Good grief...Need some help with boot please

[Serpentz]

OK, so I've done something wrong apparently....again.

I needed Windows XP on my computer to run some older programs that wont run on Windows 7 64 bit. I had a spare drive in the machine and so I split a piece of it off (100GB's) formatted and installed XP. I've got an AS Rock M3A 770DE Motherboard that has a boot menu when you fire it up. So I was thinking "I'll install XP on the other drive and just boot to it when I need to" wrong. I can boot to the XP install just fine....but now my Windows 7 installation will not boot. I get the "Error Loading Operating System" charade. Looking at the boot.ini file in XP it shows:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /noexecute=alwaysoff /usepmtimer

Now here the weird thing and the problem. System reserved which would be the partition for Windows 7 got rewritten. Keep in mind that I am absolutely 100% sure that I didn't touch this drive or this partition....however, during install Windows XP wrote over the boot.ini in the system reserved partition for Windows 7 64bit. It now shows this:

[boot loader]
timeout=1
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\Windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /noexecute=alwaysoff

What do I need to rewrite here so that I can boot to either Windows 7 or Windows XP?

I ran a startup repair by the way for Windows 7 and it says theres nothing to fix hehe. It just wont boot to Wiondows 7. XP is fine.

Help is appreciated as always

Thanks!

 

[Serpentz]

Nevermind....looks like I should have done my research first. I'll have to blow out and reformat.

 

[IownAmoneyPit]

Here is a step by step tutorial to make re-installing easier Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP read the red warning section if you wish to keep your restore points in Windows 7.

 

[Serpentz]

Actually...Brinks Tutorial on Dual Boot Windows 7 and Xp saved me. Sorry to the forum for not searching hard enough for this.

 

[gregrocker]

Your idea to Dual Boot on separate HD's via the BIOS was the best one, as it keeps the HD's independent to come and go as you please, whereas a Windows Dual Boot interlocks them and requires surgery to remove XP later.

Your problem was likely that you didn't unplug Win7 HD during install of XP, causing it to write it's boot files to the first Active partition (SysReserved) which it will do if XP is a Logical partition which cannot host boot files.

Let us know if you need any further help.

 

[IownAmoneyPit]

Actually...Brinks Tutorial on Dual Boot Windows 7 and Xp saved me. Sorry to the forum for not searching hard enough for this.

Brink writes superb easy to follow tutorials and gregrocker is one of the top notch Gurus here concerning installation issues so you are in good hands should you need further assistance.

 

[theog]

Follow Gregrocker's good advice, if you need futher help,
Can you post a screen shot of Disk management?
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Screenshot tools.
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