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

 

[Acacius]

Dual boot Win7 Ultimate and XP Pro Sp3

Almost clear to me the tutorial, before I instal BCE, Like to comment this:
I have in one HD Win7 and in another HD XP. To instal the win 7 I take out the XP HD. Then conect both and via the boot in bios I use win 7 or XP selecting the HD (XP) or HD (Win7). I think I have to aply the second method, correct? and in step 15, method 2, says " reinstal the vista bootloader" in my case I think this is not valid?? wilb be "reinstal the win7 bootloader"? or what?
I appreciate your help
Best regards

 

[Brink]

Hello Acacius, and welcome to Seven Forums.

If you have the option to select from both OS's at boot to startup in one of them, then you will not need to use BCE.

 

[Acacius]

Hello Acacius, and welcome to Seven Forums.

If you have the option to select from both OS's at boot to startup in one of them, then you will not need to use BCE.

Hello Brink
Thanks for your quickly answer, with your advise I will continue selecting the OS via the boot.
Best regards

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Acacius. If you just wanted to change which one was the default OS to automatically boot up in, then this tutorial can help show you how to change it.

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

 

[Bert Coules]

You might have better luck checking the HP site for drivers under the machine model number - instead of chasing down the mobo. It may be specially made for HP anyway.

No joy, there, alas: the HP details for my particular model list only Win7 drivers, with a note "if drivers for other operating systems are not listed, we cannot supply them". And since it does look as if the motherboard is an HP exclusive, presumably no-one else can supply them either, though I've emailed HP support to ask.

Later...

A speedy reply from HP. Though they stated that they don't approve Dual Boot, they gave me links to three specific XP drivers for my particular PC. "I request you to install them and check for the results. If everything works then we are done, if not then I regret to inform that those devices [Ethernet and PCI] may not work with Windows XP."

Bert

 

[Grez]

Ok, so significant progress has been made:

My boot issues with the 1Tb HDD came down to what I believe is my new fancy-schmancy mobo's inability to boot to a single partition that large. I made a 50Gb partition on the drive, installed XP, put it first in the boot order and POOF! It fired right up, alongside an interesting mixture of celebrating and swearing.

I then partitioned the rest of the drive as a storage area that can be used by both OSs.

I cleaned up my Win7 install on the SSD, and now I can boot into either OS by switching the drive order in BIOS.

However, I'd like to do real dual boot via the bootloader, and I'm running into a problem there.

For description, I have the SSD as the boot device in BIOS currently. In my Win7 config, I have the SSD as C, and then the WinXP system partition on the 1Tb HDD as D. The storage partition on that drive is defined as H for clarity.

Now, I've installed EasyBCD in Win7. I've added a second entry for WinXP. However, it does not let me choose another drive in the drop-down box when I add this entry. It forces it to be C. I could change it in the Change Settings dialog, though. I tried setting it to D (and checked that this took effect by looking at the BCDedit info at the command prompt), but when I select WinXP as my OS at boot, I get an error that a file is missing from the system folder (I assume this just happens to be the first file it's looking for after selection). I changed the setting back to C for giggles, and it gives me the same result. What am I missing? It's obviously something small and stupid, but it's 1:30 in the morning, and for the life of me, I'm becoming tired and oblivious.

Soooo, if anyone can help me overcome this final obstacle, I'll be cooking with gas.
__________

Edit: Ok, I now realize that I never should've changed the drive setting for XP in EasyBCD to D now...it has to be "C" since that is where ntldr resides. So my brain fixed that little fact for me this morning after some sleep. However, the same problem still exists.

