Dual Boot Your Pre-Installed Windows 7 Computer with XP

So you got your shiny new pre-installed Windows 7 computer over the holidays, but you want to have trusty XP standing by in a dual boot setup. Today well walk through creating a new partition in Windows 7 then installing XP on it. In this process we are going to shrink some free space on the Windows 7 hard drive to allocate toward a new partition. Make sure to take a moment and decide how much space to use for the XP partition. Make sure you have enough space on your hard drive for files youll be adding to each. Create a New Partition The first thing we need to do is create a new partition on the Windows 7 machine. Luckily we can do it without any 3rd party software. To begin, click on Start and type either partition ordisk management into the search box and at the top of the menu click on Create and format hard disk partitions.

The Disk Management window opens, and from here we need to free up space on the (C:) drive Windows 7 is installed on. Right-click on the drive and select Shrink Volume.

A window pops up showing the drive is being queried for available space.

Now enter the amount of space you want to shrink the volume. Youre shown the total size of the disk and the amount of size that is available to shrink. In this example were freeing up 40GB of space.

After the process completes youll see the new Unallocated space. Rightclick that and selectNew Simple Volume.

The New Simple Volume Wizard launches which is a straight forward process. When you get to the Format Partition section, NTFS is selected by default as the file system and you can leave that as is. You might want to rename the Volume label something else like XP Partition so its easier to identify when installing XP. Also youll probably want to make sure to check Perform a Quick Format.

After the format is complete you will see the new volume as a healthy partition listed.

Now when you go into My Computer youll see the the new disk and notice that space has been taken away from the (C:) drive Windows 7 is installed on.

Install XP on the New Partition Now that you know how to create a new partition on your Windows 7 machine, its time to install XP on it. Here were installing XP Professional on the new partition. Boot from the XP installation disk and start the install process.

When it comes to choosing a partition, make sure you select the one you created using the steps above. In this example we made a 10GB partition for the XP install.

If the partition you created was already formatted as NTFS you can leave it, or you can choose the FAT file system if you want.

Basically you continue through as if you were doing a clean install on any hard drive.

Create Boot Loader Once installation of XP is successful you can now go through and install the latest Microsoft Updates and drivers. You will undoubtedly notice that the machine is booting directly into XP at this time. This is due to XP writing its bootloader over Windows 7s. To get both XP and Windows 7 as an option at the boot screen you can use the free utility EasyBCD 1.72 or their new 2.0 Beta.

VistaBootPRO 3.3 (free version) will still work too which you can download here. VistaBootPRO is now called DualBootPRO and is no longer free, its $9.95 for a single user license.

After getting the bootloader back you should see both XP and Windows 7 as options in the Windows Boot Manager.

Conclusion If you want to set a default OS on your dual boot system, check out The Geeks tutorial on how to set it up. To download the EasyBCD 2.0 Beta, youll need to register with the NeoSmart Technologies Forum first. If youre hesitant to try out Beta software, EasyBCD 1.7.2 is also free and will still work as well. Of course there are other ways of creating a dual boot system, but this is the method I have been using and its simple and effective. EasyBCD 2.0 Beta (Forum Registration Required)

A note about resizing volumes and 3rd Party Disk Defragmentation Software, such as Diskeeper, etc. While the Windows Disk Management tool requires the Virtual Disk Service to run if you want to view basic volume information, if you want to use the tool to resize your volumes you also need the Windows default Disk Defragmenter service running. This service is often switched off, or set to disabled, when 3rd Party Disk Defragmentation Software is installed. You can set the Windows default Disk Defragmenter service to Manual and it will start only as needed.

Good luck, Shane.

