Dual booting between XP Pro SP3 and 7

[Sailorcancer]

Ok so I went to the backup page and put that ntedect file in my 7 root.

I got the error message again

So I went back and edited the boot.ini again to do that 1 instead of 0. This time it let me save. Tried it again did not work.

Addendum:

Ok so far here is what is flagged:

Disk 0 (Windows 7)
- Boot
- Page File
- Crash Dump
- Primary Partition

NOW here's something else:

200 MB partition:
- System
-Active
- Primary Partition

4.58GB partition:
- Primary Partition

These two are both in Disk 0

Disk 1 (Windows XP)
- Active
- Primary Partition

[Coolname007]

Originally Posted by Sailorcancer

Ok so I went to the backup page and put that ntedect file in my 7 root.

I got the error message again

So I went back and edited the boot.ini again to do that 1 instead of 0. This time it let me save. Tried it again did not work.

Ahh...so you didn't save it the last time? That may be the cause of your problem then. try it again, this time remembering to save it with the rdisk values set to 1, as well as the partitions. Also, how many partitions do you have on the XP drive? that may need to be edited too, in boot.ini...

-Coolname007

[kairozamorro]

Originally Posted by Coolname007

Active partition, Justin...not partitions! There can only be one active partition at any particular point in time on the same computer.

-Coolname007

There can only be one active partition per disk. Since this user has two hard drives, they'll have two active partitions.

[Sailorcancer]

Originally Posted by Coolname007

Ahh...so you didn't save it the last time? That may be the cause of your problem then. try it again, this time remembering to save it with the rdisk values set to 1, as well as the partitions. Also, how many partitions do you have on the XP drive? that may need to be edited too, in boot.ini...

-Coolname007

What I did before when I could not save it was I saved it to my desktop. Then copied it from the desktop and put it over into the C (7) drive.

As far as the partitions go for my D (XP) drive there is only 1. Not like 7 that has 3.

Also here is what my boot file looks like. *after modifing it*
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Should anything else be changed?

[kairozamorro]

Ok that 200mb active partition should already have ntdetect.com, but check anyway...

[Coolname007]

Originally Posted by kairozamorro

There can only be one active partition per disk. Since this user has two hard drives, they'll have two active partitions.

Right...I just figured that out right before you posted! I was under the impression before that there could only be one active partition at a given time, no matter how many disks, but it seems i was thinking of what BING calls "active", and not Windows. Sorry, my bad.

-Coolname007

[Sailorcancer]

Originally Posted by kairozamorro

Ok that 200mb active partition should already have ntdetect.com, but check anyway...

I am not able to check the 200MB partition. When I right click on it in the disk management section it's faded out for me to explore it.

[Coolname007]

Originally Posted by Sailorcancer

Disk 0 (Windows 7)
- Boot
- Page File
- Crash Dump
- Primary Partition

NOW here's something else:

200 MB partition:
- System
-Active
- Primary Partition

4.58GB partition:
- Primary Partition

These two are both in Disk 0

Disk 1 (Windows XP)
- Active
- Primary Partition

hmm...interesting. So it now seems like your boot files should be on that 200 MB partition, and not the Win 7 partition, since it is the former that is active.

So go ahead, and put your XP boot files on that partition instead. That should solve the problem.

-Coolname007

EDIT: I see Justin has already beat me to it...

[Sailorcancer]

Originally Posted by Coolname007

hmm...interesting. So it now seems like your boot files should be on that 200 MB partition, and not the Win 7 partition, since it is the former that is active.

So go ahead, and put your XP boot files on that partition instead. That should solve the problem.

-Coolname007

EDIT: I see Justin has already beat me to it...

How do I access it?

[Coolname007]

Originally Posted by Sailorcancer

I am not able to check the 200MB partition. When I right click on it in the disk management section it's faded out for me to explore it.

Can you access it from "Computer" or whatever Win 7 calls it? it seems this a problem of greater magnitude than i had first suspected...

-Coolname007

[kairozamorro]

If its really the active partition you should have access to it...
Is this install of XP pre-installed or did you install it? from the sounds of it it is running through that partition first when you boot from that drive in case you want to use the recovery options and than procceds to boot XP, but this could be a problem with dual-booting from another hard drive since it must have ntdetect.com to work properly.

[Coolname007]

Originally Posted by Sailorcancer

How do I access it?

You posted the question, right as i was answering it! Ok, so first check to see if it shows up in "Computer" in Win 7, and then let us know.

-Coolname007

[Sailorcancer]

Originally Posted by kairozamorro

If its really the active partition you should have access to it...
Is this install of XP pre-installed or did you install it? from the sounds of it it is running through that partition first when you boot from that drive in case you want to use the recovery options and than procceds to boot XP, but this could be a problem with dual-booting from another hard drive since it must have ntdetect.com to work properly.

I installed it. I have a copy of XP both home and pro.

No I am not able to get to it from the win 7 computer screen.

BUT

I had to get into XP today so I just swapped drives in the bios menu to have my XP drive boot first. When I got into it the active drive was visible there and was called the D drive.

So it was like:

XP = C
the MB drive = D

Then the 7 drive I think was E.

Or something in that nature.

[Coolname007]

Originally Posted by Sailorcancer

I installed it. I have a copy of XP both home and pro.

No I am not able to get to it from the win 7 computer screen.

BUT

I had to get into XP today so I just swapped drives in the bios menu to have my XP drive boot first. When I got into it the active drive was visible there and was called the D drive.

So it was like:

XP = C
the MB drive = D

Then the 7 drive I think was E.

Or something in that nature.

But can you access it now? It sounds like to me things have changed since...

-Coolname007

EDIT: Realized we're talking about seeing it from Win 7 here, not XP...

[kairozamorro]

Ok from Win 7 in disk management right click on that active partition, select "Change Drive Letters and Paths" and try to assign it a letter.