Now, when ntldr brings up the boot options (for just a second), it is listing three XP installs (I think because there are three drives...yes, there is a third hard drive in there, which is just a leftover storage drive from a previous build with no OS on it). I think that the one that it's defaulting to is incorrect -- at least I'd like to make changes to find out. Problem is that Win7 won't let me change the boot.ini file...oh, I've changed the settings from read only to being writable, and checked the security settings so that the administrators group (which my id is certainly in) has full control over the file. However, when I go to make a change, I still get the infamous access is denied error. MSConfig in Win7 doesn't edit this file, and doing msconfig in XP is going to look at the boot.ini stuff on the second drive, which is not the one I want to edit. And, since EasyBCD created this file with a timeout setting of 1, I don't have time enough to hit a button and select another profile for XP to even see if making the change would work. Aaarrgh! Any ideas?

Well, I've solved my issue(s) here, and thought I'd update everyone on how I made things work. As I mentioned before, dual boot wasn't working because the ntldr boot.ini made by EasyBCD saw three potential partitions for XP, selected the wrong one as default, and set the timer to 1. Therefore, I had no time to change to one of the other potential choices to try it out. Also, the file was not accessible for modification no matter what security settings I had set for it or whether I unmarked it as read only.

So, to the solution: I realized that since I'd installed XP on a physically separate hard drive, it would not regard the boot.ini file on the drive I normally use for boot as a protected file. So, I changed the drive order in CMOS again, manually booting into XP. From there, I was able to open up the boot.ini file on the other drive, change the default selection to the second choice (which ended up being the right one), and the timer to 15 seconds (just in case I needed to manually play around with the thing). I saved, went back into CMOS, changed the boot order back like it was, and tried it out. Now, it works perfectly! Once I had that verified, I went back into XP and edited the boot.ini file to have a timer setting of 1 again, and now it fires up quickly and painlessly. Whew!

 

[severedsolo]

before i go ahead and do this, can someone please tell me, that this WONT mess with the BCD stored on the syste reserved100MB partition? its VERY important the windows 7 BCD stays unchanged (except to add an XP entry obviously)

 

[Brink]

Hello Severedsolo,

As long as nothing goes wrong it should only add the XP entry.

 

[severedsolo]

thanks brink, unfortunately my disk has a nice big scratch across it.... so im relying on my recovery partition, bCD goes, so does the recovery partiton, thanks for the quick reply

 

[Brink]

In that case, I would recommend backing up anything that you do not want to lose to be safe.

Since it's a HP, have you already created a set of HP recovery discs so you can use them to reinstall Windows with instead if needed?

Using HP Backup and Recovery Manager in Vista - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

 

[severedsolo]

dont have that any more, its a home made recovery partition from the disk when i upgraded from vista, ok what ill do, ill wait til i get some blank disks, and make an ISO from my recovery partition just in case

 

[CrusnikVIII]

Forgive me if this has already been covered. I get to the point where you install XP in method 2 but the Installation of XP isn't working properly. I'm able to install XP to the point where it needs to restart. but then when it does instead of continuing the installation I get this error, "Press any key to boot from CD..... Error loading operating system" and I'm not able to do anything. The Only way I've been able to restore functionality to my PC is to dual boot my PC with another copy of Windows 7 then delete the second copy of Windows 7 with Easybcd and remove the installation files. Any advice to get this working would be greatly appreciated.

 

[TrevorOzzy]

Hi there. I bought a new PC with Windows 7 installed about two months ago. Last night I made a new partition (100GB) on my drive for the XP install. After finishing the install I rebooted and got, "Disc read error. Press CTRL+ATL+DEL to restart". Please help me!

 

[Grez]

Forgive me if this has already been covered. I get to the point where you install XP in method 2 but the Installation of XP isn't working properly. I'm able to install XP to the point where it needs to restart. but then when it does instead of continuing the installation I get this error, "Press any key to boot from CD..... Error loading operating system" and I'm not able to do anything. The Only way I've been able to restore functionality to my PC is to dual boot my PC with another copy of Windows 7 then delete the second copy of Windows 7 with Easybcd and remove the installation files. Any advice to get this working would be greatly appreciated.

