Dual boot winxp & win 7

[quano]

I've got 2 drives with OS on them - my old one with winxp, and my new one with win7. I was thinking it could be a good thing to be able to boot the winxp drive, if I'd like to run something from that installation. Is this possible? How would you configure this?

 

[pebbly]

hi quano, you could use bcdedit to acheive what you are after http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2676-bcdedit-how-use.html hope that helps

 

[quano]

Can't get it to work, my computer will instantly reboot when selecting the Windows XP option in the boot loader. I tried setting the drive to another drive letter in bcdedit, which doesn't have win xp on it, and then the boot loader gave me an error message instead when I tried to load winxp. So I suppose it is sort of working, it just crashes or somehow fails to load winxp when using the correct drive letter. Any ideas?

The drive letter I'm supposed to give it is the one that shows up as winxp in windows 7, right? Because previously, my winxp drive was C drive, but in win7 that drive seems to be E, looking at the contents.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello quano, welcome to Seven Forums!



Leave both drives connected and do a startup repair on the Windows 7 with the W 7 install disk, that should get you the boot option menu at bootup; have a look at the tutorial at the link below.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html?ltr=S

 

[pebbly]

yes the ntldr labels the xp installation as "E" drive , did you run the bcdedit as administrator and followed the guide to the letter, i myself have never used bcdedit ,so dont feel competent enough to assist you any further but please be patient another member will be along shortly and pick up on the thread

along came BFK while iwas typing my reply thanks BFK

 

[theog]

Have a read of those tutorials:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html?ltr=D
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/72185-sata-drivers-slipstream-into-windows-xp-cd.html
Use EasyBCD 2.0 in Win 7 & Win XP.
http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=642

A bit more reading.
BCDEDIT - How to Use - Page 7 - Windows 7 Forums
http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/58188-added-xp-7-but-now-wont-boot.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/58680-solve-dual-boot-problem-windows-7-a.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/57634-dual-boot.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/58680-solve-dual-boot-problem-windows-7-a.html

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

along came BFK while iwas typing my reply thanks BFK

That's how a team works pebbly!

 

[quano]

Hello quano, welcome to Seven Forums!



Leave both drives connected and do a startup repair on the Windows 7 with the W 7 install disk, that should get you the boot option menu at bootup; have a look at the tutorial at the link below.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html?ltr=S

Thanks!

Startup repair did not find any issues.

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

Use EasyBCD 2.0 in Win 7 & Win XP.
EasyBCD 2.0 Beta Builds - The NeoSmart Forums

A bit more reading.
BCDEDIT - How to Use - Page 7 - Windows 7 Forums
http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/58188-added-xp-7-but-now-wont-boot.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/58680-solve-dual-boot-problem-windows-7-a.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/57634-dual-boot.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/58680-solve-dual-boot-problem-windows-7-a.html

The first article doesn't seem to cover my problem, as it assumes only one OS is installed. Besides, I did what it said (installing win 7 on a new drive), yet I did not get a boot screen like the one there. Instead it boots directly into Win7 (by default).

EasyBCD - I already tried this when using bcd. It's still a bcd-method, and it does not work.

Maybe something isn't quite right with my harddrive setting, as it doesn't even show up in bios when selecting boot device. I don't know if all drives are supposed to be shown there or not. I've got 5 drives, and the only one showing up is the win 7 drive. Yet they're all accessable in win7.

 

[theog]

All HD's need to show in your BIOS.

Which EasyBCD are you using?

When using EasyBCD are you doing Step 14/15?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Did you re-boot after the "startup repair"?



Right click computer, manage, disk management, please post a screen shot / snip.


http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...ed-method-uploading-posting-screen-shots.html

 

[quano]

All HD's need to show in your BIOS.

Which EasyBCD are you using?

When using EasyBCD are you doing Step 14/15?

I think they all show up, it just offers me to boot form one (sata 1).

1.7.2.

Step 14?
edit:
ah, reinstall. No, didn't.

Did you re-boot after the "startup repair"?



Right click computer, manage, disk management, please post a screen shot / snip.


http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...ed-method-uploading-posting-screen-shots.html

yes.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

... and which drive is XP on?

 

[quano]

... and which drive is XP on?

E, as previously mentioned.

 

[theog]

All HD's need to show in your BIOS.

Which EasyBCD are you using?

When using EasyBCD are you doing Step 14/15?

I think they all show up, it just offers me to boot form one (sata 1).

1.7.2.

Step 14?
edit:
ah, reinstall. No, didn't.

Did you re-boot after the "startup repair"?



Right click computer, manage, disk management, please post a screen shot / snip.


http://www.sevenforums.com/general-...ed-method-uploading-posting-screen-shots.html

yes.

Use EasyBCD 2, & do step 14/15

 

[quano]

Use EasyBCD 2, & do step 14/15

Behaves as before:

Can't get it to work, my computer will instantly reboot when selecting the Windows XP option in the boot loader.

 

[quano]

Probably should've mentioned first of all that I'm using new hardware, i.e. new motherboard, graphics card, cpu, memory etc. My winxp install was configured with other hardware. I've tried to boot winxp in safe mode, but haven't really found a way to do this, as when I select winxp in the boot loader, it restarts instantly, and the boot loader doesn't offer me to start in safe mode directly (like it does with windows 7).

 

[theog]

Probably should've mentioned first of all that I'm using new hardware, i.e. new motherboard, graphics card, cpu, memory etc. My winxp install was configured with other hardware. I've tried to boot winxp in safe mode, but haven't really found a way to do this, as when I select winxp in the boot loader, it restarts instantly, and the boot loader doesn't offer me to start in safe mode directly (like it does with windows 7).

Try a Repair install of Win XP.

 

[gregrocker]

XP requires a Repair Install from boot when you change hardware. Boot XP CD, continue as if to Install, then when it discovers the installation, select R for Repair (not the first R given after bootup).

This will acclimate XP to the new hardware and start it up. If it doesn't give you the second "R" for Repair, after locating the installation, then it cannot be repaired and started.

You can now install EasyBCD 2.0 in XP, which requires Net Framework 2.0 install as well, to add 7 to the Boot Menu. Or install Easy 2.0 in Win7 which requires marking 7 active in XP Disk Management, booting into 7 DVD Repair to run Startup Repair repeatedly with reboots until it writes the MBR back to 7 and it starts.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

XP requires a Repair Install from boot when you change hardware. Boot XP CD, continue as if to Install, then when it discovers the installation, select R for Repair (not the first R given after bootup).

Thanks Greg, I'll remember this.

 

[quano]

Ok, couldn't find any repair install in the boot menu of the winxp cd. The only choice I had was to delete the old winxp installation or not. So that's what I did. Once installed, I installed EasyBCD on winxp and rewrote the MBR, together with the winxp entry. Now both OS:es will boot properly from the boot menu.