Dual Boot Win7 & WinXP, 2 Different Hard Drives

[login123]

Just bought a nifty new computer, an HP p-7 1235.

This is it: http://h20000.www2.h...rodTypeId=12454

Kroozer put me onto it and I am forever in her debt. Thanks, Kroozer.

 

Its fast, works perfectly, so the first order of business is to tweak it.

Have been trying to get it to dual boot win xp from a different 1 tb HD for a while now, no luck yet.

Have read till my glasses fogged over. Still reading.

 

This writer summed it up best in his second sentence. LINK to article.

" Many guides or examinations are often overly technical and will just confuse the issue even further, or sap the reader's will to live."

Almost fell off the chair.

 

I have a topic going over at the HP Forums, but haven't been able to make anything work yet. 4 pages long, not many pictures.

LINK to HP Forums.

 

There must be a way to do this. I have to sort of work the project in, can't work at it uninterrupted, but won't give it up until every option is exhausted.

You guys have a huge range of knowledge, so I would welcome any suggestions.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Edit 04 November 2012:

This project completed successfully. The entire process is outlined in post 35 on page 4 of the HP forum topic linked above. And there is a bit more about it in post number 43 here.

[login123]

In a nutshell, so far I have used nLite to slipstream the installer files into ISOs and saved the files as ISOs and folders. Then try to install them into Oracle's Virtualbox.

2 of 8 ISOs have installed successfully so far, and wxp pro loads and runs in vbox. It updates, accepts new software, etc.

(Yep, its a legal xp pro disk, had it for years. )

But for installing into the new, NTFS formatted 1 tb hard drive, so far thats a nogo.

The chief suspect for causing this difficulty is the UEFI boot protocol.

[Super Fast]

You stated your trying to dual boot XP. What other OS are you attempting to load?

[hazelnut]

You stated your trying to dual boot XP. What other OS are you attempting to load?

 

Perhaps if you read login123's link to the HP forums he has kindly posted you will be better informed.

 

Also read this thread's title.

[Winapp2.ini]

Windows XP requires SATA drivers for your harddrive, which need to be loaded when you install it, or else it wont boot. Repackage an nLite installation with your drive's sata drivers and you should be golden.

[login123]

Superfast, the computer has win 7 home prem. preinstalled. Xp will go onto a 2nd HD, 1 tb.

Winapp, the guys over at HP forums linked me to what I believe are the correct drivers, and I slipstreamed them. That is a chore in itself. Ugh. They are here: LINK to drivers. Top download button.

 

The latest effort to install the slipstreamed files & drivers got almost all the way through the install process but stopped at this error screen. This was an effort to install wxp to the new HD with the original HD unplugged.

 

[mta]

login123,

this isn't so much help specifically but may lead you in the right direction.

 

i did this years ago with Vista on HDD0 and i setup a dualboot to XP on HDD1.

(so with Win7 and Vista being very similar in the boot departments, i'm assuming this Vista method can be transposed with Win7)

 

from memory, the method went something like;

installed XP to 2nd drive (but this screws up boot.ini stuff on 1st drive)

insert Vista (in your case Win7) CD, reboot

press any key to boot from CD when prompted

choose Repair your Computer

System Recovery Options

Command Prompt

>bootrec /fixmbr

>bootrec /fixboot

Exit and restart

 

this now screws up the XP boot stuff

so reboot the PC to Vista (or Win7) and install VistaBootPro, setup XP boot record

copy boot.ini, ntldr and ntdetect to XP drive

 

and that got it going for me.

now, i seem to recall somerhing about VistaBoot Pro also working for Win7

 

hope that helps or at least gets you moving on the right path.

 

PS; the BSOD 0x7b error i've only seen when Windows has had too many hardware changes and needs to be reloaded

[login123]

Thank you, mta. Your memory is right on target. That is an accurate and concise summary of several tutorials I have read during this project. Some of them go on to suggest the use of EasyBCD to repair the bootloader issues.

 

If win xp will ever install cleanly, then we are on to step 2, repair the bootloader. But the install stops at the error message shown in post 6. Don't know how to get past that.

 

So far, I have only tried installing win xp to the new hard drive while the original win 7 hard drive is unplugged. Didn't want to mess up the factory installation. I wouldn't mind leaving the original HD plugged in if I knew that those bootloader issues are fixable, and that win xp would install to the new HD, not the original.

 

Have no idea what is causing that BSOD error ... the only change to the computer is swapping HDs and installing to the new one.

Maybe I should install EasyBCD into win 7 first, then point it toward the new HD?

