How to restore Win7 with XP loaded

Docfxit

Distinguished Member
I had on one hard drive when booted into Win7
Partition 1 Win7 security partition F:
Partition 2 Win7 OS C:
Partition 3 XP D:

I couldn't get XP to run. I backed up & removed partition 1 and 2. Re-restored XP and it's running now.

Currently I have XP on partition 1.

I'd like to restore Win7 security partition and Win7 OS.

Should I move XP and restore the security partition to partition 1 & Win7 OS to partition 2
or should I have the partitions in a different order?

When I restore Win7 will it figure out what drive letter it's supposed to be?

What precautions should I take?

Thanks,

Docfxit
 
It works best and without any intervention usually if you always install the oldest system on the first partition, then follow with the later OS's and I find that if I run the installations of those higher systems from the first one, C: in my case, then the drive letter changing problem is eliminated as Windows keeps the drive letters in order. However, it appears that you have the drive letters out of order to start with.
If Win 7 is already installed but wont boot simply insert the Win 7 DVD and run a startup repair.
I had a similar problem when I couldn't boot between Vista and Win 7 and the solution was ...

Boot from W7 DVD > Repair computer > Command Prompt. Say bootmgr is on C:

ren c:\bootmgr bootmgr.old
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
exit

Now try startup repair 2-3 times to rcreate the boot files.

Make sure you get drive letters right.
 
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So you're saying I should:

Leave XP in partition 1.
Restore the Win7 security partition as partition 2.
Restore the Win7 OS as partition 3.
And go through your suggested steps?

Thanks,

Docfxit
 
Well that was a good try but it messed up everything.

Just to clarify for the next person I needed to add some commands to make this work:

Boot from W7 DVD > Repair computer > Command Prompt. Say bootmgr is on C:

attrib bootmgr -r -h -s
attrib c:\boot\bcd -h -s
ren c:\bootmgr bootmgr.old
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
exit

Now try startup repair 2-3 times to rcreate the boot files.

After that when I booted to the hard drive with the Win7 partition active I got:
Invalid partition table

Then I got:
Windows cannot repair this computer automatically

So I couldn't repair Win7. The next thing I did was remove the Win7 security partition and Win7 OS partition. I made XP active.

Now when I try to boot I get a stop error 0xc000000e

To fix that, I booted up my XP CD
I chose Repair console
I entered:
Copy d:\i386\ntldr C:
Copy d:\i386\ntdetect.com C:
Fixboot
Y

Then I was back to where I started with XP booting up correctly.
 
Sorry - I was going on memory and some very old stuff I found. Hope all is OK, if not some of the others will hopefully chime in here.

If you've got only XP now then install Win7 from the XP partition to preserve drive letters.
 
Okay well let me ask this now. How did you make a backup so that you can restore it? Was it an Image using something like Acronis or Norton Ghost? Cause if that is the case you will have to go back to your original setup.

Win7 Security
Win7
XP

We will then have to just fix the XP boot.
 
Yes. I did an image backup. After I restored the three partitions in the exact same order I tried to fix it. I couldn't. I was able to boot into XP. After I booted it wanted to do a Windows Install. I couldn't get the install to finish or cancel.

Thanks,

Docfxit

Addendum:

Right now I'm trying a different approach. I started with a clean drive. I did a restore from the Lenovo CD's. They wipe everything out on the drive and install Win7 Professional. Now before Win7 is booted up the first time I'm trying to move the three partitions that Lenovo makes to make room for XP as the first partition. I'm thinking maybe I can then restore XP to the first partition and hopefully take up a drive letter. They I will boot into Win7 and see if it's smart to assign the correct drive letters on it's first boot.

The only question I have is should I install EasyBCD onto the first partition (XP) or Win7 because it's a later OS?

Thanks,

Docfxit
 
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Okay you did an Image Backup but with what software? There are at least 4 different ones that I know of and all 4 of them operate differently. So we need to know what it Acronis True Image, Norton Ghost, FOG or CloneZilla.

The problem here is simple. The Win7 that was on C:\ contains the boot info for your Win7 setup. Your XP Images contains the boot info for that to boot properly. So to put it simply, what you want will not be accomplished. At some point you are going to have to install XP fresh or Win7 fresh to get a workable multiboot. You are not going to be able to use 2 different setups with multiple MBR and have it work. It just wont happen. As it stands right now if you move Win7, you will cause it to not be able to boot. It is installed and known to be the first partition on the drive. So when you move it to put XP before it, you will cause Win7 to not be able to boot anymore.

So you have 2 options.

1. put your XP Image on there and have that as a working boot and install Win7 fresh.
2. Leave your Win7 Image on there and install XP afterwards.

There is not going to be anyway you are going to be able to use your Images and have it work out.
 
Thanks for the reply... I did the image backup with Macrium Reflect. XP is old and has over 300 programs installed so I can't install that fresh. Win7 is a Lenovo restore disk that wipes out anything on the drive during the install. So according to what you are saying there is no way to get these to dual boot. It sounds like I need to find a way to restore XP on a partition after Win7 and fix the boot up files/links. Thanks, Docfxit
 
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