Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

gregrocker said:

Would need to see a Disk Mgmt screenshot to advise you with certainty, but normally to remove XP from a separate-HD Dual Boot you would mark Win7 HD partition Active in Disk Mgmt, power down to unplug the XP HD, then boot the Win7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times to write the System Boot files to the Win7 partition.

According to the disk Mgmt screen The Windows 7 is the boot partition so I'm not sure what you mean. I don't know how to "uninstall" the dual boot, but no doubt the info is out there somewhere.

For now my system works. Thanks for your help.

That looks fine to me. :)

If you are happy with it - leave it as it is.

No, you can't choose to store shadow copies somewhere else.

NotSoYoung said:

What surgery do you mean to uninstall XP of a stand alone drive?
Thanks

Since you asked me, I will finish my response having now seen the screenshot:

If Win7 is C in screenshot then it is already System drive so removing XP would be as easy as deleting it's partition or removing it's HD, then deleting XP entry in EasyBCD.

To remove Win7 however, you would have to write the System Boot Files to XP.

No one was suggesting you do this now.

WOW, 124 pages of responses, I would have to take a month to read it all... I did read a few pages but I did not see anything that resembles the problem I am having and I hope it has a simple solution.

I have Windows 7 Ultimate 32 bit install on a WD Velociraptor 74GB Drive (see attachment) and there is a also a System Reserve, which btw, I don't really know what it is and I can only assume is something that Windows 7 did.

On another drive, also a WD 160GB Raptor is where I have my Windows XP W/SP3 + a partition for Data and Backups.

My BIOS has the capability of allowing me to choose which drive I want to make the first Boot so, if I choose the 74GB (Windows 7), I am able to go to it and even if I use EasyBCD to have dual booting at boot time, if I choose Win XP I immediately get an error telling me something about NTLR so only the Windows 7 is available.

I thought about inserting my Win XP CD/DVD and doing a repair but all I manage was to blow away my windows 7 prompt and XP would boot w/o an option to choose.

If I choose the the 160GB Raptor as a first boot option in my Bios, I get on Win XP but don't have an option to even choose Windows 7 and this is where I am now.

I am stuck and I don't know where to proceed. My biggest problem is that I am using a KVM USB switch to be able to use my KB/Mouse/Monitor with the Server at the office and when I switch drives in my Bios, the KVM stops working and I have to disconnect and connect again for it to work, hence, the hassle and annoyance from trying to use this method.

Is there a simple solution to all this?

The specs on the PC I am using are not the ones you see in My System Specs but if you need them for anything, here they are... see attach.

Sorry, if this has been hashed before.

Best way to Dual boot with separate HD's is to set preferred OS HD as first to boot in BIOS setup, then boot the other HD using one-time BIOS Boot Menu key given on first BIOS boot screen. This keeps the HD's independent to come and go as you please, whereas a Window-managed Dual Boot interlocks them and requires surgery to later remove one.

Check to see if your Foxconn mobo has a one-time Boot Menu key - also known as BBS or BIOS Boot Selection screen.

This is normally set up by installing each OS with the other one unplugged, however as you've lost the Win7 boot by repairing XP with both HD's connected, you'll first need to unplug XP HD, set Win7 HD as first HD to boot in BIOS, then boot the Win7 DVD Repair console to Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times.

Once Win7 starts, plug back in XP HD and attempt to boot it using the one-time BIOS Boot menu key. If you don't have one on Foxconn mobo then install EasyBCD 2.02 to Win7 to Add XP by name and type, accept any offered boot files, let it autocomplete, Save then restart to Dual Boot menu.

The 100mb System Reserved boot partition conveniently places the Repair console, normally only on the Win7 DVD or Repair CD, on the F8 Advanced Boot Tools menu.

severedsolo said:

AstaLaVista:

Just follow steps 7-12 of the "With Windows 7 Installed First" section.

What you have is basically the situation you'd be in if you installed XP after 7

Hope it helps :)

In that section it requires me to have Netframe 2, which I already have, matter of fact, I have the Netframe 2 with sp1.

