Win 7 will not boot XP on separate hard drive

[rhinse]

Was dual booting Win XP with Slackware Linux using LILO as the boot manager. Linux and XP were both
on separate hard drives. Story short, MB shorted and I decided to simply install the XP HD in a computer
with Win 7 on the first HD. All startup files on the XP drive are in place; ntldr, ntdetect.com, boot.ini.
I added the following to the BCD file using bcdedit on Win 7:


bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "Windows XP"
bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=E:

bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr

bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast


Every entry was successful and Windows XP appeared in the boot menu as expected. However, after
selecting Windows XP to boot, the screen goes dark, one beep is heard and the hardware bootup
screen appears again.


Anything I missed? Still can't boot into Win XP.

 

[samuria]

You have set xp to boot from partition e as I understand what you have done its not paritione its on another drive so for e it will be looking on drive 0 not drive 1


you need something like
device partition=\Device\Harddisk1\Partition1

Use a free editor like Visual BCD Editor - Download

 

[rhinse]

device partition=\Device\Harddisk1\Partition1 ??


What might \Device look like?

 

[Megahertz07]

You have two separate drives, one with Win 7 and the other with Win XP.
Do you want to keep them independent, that is, each one with their own boot loader (choosing boot device by boot menu) or you want to add Win XP on win 7 boot option?

 

[rhinse]

I don't understand, what's the difference? I was simply trying to add Win XP to the Win 7 boot menu, but
as far as I can tell, Win XP must still be booted from wherever the ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot.ini are and
in this case they are on the separate XP drive. Regardless, I got fed up and downloaded EasyBCD which
allows you to add a legacy OS to the boot manager with an automatic detection of the correct

drive/partition/volume whatever. This worked and I can now boot XP from the Win 7 boot menu.


Oddly, the entries in the BCD are unchanged; device partition=E: is the same after the change. Isn't it just
like Microsoft and their third-party tools to accomplish something but hide the magic that makes it work.

 

[Megahertz07]

You have two separate drives, one with Win 7 and the other with Win XP.
Do you want to keep them independent, that is, each one with their own boot loader (choosing boot device by boot menu) or you want to add Win XP on win 7 boot option?

On a Legacy - MBR, BIOS takes the boot sequence to MBR on a disk that takes the boot sequence to a Boot loader on a partition. This Boot loader can have more boot options.
You had Linux with (LILO) - BIOS - MBR - LILO = Linux or win XP
Now you have Win XP - BIOS - MBR - Win7(BL)= Win 7 or win XP

This is a chain. You added Win XP on win 7 boot option

To keep them independent: (you choose a disk during POST by launching boot menu (F?))
- Win XP disk - BIOS - MBR - WinXP
Or
- Win 7 disk - BIOS - MBR - Win 7