Installed Windows7 then tried to install XP ? Problems?

[Geoffro]

Hi,

I've used these forums to get alot of help for windows 7, so I thought
i'd return the favour and post an easy fix to what seems to be a common problem.

Basically, I had Windows 7 installed and tried and failed a dual boot with XP
being the latter installation. Of course the boot.ini was loaded first on the
primary drive and I lost my windows 7 bootloader.

Long story short - dont listen to anyone that says you need to start all over and
reinstall in the right order, forget easyBCD...

Just put your windows7 install disc back in and start an installation
to a new partition (if you dont have one go back into your xp and make one)
all you need to do is start a new windows 7 install, enough for the first reboot.

Your windows 7 bootloader will be restored with your XP shortcut in there
already.

To some this may be a blatantly obvious thing to do but I could not
see this posted anywhere, hope it helps someone.

 

[reghakr]

Do you happen to have 2 hard drives?

 

[Dave76]

Have you tried this Seven Forums tutorial: Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

METHOD TWO: When Windows 7 is Installed First

 

[wallyinnc]

Geoffro, thanks for the suggestion. But a small correction, you don't need to "start an installation to a new partition", you have to run a Startup Repair (usually for 3 times). That should recover your bootloader. Or follow the tutorial as Dave suggested.

I am just worried that someone will misunderstand what you mean and end up loosing what they installed before (which is not what you meant, I know)

 

[gregrocker]

The new partition you used would claim the active flag and could present problems later. Look in Disk Management to see if it is there and marked active. Use a third party partition manager to delete it, boot into installer Repair console and run Startup Repair 3 times, which as Wally says is the automated way to do this quickest in the first place.

 

[Geoffro]

Thanks for the addons guys, but Greg and Wally, can you run a repair from booting off the windows 7 disk? as I did not see an option when it loaded up (but i cant find even tomato sauce in fridge, so i probably did miss it)

And Wally, that tutorial I did see yes, but that is if you have half a brain and read tutorials like that first I however am running about about 1/4 grey matter, so I didnt follow those steps, instead just booted off an XP installation DVD, thinking that if i install it on a far back partition then it wont matter too much, I had no idea it would take over from the win7 bootloader.

And I did mean that people might think they will lose their previous information as thats what's been said to people in other tutorials/fixes - and thats what I didnt like.

Of course dont install the win7 on your old win7 drive, I prob should have said that, don't want anyone ruining any previous installs. But hey - im here in my old win7x64 since I've been using since release, and im happy


I only offered this solution for people like me that made a total arse-up of it and needed a quick way out - one that doesnt involve actually doing anything other than putting the disk in and starting an install again.

Of course the entire solution is flawed if you either dont have a second hard drive or a spare partition to
start the new install on.

 

[SIW2]

Hi Geoofro,

When you get to the screen that says "Install Now" - at the bottom of the same screen - in smaller letters - it says "Repair My Computer" - click that to get to repair options.

Hope it helps.