Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP


  1. Posts : 11,408
    ME/XP/Vista/Win7
       #1070

    Strife18 said:
    K well I just went to the BIOS, I loaded the default settings and it does have Raid On as the default. Though in the description it says SATA is configured to support RAID mode (Intel Rapid Restore Technology). This page talks about it:
    Intel® Rapid Storage Technology — What is Intel® Rapid Recover Technology?
    It seems to be a mode to help with recovery rather than RAIDS.
    However, I switched it back to the ATA setting and it went back to Windows 7 not booting. So I am having a little difficulty trying to find a way to handle that with the recovery.
    Like you mentioned, it is looking unlikely that a system image would take in ATA setting if it won't boot when I switch to it.
    In my last post I had mentioned that we may still be able to upgrade all our software to win7, and at this point im really hoping we can do this.
    1) A BIOS set to ATA will handle IDE mode only.
    2) A BIOS set to SATA will handle SATA mode only.
    3) A BIOS set to Raid On will handle SATA mode & RAID mode, But not IDE mode.

    Therefore leave your BIOS set to default Raid On.
    When you do your Dual with Windows XP, load the Sata controller drivers at F6.
      My Computer

  2.    #1071

    Excellent, thanks Ray. XP installed the first time because you enabled IDE.
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 9
    Windows 7 ultimate 32bit
       #1072

    Well, I really appreciate all your help guys. Personally, I have learned a fair bit on the process of dual booting. But it seems like we are able to upgrade all necessary software up to Windows 7, and rather than have a griphold on an older OS with diminishing tech support, they found it better in the long run to do the switch now with these new computers.
    So I have gotten rid of the XP partition and expanded to just have the one Windows 7 partition. Now to get all the programs set up and ready to go.

    Thanks again, I really appreciate it
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 11,408
    ME/XP/Vista/Win7
       #1073

    Strife18 said:
    Well, I really appreciate all your help guys. Personally, I have learned a fair bit on the process of dual booting. But it seems like we are able to upgrade all necessary software up to Windows 7, and rather than have a griphold on an older OS with diminishing tech support, they found it better in the long run to do the switch now with these new computers.
    So I have gotten rid of the XP partition and expanded to just have the one Windows 7 partition. Now to get all the programs set up and ready to go.

    Thanks again, I really appreciate it
    Thanks for posting back.
    Good luck with all your upgrades.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 2
    W7
       #1074

    Please help. I have hp dm4-1173CL it has W7 Ultimate 64 bit on it. I followed all the steps and got xp pro installed on second partition of same drive. Then I installed .net 2.0 and Easybcd software, and followed the steps given. Rebooted, and dual boot works, both xp and w7 work. The problem I see is that when I'm in Windows xp, it show Drive C to be the drive which belongs to Windows 7, and Windows XP is installed on partition 2, drive letter F according to DOS, (which by the way in windows 7 is defined as drive letter D). So although both systems boot, I need XP to boot up thinking that the drive letter F on which it is installed is drive C, so that if anything happens to it or data is written to it etc, it is written to XP not to my W7 drive. I think what happened is that Easybsd put msdos.sys io.sys config.sys autoexec.bat ntdetct.com ntldr bootmgr on my C drive, which is here w7 is installed, along with a folder named NST which has ntldr file in it also 291KB, dated 01/21/2011. so I think the screw up is when the dual boot starts, it goes to my w7 partition which is partition 1, and then takes instructions from there to go to partition 2 which is where xp is to boot up. By the way, w7 works fine and all the drive letters work ok, it's XP I'm concerned about. In the past, when I did dual boot, whatever drive you boot from, will somehow take the letter C, it is not happening in this case when I boot from XP. XP thinks C drive is where the W7 is installed, and F is where XP files are sitting. Please tell me what I need to do. Thank you.
    Last edited by Brink; 21 Jan 2011 at 23:03. Reason: removed email address
      My Computer

  6.    #1075

    Did you boot the XP installer to do the install?

    Please post back a screenshot of your full Disk Mgmt Drive map using Snipping Tool in Start Menu. Label the drives so we know what's on which.

    Did you consider running XP Mode in Ultimate, as its a lot less messy option and works quite well according to reports.
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 1
    Windows 7 - 64
       #1076

    Dual Boot Xp and Windows 7 on individual Hard Drives


    My computer has Xp on it and I installed another HDD on which I installed Windows 7 Home premium. I now have the opoerating systems on separate HDDs. I have already installed both and they work fine other than having to enter the BIOS to change which drive/OS I boot.

    How do I get the "Boot to" selection option to come up.

    I have both original install disks.