1. January 7, 2010 11:42 am

Cam
What if we wanted to use GRUB? Could one use GParted/Knoppix (or another LiveCD) to set that up?
2. January 7, 2010 1:42 pm

Energokinetic
I was waiting for a post like this because i have a question, already did this 2 months ago to dual boot Windows Vista and 7 but now i want to delete the partition of Windows Vista, should i just delete the volume of Vista from Disk management? I asked on the forums before but i didnt receive a clear answer.
3. January 7, 2010 7:41 pm

Kyle
Geek, Is it possible to do this same process to test a pc for errors in the hardware and/or software? Like lets say I want to test an antivirus without an effect I have been experiencing in the past (windows update not working and resulting in myself having to re-install the operating system).
4. January 8, 2010 12:38 am

GFGFHFGF
Dont be ridiculous. Who DUAL BOOTS? Use a Virtual machinemuch easier and convienient and better on your system.
5. January 8, 2010 10:22 am

TommyB
Inre: GFGFHFGF, I will probably have to DUAL BOOT because I tried to set up a VM using my HP recovery disks and since the VM creates its own motherboard, BIOS etc., XP wont install. I verified this thru HP. I did copy another XP from another machine with disk2vhd and it did install but of course wants to validate. Im afraid to try to validate it as I still will use XP on the other machine.
6. January 8, 2010 1:11 pm

Roi
@Energokinetic Yeah if you are sure you do not need anything off your Vista partition, you can just right click it and delete it. Then if you want to add that space to the Windows 7 partition, right click the Win7 partition and click Extend Partition. Then choose all the available space it gives you.
7. January 8, 2010 3:00 pm

MariJewel
Great! Thank you for posting this data. At least I know now how to dual boot a pre-installed Windows 7 computer with an XP operating system.

8. January 8, 2010 11:25 pm

anand singh
Ok, its nice and well good. Can you help in the way where the use of your BCD software is not in use. We have already virtualization in windows7 compatible with hardware existance so, there we can work in both xp and win7 eviornment. If we have dual booting then I want to shift my programs to win xp to win7 or win7 to winxp. Plz sort out.
9. January 9, 2010 9:47 am

alan
em i have a problem. i have installed xp but then when the computer restarts again it comes up with an error message Error loading operating system what can i do to fix this problem. any help is apreciated
10. January 10, 2010 9:18 pm

Rahul Thilakan
This is a super option for computer users. But if we 1st install older versions of Windows then install newer version there is no probes in the boot process. If any body want to install other OS like like Linux, Just make a 5GB free space then install this largest free space. Try it this is the better way.
11. January 17, 2010 6:01 pm

John P
Alan, I have read this is an issue if XP is installed after Win7. Have you found a solution ? This post seems a little easy compared to all others I have extensively read on dual booting. Apparrently you need XP on first then put Win7 on.
12. January 17, 2010 11:45 pm

John P
OK, have done it all, but not quite as simple and straight forward as that posted (although a good attempt). The trick is, if possible, install XP first ! If not, you have to be able to boot into Win7 before EasyBCD can be installed and executed. Try a restore from the Win7 cd, and you will have to restore 3 to 4 times before you can boot to Win7 from the HDD. Goodluck all.
13. February 5, 2010 11:00 am

Shanaka
Thanks,,,,good post After i created partition from windows 7 restart the pc and i had boot from Xp disk.but after setup is loading it displays blue screen with some problems.therefore i could not install Xp.anyone have idea?do you have any idea please e-mail me.(shanaka.divakera@yahoo.com) thnx
14. February 6, 2010 4:47 am

alan
in addition to my last post i have been told by someone else that i will need to install a bootloader before i put on my second operating system is this true or can i just install xp first then install 7 on my other partion then put in my bootloader
15. February 6, 2010 5:01 pm

John P
Hello Shanaka, did you create a partition from within Win7 to load XP onto before you booted up with XP CD for the install ? What problems were there om the blue screen ?
16. February 6, 2010 5:06 pm

