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

 

[John A]

Thanks for a great tutorial! I'm fairly confident this will go without a hitch, but can't take any risks on losing my current OS so just want to make absolutely sure it's all possible...

Current OS: Windows XP Pro 32bit OEM
RAM: 2Gb
1 HDD (SATA) Partitioned to 2 drives (see attachment)

I've bought Windows 7 Pro 64bit OEM, a new Velociraptor 300Gb SATA HDD and an 8Gb RAM upgrade. The plan is to install Win7 on the new HDD with a dual boot option so that I can still access the old WinXP (which will obviously only see less than half of the new RAM, but that's OK).

Is there anything I should know, possible problems etc.? Does it matter what the boot order of the two drives are in bios?

Thanks for any help!

 

[Brink]

Hello John, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Method One should do it for you, but I would backup anything that you do not want to lose to be safe though.

 

[John A]

Method One should do it for you, but I would backup anything that you do not want to lose to be safe though.

Thanks Brink,

Does it matter which HDD is first in the bios boot sequence? I think I read somewhere else (can't remember where) that it does, or that I might have to add XP to the bootloader after installing XP? Or am I worrying too much?

 

[Brink]

John,

Since you already had XP installed, it would need to be listed first in the boot order.

 

[TaraSWinTeam]

Can the upgrade version of Home Premium be used for a Dual Boot installation or is the full version required (I can't seem to find a definitive answer on this). I currently have XP 32bit on C: and would like to install Win7 64bit on a separate drive. So I would use Method 1 Step 2. When I get to Step 5 it says to go to step 9 of a Clean install. Since I have an upgrade disk should I go to How to Do a Clean Install with a Upgrade Windows 7 Version?

Here is the information for performing a dual-installation (multiboot): Install more than one operating system (multiboot).

Tara
Windows Outreach Team

 

[John A]

John,

Since you already had XP installed, it would need to be listed first in the boot order.

OK, thanks again!

Here is the information for performing a dual-installation (multiboot): Install more than one operating system (multiboot).

That links seems to detail a different method than in this tutorial (for my case). i.e. it suggests booting into my Windows XP and installing Windows 7 from there, rather than booting straight into the Windows 7 setup disk. Which is the preferred method?

 

[Brink]

Hello John,

The preferred method would be to have XP installed first, then boot from the Windows 7 installation disc and install it on a separate partition or drive.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Dwarf]

To further expand on what Shawn has said above, it is always easier when multi-booting 2 or more OSes to install the oldest one first and work your way upto the newest. I also recommend that disk partitions are created during the first installation, but that the formatting of said partitions is carried out by the OSes that you are installing there.

 

[John A]

The preferred method would be to have XP installed first, then boot from the Windows 7 installation disc and install it on a separate partition or drive.

To further expand on what Shawn has said above, it is always easier when multi-booting 2 or more OSes to install the oldest one first and work your way upto the newest. I also recommend that disk partitions are created during the first installation, but that the formatting of said partitions is carried out by the OSes that you are installing there.

Happy to report that everything went as planned and is now dual booting

A few questions: -

1) Can I change the default OS in bootloader, and take the timer down to something like 5 seconds? Right now it's Win 7 after 30 seconds, I'd prefer WinXP after 5 seconds (for now).

2) Right now in WinXP I can see the WinXP drive (C) and the Win7 drive (S), and in Win7 I can see the Win7 drive (C) and the WinXP drive (X), and from both I also see the "Local" drive (L - which is a partition on the XP drive). Can I hide the other OS's drive from each OS, so all I see is the current OS drive and the "L" partition?

 

[Brink]

Hello John,

I'm happy to hear that.

Q1) Yes, you sure can. I would make the changes in Windows 7 though.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2285-operating-system-start-change-display-list-time.html

and

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2282-default-operating-system-change-default-boot-os.html

Q2) You can use the same tutorial below in each OS to hide both of them from each other.
System Restore Points - Stop XP Dual Boot Delete - Vista Forums


Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[John A]

Q2) You can use the same tutorial below in each OS to hide both of them from each other.
System Restore Points - Stop XP Dual Boot Delete - Vista Forums

Thanks again for your help.

