Hi Alex -
Did you try booting XP using the one-time BIOS Boot Menu key? It keeps them independent so they can come and go as you please.
If this isn't satisfactory post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image - Windows 7 Help Forums as well as the EasyBCD error screen after deleting the current XP listing and trying to add it again.
Thanks for the reply. I can get a screenshot of the drive management in Win 7, but at this point, I cannot get back into Win XP to duplicate the Error Message. Basically what I have, looking at the disk management in Win 7 is Drive 0 has the System Reserved and the C:\ partition (Healthy (Boot page file, Crash Dump, Primary Partition); Drive 1 shows D:\, Healthy (primary Partition) and this is where the XP install is. I am unfamiliar with the "one-time BIOS Boot Menu key", do you mean f8???. I tried that but see only the Win 7 choice. I tried switching the XP drive in BIOS to be the boot drive, but it will not boot, asking for a choice of a boot disk.
Where is the requested screenshot?
If the XP HD is not listed in F8 BIOS Boot Menu its probably because it doesn't have its boot files.
I'd unplug XP HD and make sure Win7 can boot on its own. If not mark Active and run 3 Startup Repairs from links I gave earlier.
Then I'd unplug Win7, plug in XP HD and reinstall XP. Delete its partition and full format a new one.
After install set preferred first to boot in BIOS setup, boot other one when needed using F8 key.
I followed this guide to the letter. Other than one confusing part with the steps, it went perfectly. I got both 7 and XP installed and working on my laptop. The thing is, and it really annoys me, is in Windows XP, the drive letters are all mixed up. Here's how the drives are labeled in 7:
This is how I'd also like them to appear in XP only with "7" & "XP" switched around, so in XP, "XP" would be C:, and "7" would be D: and EFGHI would all be the same in both 7 & XP. However, here is how they currently appear in XP:
Keep in mind, I've already used Acronis Disk Director to make some changes. First of all, the memory stick drives are not showing and I'm not worried about that, I just haven't loaded the drivers yet. As far as the HDD's are concerned, before I made the changes, that ~100MB "system reserved" partition was labeled as C: (I removed the letter), "working" was labeled as D:, "storage" as E:, and "7" as F:. I tried to change XP to C:, but Acronis gave me a warning that doing so might cause Windows to not boot.
When setting up a dual boot by the instructions listed in this TUT, is it normal for this to happen, or should both 7 and XP be labeled as the C: drive when booting into each respective OS? How can I fix it?
Oh, and BTW, I followed method 2 because Windows 7 was installed first. Then, to install XP, I put in the XP disk and restarted to Boot from the CD. Appreciate any help. Thanks.
Last edited by President Kush; 20 Aug 2013 at 19:32.
You ran the XP CD from Win7 and didn't boot it. This blocks the installer from being able to use the C letter since it's running from it.
If the installer was booted it should have installed Win7 to C. But my memory is fading with XPired so maybe that would only be if you install it first. It may not have the smarts to know how to address C already taken by Win7.
If that's the case then the only solution may be to install XP first, or to another HD with WIn7 HD unplugged during XP install.
does this option two work with windows 8 ??
Last edited by Brink; 24 Aug 2013 at 11:17. Reason: removed unneeded quote of tutorial
Hello Abdumka, and welcome to Seven Forums.
Yes, you could use Option Two for Windows 8 as well. :)
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