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General discussion

Dual boot problem with win 7 and xp in different hard disk

Dec 8, 2009 9:42PM PST

Hallo,
I have two Hard Disk one 80GB and one 500GB. First one has 4 partitions and 2nd one has 5 partitions.
I have xp pro sp3 installed in 1st partition of 1st Hard Drive and Win 7 Ultimate RTM installed in 5th partition
of 2nd drive. The win7 was the default OS. Now due to some reasons I again install xp sp3 on the 1st partition of the 1st drive.
After that the dual booting option screen has disappeared. Also, I have lost windows 7 and cannot start it.
I have tried to edit boot.ini file but cannot insert the write line.The boot.ini file in xp is...

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Pls help me to edit the boot.ini file and insert the correct entry so that windows7 can be launched.
I have Intel dual core, 2 gb ram...
mrbarasat@gmail.com

Discussion is locked

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Re: dual boot.
Dec 8, 2009 9:56PM PST

It's somewhat doubtful if editing boot.ini would work. Windows 7 uses the boot sector of the primary hard disk, not boot.ini. So it could well be that you have to reinstall it.

But you can try to edit boot.ini and see what happens. If you tell why you can't we might be able to help you. Success, however, is far from guaranteed.

Kees

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Boot.ini is irrelevant here...
Dec 9, 2009 12:42AM PST

Windows XP was the last version of Windows to use the boot.ini file; Vista and 7 use the BCD store, which then defaults to boot.ini if you choose to launch a previous version of the OS. Just inert your Windows 7 DVD, choose the repair tools option from the bottom left corner after selecting your language/keyboard settings, and run Setup Repair. That will restore bootability of Windows 7 while leaving XP intact.

Hope this helps,
John

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Recommendation for Multiboot
Dec 11, 2009 8:33AM PST
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Dual boot problem with win 7 and xp in different hard disk
Nov 29, 2010 11:52AM PST

you can not boot windows 7 , because you re install your xp operating system , before sometime i have same problem , i try for many option , but i can not boot dual os with this problem , if you want solve this problem
you will format your both os in pc , then install first windows xp and then windows 7 (not from starting boot option , you will install w7 in windows xp ) i hope this option will be working.................

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Dual Boot
Nov 29, 2010 12:48PM PST

Mubarik is correct. You need to install XP first, then Win7. XP knows nothing about Win7, so the dual boot fails. Win7 does know about XP, so the dual boot sets up correctly.