Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP


  1. Posts : 71,977
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #2200

    Hello Budge, and welcome to Seven Forums. :)

    Please post a screenshot showing the full layout of your drives in Disk Management to see what the issue may be.

    Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 8
    Windows XP 32 - Windows 7 Pro x64 Dual Boot (Attempting)
       #2201

    Brink said:
    Hello Budge, and welcome to Seven Forums. :)

    Please post a screenshot showing the full layout of your drives in Disk Management to see what the issue may be.
    Here you go. And I should have been more clear. The querymax command in diskpart showed only 115GB available.

    I think my problem may be explained on this page Partition or Volume - Shrink If so, what program should I use?

    UPDATE: I tried using the Disk Defragmenter in Windows XP. Sure enough, it showed that most of my data was stored to the left side of the image. However, I had a tiny bit stored exactly near the center, and none of them appear to be green (unmovable). So I'm trying to defrag now to see if I can move those files over and free up space. If this works, defragmenting the disk should be listed in step 1.

    UPDATE #2: One block of data could not be moved. It's sitting all my itself in the middle of the hard drive. It is not listed as unmovable, just contiguous. I have an old copy of Partition Magic that I can try next, unless there is something better/safer to try.

    Thanks.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP-diskmanage.jpg  
    Last edited by Budge72; 12 Sep 2015 at 14:02.
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  3. Posts : 71,977
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #2202

    If you go ahead and shrink the partition, does it give you the correct size?
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 8
    Windows XP 32 - Windows 7 Pro x64 Dual Boot (Attempting)
       #2203

    Brink said:
    If you go ahead and shrink the partition, does it give you the correct size?
    I don't know. I wasn't willing to try it because I didn't understand why it was happening. I wonder now if I could shrink it by 115GB the first time, then go back and try again to shrink it more. Probably not.

    Anyway, right now I am trying PerfectDisk to do a Boot Time Defrag with the "Prep for Shrink" setting. I'll let you know how it goes.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 8
    Windows XP 32 - Windows 7 Pro x64 Dual Boot (Attempting)
       #2204

    I could not get GParted to load, so I used PerfectDisk. You have to do a Boot Time Defrag, then diskpart shrink by half, then another Boot Time Defrag, then diskpart shrink by half again, and keep repeating till you get the size partition that you want. Just FYI.
    Last edited by Budge72; 13 Sep 2015 at 00:00.
      My Computer


  6. Posts : 8
    Windows XP 32 - Windows 7 Pro x64 Dual Boot (Attempting)
       #2205

    If attempting to try this tutorial on a fresh SSD, do we need to take into account the Disk Alignment and partition offsets?
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 71,977
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #2206

    No need to when you only have a single partition to shrink.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 8
    Windows XP 32 - Windows 7 Pro x64 Dual Boot (Attempting)
       #2207

    Brink said:
    No need to when you only have a single partition to shrink.
    I followed option 1, where Windows XP was loaded first on Partition 1, the partition was then shrunk, and W7 was put on partition 2. Now my offsets in Diskpart are listed at 31KB and 33GB, respectively.
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 71,977
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #2208

    Is everything running smoothly?
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 2
    Dual Boot - Windows XP Pro SP3 x32 / Windows 7 Ultimate x32
       #2209

    Anybody still paying attention to this page? Because XP & 7 properly installed and tweaked are awesome together.

    After several years of research (Trail & error), I have found the most stable way to dual boot these two is:

    1.) Start with a freshly formatted hard drive, either a new drive or one you reformatted with your XP disc, and when you load XP it will ask you about partitioning. Then you can set the desired size. Many of you have been talking about "repartitioning" software, and that works good too. Ideally though, the fresher the better.

    2.) When installing XP, partition the new drive for not more then 100GB, (Unless you are installing a Terabyte drive then give it more). I partitioned my WD2502AYBS 250GB drive for 40GB for XP for two reasons:

    A.) No matter how many programs I load on XP it never uses more then 18-24GB.

    B.) When installing Windows 7 SP1, it uses about 180GB of space to do the install, then deletes
    all that when it's done. But that 180GB must be there for it to install Service Pack 1.

    3.) Try as best as you can to use only one drive. Several attempts at using two hard drives for dual boot ended in disaster. With two hard drives you have two separate interfaces to the BIOS. This causes Windows 7 to always want to be the "C:" drive and it will crash XP, (And itself). Having both systems on one partitioned hard drive allowed the two to live together harmoniously. When XP is booted up, it is the C drive and 7 is the F drive. When 7 is booted up, it is the C drive and XP becomes the F drive. They play nice together.

    4.) As you might have guest by now, load XP first. I tried loading XP on a 7 machine and 7 laughed so I persisted and 7 went ahead and crashed the whole system. Curious how today you can find all kinds of info on the Internet about the work around for loading XP on a 7 box. I beat that with great stability by loading XP first.

    Also, I found that being in a hurry was a disaster. Loading XP and all it's software, then loading 7 and other software all on the same day almost guaranteed instabilities and crashes. Don't be afraid to use XP for a couple of days before loading 7. Load software and reboot XP after EVERY program you load. After loading 3 or 4 programs and rebooting 3 or 4 times, shut XP completely down. You will find that XP's stability settles in nicely when you do that. (Shut down completely every night for better stability.)

    5.) 64bit and 32bit software packages are going to react differently depending on how your system's architecture is laid out, and the way things like the BIOS and "handlers" crunch data. Fortunately most motherboards and 64bit CPUs in systems are the norm today... Also, not to spoil your anticipation of my experience, but both of my systems, XP & 7, are 32bit. I don't have any reason to go to 64bit yet, but I imagine someday everything will be 64bit. I have 64bit XP & 7 operating systems, I just haven't found a reason to install them yet. The reason I said, "going to react differently..." above, is because I found that the warning below I wrote has become priceless in teaching people about dual boot systems.

    WARNING: DO NOT CROSS POLLINATE SYSTEM FUNCTIONS!!! DO NOT RUN defrag on the 7 drive from XP, DO NOT RUN defrag on the XP drive from 7. DO NOT try to change ANY permissions or take ownership of ANYTHING on the XP drive with 7 and visa-versa. When you are booted into XP leave the 7 drive alone, when you are booted into 7 leave the XP drive alone. This will save you from crashes and major headaches of all kinds. As far as data goes... The reason XP takes up so little space on my system is, I save EVERYTHING on data drives. I have a 2TB data drive that ALL documents, music, pictures, etc... get stored on. Leaving the system drives alone prolongs their lives and stability. If any of my OS' crash, ALL my data is saved on data drives. I just have to reinstall the OS. Get yourself a Western Digital "MyBook" external drive. They come in all sizes. --> DO NOT cross systems functions, and get yourself a data drive. <--

    ---

    Disclaimer: Do some research, ask a pro, or at the very least someone you trust with your children. Everything written here is my opinion based on some serious experience. Nothing I write is carved in stone and I encourage you to seek professional service and advice when working on your own computer. I've been a tech for 24 years and this is all second nature to me. I don't want you to get stuck because I wrote this information in a way that made it look easy. You could take this post I wrote and print it out, go to a PROFESSIONAL computer store and speak to a technician, (NOT a salesman). Retail stores will just try and sell you something. They will tell you that I'm don't know what I'm talking about and you need to bring your computer to them...(WRONG). Cousin Wilbur who enjoys working on a "Brain Box" from time to time is not likely the solution as well. Your computer is important, and having XP & 7 together in a dual boot is really great. Get in there. Talk to good technicians.

    Best of luck too you.
      My Computer


 

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