[Bertyjoe]

I have an AMD Athlon 64 3400+ with initially 1gb ram but recently added 1gb ram before installing windows 7. 200GB Harddrive divided into 3 partitions (C, D and E)

I previously was using windows XP pro installed on partion C (here I have lot of programs I use with no backup),I decided then 2days ago to try the new windows 7 since I had another partition which was free, i.e D. I fast formated the D and started the installation by booting up with the windows 7 dvd. I didn't upgrade with first option but did a fresh installation by installing on D partion. The installation when on well.

After rebooting the pc i expected to have options to choose which operating system I'd like, but this didn't happen instead it when directly to windows 7. I tried to locate the partition then found out that windows 7 had renamed the partions and I now have windows 7 on C and D is where I should have XP. All programs could be seen and some accessable but could not boot windows XP. Try to locate previous version of windows on the PC via disk manager but still could not find window XP.

I am not very verse with software installation and MSdos or so. Please could someone help me get back to my windows XP pro.Will appreciate a step by step procedure since I am still new with windows 7 and had never use vista before which seems similar as many people say. Will unstalling windows 7 get me back to windowXP? Even if it does how do i uninstall, what if i lost every by unstalling?I really don't have an external harddrive now to store all the over 100gb of stuff I have on the computer.Is there anyway I can get XP back ?

Many thanks in advance !

[yeshuas]

I could be wrong, but it sounds to me as though, since you chose to install Windows 7 to the D drive that you inadvertantly installed to where you had XP.

If you can't find your XP files on any of the partitions, I am pretty sure that is what happened, double check to see if you don't see, like a folder callled Program Files anywhere else on the other partitions.

[Bertyjoe]

No, windows 7 only did rename the partitions because on the D partition I still do see a program file and all other stuffs I had installed on XP while Windows 7 in now on C. So, just the Drive letters were interchanged by Win 7.

[NT50]

Did yo boot to the Win 7 disk and install or did you install from within Win XP

[Bertyjoe]

I booted with the windows 7 disk from start up, not within XP.

[yeshuas]

You will have to maybe get into Folder Options and unhide hidden files and folders and have it show hidden System files and folders


make sure that these 3 files are located in the root directory of your XP partition which you said is D:\; NTDETECT.com, ntldr, and boot.ini

post an image of your Disk Management screen,
Here is a guide on how to post an image http://www.pronetworks.org/index.php/gu ... onetworks/

Then do a copy and paste of your boot.ini file here in this forum

[Bertyjoe]

Here is the image of my disk manager and the D partition where XP was install. In the D partition, I couldn't find the boot.ini file but the other 2 files are there . Any please check to let me know if I am right!

[yeshuas]

You can rebuild your boot.ini file in the following manner

1.Insert the Microsoft Windows XP CD into the computer.
2.Reboot the computer with the CD and press any key when prompted to press any key to boot from the CD.
3.Once in the Microsoft Setup menu press R to open the recovery console.
4.Select the operating system you wish to use; if you only have Windows XP on the computer you will only have one prompt.
5.Once prompted for the password enter the Admin password and press enter.
6.Once at the command prompt type "bootcfg /rebuild" to start the rebuild process.
7.The rebuild process will step you through a number of steps depending upon how many operating systems you have on the computer and how the computer is setup. Below is a listing of the common steps you are likely going to encounter.

* Prompt for the identified versions of Windows installed. When you receive this prompt press Y if the bootcfg command properly identified each of the Windows operating systems installed on the computer. It is important to realize this command will only detect Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows NT installations.

* Prompt to enter the load identifier. This is the name of the operating system for the boot.ini. For example, Microsoft Windows XP Home users would enter "Microsoft Windows XP Home edition".

* Prompt to Enter OS load options. When this prompt is received type /fastdetect to automatically detect the available options.


8.Once you have completed all the available options in the rebuild and are back at the prompt type exit to reboot the computer.

[Bertyjoe]

Thanks for the help, but still I couldn't solve the issue because because I have no admin password. I never registered any password, so i when directly to press ENTER and after three times it restarted windows.In any case I was presented with 2 options as to which windows i need to recover. I had 1. C:/windows and 2. D:/ windows. So i took 2 to recover the window in D but with no password I can't get into the command prompt. I really never had a password. Any suggestion to this?

[NT50]

Did you try a blank password?