partition may require a drive letter to be added from Disk Management before EasyBCD can find it.

Much better than starting over.

 

[gregrocker]

Win7 must be Partition Marked Active in order to repair it to boot using Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times.

 

[ShArKy]

hey i hope someone can help me...after i installed 7 i try to install xp but i cant even do it cos after the files are loaded from the cd i see this error when the installation tries to continue

 

[gregrocker]

Please post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image
from Win7.

If Win7 will not now start, then confirm that your 100mb System Reserved partition (if you have it) or C partition (if you don't) is Partition Marked Active,

then run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times until Win7 starts again.

 

[ShArKy]

hey thanks for tryin to help me....here's the screen shot...I've tried to set up a simple stupid dual boot system for my parents and this mess has happened...Im thinkin I mite just have to start from scratch again if my drive partititions are messed up...

 

[gregrocker]

It would be better to shrink D to create a partition to Install XP onto with the Win7 hard drive unplugged while you do this. Then you can boot your choice via the BIOS BOot menu key, setting preferred OS HD first to boot in BIOS setup.

But if you want to install to E, what I would do is boot into the XP CD to delete the 3.19 partition (after backing up any data on it) and the existing E partition, then create a New parttion to Full Format with the XP installer which has a slightly different partition table.

Then install XP to the newly formatted partition. This will steal the boot from Win7 so you'll need to start it again using the steps I gave earlier, then add XP using EasyBCD.

 

[ShArKy]

um....well I can't install it on D cos that's an older drive that ive set up only for storage just incase it konks out..i created the 3.19 partition to simulate that small ACTIVE partititon that I accidentally removed when I created the E one on C drive...maybe I should just rip up everything and start over...I have a working version of 7 already installed on the C partition rite now that I'm using and I'd rather keep it...it was E that I tried to install the XP onto...i'll blow it all up if I have to but I'd rather save SOMETHING if that's possible...I've already spent days on this crap...this ALL shudda been very easy to do...but it's turned into a friggin nitemare...lol

 

[gregrocker]

Why didn't you ask whether you needed to recreate the System Reserved partition, because obviously you don't since it boots and the flags are all correct (System Active) on C showing it is fully capable of booting itself. Don't get mad about things not going right when you make silly assumptions and don't even bother to ask us if this is needed here where we've helped with these by the thousands.

If you want XP on the same drive and you created E to install it upon, I already gave you the steps to try: Boot the XP installation media, delete D and E then create a New partition in that space and full format it using the XP installer only since it has a slightly different partition table.

If it again fails then you likely have a bad XP disk. When did it install correctly last? Where did you get it?

 

[Paul1964]

I have a PC with 2 HDD's installed with XP installed on the first drive and 7 on the second and want to remove the XP drive. Win 7 is the active OS. If I delete the earlier version (XP) in EasyBCD can I remove the XP drive and the system will boot to the drive with Win 7 installed on it?

 

[gregrocker]

It depends on if Win7 is marked System Active in Disk Mgmt when booted. If so then it can boot itself independently, otherwise you'll need first to move the Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD - Windows 7 Forums.

Make sure when removing the XP drive that Win7 becomes set first to boot in BIOS setup.

If any problems or questions post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image