@Crusnik -- I had a similar problem, and my solution was to use two physically separate hard drives, which allowed me to force the boot (and hence, reboot in the XP install) to the 2nd hard drive until everything in XP was set up like I wanted. Then, I was able to go back and use EasyBCD on my Win7 install to get the NT boot loader (needed for XP) running on the 1st drive to redirect to the 2nd one for dual boot. Works awesomely now. If you'd like to read the drama, I believe that it starts on page 47 and continues on to 48 & 49, with a couple of other people's discussions sprinkled inbetween.

Hi there. I bought a new PC with Windows 7 installed about two months ago. Last night I made a new partition (100GB) on my drive for the XP install. After finishing the install I rebooted and got, "Disc read error. Press CTRL+ATL+DEL to restart". Please help me!

@Trevor: if your disc that is giving you this error is your Win7 HDD, don't fear...it's likely totally fixable. Boot from your Win7 DVD, and do a repair from the disc (startup repair should be the first option in the repair menu screen). I had the same thing happen to me when going through this, and Win7 was able to fix itself pretty much every time. The only time I got this error and it was unfixable was when I was trying to boot XP from my 2nd drive with a full 1Tb partition...that made it completely crap out. So, I made a 50Gb partition for XP on the 2nd drive, and then it fired right up, no problem. I used one big partition for the rest of the drive as storage/installation space for both OSs from both physically separate hard drives. In any case, keep in mind that partition size, depending upon your mobo's capabilities, can play a role in whether you can boot from that particular disc.

 

[TrevorOzzy]

Grez, just using one 1TB HDD for both installs. I was having a look around the thread so from what I can tell I'm going to:

Use the Win 7 DVD to repair (apparently this must be done three times!)
Use BCD 2.0 to give the XP partition a drive letter.
Use the "How to Stop System Restore Points from being Deleted in Vista when Dual Booting with XP" thread to stop XP deleting the restore points.

Cheers man, must give it a go tonight now!

 

[CrusnikVIII]

Grez thanks for the reply but I don't have a second hard drive. Nor would I find it worth it to buy one just for XP. Does anyone know an alternative method I could use?

 

[Grez]

If you want to put both OSs on the same drive, I strongly suggest installing XP first...it's much easier. Just be sure that you have your partition sizes set the way that you want before the install. It's a lot easier than installing, then doing a shrink, then adding the second partition and installing the second OS.

The reason that it's easier to do XP first is that XP doesn't use the Vista/Win7 bootloader. It uses ntldr, and when you dual boot with Vista/Win7, the bootloader there basically just calls ntldr for XP. So, if you install XP first, it works like a normal install...then you can install Win7 all in one shot on the 2nd partition, get the bootloader set up (via easyBCD), configure it per instructions in this thread to recognize your XP install, and you should be good to go.

 

[CrusnikVIII]

Grez, again thank you for your responses. I'm aware that its much easier to install XP first but then it makes it a pain to remove it latter. So that is why I'm trying to find a solution to install 7 first then XP. That way when Windows 7 is fully supported I can remove XP with out a clean install of Windows 7.

 

[sandmanwv]

windows7 and XP Pro dual boot

I followed your guide and everything went perfectly! I expected to have problems but your guide took me through the process step by step.

Thanks Brink!

 

[TrevorOzzy]

Grez, again thank you for your responses. I'm aware that its much easier to install XP first but then it makes it a pain to remove it latter. So that is why I'm trying to find a solution to install 7 first then XP. That way when Windows 7 is fully supported I can remove XP with out a clean install of Windows 7.

@CrusnikVIII:

CrusnikVIII, I don't know if this helps but here's what I did (I had Win 7 installed):

1. Booted from XP install disc.
2. Installed and rebooted.
3. Got the "Disc read error. Press CTRL+ATL+DEL to restart" message.
4. Used my WIN 7 install disc to repair my Win 7 installation.
5. Booted into Win 7 and continued from step 8 of method two from there.

Works perfectly now! (Only thing I forgot was the "How to Stop System Restore Points from being Deleted in Vista when Dual Booting with XP" part. Must do that over the weekend.)

Thanks to everyone on here for the help and to Brink for the guide!