XP/7 = 2 disks

R

roflcakes22

Member
Hi there,

I currently have Windows 7 x64 installed on my single sata disk. I have another disk spare and I want to install XP on this disk ... i think EasyBC will be ideal but which way should i do it:

1) add an entry in EasyBC, and then boot from my CD and install XP on to disk #2 or
2) remove my Win7 disk, install XP on disk #2, then put my win7 disk back in and boot up, then add the entry for XP in easybc

which way does it need to be done?

Thanks
 
Hi Rofl, welcome to NST
If you Install XP with W7 visible, your boot will be regressed to XPs and will need subsequent "startup repair" several times from W7.
Choose option 2. Make sure you use EasyBCD 2.0 latest build to add the XP entry and let it auto-configure the boot for you when it offers.
 
Your second plan of action is fine, however you'll need to either perform startup repair to get Windows 7 booting again or boot from Windows 7's drive. If you boot from Windows 7's drive, boot.ini well need to be modified, which can be done automatically with the latest beta build of EasyBCD when you add an entry to boot XP from Windows 7's bootloader.
 
Success!!! .... Thought i'd share my dealings with what I did to get 7 and XP booting together on 2 different disks:

1) Unplugged my Windows7 disk
2) Put in spare 80gb disk, changed HDD priority in BIOS, and installed Windows XP x64 on it
3) Put my Windows 7 disk back in and changed HDD priority in BIOS back to my Windows 7 disk
4) Booted up to Windows 7, loaded EasyBC, added an entry for Windows XP
5) Went in to Change Settings > Entry Based Settings > and change the disk from C: to F: for Windows XP entry
6) Rebooted and walla!

Got a nice little menu that appears after BIOS screen asking for Windows 7 or Windows XP x64 and both work like a charm! Also changed the boot time wait from 30 secs to 5 secs.

I also installed iReboot so I can now reboot to 7 or XP from the tray icon!

I bloody love this program! Kudos to all!

** happy man **

Addendum:

Oh, and for all those that were wondering why I did this, it's because despite many work-around attempts, I cannot get COD4 or PunkBuster to be precise to work under Windows 7 at the moment and I play a lot of clan matches ... now when I want to play I just reboot in to XP and off I go ... it's just a fresh install of XP SP2 x64 with COD4 / Ventrilo installed with some freebie AV suite ... runs rather quick on an Quad Core 3Ghz with 4GB ram lol ...
 
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You shouldn't have changed the XP entry. It's supposed to point to the "system" partition (W7), where the auto-configure put copies of the XP boot files. You now have a hybrid split XP boot, partly in one place and partly another. Why did you change it ? The auto-configure puts everything in the right place.
Read the wiki on the subject. Did you actually change it (did you hit the right "save" button) ? Does it show C or F in display settings of EasyBCD ?
 
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Well,

When I added the XP entry and rebooted and chose Windows XP from the boot menu, it said there was a problem with NTLDR ... when I changed it to F: it works great ... I can boot in to Win7 or WinXP and it works fine and so does iReboot :smile:
 
Did you let it auto-configure XP for you when it offered, and are you using the latest build ?
 
Yes I let it auto-configure it for me, but it still didnt work ... i'm using 2.0.0.63 which i think is the latest build ... anyway, the way i've done it is working fine and isnt causing any problems thus far ... i love been able to rebooting in to XP automatically which i've set COD4 to auto load .... so when i'm in Windows 7, i click iReboot, select XP, go and make a coffee or get a beer, i return to the PC a minute later, and COD4 is sat on the screen waiting for me to join my favourite server ...

Result!
 
Can you post a disk management screenshot when you have a moment, so we can see why the auto configure didn't work.
 
Sure thing, I have attached a screenshot to this post ...

Disk 0 is my 60GB SSD which is my Windows 7 disk
Disk 1 is the 250gb disk which I have Windows XP installed
Disk 2 is my 1TB storage disk ...

Hope that helps!
 

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OK. I see you let W7 do its own thing when you Installed it and so you've ended up with the unlettered "secret" boot partition, which is where all the Windows boot files are.
Build 63 is supposed to cope with the incognito location, but I've no practical experience of how it does so. My W7 is integrated (and I use a custom HnS to boot everything), so I've not seen how it copes.

Note to CG You might want to take a look at this thread.
Is the fact that the boot drive is SSD a factor in the failure to auto-configure

Rofl, a separate issue. You are aware that XP is destroying your W7 restore points and backups every time you boot it ? Try this hack to protect W7 from XP, boot W7, create a restore point, boot XP again, then boot W7 and check whether the point you created is still there.
The hack doesn't work for everyone, in which case you might want to use the previously mentioned HnS, (though it's not compatible with iReboot)
 
Probably not Terry. I know CGs added support for multiple entries, but I don't think the auto-configure thing has been proven on a machine with multiple disks. Maybe next build?...
 
Terry60 said:
Rofl, a separate issue. You are aware that XP is destroying your W7 restore points and backups every time you boot it ?
Click to expand...

I'm not stupid enough to rely on Windows to do my backups & restores thank you ... my machine incrementally backs itself up at 3am to an external NAS using Acronis
 
Nothing wrong with system restore Rofl, (it's saved my *ss on a number of occasions) though I agree that MS backup is a bit clunky and not very usable if you're just wanting to recover one file you messed up, but I'd never rely on a full system image as my backup either, if that's what you're doing.
I use a 3rd party freeware app to mirror my user data every day at shutdown, and system restore to backout any bad consequences of newly installed software. It will regress the system files and any new apps without touching your user data.
Using an image from yesterday to back level the whole system means irretrievably losing all the work you've done today and all your received mail. To me that's even more important than protecting the OS.
If you're not bothered about restore points, I trust you've turned off system restore and shadow copies, otherwise you're suffering a processor and HDD space penalty for no reason.
 
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There's a known issue with the autoconfigure feature (it's the same as the bug that makes the Linux tab hang or crash) but I haven't been able to pin it down because I cannot get it to reproduce on my machine... SSDs go through a compatibility layer in their own BIOS/Firmware that makes them appear exactly as normal ATA devices to the motherboard and its BIOS - so that's not a factor.
 
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