win xp dual boot on windows 7 Home 32 bit

[kw1997]

I have a VAIO VGC-RB30 machine and had replaced the company installed XP with windows 7.
Now I want to be able to have dual,boot whereby I could switch between the two OS. Windows
XP folder is still there on the HDD. Ahave a dual boot without re-installing WIN Xp?. I am aviding this because i may face some drivers issues specailly SATA drivers although both of my HDD show that they are ATA.
any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[Thewierd1]

Hello!
Ok my first question is: Are the OS's on different HDD's? if not, are they at least in different partitions?
If they are in different partitions then I recommend installing a boot manager.
If they are on seperate HDD's then just select the HDD to boot from on startup.
Hope this helps,

-Thewierd1

 

[gregrocker]

If you replaced XP with Win7 then you'd have to reinstall XP if you want a Dual Boot, requiring the installer and Product Key. Follow steps here: Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

However it's possible even using the installer with SP3 you'll not have the SATA drivers so they must be slipstreamed into the CD using SATA Drivers - Slipstream into Windows XP CD.

All of this is more trouble than it's worth by now so I'd strongly consider if necessary to use XP virtualizing it using freeware like XP Mode, Virtual Box, VMWare or Virtual Player. But you may be able to install your XP programs to Win7 in Compatibility Mode