    Sorry if I missed this but I have searched the forums, I see instructions for a fresh install but none on this.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 16,130
    7 X64
       #1077

    The simplest way is to boot into windows 7 HD.

    Install Easybcd 2.0.

    Ad XP entry.

    That's it.

    Then Always boot via the windows 7 HD.
      My Computers


  9. Posts : 2
    W7
       #1078

    Dual Boot Giving Wrong Drive Letter in XP


    uremailgoes said:
    Please help. I have hp dm4-1173CL it has W7 Ultimate 64 bit on it. I followed all the steps and got xp pro installed on second partition of same drive. Then I installed .net 2.0 and Easybcd software, and followed the steps given. Rebooted, and dual boot works, both xp and w7 work. The problem I see is that when I'm in Windows xp, it show Drive C to be the drive which belongs to Windows 7, and Windows XP is installed on partition 2, drive letter F according to DOS, (which by the way in windows 7 is defined as drive letter D). So although both systems boot, I need XP to boot up thinking that the drive letter F on which it is installed is drive C, so that if anything happens to it or data is written to it etc, it is written to XP not to my W7 drive. I think what happened is that Easybsd put msdos.sys io.sys config.sys autoexec.bat ntdetct.com ntldr bootmgr on my C drive, which is here w7 is installed, along with a folder named NST which has ntldr file in it also 291KB, dated 01/21/2011. so I think the screw up is when the dual boot starts, it goes to my w7 partition which is partition 1, and then takes instructions from there to go to partition 2 which is where xp is to boot up. By the way, w7 works fine and all the drive letters work ok, it's XP I'm concerned about. In the past, when I did dual boot, whatever drive you boot from, will somehow take the letter C, it is not happening in this case when I boot from XP. XP thinks C drive is where the W7 is installed, and F is where XP files are sitting. Please tell me what I need to do. Thank you.
    here are the screen shots, as you can see in w7 all drive letters are fine W7 is on C drive, XP on D, L (Library) is another partition where I store docs, E (HPTOOLS) was there when I bought the laptop, last partition is a partition created by Acronis Secure Zone. and everything works fine. By the way, the laptop came with w7 preinstalled, I upgraded to Ultimate version only.

    Then I followed all the procedure given here to create the D Drive 3GB, booted from XP pro cd and installed XP. XP installed itself on what it calls F drive. It boots fine. Where I need help is that when I boot into XP, I want it to be think its on C drive and think W7 is on F if you want to call it. It is not swapping the letter. As you can see in second snapshot taken in XP, the W7 partition is called C, XP is called F. That is crazy. I've also attched easybcd snapshot. Please tell me how to fix this. And if you want to shed some light on why xp installed it the way it did. Thanks

    And yes, I do know that you can have xp within windows, but the reason why i put xp on a seperate partition totally is because sometime I download softwares from the net, and symantec security will usually delete those file, not let me open them because it suspects malware, virus or whatever. So I need a seperate partition, where I can go open the files without symantec, get password etc, try it out and if I like it come back to W7 and install it but now I have the password or crack or serial etc. Speaking of which, does anyone know, if I was to open the downloaded software in XP within the Windows 7 enviornment, and not install symantec there, and if i was to open a file and it does have virus or something, does it get copied to my w7 enviornment or no? My goal is to keep w7 safe.
    Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP-w7-snapshot.jpg

    Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP-xp-snapshot.jpg

    Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP-easybcd-w7-snapshot.jpg
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 11
    Windows 7
       #1079

    @uremailgoes

    it can be done but its seriously time-consuming & risky. First you need to get some winpe bootable in case to transfer boot files & also when something goes wrong.

    Wait lets assume you have not got Winpe but you got Windows XP bootable. Mark Windows XP drive ie,. D drive as Active partition (in Windows 7) also move hidden system files such as boot.ini, ntdetect.com & ntdlr to Windows XP drive D: from Windows 7 drive C:.

    Once done reboot PC into Windows XP bootable by pressing 'r' in recovery conscol, type this command fixmbr & fixboot. restart PC it should start PC in Windows XP. in case something went wrong you may have to "repair" Windows XP (no need to format). This method will set Windows XP drive to (C:\>)

    afterwords move hidden "boot" folder & bootmgr file to Windows XP drive (C:) from within Windows XP

    (Note: boot folder & bootmgr are windows 7 system boot loaders it should be in primary active drive)

    Fix windows 7 using bootable Windows 7 media & then use EasyBCD to fix dualboot.

    Before proceeding to this Method get it approved from the Experts eg,. SIW2/ theog or Brink
      My Computer


 

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