how to add windows 7 to current dual boot XP/Vista?

Umm well it should all work out fine. If an entry isn't added for Win 7 to Vista's bootloader after the installation than you should be able to do that with EasyBCD, specifying it as a Vista entry.
 
You can't add 7 into the Vista BCD! Sorry 7 is a newer version of Windows still in beta form. If you install 7 on a second drive while the first is still plugged in 7 will then become the default OS seeing the option to boot Vista. With the Vista/XP drive unplugged you should be able to see XP added into 7's loader later once the main boot files are copied over from the XP root and the copy of the boot.ini is edited to point to the XP primary with the correction made there.

Presently I'm still trying to see Vista added into the boot options for 7 by way of the Neosmart version of Grub4Dos since XP is presently in a dual boot with 7 on a second drive. XP can still be loaded when booting Vista on the first but not able to see 7 added in as an option.

You would have to change the default from 7 to Vista once 7 took over with EasyBCD installed on 7 unless setup as a stand alone OS on the second drive.
 
Vista and Win 7 use the same parameters (file by the same name). Its not like ntldr where you absolutely need the newest bootloader. If it wasn't this way you wouldn't be able to use EasyBCD to edit any entries in your bcd store when Win 7 is installed. I also stated a matter of if, though I suspect it will reset the bcd store like it normally does and add an entry for itself, vista, and any other entries from the previous version, so this wouldn't even be an issue.
 
Sorry PCeye, but you can add a W7 entry to the Vista BCD.
W7 uses winload.exe, exactly like Vista, and you can just treat it as if it were another copy of Vista.
That's how my (currently) Vista/XP/W7 triple boot was set up and it works just fine.
HnS hides Vista and W7 from XP and chainloads to bootmgr, where I have the choice of booting to Vista (default) or W7 in the BCD.

When W7 installed on the IDE disk, it ignored the "system" partition on the SATA and put its own BCD in the W7 partition, setting it "active" but not "system".

A reboot obviously brought me back to my original dual boot with no W7 option (It had ignored the Vista BCD), but a quick "add" in EasyBCD had all three available from the Vista BCD in no time.

That's why people are seeing the loss of their animated startup screen from W7 as an EasyBCD bug. It's not really. They're just using the Vista version because they're booting from Vista's BCD instead of W7's.

See the screenshot here.
 
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Its a NeoSmart program created to hide Vista/Win 7's partitions from previous versions of Windows because if they have access to them they wipe out the restore points because they use a new format that XP and older consider corrupted.

It does this by renaming the Vista bootloader and putting neogrub in charge, using hide/unhide combinations before passing control to the appropriate bootloader for the OS you want to use.

Check out the HnS thread here.
 
Terry60 said:
Sorry PCeye, but you can add a W7 entry to the Vista BCD.
W7 uses winload.exe, exactly like Vista, and you can just treat it as if it were another copy of Vista.
That's how my (currently) Vista/XP/W7 triple boot was set up and it works just fine.
HnS hides Vista and W7 from XP and chainloads to bootmgr, where I have the choice of booting to Vista (default) or W7 in the BCD.
Click to expand...

HnS can run on 7 as well as Vista if you notice the screens posted in the HnS thread. But seeing 7 added into the Vista boot options with EasyBCD is a different matter there.



Despite the two entries seen there the Vista boot menu only shows XP when booting into Vista.
 
PC eye, it can be done as confirmed by both Terry and myself now. Your entries aren't working because EasyBCD put drive U: in thier entries. Change it to the right place and it should work.
 
kairozamorro said:
PC eye, it can be done as confirmed by both Terry and myself now. Your entries aren't working because EasyBCD put drive U: in thier entries. Change it to the right place and it should work.
Click to expand...

Wrong again! The reason for seeing the Drive "U is due to having a totally different setup here to start with. Terry60's screens there show one drive setup as the host seeing all boot files on one drive. Now have a look at the partitioning/OS layout here to get a better grasp on things.



Each drive was setup seeing a stand alone installation for each version with XP originally having been added into the Vista boot loader by copying boot files over from the second to first drive. The Vista host was then unpluugged twice first to see a working dual boot on the second drive with XP while still being able to boot XP when booting from the Vista drive.

Next was to see the second install of 7 on the third drive by itself. XP can easily be added in there as well. Now try adding Vista into either 7 installation? Not so easy is it?
 