John P
Hi Allen, you can restore whatever bootloader of the first operating system you installed by simply putting taht disk in and booting off it and doing a repair AFTER both operating systems have been installed. Mine is working fine and has no issues whatsoever. (I installed Win7 then XP) I have also now dual booted Windows Homeserver with XP, was a little more difficult, but is possible and works well.
17. February 7, 2010 6:29 pm

junus
I did follow througt the step beside, i have already an empty e partition while installing win7. I install the win-xp. The easy bcd could not run under win-xp, so i did restore the win-7 as John P above said. I run the easy bcd, and restore the bootloader but nothing happen, the boot process still does not give any dua boot

alternative. Any suggestions? Junus Supardi

18. February 7, 2010 11:18 pm

John P
I take it that now your system boots into Win 7 only junus ? If you correctly configured easybcd then the following should show First, youll need to right click on Computer and select Properties: Next, click Advanced System Settings Now click on the Settings button under Startup and Recovery And just select the operating system you want to use from the drop down menu. If its not there then XP is probably not seen in easybcd. In Easybcd, did you go to Add/Remove entries and add an entry Type Windows NT/2K/XP ? Add it and save. Then goto Change settings and change default OS (the default boot one) and timeout to wait. This timeout can be edited thru windows msconfig later if yu wanna change it. Goodluck and hope this helps.
19. February 10, 2010 6:12 am

Matt
Hi all, Im having a little difficulty getting XP to boot properly. I have followed all of the steps, and there is even an entry for it in EasyBCD (and in the location John P describes above). When I select it from the boot menu, however, it says it cant find the bootloader for XP, and suggests that I should put in the disk and restore it. Of course if I were to do that, it would mean my Windows 7 loader wouldnt work anymore, correct? Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?

Thanks, Matt
20. February 12, 2010 9:48 am

Louis
I have seen it addressed here but not a working answer. I have 7 installed and want to also have a dual boot capability for XP (as many of my old programs wont run on 64bit) I set up the partition and all is good. I use the XP boot cd and it inspects my system but I get the frozen blue error screen saying the system shut down to protect etc etc. From what Im reading, you can retro installcant install a lower version of the OS. Are there any work arounds for this problem? Many thanks in advance Louis
21. February 13, 2010 6:30 am

anton
I have a same problem as Louis. Thanks
22. February 15, 2010 8:36 am

taber big
well i had xp on disk0 already wch was master disk and installed win 7 on seperate disk1 wch was a slave. bt the real prob started when goin in bios and selecting boot device as disk1, the win7 os started scan disk cdrive where xp os was and truncated the whole drive wch was unusable and i could not retrive the data. luckily i lost only a few data as i had taken backup recently. so had to format the disk0 and install xp again. i deleted win 7 fm disk1 and installed win 98

wch was earlier. so any comments on where did i go wrong, becow i want to still install win7 and have dual boot with xp
23. March 2, 2010 2:28 pm

martin
dear sir i have windows 7 preinstalled with my new pc, i was happy before my old games wouldnt play on windows 7 then i heard about dual-booting with xp, so i could run my new pc for games on xp, anyway i created a partition in windows7 ready for my xp disk, so i boot from xp disk ,its all fine as setup is loading files, then setup is starting windows , suddenly a blue screen error stops the the xp disk in its tracks, im very worried please help and try to make it simple as im still a beginner
24. March 9, 2010 1:49 pm

Dane
I think i messed up for some reason, I can boot windows 7, but not XP. it just boots directly into windows 7. no os choices menu. HALP!
25. March 20, 2010 12:22 pm

Rplika
I still use xp, on my pc, microsoft doesnt support sp1 anymore so I think to use windows 7 now, but will have to change my pc to use new software
26. March 20, 2010 9:45 pm

Ric P

Hi Im running a Sony Vaio All-in-one computer with vista upgraded to Win 7,I also have a USB hard drive that has Windows XP on it. Can I run both systems by setting the Bios to boot from usb first, then dualbooting either system, if so could you give me step by step instructions or point me in the right direction or am l clutching at straws
27. April 3, 2010 5:46 pm

Andy
Is it true that Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit will not allow any other OS on the computer. Thats what I have and would like to either replace it or put Windows XP on it too. Any idea out there? I would appreciate any help from you guys. Do you think that my situation is hopeless? Andy. E-mail: manyika@juno.com
28. May 4, 2010 1:46 am

Larry
tryed the above method went well till install xp. Error stoped instll to protect computer from damage. error acpi.sys any ideas
29. May 7, 2010 2:18 pm

Kalle
Do I have to shrink the system drive or can I shrink another drive? How big do u recommd that I make the new partition?

