Trying to Dual Boot Win 7

F

frying_pan_cat

Member
Hi

I have looked in the FAQ and other threads on here but I'm still a bit confused so apologies if the answer it obvious.

I am trying to dual boot Win 7 and XP. I had XP on partition E:\ when it was my main OS as I had another partition with all my data on and windows called that C:\. I can't seem to find the NTLDR or NTDETECT.COM on my XP partition and EasyBCD 1.7 and 2.0 both cannot find either of the files when I add XP so I have downloaded them from this site but am unsure where to put them. Do I just put them straight onto C:\ which is not my Win 7 partition or do they need to go in any folder to get XP to work properly?

Sorry for the noob question but I'm new to the Vista/7 bootloader and when I have done this before with just XP it seemed a lot simpler.

Thanks
 
You need to just put those file in the root of the boot drive. Not in any folder but just in the core of the drive. You can try C:\ first and see if that helps solve the issue, but depending on which drive your system is using to boot that may not be the right drive and you may have to add them to the Win7 Drive.
 
I have put the NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM straight in C:\ which is the Windows 7 partition so I assume this is the boot drive. I then let EasyBCD configure the boot.ini and restarted. The windows 7 option works fine but the XP option gives NTDETECT.COM failed. What have I done wrong?
 
If you can't see them, make sure you have folder options set like this.


Addendum:


You probably have a hidden W7 boot partition. (That's the default if you let W7 install to empty space).
Look in disk management at the partition flags and your boot files will all be in "system".
If it doesn't have a letter, you can give it one and it'll become visible in Explorer.
If you're using the latest build of EasyBCD 2.0, it should manage to locate and configure XP properly even with the secret invisible partition.
 
Last edited:
I have hidden files and folders showing and I have the NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM that I downloaded on my C drive. I'll have a look for the hidden boot partition and see if I can put the files there
 
Coolname007 said:
Chances are, if you used EasyBCD 2.0, the files are already in your hidden "system" partition. :wink:
Click to expand...
I did use EasyBCD 2.0 but it said it couldn't fine NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM. I'm guessing this is because they were in my old C:\ which has now been deleted to make way for Win 7 (I got a new drive for my docs) so I had to d/l a copy of them so will have to put them on the boot partition when I get a chance
 
frying_pan_cat said:
I did use EasyBCD 2.0 but it said it couldn't fine NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM. I'm guessing this is because they were in my old C:\ which has now been deleted to make way for Win 7 (I got a new drive for my docs) so I had to d/l a copy of them so will have to put them on the boot partition when I get a chance
Click to expand...
EasyBCD 2.0 does not copy over the files, if that's what you're thinking. It creates them. Did you use the latest beta build (63)? That is the only build as of yet that can create those files, and place them in the correct place (it can also cope with the hidden "system" partition that Win 7 creates when you tell the installer to install to free space). Just look in your Disk Management, and find the partition marked as both 'system' and 'active' (whichever partition that is). That is where NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, and BOOT.INI need to be in order to boot XP from the Win 7 bootloader.
 
Back
Top