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Dual boot Windows 7 and XP (2 HDD)

Dual boot Windows 7 and XP (2 HDD)

Postby dude11 » Mon Nov 23, 2009 5:14 am

Hi, I'm pretty new to this stuff, but I had Win XP on one HD. Just bought a new HD and installed WIN 7 on it. wanted to have a screen that asked me which OS to boot, so I wouldn't have to switch my HDD in the BIOS everytime. Thought that VistaBootpro would do the trick.

So I used Vista boot pro from within the Win 7 OS (don't know if that matters), and then added windows XP under "manage OS entries". I put it in as a Windows legacy on the D drive. Win 7 is set as the default on the C drive.

When I start up my computer the boot manager does come up, and asks me which OS to run. However, if I click on Windows XP, it starts the computer up from the beginning again, and I end up back at the boot manager. It works fine when I choose WIN 7. Any ideas on what I am doing wrong? thanks.
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Re: Dual boot Windows 7 and XP (2 HDD)

Postby NT50 » Mon Nov 23, 2009 2:16 pm

Please follow the guide below to get your XP working.

Dual Boot Trouble Shooting Guide - XP / Windows 7 Running
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Re: Dual boot Windows 7 and XP (2 HDD)

Postby NT50 » Mon Nov 23, 2009 2:17 pm

Forgot you mentioned VistaBootPro.

Dual Boot Trouble Shooting Guide / Vista Running

This has VistaBootPro in it. When you see Vista, just insert Win 7 into that spot.
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Re: Dual boot Windows 7 and XP (2 HDD)

Postby Digbyou812 » Sat Dec 12, 2009 7:10 am

I have two hard drives, one bootable drive is XP SP3 and the other is Windows 7. Each OS was installed on its' drive while the other drive was not connected. This has likely created my problem but I am at a loss to know how to correct it. My issue does seems quite similar to the earlier post with this possible exception.

When I boot the computer I do not see a multi boot menu. With both SATA drives/OSs connected on boot up I either get a black screem with a large curser blinking part way down on the upper left hand side of the screen and no boot or; My PC boots into Windows 7 but never XP. With one drive connected without the other they both boot into either XP or W7 respectively just fine.

With both drives connected how do I get the PC to boot into a multi boot menu that will allow me to select either XP or W7? Also, having accomplished that how do I get "legacy OS" replaced in the multi boot menu with Windows XP. I want to be able to see the choices in the multi boot menu be W7 or XP but no "legacy OS".

It occurs to me that DualBootPro may have a role to play in the solution to what hopefully is a fairly straight forward problem correction.
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Re: Dual boot Windows 7 and XP (2 HDD)

Postby NT50 » Sat Dec 12, 2009 5:53 pm

If plug both hard drives in and boot to Windows 7 (set it to boot in BIOS) you can folow the guide mnetioned above and then you will have the menu to come up at boot to select OS
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