30. May 8, 2010 7:22 am

Dan
Can Any one please Help me with this? I did all the partition stuff and checked it twice. but when I go to install XP no partitions appears at the blue screen where your to select a partition. not even the C: where my Win 7 is and works fine? WTF???
31. May 18, 2010 2:04 pm

Steve
No drives appear because you need to load third party SATA drivers in order for XP to see the newer drives. Hit F3 when prompted during setup. Problem I have been having with that though is XP looks for the driver on drive A only. Kinda sucks when most machines dont come with floppies anymore.
32. May 21, 2010 10:38 pm

jim
About six months ago I followed the instructions for dual booting with Vista and XP and all went well. I have a new computer with Win 7, followed all the instructions but after reboot the screen only shows Windows 7 and Ramdisk Options. I think this is the partion Windows 7 makes named System Reserve. VistaBootPro and EasyBCD does not show XP only Windows 7 and the System Reserve. Any help would be appreciated.
33. May 29, 2010 8:34 pm

Khaled
Man You Are The Best One Who Explain this Method You are Professional
34. May 30, 2010 9:26 am

Nash
Ive tried this. My machine got Fcked. Its better not to Dual boot. Windows 7 is pretty good. XP is good too. But Dual booting makes the computer slower. Easy BCD isnt a very good software.
35. May 30, 2010 10:39 pm

Michel
I tried these steps with Vista boot pro. I can now only boot to Windows 7 now. Wierd. What can I do now?
36. June 1, 2010 6:09 am

GT
Had the same problem as Larry but I dont even get the welcome to setup screen . Trying to dual boot in order to solve a few compatability issues with a couple of older games I have. I have dual hard drives so Im not using any partitions. Any ideas?
37. June 9, 2010 8:41 am

Mehul
i installed win xp on pre installed win7 after that i installed as per the instructions easybcd 2.0 beta built 99 when i run it then i got message the application failed to initialise properly (0xc0000135). click ok to trminate the application. what should i do now to run easy bcd
38. June 10, 2010 1:57 pm

jim
After a while of trying to install Win7 first with no progress i decided to install XP first and make two partions. This worked for me. Booting gives me a choice of Win7 or earlier version. Hope this helps.
39. June 10, 2010 8:10 pm

Mehul
i got the problem fixed by installing .net 2.0 framework
40. June 25, 2010 2:30 pm

ShaveR
; ;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems. ;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options. ; [boot loader] timeout=15 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 /TUTag=671V4S /Kernel=TUKernel.exe multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=Microsoft Windows XP Professional (TuneUp Backup) /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT /TUTag=671V4S-BAK
41. June 30, 2010 9:48 pm

ASIM
hi i have done all this fucked its fucking great and working well thanks for the post
42. July 10, 2010 10:55 pm

Ben-JA-Min
Dualbooting is so freaking hard, and i want to know why i tell the disc management thing to shrink volume and the max i can shrink is like 5GB, when its a 750GB Drive, and probably has around 600 GB left on it. BTW, i put my XP disc in while computer it booting up and it ignors it completly
43. July 10, 2010 10:56 pm

Ben-JA-Min
BTW, HELP please. really need to install XP to help older things to run.

44. July 15, 2010 9:52 am

Ron
elp, I have just bought shiny new E-machines with pre-installed Windows 7. As with Vista, I dont like it a lot, much prefer my old XP. I followed your instructions to partiton, but when it came to show it the new volume showed as Healthy(Logical drive) not Healthy (Primary Partition). Tried to install XP on to it, got messageSetup could not continue newer version of Windows already installed. Can you help please. I do not have a setup disc for W 7.
45. July 20, 2010 10:11 am

Les Springs
A startup disk doesnt come with pre-installed Win7 computers, so one option is to create a Win7 System Repair Disk. Go to your Windows 7: Start / Control Panel / System and Security / Backup and Restore / Create A System Repair Disk. Use it if things go astray while trying to create a dual boot system.
46. July 21, 2010 7:02 am

Roberto
I think I wasnt careful following the instructions. I have a Samsung r580 (500GB) with Windows 7. I shrunk one of the partitions then from Windows XP installer CD I installed on the unallocated 50GB disk space (I didnt created the New Volume E: as suggested on this HowTo).

