Triple Boot Win7, XP and XP

S

shedrock

Guest
My current configuration is Windows 7 and I have a dual boot setup for WinXP. They are both on seperated Hard drives. What I would like to know is if I can do another install of XP on the HD that has XP already installed on it, and would it be able to recognize the drive as "C" as with my current XP installation.

Here is my HD layout:
1255889277.jpg

Thanks in advance.
Shedrock
 
XP won't install as C: if it can see another Windows on the same HDD.
You could try hiding the first XP with a partition manager before installing the second (and disconnect the other HDD), if you want to try forcing 2 XPs to be both C:\.
 
Yeah, all you have to do is get a copy of Gparted, which is completely free (downloadable from this link), and use it to hide the first XP's partition so the install program wont see it when you install the second XP. You should probably also set the "active" flag to the new XP's partition first, before the install, too. And then, once the install of the second XP is finished, simply plug the other HDD again, so Win 7 is in control, and then use EasyBCD 2.0 Beta to add an XP entry to the Win 7 boot menu (or, on second thought, since there will probably already be one, since you have an XP installed, just delete the current one and create a new one). Doing this will run EasyBCD's auto-configurator for boot.ini which will add the second entry to your boot.ini file, to boot the second XP. And then your boot menu will look something like this:

Win 7
Win XP

and when you select the Win XP entry, and press Enter, you will see another menu with two XP entries. Select the first to boot into the first XP, or select the second to boot into the second XP.

Good luck. :wink:
 
I am assuming that I have to run Gparted from my current XP install. Would that be correct?

I am a bit lost with GParted. I can't actually find an executable file in the package.

Addendum:

So let me see if I got this right:

Step 1 - Disconnect the Win7 HD.
Step 2 - Create a Partition I want to use for the 2nd XP.
Step 3 - Boot with the GParted CD.
Step 4 - Hide the 1st XP partition.
Step 5 - Set the new partition to "Active".
Step 6 - Install the new XP.
Step 7 - Plug the Win7 HD back in.
Step 8 - Run EasyBCD 2.0 Beta to "Delete" the 1st XP entry from the boot menu???
Step 9 - Create a new XP entry with EasyBCD Beta and this will create (2) new XP entries?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Addendum:

So let me see if I got this right:

Step 1 - Disconnect the Win7 HD.
Step 2 - Create a Partition I want to use for the 2nd XP.
Step 3 - Boot with the GParted CD.
Step 4 - Hide the 1st XP partition.
Step 5 - Set the new partition to "Active".
Step 6 - Install the new XP.
Step 7 - Plug the Win7 HD back in.
Step 8 - Run EasyBCD 2.0 Beta to "Delete" the 1st XP entry from the boot menu???
Step 9 - Create a new XP entry with EasyBCD Beta and this will create (2) new XP entries?
Well, I would do it more like this:

Step 1 - Boot into Win 7.
Step 2 - Create a Partition you want to use for the 2nd XP, and set the new partition to "Active" (from Win 7's Disk Management).
Step 3 - Disconnect the Win7 HD (obviously after shutting down the computer!).
Step 4 - Boot with the GParted CD.
Step 5 - Hide the 1st XP partition.
Step 6 - Install the new XP.
Step 7 - Plug the Win7 HD back in.
Step 8 - Run EasyBCD 2.0 Beta to "Delete" the 1st XP entry from the boot menu.
Step 9 - Create a new XP entry with EasyBCD Beta and this creates 1 BCD XP entry, but creates an extra entry in your XP boot.ini file, so you will have 2 XP entries in your boot.ini (which makes you see the second menu I mentioned before).
 
Last edited:
Thank you so much guys. You guys are simply awesome with your knowledge and assistance.

I managed to make a small PayPal contribution and I hope it helps.

I'll let you know if all went well once I am done.

Thanks again
Shedrock
 
Well, I am happy to report that it all went well and it seems to be working just fine.

Thanks again
Shedrock
 
Back
Top