XP won't boot into installation

[Nikolay]

I'm trying to install XP on a partition. I made a new partition for XP. After the setup copies the files to the partition, my system restarts, to my Windows 7 partition instead of the XP installation setup.

 

[surfasb]

You can thank the new bootloader for that. It is also installed on a separate partition depending on how you obtained Windows 7.

Here is the instructions you need to follow due to this new system partition.

Install Windows XP in Dual Boot with Pre-Installed Windows 7

 

[Nikolay]

Once you have completed the installation of Windows XP

Setup doesn't boot, Windows 7 boots up instead.

 

[theog]

Take a look at Method two in this tutorial:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html?ltr=D

 

[surfasb]

That was what my link addresses. The reason why setup won't boot is because of the hidden system partition.

 

[Nikolay]

Yes, I followed method 2.

The reason why setup won't boot is because of the hidden system partition.

How do I make it available?

 

[Saltgrass]

If you have the 100 mb Win 7 Reserved System Partition, try giving it a drive letter, like S: in disk management.

I have not tried installing XP after Win 7 so this is a little new to me. Maybe attach a snipping tool picture of your disk managment window.

It should be noted, installing XP will (or should) overwrite the Win 7 boot files and you may have to do a startup repair to regain the Win 7 boot.

 

[Nikolay]

I've dual booted 7 and XP with 7 preinstalled before

 

[Saltgrass]

Well, you do not have the System Reserved partition, so it is not a problem.

You are probably using version 1.7x of EasyBCD. Do you show a ntldr, boot.ini and ntdetect file in the Win 7 root directory? These are hidden system files, so you need to set the folder options, view to see them.

You will probably need to edit boot.ini and set the rdisk(0) to rdisk(1) and you can do this using EasyBCE Tools.

 

[Nikolay]

There is no boot.ini in the root directory, just ntdetect and ntldr.

You will probably need to edit boot.ini and set the rdisk(0) to rdisk(1) and you can do this using EasyBCE Tools.

I can already boot on the second hard drive but it's booting into my windows 7 partition instead of the partition I chose to install XP on.

If I set boot priority to CD, the same happens. I choose the partition, quick format, it copies the files to the partition, restarts, and it repeats.

 

[gregrocker]

What is on D: and why is it marked active? If it is not an OS then you'd best unplug it until this is sorted out.

CD/DVD drive should be set first to boot in BIOS, followed by DISK1. Boot XP CD and long format the second partition, try install.

 

[Nikolay]

I deleted my old hard drive partition and tried putting XP on that instead of a partition on my second drive and it still didn't work. I tried doing a long format too. Setting CD/DVD to first priority just started the installation over by asking what partition you wanted to store the copied files at.

 

[gregrocker]

CD drive should be set to boot first, but when it restarts you don't Press Any Key to Boot from CD when prompted.

Is the correct HD set as first HD to boot. That is important.

Try unplugging the Win7 HD to install to the other HD.

 

[Saltgrass]

It seems things have gotten a little confusing. The rdisk(1) does not mean Disk 1, but the second drive in priority. The fact a drive says Drive 0, means nothing more that it is connected to the lower SATA connector. The Win 7 drive was you primary drive. Had you put the 3 files on the Windows root directory and modified the boot.ini, it should have worked.

Getting EasyBCD 2.0 beta should be able to solve your problems since it copies the necessary files and modifies the boot.ini for you. You will need to join their forum to download.

 

[Nikolay]

CD drive should be set to boot first, but when it restarts you don't Press Any Key to Boot from CD when prompted.

Is the correct HD set as first HD to boot. That is important.

Try unplugging the Win7 HD to install to the other HD.

When I tried to install on my first HD, I forgot to set boot priority to that so that might just work.