As expected, Now my system boots directly into Windows XP, but the other partitions are not visible anymore!! none of the partition software I have tried seems to detect them, its just like now I have a 50GB disk and nothing else. The closest to a solution seems to be EASEUS Partition Master; which at least it seems to detect most of the files from the lost partitions. Many thanks in advance.
47. July 22, 2010 4:19 am

Ben
however, if users want to use xp but not win7, so people may want to format the drive C: and leave E: only for others uses, like storage movie etc in drive c:? I did it but I couldnt format the drive C:? why? and how can I do so, if users can do? what will happen if I format the drive C:? *****previously, I use the command bcdedit remove the win7, so there was no boot management for dual os.
48. July 23, 2010 3:58 pm

Antosha Khadaroo
With regards to creating a dual boot for a computer preinstalled with windows 7 with xp. Can this same process be used for a laptop?
49. August 2, 2010 5:31 pm

Babalola Olusayo
Geek, Pls, Im getting blue screen error trying to load XP setup on dv6 2112sa after creating the partition as directed. Is this a function of the XP cd or is it a thing with the laptop. What in your opinion should I do. Pls this is urgent. Thanks

50. August 8, 2010 4:15 pm

Pablo Picaso
Like many others I am getting a BSoD. I followed the above directions completely and it worked up until I did a reboot and tried to install XP. It loads all of the generic drivers and then when it goes to the windows installation screen the BSoD comes up. I really want to get XP running on my new Dell Inspiron 1545. It came preloaded with Win7 Home Premium 64 Bit, which will not several of the older 32 bit programs I use for image editing and web design at work. The technical details from the BSoD. A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. If this is the first time youve seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps: Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer. Technical information: *** STOP: 00000007B (0xF78D2524, 0xC0000034, 000000000, 000000000) Please help me I really need to get this thing dual boot ASAP. Thanks, Paul
51. August 11, 2010 9:11 am

Sam E
Pablo Picaso !!! i got the same problem but i used another XP pro Cd with SP3 and it worked just fine. try another XP
52. August 21, 2010 7:53 am

Jonathan N
I have a question, if i have windows 7 preinstalled on my computer but do not actually want to use it but want to use windows xp, can i just give windows xp almost all of the hard drive when i split it?
53. August 28, 2010 12:09 am

COMALite J
Another way to dual-boot on most modern PCs is to install a second hard drive, then use the BIOS Boot Settings to switch which drive you boot from. Most modern BIOSes will let you call up a boot menu by pressing some key combination after powering up or resetting, and allow you to boot from any installed hard drive, as well as from floppy (if installed), CD/DVD, USB drive, etc. This way, you dont have to mess with boot sectors, editing BOOT.INI, or any of that stuff. Just install Windows 7 (or whatever) to one drive, and XP (or whatever) to another. The two drives will be visible from both OSes, so you can have data shared between the two. One performance-boosting tip is to use the other drive for the Virtual Memory paging file, for instance: if Drive C: has XP and Drive D: has Windows 7, then use Drive D: for XPs paging, and C: for Windows 7s paging. This way, the Virtual Memory paging isnt working the same hard drive heads and data channels that the OS and software are, so when physical RAM gets used up and Virtual Memory kicks in, the resulting performance degradation is greatly mitigated since theres much less drive head motion.

