Dual-boot confuzzlement

[FIREWALL]

When the Geek gets here I'll know for sure.

But the MS tech said W7 first.

To be honest I didn't ask about separate hdd's.


I don't want to " Assume " anything.

We all know what that word means.

[Arclight]

Yes, they're on separate drives. Should be possible, I think the "Win7 first, then XP" only applies if you put it on the same partition. In that case, the Windows installer takes care of setting it up.

Gonna have some diner.

[NeonSamurai]

Though you can install the os's in any order, its usually easier to install the older one first (xp) and then the newest one, that is because you want to use the boot loader from the newest one, and if you install the oldest second, you will have to redo the master boot record with the new os.

Anyhow you will probably want to use EasyBCD to fix your boot manager so that it also shows xp.

http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1
http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBC...B694709DE4F5F5

EasyBCD works fine with windows 7


Lastly don't forget to move your boot.ini file from windows xp to your windows 7 root directory. You will also probably have to edit it some so you don't get two boot menus.


Otherwise what you are doing is the same thing as a vista & xp dual boot setup, so any instructions are the same. This is what I am currently running (though on 2 partitions on one sata drive). As far as I am aware there are no issues with using mutiple drives with SATA, just make sure your version of xp properly supports SATA otherwise you may have to make a custom install disk and slipstream the SATA drivers into it.

[Fincuan]

One more vote for EasyBDC. Easy to use, free and works. That was what saved my day when the ***!"#!¤#¤*** Windows 7 overwrote Grub, a live-cd wasn't at hand and I wanted my Ubuntu back.

[longam]

Originally Posted by NeonSamurai

Anyhow you will probably want to use EasyBCD to fix your boot manager so that it also shows xp.

Well that makes it easy, thanks NeonSamurai

[Arclight]

Originally Posted by NeonSamurai

Though you can install the os's in any order, its usually easier to install the older one first (xp) and then the newest one, that is because you want to use the boot loader from the newest one, and if you install the oldest second, you will have to redo the master boot record with the new os.

Anyhow you will probably want to use EasyBCD to fix your boot manager so that it also shows xp.

http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1
http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBC...B694709DE4F5F5

EasyBCD works fine with windows 7


Lastly don't forget to move your boot.ini file from windows xp to your windows 7 root directory. You will also probably have to edit it some so you don't get two boot menus.


Otherwise what you are doing is the same thing as a vista & xp dual boot setup, so any instructions are the same. This is what I am currently running (though on 2 partitions on one sata drive). As far as I am aware there are no issues with using mutiple drives with SATA, just make sure your version of xp properly supports SATA otherwise you may have to make a custom install disk and slipstream the SATA drivers into it.

There's something that worries me: Win7 creates a small partition before creating the partition it actually installs to. I'm not sure it plays a part during boot though.

Gonna see what I can do at this point. Thanks to everyone for the input.

[NeonSamurai]

Vista does the same thing, though off hand I don't know what that hidden partition is for.

[Arclight]

Slightly more painfull than strictly nescesary, but it's sorted.

Created the entry in EasyBDC, which informed me that ntldr and ntdetect.com were missing. I changed a setting related to the new entry to point it to the partition containing XP, and then copied ntldr and ntdetect.com to the root of that partition.

Boot.ini didn't need relocating; XP put it in the right place during the install I did a while ago... you know, when it trashed Win7's boot... thingy.

Thanks to all, you've made my life that much easier.

*aparently that small partition can serve as a replacement for the DVD in case you need any of the tools. Don't quote me on that though.

[longam]

Didn't work for me, It keeps saying the other drive is drive letter U when it is D.

[NeonSamurai]

This may help a bit

http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1068
http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_v...ide.htm?page=4

[CaptainHaplo]

Easiest thing to do really is just manually edit your boot.ini file on the master drive and partition

Looks like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30 /usepmtimer
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /usepmtimer /NoExecute=OptIn

This is for a single boot system - but you just add the additional operation systems with arguements that you want - pointing it to the correct disk/partition
For example - if win7 is 0/0/0/1 (which is likely is) and XP is on the second partition - then xp is on 0/0/0/2
If its on the second drive - its /0/1/0/1

You can of course use a third party boot manager - or LiLo which many of my linux friends insist is the best option, but I personally just make the change manually in the boot.ini file.