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General discussion

Dualboot Win XP woth Win7 boot menu

Jul 1, 2010 10:52PM PDT

Hi guys,
I just finished installing Win XP and Win 7 on 2 separate HDDs. Is there any way I can dual-boot them without using a third party program like EasyBCD? I know Win 7 would have taken over XP if they were installed on the same HDD.

Here is the bcdedit on my Win 7
-------------------------------
Windows Boot Manager
Identifier: {bootmgr}
device: partition=\Device\HarddiskVolume1
------
Windows Boot Loader
identifier: {current}
device: partition=C:
path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description" Windows 7
osdevice: partition=C:
systemroot: \Windows
nx: Optin
-------------------------------

Thanks a lot for your help.
Rafik

Discussion is locked

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Ideas.
Jul 2, 2010 2:22AM PDT
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Dual Boot Windows 7 & Windows XP
Jul 2, 2010 5:32PM PDT

A) Partition Your Hard Drive
Before you go installing Windows 7, the first thing you need to do is create a new partition on your hard drive to hold the new installation of Windows.

To partition your hard drive in Windows XP, you'll need to download some sort of third-party partitioning software. I suggest GParted Live CD, a free, open source boot CD that can handle all kinds of partitioning duties. Download it from here http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php
Burn it to a CD, then reboot your computer from the newly created Gparted CD.

Procedure:
1) Resize your current Windows XP OS drive to free up enough space for a Windows 7 partition (the minimum system requirements ask for 16GB you can go as high as you require but not taking too much from WinXP drive).
2) Create a new partition from the newly freed space.
3) Apply your changes.
4) Reformat the drive where you install Windows 7 (you may do it later)

B) Now install Windows 7 in your newly created partition. (partition from Windows XP drive)

Note: if you don't remove your previously installed Windows 7 you will have 3 OS, 2-Windows 7 & 1-Windows XP.

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Dual boot
Jul 2, 2010 6:52PM PDT

Hi,
Thanks for your response. If you have read my post, I said on two separate hard drives. XP on one HDD and Win 7 on the other HDD. I don't need to partition the HDD if they are installed on separate HDDs.

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Dual Boot
Jul 2, 2010 8:27PM PDT

I am using 2 OS but both Windows 7 (32 & 64 bit) on different HDD and I have dual boot options. I tried this for Win 7 & Win XP but no dual boot, I can log-in to different OS by setting the HDD boot priority in BIOS setup. I read about how to get around it in Microsoft website, the procedure is for Windows Vista but also applicable for Windows 7. Click this link: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529