In XP, following that tutorial doesn't hide drive S in "My Computer", although it does make it look empty (I hope it isn't really - haven't booted into Win7 since to test).

I (perhaps strangely) had a "MountedDevice1" entry above "MountedDevices", which I just ignored. Might this be the cause (it was full of similar stuff to the "MountedDevices" key)?

I had also earlier changed the drive icon for "S" at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Explorer/Driveicons/S/DefaultIcon to a Win7 icon that I found....could this entry be causing the ghost drive?

 

[Brink]

What does it show when you have "MountedDevice1" selected?

You will also need to remove the entry for the custom icon for the S: drive as well. That may be what it is.

 

[John A]

Q1) Yes, you sure can. I would make the changes in Windows 7 though.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2285-operating-system-start-change-display-list-time.html

and

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2282-default-operating-system-change-default-boot-os.html

I started on those tutorials, but in the "Startup and Recovery" settings the "Default Operating System" is blank, and the drop-down is also populated with blank items (although there are two of them). This led me to the "Change OS Name in Windows Boot Manager" tutorial, but trying bcdedit in an elevated command prompt gives an error about not finding the file...??

FYI at the boot menu my options are given as "Earlier version of Windows" and "Windows 7". I'm naturally very wary of any changes here as I can't risk my Win XP installation not being accessible!

What does it show when you have "MountedDevice1" selected?

"MountedDevice1" is populated with what looks like a lot of similar stuff to "MountedDevices". I had a quick Google and it seems the "MountedDevice1" entry is from a PartitionMagic (which I had installed some time ago) operation and is ignored by the OS, so I don't think this is the problem.

You will also need to remove the entry for the custom icon for the S: drive as well. That may be what it is.

I removed the custom icon, but the drive is still listed in "My Computer" but is empty and I can't save anything to it (gives an error). I have successfully booted into Win 7 so the drive is fine. Although, attempting to hide the XP drive there has the same results - the drive shows in "My Computer" but is unusable. I guess that's acceptable as nothing is going to happen to them when in the other OS, but it's not perfect and it's annoying seeing them there....

 

[Brink]

Ok John, I have one more weapon for you to try to completely hide the drives from each other with the tutorial below.

Drive - Hide or Unhide - Vista Forums

 

[John A]

Ok John, I have one more weapon for you to try to completely hide the drives from each other with the tutorial below.

Drive - Hide or Unhide - Vista Forums

Excellent, thanks! That finally did it

Will EasyBCD perhaps help in solving my OS naming / choosing problem, or is it deep rooted?

 

[Brink]

You're welcome John. It will not hurt anything to try METHOD TWO to see if you can rename the OS using EasyBCD.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/5110-dual-boot-change-os-name-windows-boot-manager.html

 

[John A]

You're welcome John. It will not hurt anything to try METHOD TWO to see if you can rename the OS using EasyBCD.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/5110-dual-boot-change-os-name-windows-boot-manager.html

When I run EasyBCD in Windows 7, I get the attached alert. It doesn't look friendly at all, is it safe to say "YES"?

 

[Brink]

You're welcome John. It will not hurt anything to try METHOD TWO to see if you can rename the OS using EasyBCD.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/5110-dual-boot-change-os-name-windows-boot-manager.html

When I run EasyBCD in Windows 7, I get the attached alert. It doesn't look friendly at all, is it safe to say "YES"?

Yes, go ahead and click on YES to allow it to fix it.

 

[John A]

You're welcome John. It will not hurt anything to try METHOD TWO to see if you can rename the OS using EasyBCD.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/5110-dual-boot-change-os-name-windows-boot-manager.html

When I run EasyBCD in Windows 7, I get the attached alert. It doesn't look friendly at all, is it safe to say "YES"?

Yes, go ahead and click on YES to allow it to fix it.

Hmmm....I get a series of alerts after that, which just cycle round and round

I'm beginning to think this is to much bother given the end result I'm after (saving me 2 keystrokes at boot)....but at the same time I'm concerned that something isn't as it should be

 

[Brink]

John,

You may need to run this from within Windows XP instead since it was installed first and will have the boot file. Plus XP is now hidden from Windows 7, so this may be why it's not finding it.