Dual Booting xp and win 7

Black-Tom

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 26, 2006
Messages
408
Hey all,

I just installed windows seven on my computer to try it out. It works perfectly but now I want to be able to get back into my xp so that I can get some real work done.

The problem is, when I reboot I don't get the option of choosing an operating system, it just goes straight into win 7.

I need help figuring out how to get back into xp.

Here is some information regarding my install:

XP was installed first, and on the original drive that came with the computer.

Installed Win 7, but on a different drive that I had in the computer.


How should I go about fixing this?
 
download and install EasyBCD
go to add/remove, add xp and select the drive letter
click add entry then save
now you can login to XP whenever you want to get some REAL work done.

244r1xf.jpg
 
Thanks.

I had to get the version 2.0 Beta from their forum because it could automatically deal with the /ntldr problem that I was running into.

Just creating the entry in 1.71 and choosing the correct drive letter wasn't enough.
 
It isn't final yet, but you could just run XP Mode in Windows 7. If you want something that's final, you could just use VirtualBox.
 
That's odd. The RC lets me select which version to run when I boot.

I guess the retail version requires something 3rd party to accomplish this?
 
I'll be doing the same when windows pre-order comes in. Is it too much to make both separate hard disks, drive C: so that when you boot to Win 7 it's off drive C: from hard drive 2, and if you boot to XP it's off drive C: from hard drive 1?



Couldn't this be something you could handle in the BIOS?
 
Last edited:
That's odd. The RC lets me select which version to run when I boot.

I guess the retail version requires something 3rd party to accomplish this?
It has nothing to do with the version of W7, and everything to do with how both installs were done, in what order, etc. Dual-booting was always a simple thing to do, and the steps haven't changed since Win95 and NT 4.0 were the two common ones in use. However, there are still a ton of people who don't follow the steps properly, hence all of these threads. It shouldn't matter anymore, to be honest, though, because dual-booting is a thing of the past. It isn't really necessary except in some very unique situations. Virtual machines are free, just as fast, and require less complex system setups.
 
Yes, has been for some time now, ever since Intel VT was enabled in processors, along with AMD's equivalent. If you run XP in a VirtualBox VM, you won't notice a speed difference.
 
Yes, has been for some time now, ever since Intel VT was enabled in processors, along with AMD's equivalent. If you run XP in a VirtualBox VM, you won't notice a speed difference.

Nice. Do you get everything as normal speed, like 3d video/hardware acceleration?
 
DirextX support was just recently added, but it works well enough to play the older type games that didn't play too well under Vista. However, I'm reading that these games have been working better under W7, so there's even less of a need for 3D support in a VM.
 
That's odd. The RC lets me select which version to run when I boot.

I guess the retail version requires something 3rd party to accomplish this?


Probably not. I'm using the release candidate available on microsoft's site. this could have been a problem that is special for my set up.


Also, unless your computer is quite fast, running xp as a virtual machine will not have equal performance in heavy use tasks.
 
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