54. August 29, 2010 5:08 am

Elliot
my computer is DV7-3180us HP Windows 7 Home premium 64 bit it came installed I want to Dual boot and ad XP 32 bit. I keep getting a blue Screen of Death.it wont let me ad Xp. is there any way around this help ps thanks cam any body tell me WHY ??????????? no has answer the WHY QUESTION for 7 people
55. August 29, 2010 1:53 pm

Joe Shmoe
Its because he took the money for his software and ran. Besides, he cant hold every idiots hand through this process.
56. August 31, 2010 9:36 am

COMALite J
Elliot, you need to provide more info. When, exactly, does the Blue Screen of Death appear? When booting into XP? When booting into Win7? After booting into one of those but when trying to do something like logging in or running an important program? Be as specific as you can. Does it happen when booting into Safe Mode? Did you try that? Do you know how to get into Safe Mode? (Press [F8] at the OS selection screen when booting thats one of the advanced options that that key gives you the option to select.)

What, exactly, does the Blue Screen of Death say? Yes, all of those numbers really do mean something, and actually are important. Write them down and post them. While I doubt that this is something solvable in this forum, it definitely isnt solvable without more detailed information, including all of the above.
57. September 2, 2010 7:49 am

Karan M
Thank you so much for the info, I was about to format 6 netbooks I bought for my staff at aurusit.com. Phew, thank goodness this can be done without format!!
58. September 3, 2010 7:53 am

ram
i have windows 7 and i install xp in other drive, but dual boot option is not coming directly boot in xp, how to work dual boot.
59. September 14, 2010 8:18 am

Answer
XP does not support SATA drives fully so you need a driver which you can slipstream into XP or use a floppy (maybe USB havent checked). The key is knowing which driver is required for your drive[s] controller. Win7 pre-installed boot from CD with XP inserted will result in the following error message as XP cannot see any hard drives. -

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. If this is the first time youve seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps: Check for viruses on your computer. Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer. Technical information: *** STOP: 00000007B (0xF78D2524, 0xC0000034, 000000000, 000000000)
60. September 20, 2010 12:59 pm

Raj
Anyone successfully installed XP dual boot on Win 7 Home Premium 64 Bit laptop? I want to follow the instructions but it seems like many of you having issues. please advise.
61. September 21, 2010 2:47 pm

Glen
Ive been trying to set up dual boot for the last day. Im using a Win7 Home Premium 64 Bit laptop. Its been successful, up to the point where I restarted my computer and tried to choose the Windows 7 option. It goes through the start up animation and I get BSoD, so now I cant boot into XP or Win7 since the bootloader for XP was written over. I dont understand why this happens since none of the files have been changed since I began the process, unless easyBCD screwed up the bootloader

Also, when I was in XP I was installing a few drivers and apparently the drivers were installing to the wrong partition, a partition with only 200mb of space, so I couldnt install many of them. I looked in the registry and program files path is fine..
62. September 26, 2010 11:53 am

aaa
this is done in under virtual machine .. s
63. September 28, 2010 12:20 pm

Terry
I read on Microsofts site @ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/926185 that a dual boot configuration with Win XP and Win 7 will result in XP overwriting all the latters System Restore points without the appropriate Registry hacks.
64. September 28, 2010 6:14 pm

Chuck
Im trying to set up a dual boot on my new HP laptop that came with Windows7 Home Premium installed. I have a legitimate Windows XP Home disk, and Ive set up a 40GB partition on the 250 GB SATA drive as instructed above. When I boot off the XP disk, I get the error message: If this is the first time youve seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps: There are no errors in the drive, and Ive removed the virus and firewall programs. You state above that XP cant recognize the SATA drive. How do I get the drivers you refer to, and how would I use them? I dont have any idea how I would

slipstream the drivers, as you mention. Maybe Ive bitten off more that I can deal with? The computer specs are: HP Pavillion Model dv6t-2100 Product VV451AV 3GB DDR3 Memory 250GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive Thanks for any help you can provide.
65. September 29, 2010 12:20 am

John
Chuck, I feel your pain my brother. I also have a new HP. Unfortunately, you are wasting your time here. If you read all these threads, you will see that these replies have been going on for months and many have no good results. I suggest you try other forums or consider giving up. I wrote a request here http://www.techsupportforum.co.....emium.html a couple of days ago. It has been getting many hits but no good replies. 1) Google nLite and download for free to be able to slipstream 2) Finding those SATA drivers are rough enough not to mention all the problems people have posted here. My goal was to complete this today but I have failed so I will not look into this again for another month. Too many projects! Good Luck, John
66. September 29, 2010 10:46 am

