Installing XP after Windows 7

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hawb

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I have Windows 7 installed and running on my computer. I have created a partition with the built in disk management tool, and I was wondering if I could install XP on the newly created partition even though I installed Windows 7 first. Or would it be smarter to just buy another HD and install XP on that?
 
You can - But you will have to repair the boot manager from the Windows 7 disc. The reason why is XP will install it's own (older) version, and XP's boot manager can not boot to win 7. Repairing using the Win 7 disc will re-install Win7's boot manager, which can start XP.
 


Not an accurate statement: If you have Win 7 Pro or higher, you may download and install a virtualized XP environment which would enable you to run apps specifically written for the older OS. But since it's a virtualized environment, it can't use hardware acceleration (read: "XP Mode is lousy for gaming"). Therefore it's applicable mostly to a business environment for backwards compatibility of existing custom code. Understand this is nothing you can't already do with tools like VM Ware. Just that MSFT are giving it for free, provided you purchase the appropriate version of the OS and/or have a support contract that covers it.

Contrary to popular belief/rumor, "XP Mode" does not turn Windows 7 into "XP 2010".
 

cheetahra

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I have the same problem. Installed XP on a machine with Windows 7 already installed but machine only boots into XP and does not allow option to choose Windows 7. Ended up formatting the XP partition.

Do I repari the boot manager from the Windows 7 disc before or after I have installed XP? Is it possible to install XP onto the same drive where I installed Windows 7?
 
You should have fixed Win 7's boot loader the first time - would have saved you a format.

Possible to install to the same drive, but XP must have it's own partition.

And you will have to repair Win 7's boot loader after you install XP/
 

cheetahra

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I am still having problems with this. Repairing the boot (startup) using the Win 7 disc causes the PC to boot directly into Win 7 without prompting me for a choice of OS. Am I missing something here?

When it goes into the screen to show which OS to repair, I only see Win 7. Clicked on the "Drivers" button and it prompts me to locate setup information which I could not locate in my Windows (XP) folder in the separate partition.

I have another small problem. Prior to repairing the boot loader, I tried installing XP onto a portable HDD but failed and decided to install onto my local partitioned HDD. During boot up (which goes into Win XP) I noted that I have two Windows XP OS (one obviously does not work) to boot from. How do I clean up this strange occurrence? Where is this sitting on my system?

I am beginning to think that it is just to much trouble to attempt to right this.

All because I can't seem to be able to find the Win 7 XP mode for my RTM version of Win 7 Ultimate. Is this already out there somewhere?
 

It's almost too easy with EasyBCD 2.0

ss034.jpg

 

cheetahra

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The Win7 XP mode on MS' site is for RC versions only.

Easy BCD works but that did not altogether solved my other problem. After selecting XP from the dual boot screen, another (XP) dual boot screen pops up showing 2 choices of XP (one of which doesn't work). I just can't seem to figure out how to clean this up.

After successfully booting up in XP, I can't get a connection onto the internet, and my Catalyst ATI wouldn't load because I need to install .Net Framework 2.0 - and it still didn't work after installation.

Do I need to install all my hardware drivers in XP to get my Gigabit lan to work? Seems strange that I need to.

This is an all new system built recently. But considering all the trouble, think I should just wait to source for Win 7 XP mode for the RTM version...

But thanks for the advice.
 

jtyler16

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Hey Scooteq Can you tell me how to repair win 7 boot manager .
Take it slow so I can get this right the first .
I need to install win XP back on the hard drive
Thanks
 

LadyLihai

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The Microsoft virtualization tool for WinXP Mode requires a processor that utilizes hardware virtualization (Intel-VT or AMD-V). I haven't verified yet, but I believe VMWare and other virtualization programs do as well. The two laptops we just purchased here in the office do not offer hardware virtualization compatibility, so I'm stuck having to dual-boot these two machines until our database server is upgraded in a month. What a pain.

Anyone else using this EasyBCD software? Looks fairly easy to use. The two remote users getting these laptops are not that computer-literate. Thinking of using it just for their benefit.
 

PCprintersmaniac

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Mostly it's unavailable to install Windows XP after Windows 7 because it's a huge propability that errors may occur, such as " Disk boot fail" Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart, your Boot Manager will not be able to boot Windows XP, etc. I spend all night in order to figure that out and the results was failure all the time. But I found an even easier way to do it but it will cost you a HDD format.
Follow these few steps and I hope they will help you.

1) Format your C: HDD
2) Split the C: HDD into 2 partitions.
3) On the first partition install Windows XP.
4) On the second partition install Windows 7, since the Boot Manager is much newer than that of Windows XP.
5) When you manage to do these, whenever you will boot your PC, the Boot Manager will show you 2 options:

Older version of windows (which is windows xp)
Windows 7

so now you can choose which windows you will operate.
It worked for me so I think it will also work for you.
 

keemz

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hey guys, i have a Windows 7 laptop and i wanted to install windows xp on an empty partition, problem is every time i attempt to do that i get an error during installation right after it "collects the files" before even going into partition selection part. in the error it says check your system for viruses or use the CHKDSC thing. I did both and neither had any problems, can anyone help??
 

vaibhavs2

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hey guys, i also want to install xp but i don;t have win 7 dvd as it came preinstalled in my laptop.
what else can be done to repair boot manager?i have a seperate partition to install win xp .
 
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