Dual boot XP+7 - tried everything already!

zico

Member
First off, let me start saying I'm sorry for yet another Dual Boot thread, I know there are lots. I've went through several trying possible solutions posted by everyone but to no avail.

I bought a new computer with two hardrives, so I planned to install XP and 7 and dual boot. I'm pretty windows savvy so I knew it was best to first install XP and then 7, since XP would brick (but could be fixed) the Windows 7 boot.

So I installed XP on one of my HDs, left everything working good and then installed 7 on my other HD.

After booting up 7 it correctly recognized I had XP already installed and gave me the 'Earlier Version of Windows' in the dual boot window after POST. Great.

This is where the problem starts, when I select to boot from XP, I get a blank screen and the computer restarts. W7 works fine.

Read SEVERAL sites about it (including the wiki here at neosmart) and tried several things already but just can't get this bastard to work.

1. Tried adding XP entry through EasyBCD, but get the same results.
2. Tried messing around with boot.ini, tried SEVERAL rdisk/multi/disk/partition combinations to no avail. I get either 'missing ntoskrnel.exe' and 'hardware configuration problem' messages (maybe didn't get the right combination yet, but it's tough to get it right)
3. Tried booting from W7 DVD but instead of it giving me the 'Repair Computer' option, it does not recognize there is a windows already installed and just acts like it's a fresh install (which gets me wondering why it's not recognizing)
4. Tried also pressing F8 with the WIndows 7 option selected at dual boot and selecting 'Repair Computer', I'm able to get to the same menu I would if I used option #3 above, and selected Repair Startup (something like that) but it says something like 'a new peripheral was added to the system, please restart' (can't remember exactly). Which also gets me wondering why the heck it's happening.

My XP hd has the necessary boot files in it (ntlr etc) since it was booting fine before I installed W7.

Any ideas?!
 
Please post a Disk Management screenshot and paste the contents of EasyBCD "view settings" (detailed mode).
Instructions, if needed, in the sticky
 
Attached!

[Edit] XP (D: ) is Disk 0 and W7 (C: ) is Disk 1, although I don't think this matter since while booting it could be recognized differently?

2.PNG

EasyBCD:

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device partition=D:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {9612b90e-5253-11e0-a8f6-8c6a39c42f58}
resumeobject {9612b90d-5253-11e0-a8f6-8c6a39c42f58}
displayorder {466f5a88-0af2-4f76-9038-095b170dc21c}
{9612b90e-5253-11e0-a8f6-8c6a39c42f58}
{9612b917-5253-11e0-a8f6-8c6a39c42f58}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 10

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {466f5a88-0af2-4f76-9038-095b170dc21c}
device partition=D:
path \ntldr
description Earlier Version of Windows
locale en-US

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {9612b90e-5253-11e0-a8f6-8c6a39c42f58}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
recoverysequence {9612b90f-5253-11e0-a8f6-8c6a39c42f58}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {9612b90d-5253-11e0-a8f6-8c6a39c42f58}
nx OptIn

Real-mode Boot Sector
---------------------
identifier {9612b917-5253-11e0-a8f6-8c6a39c42f58}
device partition=D:
path \NST\ntldr
description Microsoft Windows XP
 
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It's fairly new. It's SP3. I manually added the AHCI drivers through nLite to it since my mobo defaults to AHCI. It was working fine before.

Seems like something just borked along the way.

I'm afraid of reinstalling XP and then not being able to go back to W7 (who knows, if it borks again I'm screwed)..

I appreciate the help anyways. :smile:
 
A repair install of Windows XP is pretty safe. It'll keep your data intact, and when you're done going back to a dual-boot with 7 is as easy as pressing a single button in EasyBCD.
 
No luck.

Re-installed XP and went into it. Installed EBCD but it`s just not working.

When I first launched EBCD I got an error message saying that no BCD was found and if I wanted to load it manually (don`t remember the message exactly).

I selected No and tried:

1. Re-writing Vista/7 MBR, nothing changed, it boots directly into XP
2. Reset BCD Config and then manally adding XP+7, same as #1
3. Re-create/repair boot files gives me an error message saying my OS is not supported and only Vista, 7 or Windows 2008 are.

Any ideas? Now I`m bootlocked on XP. haha
 
i tried. but the funny thing is that when i boot from the dvd, instead of windows realizing it`s already installed and giving me the `repair computer` option, it thinks there`s no windows installed and goes straight to the page to select which HD i want to install windows on.

i don`t know why that happens.

this should be easy, dunno what`s up with my system..

Addendum:

Finally, victory. :lol:

Recovered W7 through the Vista Recovery Disk available here (strange that my windows DVD didn't work). Then added XP manually through EBCD and got dual booting working.

Thanks folks for all the inputs :brows:
 
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