It also asks me to install EasyBCD, my problem here is... do I need to do this on the Windows 7 side or also install on Win XP?

gregrocker said:

Best way to Dual boot with separate HD's is to set preferred OS HD as first to boot in BIOS setup, then boot the other HD using one-time BIOS Boot Menu key given on first BIOS boot screen. This keeps the HD's independent to come and go as you please, whereas a Window-managed Dual Boot interlocks them and requires surgery to later remove one.

Check to see if your Foxconn mobo has a one-time Boot Menu key - also known as BBS or BIOS Boot Selection screen.

Woof, you may think I know what I am doing but you would be wrong... I merely know how to navigate when I am told what to do in terms that even a monkey would understand

OK, I went to my Bios and this is what I was able to find:

Advance BIOS Features:

1. Boot Device Priority:... My only options is whether the CD/DVD is first or my HDD
2. Hard Disk Drive:... Here I can choose which Drive I want to boot first with. Right now, the 160GB (Win XP) has first priority since this is the one I have been using.
3. CD/DVD Drives:... Self explanatory I suppose.

Fox Central Control Unit:

1. Smart BIOS:...

• Smart Power LED ... Enable
• Smart Boot Menu ... Enable

gregrocker said:

This is normally set up by installing each OS with the other one unplugged, however as you've lost the Win7 boot by repairing XP with both HD's connected, you'll first need to unplug XP HD, set Win7 HD as first HD to boot in BIOS, then boot the Win7 DVD Repair console to Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times.

Yes, I did loose it but I have been able to recover it back and I can boot with Win 7 as long as set the 74GB drive as first priority.

And No, I did not install with the other drive unplugged, I had a vague idea that I should have but I was to lazy to do so so I went ahead and did so with both drives plugged in but... I did put the 74GB (Win 7) as first priority to boot when I did the installation.

gregrocker said:

Once Win7 starts, plug back in XP HD and attempt to boot it using the one-time BIOS Boot menu key. If you don't have one on Foxconn mobo then install EasyBCD 2.02 to Win7 to Add XP by name and type, accept any offered boot files, let it autocomplete, Save then restart to Dual Boot menu.

EasyBCD is installed on the Windows 7 side and I do believe I added XP, hence, why I have the option to boot with Windows 7 and Windows XP but, if I choose XP, I end up getting that error.

How do I go back to EasyBCD and delete that entry so I can do it again? Perhaps I did not follow the guidelines properly the first time around.

gregrocker said:

The 100mb System Reserved boot partition conveniently places the Repair console, normally only on the Win7 DVD or Repair CD, on the F8 Advanced Boot Tools menu.

Ahhhhh... good to know then!

Thanks again, you guys are truly amazing at how fast you respond, that never ceases to amaze me.

Hi All,

Fantastically long and great thread! I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for though and I am hoping to find a quick resolution to this issue so I can have my laptop back ready for work tomorrow!

VERY IMPORTANT: I installed Win 7 Professional 64 on an HP 8540p notebook on top of an existing XP Pro install THAT WAS ENCRYPTED with PGP 10.x using Whole Disk Encryption!!!! I had forgotten to take disk encryption into consideration before the install.

l used the 7 install disk and followed the steps in this tutorial to allocate 80gb free HD space and followed through the install as normal. Now here's the kinda weird part...the 7 install went fine, but PGP Desktop doesn't prompt for a password at boot now and it gives me no option to load XP Pro. I tried using EasyBCD 2.0 to add the XP volume to the boot list, but it won't find it. I can see the other partition from 7 and assigned it as E: in Disk Manager, but when I try to explore the partition I get nothing there. Disk Management shows it as E: (Healthy, Active, Primary Partition). The Win7 partition shows C: (BOOT, page file, crash dump, primary partition). I can write to the XP partition now and it shows 153 gb free space. My HD is 250gb so that leaves only 17gb which my XP install could be on.


Any suggestions would be helpful, I'm panicking here, what I'd prefer to do at this point is just delete the 7 partition effectively uninstalling Win7 and hopefully restoring the XP Pro Partition, but right now I can't even figure out if the Win7 install just overwrote the MBR with the bootguard bootloader on it and now I need to try and install PGP on 7 and see if it re-installs the bootguard???

Well I've made a total mess of this, any suggestions on what to do now would be greatly appreciated!!

OK well something I gleaned from the PGP support forums is that Win7 overwrote the MBR and therefore the proprietary "bootguard" bootloader that PGP uses for encrypted disks.