Win 7 / XP dual boot

[Typhoon]

I used to have two OS installations on my old PC - Win 7 Pro 64-bit and Win 7 Ultimate 32-bit.

I wanted to install Win XP Pro 32-bit due to needing to run some older software. So I installed XP and used EasyBCD under XP to get back my access to the normal Windows Boot Manager and be able to boot into Win 7.

These installations are all on the same hard drive (obviously in different partitions).

However, even though I can select it from the menu I now can't boot into Win XP.

I just get the 'Windows failed to start' error, the pertinent details being:

File: \NST\ntldr

Status: 0xc000000f

Info: The application or operating system couldn't be loaded because a required file is missing or contains errors

I've tried going into EasyBCD again (under Win 7) and that shows the Win XP boot menu option - I've tried changing the drive letters for it (available options are: C, D, E, F and BOOT) but nothing seems to help.

Now I know the way it works - the boot manager simply points to the relevant partition which then looks in boot.ini to find where XP is. But seemingly something is wrong!

Any ideas please how I can get this working?

Thanks

 

[samuria]

Have you checked the XP boot.ini that tells the boot were to find the files it needs

 

[Typhoon]

Not yet, I'm kind of wary of poking around too much without guidance in case I make things worse.

 

[mrjimphelps]

You could go in a different direction, something that Microsoft provides free for Windows 7: XP Mode.

XP Mode allows you to install an XP virtual machine within Windows 7. The whole thing is provided by Microsoft, and it is totally free, including the XP license. You can then install your XP software in the XP virtual machine, and run it without having to exit Windows 7.

You can go here for more information:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8002

 

[Typhoon]

Thanks, I'll look into that.

 

[SneakyD]

try the bios extender on easy bcd and select the partition you have xp on.

 

[Typhoon]

Thanks, all now sorted thanks to this guide:

Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP - Windows 7 Help Forums