Dual Booting Problem with Windows XP

[vijubansal]

I have installed Windows 7 on C:. I have another blank drive E which I formatted after installing Windows 7. Now I want to install Windowx XP on E:.

On installing Windows XP, selecting drive E:,it shows uncompatiable disk. can not perform.

Please help.

Thanks in advance.

Vijay Bansal

 

[Terry60]

Hi Vijay, welcome to NST.
The XP setup program, on the screeen where you are trying to allocate the space to install the OS, should have a "format" button, which will take you to another screen where you can let XP format the space itself.
Disconnect W7 temporarily while you install XP from the booted XP CD, otherwise XP will regress the W7 boot process.
Reconnect W7 as first HDD in the BIOS boot sequence after the XP install has finished, Install EasyBCD 2.0 latest build on W7 and use it to add an XP entry to the W7 BCD. Accept the offer to auto-configure XP and don't change anything.

 

[vijubansal]

Sir,
Thanks, I have only one hard disk wherein 4 partition where Windows 7 has installed on “C” drive and blank “E” drive has been formatted while working in Windows 7.
For installation of Windows XP, on booting from Windows XP Installation CD and selecting the “E” drive which is empty showing the error of “uncompatible disk”.
I cannot disconnect the Windows 7. Can you please tell me how to disconnect the Windows 7.
VJ Bansal

 

[Terry60]

Sorry Vijay, I interpreted your "another blank drive" as meaning a second HDD not a partition.
Obviously you can't remove it in that case.
You will need to repair the W7 boot by booting the DVD and running "repair your computer " / "startup repair" 3 times after you've succeeded in getting XP installed.
This always happens if you install an older windows after a newer version. The install process is designed to be backwards compatible and MS expects you to be installing a new system after an older.
How did you format the E: partition ?
Go into W7 disk management, and delete the empty E: partition, leaving the space empty and unformatted and try the XP install again.

 

[vijubansal]

Sir,
I have install windows 7 by having setup files in another partition. I have no such DVD of Windows 7.
I format the drive "E" by just selecting the drive and right click nd use the format button.
I will try this feature.

Vj Bansal

 

[SIW2]

Hi vijubansal,

You can create a 7 "recovery" cd with all the repair functions.

Type recdisc into start search box. When it pops up, right click and Run as admin.



Put a blank recordable cd in the drive then click "Create Disc".

 

[JustinW]

recdisc is still present on my sp2 machine, but apparently MS decided to disable this in the sp1 final for Vista (it was a tool introduced in sp1 beta).

Addendum:

Ok they didnt disable it (or at least I don't think they did). Versions later than the build shipped with SP1 beta are corrupted. You can get the SP1 beta versions for recdisk.exe here.