Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP

Here we go again. I have 640GB hd and 5 partitions (C,D,E,F and G). on C partition is Windows 7 x64. F partition is empty and formated so it can be installed XP on it. After installing RAID drivers, after loading files it gives mi only one option to pick partition on which XP will be installed, and it is C, and it says that it is 131072 MB. That size, as you can see, have nothing to do with size of any of my partitions. Basicly, I'm stuck at step 5 of method two of your tutorial. This time I'm sending screenshots.

dear GladiatorYU

can you tell us motherboard Model?
& AHCI driver you have used?

Regards,
EverWin

MB is Biostar A77OAM2+, and AHCI drivers are AMDAHCI compatible raid controller 3.1.1540.25 (downloaded from manufacturers site) and JMICRON JMB36X (from cd that comming with MB).

How to obtain the latest Windows XP service pack

48-bit Logical Block Addressing (LBA) support for ATA Packet Interface (ATAPI) disk drives can increase the capacity of your hard disk to more than the current 137 gigabyte (GB) limit.

If you want to use 48-bit LBA support, you must apply Windows XP SP1 or later. Windows XP Media Center Edition and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition already include SP1.

You might want to slipstream SP3 into your XP install media with Slipstream Service Pack 3 into Your Windows XP Installation CD - Customization - Lifehacker

I willl do that.

GladiatorYU said:

Here we go again. I have 640GB hd and 5 partitions (C,D,E,F and G). on C partition is Windows 7 x64. F partition is empty and formated so it can be installed XP on it. After installing RAID drivers, after loading files it gives mi only one option to pick partition on which XP will be installed, and it is C, and it says that it is 131072 MB. That size, as you can see, have nothing to do with size of any of my partitions. Basicly, I'm stuck at step 5 of method two of your tutorial. This time I'm sending screenshots.

Your first 4 Unknown Disk's are most likely your card reader, may be worth removing when installing XP.

Have a read of those tutorials:
Convert a Dynamic Disk to a Basic Disk
SATA Drivers - Load in Windows XP Setup on Dual Boot
SATA Drivers - Slipstream into Windows XP CD

After slipstreaming SP3, since tutorial is exelent, everything went fine and now have dual boot. Even last night I suspected that this is the issue but wasn't at home to try it. Thanks everybody for efforts.

First of all I would apologise for writing here before I managed to read through all the pages written here. I am tired and gave up after page 21 and hope that someone will help me.

I wonder whether I am able to be clear enough about my problem..

First time I installed dual OS - XP & Windows 7 - was last month, after the terrific guide I found here.

I had bought myself a Solid State Drive and did the mistake of using the XP disc's formatting option, as I installed XP first. This made the partitions "unaligned" with the SSD drive, which is bad for the lifespan of a SSD drive. So I decided to reinstall both OS' again but now of course first having to install Windows 7 first and then next XP, as Windows 7s formatting option during installation provides the correct 'alignment' and good partition for the SSD drive.

What I liked so very much about my first installation is that Windows 7 showed up as the C: drive when running that OS, and XP also showed up as C: drive when running XP. And Windows 7s small "System Reserved" partition didn't show up at all under XP and could easily be "de-lettered" under disk management on Windows 7, so further it became easy to maintain order in the drive letters when adding an extra partition for the internal hard drive - which I called "D:", and this internal d: drive was shared by both operative systems which shared certain programs, and also I connected external hard drives which all had the same order (drive letters) regardless to what OS I chose to start up the machine with.

But now.... after trying to install the two different operative systems 6-8 times during the last 24 hours - first using Windows 7 as to get the right 'alignment' for the SSD drive, I cannot achieve the same neat order I had before reinstalling the two OS.

I wonder what I am doing wrong? Is it ok to remove the small "System Reserved" partition from the Windows 7 installation, or deleting it afterwards? That annoying little partition shows up as c: under XP, which again ruins all the other letters.

Or is there a possibility to make order of all this by following a particular installation procedure?

Unfortunately - because of the SSD disk - I can't do the identical installation that I did a month ago with the XP CD first and formatting through that CD, as it will shorten the life span of the SSD disk quite a lot.

So can anyone teach me on how to make order again in the "drive letter mess"? I have tried EasyBCD many times, so if someone could help me - consider me a dummy on this field - I would be grateful if I could receive a thorough receipe on how to achieve order again in the drive letters

I would think that a neat and tidy dual OS with identical drive letters on both OS would interest other individuals too.

If any of you would help me with this, I must say thanks in advance.

Sincerely,

Alex

Hi Brink,

Thank you for your answer. It felt good that someone at least answered me (that I could receive a little sympathy for this awful disaster ).

Then I will learn to live with it. I must manage what's left of the internal harddisk to become the E: drive, and then the external drives after that letter.

So I will just have to get used to C: and D: both being operative systems under XP.

Thanks again and best Sunday wishes to you.

Sincerely,

Alex