[hazelnut]

It is a real pity that you cannot get hold of a friends XP Pro SP3 install disc (or even XP SP2) and use that to install instead of the nlite one just for troubleshooting purposes.

 

It is possible you could borrow one?

 

Perhaps select the legacy options boot in bios for your dvd drive and see if xp installs then although this could complicate things

 

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E20881_01/html/E20891/gltde.html

[login123]

Hazel, I do have an xp pro disk, its sp2, but I can install sp3 using nlite, thats pretty easy. The tricky part is the sata drivers, sp3 is easy.

 

Is the idea here to just install xp pro straight onto the new HD?

 

I can not read that article just now but will do so asap. Thanks. Back in about 3 hours.

[hazelnut]

Have you read the SevenForums thread on how to install the sata drivers?

 

It is a long thread but it covers just about everything with people jumping in with questions just like yours.

 

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/72185-sata-drivers-slipstream-into-windows-xp-cd.html

[Super Fast]

Perhaps if you read login123's link to the HP forums he has kindly posted you will be better informed.

 

Also read this thread's title.

 

I was feeling lazy at the moment, & sleepy too since I was up late. I probably saw the title, but I was about to crash.

 

Anyway, Sata drivers are pretty simple to slip stream. Point & click process via nLite. I know it sounds complex, but just use integrate drivers & let it do it's thing.

 

I just have a question. Why would u want to dual boot XP & 7? I am asking because if it is because of a certain feature, I got some XP features working in 7.

[Winapp2.ini]

I recall having a similar issue getting XP to boot on a computer I wanted to move away from Vista (when Vista was a naughty fledgeling)

 

Installing XP will break the win7 bootloader, because installing windows overwrites bootloaders (installing XP then Win7 will retain the XP boot record, but not the other way around)

 

I remember it being quite a pain to load XP onto the SATA drive, but once that was done, it was relatively smooth sailing. If you boot into Win7 and check your exact drive model, you may have better luck finding the correct drivers for it.

[Super Fast]

@WinApp, that also has been my experience.

 

If you install 7, then XP, you wind up with only 1 boot option. XP.

 

If you install XP, then 7, you can boot to either.

 

Funny how that works, hey?

[Winapp2.ini]

It's because newer versions of Windows preserve the older boot settings and add theirs, while older ones will overwrite the older ones with theirs. Has something to do with version number, I believe.

[Super Fast]

I have oft wondered just what settings are changed. If it has to do with editing the boot ini file, or something similar...

 

Or if it involves more than that. In other words, could someone successfully "manually" add the missing boot loader?

[Winapp2.ini]

You probably could. I think what happens is that Windows XP can't "detect" the win7 boot.ini, so it overwrites it with its own, whereas Windows 7 can see XP's and it just adds it's own information into that one.

[login123]

Well, sure didn't make it back in 3 hours. Hazel, I have read both those articles now. Thanks for the links.

The one from the win 7 forums is what I used to learn about nLite. Am now rereading the 18 pages of comments.

After some preset word limit, the brain just goes to mush and ones life force wavers.

 

For Winapp and Super, do either of you know what happens after installing xp over win 7 ... the boot loader is zapped, I gather, but what happens, that is, what do I see on the screen and how do I fix it? I don't have a win 7 install disk, just the oem recovery disks and a system disk made by win 7.

 

Super, the reason for wanting to dual boot win xp is just that I like win xp at least as much as win 7, and have some apps that simply will not run on win 7.

[mta]

just a 'out of left field' suggestion.

 

with 1 drive connected, install Win7 (think this is already done from factory)

disconnect that drive, connect other and install XP (think you also are doing this and getting that BSOD)

then connect both drives and each time you start the PC, go into BIOS settings and change the boot order to get the OS you are after for that session.

 

i realise it's not an ideal solution, but a solution none the less, and at least short term, may be less stressful and give you your desired outcome.

[login123]

mta: Thanks. The system I would actually prefer is what you seem to be suggesting. At startup, tap the escape key, get to the boot menu, and select which HD to boot. Not actually change the boot order, just select which HD. From reading other tutorials, it seems most folks don't want that, but it would be perfect for me.

 

The step I have not done yet is to boot up with Both HDs connected. I went back to the original HD with win 7 after the blue screen in post 6.

 

Edit: Just booted with both HDs connected, Win explorer recognizes the new HD but there are no files or folders on it. So I guess booting from it is not likely.

 

I have to quit this for a while. Will post more if anything develops.

In the meantime, if anybody has any suggestions . . .anybody . . . anybody??

Edited October 15, 2012 by login123

[login123]

I have oft wondered just what settings are changed. If it has to do with editing the boot ini file, or something similar...

