br1anstorm
Active Member
I am already using EasyBCD successfully on my current laptop. It had Win7 installed from new. After partitioning the drive appropriately, I installed Linux Mint..... Linux Lite..... and PCLinuxOS each into separate partitions, with each Linux OS's "grub" installed in the same partition as its' parent OS. Thanks to EasyBCD I have a multi-boot system which works well.
I would now like to try setting up dual-boot on an old laptop which has Windows XP installed.
I know that it's possible, using EasyBCD, to add XP as dual boot into a computer which is already running Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10. EasyBCD works well with the 'new' Win7 and later bootloader (bootmgr).
My question is: does EasyBCD work satisfactorily with the 'old' Windows XP bootloader/MBR ..... which I understand is different from the more recent Windows OS bootloaders?
Ideally I would like to have EasyBCD on my WinXP laptop, install Linux Mint (with its Grub) on its own separate partition, and then use EasyBCD to boot up into either the original XP, or into Mint. But searching online forums suggests that this may not work: a post at dual booting issues - EasyBCD, WinXP, and Linux - [Solved] - Systems describes how someone tried this but ran into problems.
Any advice or comments would be welcome. Of course I am aware that I could install Mint alongside XP and allow the default arrangement whereby the Linux Mint Grub overwrites/replaces the Windows XP MBR. But I'd prefer to retain the MBR and use EasyBCD to boot into Linux Mint, if in fact that is a feasible option.
I would now like to try setting up dual-boot on an old laptop which has Windows XP installed.
I know that it's possible, using EasyBCD, to add XP as dual boot into a computer which is already running Windows 7, Windows 8 or Windows 10. EasyBCD works well with the 'new' Win7 and later bootloader (bootmgr).
My question is: does EasyBCD work satisfactorily with the 'old' Windows XP bootloader/MBR ..... which I understand is different from the more recent Windows OS bootloaders?
Ideally I would like to have EasyBCD on my WinXP laptop, install Linux Mint (with its Grub) on its own separate partition, and then use EasyBCD to boot up into either the original XP, or into Mint. But searching online forums suggests that this may not work: a post at dual booting issues - EasyBCD, WinXP, and Linux - [Solved] - Systems describes how someone tried this but ran into problems.
Any advice or comments would be welcome. Of course I am aware that I could install Mint alongside XP and allow the default arrangement whereby the Linux Mint Grub overwrites/replaces the Windows XP MBR. But I'd prefer to retain the MBR and use EasyBCD to boot into Linux Mint, if in fact that is a feasible option.