"U:\" is Easy's way of saying "I can't find it, you'll need to tell me"
Use change settings to change the two Us to G and H
 
Terry60 said:
"U:\" is Easy's way of saying "I can't find it, you'll need to tell me"
Use change settings to change the two Us to G and H
Click to expand...

You mean the "EasyBCD correction policy" don't you? :brows:





You'll notice that the first 7 installation(dual boot with XP) needed one more thing since changing the association to C to H would see the second copy of 7 set as default along with no longer seeing the first 7 load. How to correct an oddity like that?



Don't worry if anything got trasjed I would simply have to use a live recovery method of some type. There's nothing like seeing a live distro installed onto a 16 flash stick along with a 10gb NTFS recovery partition. :grinning:

 
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Sorry, I don't mean to revive this thread but I wanna know if this is indeed possible? And if so, can someone put up a guide on how to do so? :grinning:

My friend set up my multiboot pc years ago, and I recently am trying to educate myself by searching online, that's how I found this forum! So my apologies if I say something wrong, etc. Basically I have Ubuntu/XP/Vista multiboot pc and when it boots up it goes to the grub menu (Ubuntu 8.10) and then shows the Vista boot menu which will lead me to choose either XP or Vista.

I want to install Win 7 on an unallocated partition (can I do this when I'm in Vista?) and then have it shown in the Vista boot menu... How can I do this? I downloaded the easyBCD but I havent tried it yet...

ANd lastly is it safe? I really dont wanna lose anything cuz all 3 OS are working fine :grinning: Thanks in advance!

PS: I just want to add I only have 1 physical drive with 4 partitions (1 partition is unallocated, the rest for each OS)
 
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jubster said:
Sorry, I don't mean to revive this thread but I wanna know if this is indeed possible? And if so, can someone put up a guide on how to do so? :grinning:

My friend set up my multiboot pc years ago, and I recently am trying to educate myself by searching online, that's how I found this forum! So my apologies if I say something wrong, etc. Basically I have Ubuntu/XP/Vista multiboot pc and when it boots up it goes to the grub menu (Ubuntu 8.10) and then shows the Vista boot menu which will lead me to choose either XP or Vista.

I want to install Win 7 on an unallocated partition (can I do this when I'm in Vista?) and then have it shown in the Vista boot menu... How can I do this? I downloaded the easyBCD but I havent tried it yet...

ANd lastly is it safe? I really dont wanna lose anything cuz all 3 OS are working fine :grinning: Thanks in advance!

PS: I just want to add I only have 1 physical drive with 4 partitions (1 partition is unallocated, the rest for each OS)
Click to expand...
Yeah, just boot from the Win 7 installation CD (by putting the CD-ROM drive first in the boot order of the devices in the BIOS), make sure to select the unformatted (raw) partition as where you want to install it, and then let it do its thing. Note that the Win 7 bootloader will overwrite Grub, and you will no longer have access to Ubuntu immediately after installation, though Win 7's installer should put a boot option for Vista and XP in the BCD which should give you a boot menu at startup to choose between Win 7, Vista, and XP to boot into. Select Win 7, press Enter, and once you're at the desktop, install EasyBCD (you'll want to have the installer placed somewhere you can access from Win 7), and then go to the "Add New Entry" section (or whatever CG is calling it these days) of EasyBCD, select the Linux tab, and add an entry for Ubuntu (selecting Grub or Grub 2, as appropriate for whatever version you have in Ubuntu). AFAIK, with the latest version of EasyBCD, you do not need to manually point the entry at the Ubuntu partition. So just add it, then reboot, and you should see an option for Ubuntu (with whatever name you gave it in EasyBCD). Select it, and you should be able to boot into Ubuntu.

Report back if you have any problems with that, and we'll give further assistance if necessary.

Cheers. :smile:

-Coolname007
 
Sorry for the delay, I was busy doin homework but I finally installed Windows 7 and followed the instructions on adding the linux entry via easyBCD. Unfortunately, it wouldnt boot to Ubuntu when I chose grub/grub2/neogrub/ pointing to the right linux partition and/or set automatically. It basically would just go back to the Windows boot menu or it will just give me a grub prompt. Any ideas on how to fix this?

If not, I might as well just install the newer version of Ubuntu lol.. So if I do this, it's prolly easier, right? Just install grub during the setup and it will still give me the options to the Windows boot menu. Prolly easier that way
 
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