Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

lukehazard said:

hey there, i'm currently attempting a dual boot with xp from a windows 7 laptop using the very helpful tutorial i found here: Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

i've sucessfully created a new partition by closely following the instructions, i restarted, booted from the windows XP disc, it said "Setup did not find any hard disk drives installed on your computer."

what did i do wrong?

Is your Lenovo NoteBook Windows 7 x64 installed in UEFI mode?

Try loading and running the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. It will provide you with a full report regarding compatability of your System, Devices and Programs. Also check compatability of components such as memory and sound cards. When I try loading Win7 Ultimate in my newly built PC, it failed to recognize the two separate video cards (HD 6000 series) I installed although these cards worked in my other PC. I had to buy a new Radeon HD 7000 series to make it work.

No offense but if you have 7 why have XP too? They have windows XP mode now for 7.

There are lots of reasons why you still need XP, my printer for one is an old Lexmark X75 which runs fine and the cartridges are easily refillable. I refill them myself and have had a black cartridge last 2 years and must have refilled it 10 times at least. It wiill not run on 64 bit systems.
Some of the older games will not install properly either. Worms 3D being one, it will install but not run completly true to the old XP install, it misses the little movies. you can hear the sound but not the picture. Probably a codec issue, iv'e not bothered to find out.
On my new pc I have a triple boot, 7 Ultimate a new installation of XP and I managed to get my old version of XP running as well.
There are doubtless other older programs out there that will not run on 64 bit systems and what the hell I still like XP.

I am currently using Win7 64bit and attempting to dual boot with 32bit XP on the same HDD. When installing XP things appear fine until the installation goes through a reboot which is followed by a blinking "underscore" cursor. In order to be able to boot back to Win7, I must go to the "system repair disk" and open a command prompt at boot in Win7. After entering the three commands I am then able to get back to the boot menu and then into Win7. However, this is a failed install of XP.

It looks as though my attempted installation of XP is corrupting the boot record and I am unable to get beyond the first automatic reboot of the XP installation. I have tried it both ways, from the original two XP disks and also from the iso disk created in nLite with the SATA driver files from the MB ASUS website.

Any suggestions?

Have you nlited the AHCI textmode drivers? And of course the right one?

Somehow I had the trouble with a different mobo when trying it and it keeps rebooting after the initial reboot after the blue screen setup.

If it sees the HD to select its partition then it shouldn't need the SATA driver. Are you using XP with SP3? This can be important.

Otherwise try deleting and then full formatting the target partition from the disk. Where did you get the disk? How are both being activated?

Below is my situation-
I have a DELL precision 7500 (old PC) with WinXP 32 bit, no RAID configuration which is leased and is due to be returned. My new DELL precision 7600 (new PC) has Win7 64 bit by default , with RAID0 configuration (2HDD shown as a single virtual drive).
All HDD from both PCs are SATA disks

I want to have both Win7 and WinXP in dual boot configuration on the new PC.

I have done the steps below following the instructions from this forum
1. Added the WinXP drive (300 GB) from the old PC to the new PC.
2.Booted into the Win7 as usual. The WinXP drive was detected as D drive and the new PC HDD is C drive.
3. Installed EasyBCD 2.2 and followed the steps
3a. Add New Entry->Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3 (Automatically determined drive)->Add Entry
3b. BCD Deployment->Install the Windows Vista/7 bootloader to the MBR -> Write MBR
4. Restarted the machine, now I get the two options in boot screen
Win7- no problem, loads fine and works as usual
WinXP - enters the select boot type for WinXP (i.e safe mode, last known config.. and other options screen) and enters blue screen on selection of any option

I looked into the EasyBCD->Advanced Settings. For the "Microsoft Windows XP" the settings show the drive as C:\ which does not look right as the drive which has XP is D:\ drive from old pc.

Request to suggest on how to resolve my issue!
Are steps 3a & 3b correct? Where did I go wrong? Should I install any SATA drivers?
I have any programs installed in WinXP and want to retain 32bit platform for development along with 64bit for increased RAM access..
thanks in advance!!

Sharath said:

Below is my situation-
I have a DELL precision 7500 (old PC) with WinXP 32 bit, no RAID configuration which is leased and is due to be returned. My new DELL precision 7600 (new PC) has Win7 64 bit by default , with RAID0 configuration (2HDD shown as a single virtual drive).
All HDD from both PCs are SATA disks

I want to have both Win7 and WinXP in dual boot configuration on the new PC.

I have done the steps below following the instructions from this forum
1. Added the WinXP drive (300 GB) from the old PC to the new PC.
2.Booted into the Win7 as usual. The WinXP drive was detected as D drive and the new PC HDD is C drive.
3. Installed EasyBCD 2.2 and followed the steps
3a. Add New Entry->Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3 (Automatically determined drive)->Add Entry
3b. BCD Deployment->Install the Windows Vista/7 bootloader to the MBR -> Write MBR
4. Restarted the machine, now I get the two options in boot screen
Win7- no problem, loads fine and works as usual
WinXP - enters the select boot type for WinXP (i.e safe mode, last known config.. and other options screen) and enters blue screen on selection of any option

I looked into the EasyBCD->Advanced Settings. For the "Microsoft Windows XP" the settings show the drive as C:\ which does not look right as the drive which has XP is D:\ drive from old pc.

Request to suggest on how to resolve my issue!
Are steps 3a & 3b correct? Where did I go wrong? Should I install any SATA drivers?
I have any programs installed in WinXP and want to retain 32bit platform for development along with 64bit for increased RAM access..
thanks in advance!!

You could use Paragon Adaptive Restore 3.0 for adjusting WinXP for the new hardware.
Paragon Paragon Adaptive Restore - Overview
but you will need a new Win XP licence for the new hardware.

In addition you only needed to add XP using EasyBCD, not any other procedure. You can alway Delete it in Easy Edit OS tab and add it again to be sure.

But you're likely running into lack of SATA drivers and any OS when moved to new hardware almost always needs adjustment using a program like PAR which Theog mentions, Acronis Universal Restore or a free method would be on the old PC using SysPrep to move HD to another computer.

If this was preinstalled XP OEM then as Theog says you'll need a new license.