XP/win7 Dual Boot

[karlh]

Don't understand Win7's dual boot procedure.

PC started with XP (DISK0, drive C: ). Added a second hard drive (DISK1, F: ) and put Win7 on that drive. When I boot to Win7, drive F is the OS drive.

I'm not fond of the OS being on a drive other than drive "C". My work around was to add a third drive (Disk2) and simply change the boot order in the BIOS when I want to back to XP. When I take the Win7 (DISK1) disk out, the machine doesn't boot to the original XP configuration. Evidently the machine is going to the second drive,DISK1, to get boot info.

How can I fix this so that I can go back to the machine booting with a single drive?

On a second note, is there a way when two physical disks are present that whatever the machine is using as the OS disk will be labeled "C"?


Thanks!

 

[myriad46]

Prepare to wipe the system clean. Install XP. During install, erase the partitions. Create a partition to your desired size (not whole hard drive) and install XP on it. Leave the excess unallocated. Once up and running. Reboot with windows 7 install disk. Create a partition from the remaining, unallocated, space. Format and install windows 7 on it. When all done, each OS will recognize itself as being on C:. This will only work if you install win 7/vista after installing XP. XP will not overwrite the boot sector of a Vista or Win 7 install properly. When you are done, download Easy Boot CD to customize the boot menu.

You could also search in google for XP/Win 7 dual boot and follow the directions on any number of the million websites that come up. Good Luck!

 

[karlh]

Thanks for the ideas. The main reason I want to keep the XP around is that there are a few programs that I don't use too often on it & I don't want to reinstall them. Essentially it was time for a fresh OS install anyhow, so I used Win7. I still want to access my old OS. I'd like to get disk0 back to where it will boot.

 

[Scotteq]

How to Dual Boot Win 7 and XP:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

 

[karlh]

When Disk0 is selected as the boot drive, I get the boot menu that allow me to boot to XP (on disk0) or win7 (on disk1). I want to take the disk1 out completely and still have XP boot. There's where the issue is at currently. If I take disk1 out, the machine fails to boot to any OS.

 

[Scotteq]

Shut down and Remove Disc 1

Boot to your XP media

Select the 'Repair' option

 

[htoonthura]

Don't understand Win7's dual boot procedure.

PC started with XP (DISK0, drive C: ). Added a second hard drive (DISK1, F: ) and put Win7 on that drive. When I boot to Win7, drive F is the OS drive.

I'm not fond of the OS being on a drive other than drive "C". My work around was to add a third drive (Disk2) and simply change the boot order in the BIOS when I want to back to XP. When I take the Win7 (DISK1) disk out, the machine doesn't boot to the original XP configuration. Evidently the machine is going to the second drive,DISK1, to get boot info.

How can I fix this so that I can go back to the machine booting with a single drive?

On a second note, is there a way when two physical disks are present that whatever the machine is using as the OS disk will be labeled "C"?


Thanks!

Is there a reason why you want dual boot. If you have win 7 pro , you can use xp mode which i found it pretty cool. Unless you are planning gaming on virtual pc, i do not see a point for dual booting.

 

[verndewd]

Is there a reason why you want dual boot. If you have win 7 pro , you can use xp mode which i found it pretty cool. Unless you are planning gaming on virtual pc, i do not see a point for dual booting.

You dont have hardware that is expensive legacy gear obviously. I have a triple boot on 3hdd's the vista install will likely be retired but the xp drive has my protools on it and 1500 dollars for a hw upgrade is too much.

 

[htoonthura]

You dont have hardware that is expensive legacy gear obviously. I have a triple boot on 3hdd's the vista install will likely be retired but the xp drive has my protools on it and 1500 dollars for a hw upgrade is too much.

What are you talking about? How does it tie into the original post?

 

[verndewd]

What are you talking about? How does it tie into the original post?

do you walk around in the dark expecting to bump into stuff?

 

[trisct]

Alternatively you can download virtual box and try virtualizing your XP setup.

It may be possible with MS Virtual PC as well, but virtualbox is a better basis, it has more virtualized IO options (like USB) without having to install extensions within the VM.

Download and build an Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4Win). This contains DI-XML which you will need on a boot-cd.

Set your primary HDD controller device to the Microsoft standard IDE driver.

Do an image backup of your XP drive (suggest Drive Image XML for that), and save it on a USB drive. Let it split the image into multiple files if it wants to.

Define your VM in Virtual Box, and configure the CDROM to your drive. Define a boot disk the same size as your XP volume, and use fixed disk size (not dynamic). Plug in the USB drive with your image on it, and set the USB filter for that device in the Vbox menu. This makes it disappear from the host OS and appear attached to the virtual machine. Boot the VM using the UBCD.

Start up DI-XML from the boot CD, and restore the image from your USB drive to the virtual HDD you defined in vbox. This can take a long time, it isn't as fast as the native restore.

When you have the image restored, reboot and remove the CD. Install the vbox additions into your new XP image and that should be it except for some tweaking. Run your old XP system in a window within Windows 7...

 

[JackNaylorPE]

I would first try using Win7's virtual XP mode where Win7 mimicks XP before doing all that. I have used it and it hasn't failed me yet..... your mileage may vary

Also note that when you install multiple MS OS's on the same HD, you have to remember that MOST of your OS on the other partition, boot files still reside on the 1st partition. Delete all the files on the XP partition and Win7 won't boot.

To truly separate the OS on separate partitions, you will need a 3rd party boot manager or you can accomplish the same thing by using two different hard drives by installing thm both to separate drives when only the one HD is installed in the PC. Once done, you can use the BIOS boot order as your "boot menu"

 

[karlh]

Is there a reason why you want dual boot. If you have win 7 pro , you can use xp mode which i found it pretty cool. Unless you are planning gaming on virtual pc, i do not see a point for dual booting.

I've used Virtual XP mode enough to know what it is. I wouldn't begin to know how to virualize the my XP setup I'm sure it's something I'll tinker with in the future. The machine currenlty is using 2 GB to run Win7 64. While it isn't a huge drain, XP mode does drag the system down a bit. I could max the RAM to 8GB for +/- $100 but I have a couple other projects in front of that, not the least of which is Christmas. Thanks for the idea!

 

[karlh]

Shut down and Remove Disc 1

Boot to your XP media

Select the 'Repair' option

I'd already tried that. It didn't work. Thanks!

 

[karlh]

Alternatively you can download virtual box and try virtualizing your XP setup.

It may be possible with MS Virtual PC as well, but virtualbox is a better basis, it has more virtualized IO options (like USB) without having to install extensions within the VM.

Download and build an Ultimate Boot CD for Windows (UBCD4Win). This contains DI-XML which you will need on a boot-cd.....

Thanks for the detailed instructions. I will definately be trying this in the future. While I'm looking for a quicker fix right now, virutalizing the XP was definately something I've thought of.