Dual Booting

[blondie357]

I am working on my father's pc. He currently has windows 7 pro 64-bit. He loves games..all kinds of them and of course has the issue of getting the old ones to work on windows 7. Some of them work in virtual XP..some of them dont. I want to eliminate that problem altogether and just install a dual boot with XP. My problem is with the partitions. He currently has System, OS and Recovery. I tried shrinking the C and adding a new partition for the XP but of course it wont let me create a 4th primary. (and rather then telling me reasons I shouldn't, etc...) can someone please tell me the workaround for this? I simply want a dual boot of windows XP and 7.

Thanks

 

[whs]

Make the other partitions (except the active partition) logical partitions. Only the active partition has to be a primary. It is a bad habit of the manufacturers to make all partitions primaries. There is absolutely no need for that.

 

[AddRAM]

Windows will not let you create a 4th Primary partition, it never will.

Just use Partition Wizard to create your 4th Primary partition.

Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free

Once you install XP, Windows 7 will not boot anymore, make sure you have your install disc handy or create a system repair disc now, you`ll have to run startup repair to get windows 7 booting again.

The proper way is to install XP 1st then 7.

This will also come in handy.

EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies

 

[whs]

Windows will not let you create a 4th Primary partition, it never will.

I think this is not quite correct. You can have 4 primary partitions in MBR and 250 or so in GPT. But a 5th primary in MBR will change all partitions to dynamics.

 

[blondie357]

OK so I used that program to make the area I shrunk a primary partition. I then rebooted and installed XP onto it. That part went fine. I used EasyBCD to add windows 7 to the boot list. When I tried rebooting and choosing windows 7, it starts to load the logo and then reboots. I am stuck in that loop. XP will boot up fine, 7 will not. If I go into XP and look in msconfig, this is what my boot.ini looks like.


Doesn't look right does it? Please help!

 

[blondie357]

If I open EasyBCD in XP, this is what it shows. Now mind you, windows 7 was on the C drive as it was the only operating system of course. Now XP is C: and 7 is on H:

 

[whs]

What do you see when you click on "Add new entry"

 

[blondie357]

Oh man I have this all screwed up. I tried removing the entries and starting over but this is so confusing. Is it possible at this point to just delete my XP installation and go back to just windows 7?

 

[whs]

I made this little tutorial for you:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/210983-dual-boot-delete-os.html

 

[blondie357]

So of course upon rebooting it cant find a valid OS listed so I stuck in a windows 7 disk.. trying to let it do repairs but so far afterwards it keeps going back to that boot loop.

 

[blondie357]

I made this little tutorial for you:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/210983-dual-boot-delete-os.html

Thank you very much, however I screwed up by trying to reboot so I can't get into any of that at the moment.

 

[whs]

Try to "Add new entry" with EasyBCD.

 

[blondie357]

I cant get to it.. i am unable to boot to any operating system now.

 

[pippox0]

Use Windows 7 install dvd to repair boot . When you launch w7 dvd , then search for w7 installed Os in hdd , then repair booting process.

When w7 boot again , use easyBcd to repair/fix Windows Xp entry.

Usually installling Xp after W7 can messed up bootloader.

 

[blondie357]

Thanks..I have tried several times now, its not repairing it. Going to try a restore next.

 

[AddRAM]

Windows will not let you create a 4th Primary partition, it never will.

I think this is not quite correct. You can have 4 primary partitions in MBR and 250 or so in GPT. But a 5th primary in MBR will change all partitions to dynamics.

Wolfgang, I never said you can`t have 4 Primary partitions, I said.....

Windows will not let you make 4 primary partitions, you have to use a 3rd party program.

 

[AddRAM]

OK so I used that program to make the area I shrunk a primary partition. I then rebooted and installed XP onto it. That part went fine. I used EasyBCD to add windows 7 to the boot list. When I tried rebooting and choosing windows 7, it starts to load the logo and then reboots. I am stuck in that loop. XP will boot up fine, 7 will not. If I go into XP and look in msconfig, this is what my boot.ini looks like.


Doesn't look right does it? Please help!

Did I not tell you that would happen ?

And I told you how to repair it.

 

[AddRAM]

Use Windows 7 install dvd to repair boot . When you launch w7 dvd , then search for w7 installed Os in hdd , then repair booting process.

When w7 boot again , use easyBcd to repair/fix Windows Xp entry.

Usually installling Xp after W7 can messed up bootloader.

I said all this in reply #3

 

[whs]

Windows will not let you create a 4th Primary partition, it never will.

I think this is not quite correct. You can have 4 primary partitions in MBR and 250 or so in GPT. But a 5th primary in MBR will change all partitions to dynamics.

Wolfgang, I never said you can`t have 4 Primary partitions, I said.....

Windows will not let you make 4 primary partitions, you have to use a 3rd party program.

Sure you can make 4 primaries with disk management. Try it. You only get into trouble when you attempt to make the 5th primary - then you fall into the dynamics.

 

[AddRAM]

So then, prey tel, why couldn`t he make a 4th primary partition with windows ???

Everything I`ve ever read says windows DM can only make 3 Primaries and the 4th will always be an extended partition.

Only 3 Primary Partitions, Disk Management windows 7 and 8

windows 7 - Only three primary partitions? - Super User

Windows 7 won't allow four primary partitions??? - AnandTech Forums

But if you say you`ve done it, I`m not gonna argue with you, no way

As you well know I would never use DM to manipulate partitions anyway