 

Or if it involves more than that. In other words, could someone successfully "manually" add the missing boot loader?

 

This site has an explanation w/ pictures http://neosmart.net/...EBCD/Windows+XP

. . . login123 like pictures . . . unnhhh.

Some sites say that using EasyBCD free version will create a new boot menu.

Also have seen references to other boot loader modification programs, some free.

Also have read instructions for manual editing of the BCD. Ugh, scary.

 

What I'm afraid of is taking a step that will trash out the boot sequence beyond my ability to repair it.

 

Edit:

Yet reason for proceeding very carefully here is that some of the instructional threads just seem to dribble off into obscurity. One can not know if the OP fixed the boot issue or ran screaming off into the night. And sometimes the instructions on different sites conflict with each other, and both OPs say thank you it worked.

Edited October 18, 2012 by login123

[Alan_B]

I have Windows 7 Ultimate on both my original HDD and more recently a new SSD.

 

I have Windows software that can Secure ATA Erase an SSD - but NOT if Windows is running from the target SSD.

 

I Booted into BIOS and selected the HDD and launched the WIndows on the HDD.

It FAILED - instead it was running Windows from the SSD.

 

I have tried repairing but it still goes wrong.

 

My motherboard can only boot via MBR - it is not UEFI capable.

You might however have the same grief with UEFI.

 

I see no reason how the HDD MBR can fail to launch the Active Partition of the HDD,

UNFORTUNATELY what I have is a default installation of a 100 MB System Reserved Partition which fails to link to the HDD 25 GB Windows Partition

instead it jumps to to SSD 55 GB Windows Partition.

For now the only way I can secure erase the SSD is via a Linux Boot CD.

 

I think there would be no problem with this wretched Bitlocker 100 MB partition if it had not been part of the Windows installation.

 

I suspect that you might find it easier if you can avoid having this feature on your system.

[mta]

login123,

seems to me you have reached the 'suck it and see' stage.

to go forward or not, that is the question.

don't know if it's the male chromosome or just me, but bolding going forward will be the only way to get your dual boot, or find out the hard way, it wasn't worth the hassle !!!

we learn best from our mistakes - looks like you know what to do, but just lack the courage.

 

what's the worst that can happen?

you may have to load XP and/or Win7 both a few times to get order right. (that'll be a few hours you'll never get back)

press on i say...

good luck.

[login123]

OK, now, thats not fair, reading my mind across the internet. You are exactly right, that is the present situation.

 

I have only dealt with one other non-functioning boot loader, and it was a bear to fix, so am a bit intimidated. I kept thinking that eventually I would come across some article or other that would make it clear and obvious, but alas, not yet.

Also there are some glitches with conflicting recommendations by HP and others.

- The tutorial here: http://neosmart.net/...fter+Vista+or+7 says to not disconnect the original hard drive. Over at the HP forum, that is the thing recommended to do. Slightly different situations, but still . . .

- I made a "System Repair Disk" when prompted by the HP assistant app, OEM installed on this computer. It won't boot the computer. HP online chat help assistant said it isn't supposed to. Long story, but thats the bottom line.

- I followed the instructions from the HP forums to change to IDE mode and install win xp. After that, the computer went into a startup repair routine just in order to boot up. Win xp was nowhere to be seen, not on the new computer nor on the new hard drive, which I searched on another computer.

- The HP forum has fallen silent after I posted the last blue screen message. Not sure what that is about, maybe they just don't know what to do, or are just terribly busy, or think I am too dense to help. I suspect the latter.

- The other troubling thing is this UEFI booter, and the fact that the computer is GPT formatted. That is apparently new enough to be poorly explained.

 

There are other conflicting recommendations here and there, so I am slowly sorting through them. And you are right, eventually I'll just have to suck it up and go for it (I think you meant to say ). I am going to make this work, but want to touch all the bases first. Am now moving on to plan z, having gone through all the other letters. Going to make a backup image of the entire system, probably using Acronis, so that I will have a fall back that I know for sure will work. No faith whatsoever in the HP backup, and no experience with the win 7 system back up.

 

I hate to post and run, but I will be "off the air" for a couple of days now, duties calling, but I would welcome any suggestions. Will read them when I get back on.

[Super Fast]

Super, the reason for wanting to dual boot win xp is just that I like win xp at least as much as win 7, and have some apps that simply will not run on win 7.

 

Have you tried XP compatibility mode under 7? (Right click/properties/compatibility tab/run in compatibility for XP)

 

Sometimes, this works for "XP Only" apps. Other times, you can find alternatives. If I knew which apps you have trouble with, I could better assist you.