Installed XP after 7 on different Drive - XP installs programs on WIN7 drive

H

hainfelder

Member
Hi there,

i read the tutorials for installing XP after 7 ...

then installed XP ...

WIN7 is on my SSD Disk 0 / partition 1 60GB (only one partition)

XP is on HDD Disk 1/ Partition 1 60GB NTFS primary partition (after that three partitions on logical disk)

as foretold, XP did overwrite the old EasyBCD on the WIN7 drive, after booting in XP, repaired the bootloader with EasyBCD ...

everything looked fine:
BUT:

i installed a Software on XP --> it did show up on the WIN7 drive - also when booting into XP it shows the WIN7 drive as drive C: system drive. The XP drive is shown as drive G:

The XP drive has all Windows files on it,
but no boot.ini, no NTDETECT, no ntldr, nor the NST-Folder - they are all on WIN7 drive.

What to do now?

in some tutorial i read that i should not disconnect my WIN7 drive for installing XP, which was my first idea for the moment ...
 
Vista/7/8 will install as "C" if you boot the setup DVD, or the next available letter if you run setup from another running copy of Windows.
XP will install as "C" if it's the only OS (or if it thinks it is, i.e. you install it to the "active" partition)
If you install XP, even from the booted CD, and another partition is "active" and contains a copy of Windows, XP will choose the next available letter on that other system.
When you install 3rd party software, it invariably defaults to installing on "C" even if that's another system.
You should not run an XP multi-boot with any of Vista/7/8 where XP can see any newer OS, because it will destroy any or all of their system restore points and backup shadow copies.
Uninstall the 3rd party software (from XP) so that it gets removed from the SSD
Run this registry hack on XP
System Restore Points - Stop XP Dual Boot Delete
Boot W7, set a restore point with a name you'll recognize.
Boot XP
Boot W7 again and check that the restore point is OK
Boot XP again and reinstall your software

XP will continue to run as "G" for the rest of its life, which is not a problem (as long as there's no "C").

Alternatively
Uninstall the software from XP
disconnect the SSD
Reinstall XP as "C" (on the "active" partition of the HDD)
Reconnect the SSD and put it above the HDD in the BIOS boot sequence
Boot W7, delete the XP entry from the BCD and add it again (auto configure)
You'll now have a dual boot with each system being C when booted.
Don't forget to hack XP to "offline" W7 on whatever letter it now sees it on, then check that both systems restore points are functioning properly before you start installing software on XP.

(The "don't disconnect" warning in the tutorial is because it's very old and dates to EasyBCD V1, which did not have the capability to auto-configure XP. In those days multiple XP files had to be manually copied and/or edited and required a degree of research and a fair knowledge of the XP boot process for success. In those days 90%+ of the support in these forums was dedicated to that single problem and the author felt that removing one variable would help. Since V2 it's no problem for EasyBCD to locate and configure XP(s) so feel free to install in any way that suits you. My personal preference is always to install every OS to an "active" space so that it creates an independent OS complete with its own boot files, then subsequently configure the multi-booting.)
 
Last edited:
thx a lot for this comprehensive guide - couldn´t be better.

I chose version A

C: is now "hidden" ... programs do install on "G" - which is "R" when XP is started
 
Back
Top