Win XP Pro & Win 7 dual boot; Error message when trying to install XP

pvcces

Member
Hi,

Thanks in advance for any help you can be!

We have an HP G56 that came with Win 7 preloaded. We are trying to get a dual boot setup, where, we have Win 7 and Win XP Pro. We need the Win XP to run two DOS based programs that our office uses.

We have already partitioned the hard drive, using Mini Tool Partition Wizard Home Edition.

When we look at the computer management drive display, it shows the additional space as drive F:, but it shows it first, then drive C: (which has the Win 7), then the recovery area.

When we put the Win XP disk in to the CD-ROM drive to boot from, it runs as if it is going to load and then gives us an error message.

We have now run CHKDSK /F and checked for viruses as the message said to do and haven't had any luck getting the Win XP to install.

We have an older Pentium III running these DOS programs now, but, would like to use a faster computer. The Pentium only has 512 MB RAM.

Any help will be appreciated.


Doreen Caffrey
 
How old is your copy of XP ?
anything before SP1 won't have SATA drivers included, which could explain why it cannot install on a new PC.
 
JT, thanks, but I have already read the Easy BCD instructions and troubleshooting and didn't find anything that would help.

Terry, I first tried two disks we have that have Win XP on them that are branded Dell. I just recently purchased a Win XP disk that has SP2 on it. I thought that the Dell disks were the problem, but, I get the error message anyway.


Doreen
 
XP never came with any SATA Drivers at all. Even when SP2 was released SATA Drives were not common. Even though they were more commonly used with SP3, they still were not included with the installer. So you will have to either slipstream your SATA Drivers onto a custom made XP disk or you will have to use IDE Mode to install XP.

Addendum


The main issue your going to come across, no driver support for anything earlier than Windows 7 on that machine.

Software driver downloads HP G56-100XX Notebook PC | HP® Support

So your efforts to run your 2 programs will fall short. As you wont get XP to dual boot properly on that machine without proper driver support. You are better off trying to use XP Mode that came with Windows 7 Pro, Enterprise or Ultimate, or use a VM.
 
My SP2 XP has full SATA support Mak, and when (several years ago) I stated here that I thought at least SP2 was needed, I was informed (by one of our German members iirc), that I was wrong, and that SATA support had been included with SP1, not SP2.

Doreen, If you can't get the SP2 copy to boot, is it a MS full retail version ?
What error message do you get when you try to boot it ?
Did you change the BIOS to bot from CD before HDD ?
 
None of my XP Disks, even those directly from Microsoft has had support for SATA. Yes support for SATA was added during SP1, but not the drivers. So in technical terms you could install to SATA,but since back then SATA wasnt widely used, drivers were not included. Which is why I suggested slipstreaming the drivers for SATA onto the disk yourself. I have had to do that since, well since I first got a SATA HDD. I used NLite to do it and create a custom install disk that had the drivers I needed.
Even if I stuck in my XP SP3 disk right now, it would not show my drives at all cause they are SATA. I would have to enable IDE mode in order for them to be used.

This is the exact guide I used back in the day:

How to Install XP on a SATA HD | eHow

Maybe you were lucky and the generic drivers used were supported, but on both my Dell and my current BioStar Mobo the SATA drivers were not available and I had to add them manually.
 
If it would help I could provide you with a download link an XP SP3 ISO disk image which you could burn to CD, that might get around this driver problem, what do you think Alex? I store some of my disk images in the Cloud. I've need to know if it's the Home or Professional version and will only do this by Private Message, not in this thread. You would also need your own key to activate it of course.

BTW in my BIOS IDE & SATA are one and the same setting - same controllers, RAID being the other one along with AHCI, and I've never had issues installing anything.
 
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You set me doubting myself Mak.
When I installed XP on this machine, it was nearly six years ago and I did have an IDE drive as well as a SATA, so I wondered whether that's where and why XP installed without fuss.
As it happens a simple trawl through my forum attachments from that time would have revealed the truth
https://neosmart.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=641&d=1233368040
but I didn't think of that till I started typing this post.
What I did do when I got up this morning, was to pop the XP CD in the tray before powering up, just to see what a vanilla SP2 disc would do on a (now) all SATA PC.
I've edited the images into one for simplicity to enlarge the scrolling window at the bottom, but as you can see, it's perfectly happy to see and to potentially use all of my 500Gb, 1Tb and 2Tb SATA disks.
My mobo is an ASUS M2N-E SLI with AMD processor and GPU.
2013-08-26-0316e.jpg
 
Here are some pictures.

The disk says Microsoft Windows XP Professional, includes service pack 2, Version 2002, copyright 2004 Microsoft Corporation.
 

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Doreen, I see from your first screenshot that you appear to be trying to install XP by overriding the BIOS boot sequence and selecting CD by use of F9.
That won't work.
You must do what I said in post #6.
Use F10 to enter BIOS setup, and change the boot sequence to CD before HDD in there.
The reason is because installing any Windows OS requires several automatic reboots during the installation. Each reboot must return to the CD or the PC will attempt to boot the half-installed OS from HDD, which will naturally fail.
If you've done it correctly, with the CD in the tray, the PC will power up with a message "press any key to boot from CD".
Hit a key and follow the normal installation process, then at subsequent automatic reboots you will see the "press any......" message again and again.
Ignore it on all subsequent appearances.
It's a very misleading message.
It's the CD producing that message, which shows that you have already booted it, and what it really means is "This is your installation disk speaking, would you like me to start installing the OS from the beginning ?"
That's why you say "yes" by pressing a key first time, but never again (or it would just start over from the beginning in an infinite installation loop)
The fact that you don't press the key makes it check on the current status of the install and it then detects the half-installed OS and carries on with whatever is needed next.
If you don't have the BIOS properly set, it won't return to the CD, won't therefore detect the half-installed status, and will simply try to boot the unbootable HDD, hence the blue screen.
 
Information to alleviate issues with XP and SATA and/or AHCI and/or IDE and/or RAID, as implemented on newer motherboards, and slipstreaming these drivers into XP I recommend the following instructions which will result in XP recognizing these BIOS selections and installing without a fuss: http://www.msfn.org/board/ scroll down to nLite and look for - Integration of Intel's SATA AHCI and RAID drivers - Page 59 - nLite - MSFN Forum.htm see posting #1470
 
Well, I finally had a chance to work on the computer. I changed the boot order through F10. Put the Win XP disc in the cd drive and started it up. I did get the message about booting from the cd, pressed enter once and still got the error message. The message looked like my picture #4.

Should I just call it quits?

Thanks Doreen
 
Did the install start and fail with that error later, or are you saying that it failed immediately you "pressed any..." ?
 
The failure occurred after the screen had loaded its files and said that it was starting windows.

I haven't had a chance to familiarize myself with the instructions in post #12.

Addendum

The link in post #12 returns to me as "domain not found"
 
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