need help booting xp from dual boot (one hard drive)

[jonbb]

can anyone help me repair an xp installation that is on the same hard drive as windows 7.

I get a choice when first booting:
1)start a previous version of windows
2)start windows 7

windows 7 boots fine, but xp will not and the error Windows root>\system32\hal.dll. appears.

I have tried using the xp recovery but to no avail, would windows 7 recovery fix the xp issue?

 

[Jeremy Allen]

You've got damaged files or missing files, it could also be a damaged harddrive.

Can you not even get into Windows XP?

 

[jonbb]

You've got damaged files or missing files, it could also be a damaged harddrive.

Can you not even get into Windows XP?

Hi Jeremy, thanks for the reply. no I cant boot xp. I can boot windows 7 no problem but not xp. I dont want to try and fix it too much in case it stops windows 7 working. i am not sure if i can run fixboot from the xp disk without damaging the windows 7 boot files.

 

[Jeremy Allen]

Don't know if this will help, but I recommend this to everyone on Toms.. Try defraggler, check how your drive health is through windows 7. Here's the link: http://www.piriform.com/defraggler
I don't think it will really mess up Windows 7. Try to run defraggler on the hdd, it will take some time, and check out how the hdd health is.