John
Chuck and others, VirtualBox is a free shell that you can run and have your XP at the same time as your Windows 7 or Vista. It works pretty good but I wanted to run Janes F-15 (a

1998 game) so I could have duels with my son and it was non workable in VirtualBox but all other applications worked as if I had a separate Windows XP desktop. John
67. September 29, 2010 12:24 pm

Chuck
John, Thanks for the response. The computer Im using for this message has three 80GB SATA drives, and is a dual-boot system with Windows XP Home and Windows XP Pro 64 bit. I normally boot on XP Home, and all the drives show. If I look at the drivers for the SATA drives, they all show the same two items: C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\disk.sys C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\PartMgr.sys When I try to install XP on the HP laptop part way through the initial setup there is a window that says that if I need to install SCSI drivers, etc, I should press F6 (I think). Would this be the point that I could install those drivers, assuming that they are the ones that would work? And would I need to make folders for them, or do they go to the correct place automatically? Things are seldom as simple as one would hope.
68. September 29, 2010 12:38 pm

Brad
I have successfully installed a Win7 64bit with XP 32bit using most of the detail and the EasyBCD. One issue I had installing XP is that it couldnt find a HD and would BSoD during the XP CD installer. I went into the BIOS and changed the SATA emulation from AHCI to IDE. Then I was able to install XP on my newly created partition.

One thing I didnt like about this process is that Win7 creates a small partition and when XP was installed, it saw both Win7 partitions and installed on drive E. (C: Small Partition, D: WIN7 Partition, E: XP Partition). All this means is that you have to be carefull when installing programs to change the drive letters to E. Windows 7 is fine for its drives. It is true that if you install XP first, then Win7, the install process is easier(at least the boot loader part). What made it easier for me though is I have valid media and CD-keys for both OS so even if it did screw up, I could reinstall it.
69. September 29, 2010 2:02 pm

Chuck
Heres what HP says; I probably should have checked this first. Reasons not to try a dual-boot system While documentation on how to use dual-booting may be available on the web, HP does not support computers that have been set up in a dual-boot configuration. The dual-boot requires hardware drivers for both operating systems, and HP does not provide drivers for components that were not designed for the specific operating system. Such a configuration change may require you to reinstall the original software image when troubleshooting possible software and hardware issues with technical support. Additionally, even if you could find some generic third-party drivers that would allow you to setup a dual-boot configuration on your notebook, you should consider the size of your hard drive. Each operating system takes up a considerable amount of space on the hard drive. Installing more than one OS may limit the amount of space that you have available for other applications, which will degrade performance.
70. October 2, 2010 3:25 pm

Lizzie
Hi I have successfully loaded a triple boot system (XP/Vista/Win7 yeah dont ask why. Stupid programs) on my dv8t with 2 500 GB hard drives (Win7/Vista on one

 XP/Data on the other) My only problem was that everytime Win7 created a restore point, I would have to reload the NTLDR for XP and hal.dll. For some reason these 2 files keep getting screwed up. I am trying to load XP first on the hard drive so that this wont happen, but since I dont have a Win7 OS disk, just the restore disks, I am having problems getting it to work. Any suggestions? Oh, and as for the HP issue, you can always keep a clean Win7 HD that you can switch out if you need to call the help desks. HDs are getting so cheap. Keep it in an enclosure and it can double as a clone backup. For all those HP users, there is a user forum on this issue at the HP website, but it is not HP moderated? Anyway, they have a lot of the drivers you need for the HP laptops. 2 things that helped tremendously also the nlite with SATA drivers slipstreamed and Unknown Device Identifier. Both helped tremendously and are freeware.
71. October 4, 2010 10:31 am

Alex
Managed to do this today, XP on a pre installed Windows 7 machine. I had to use EasyBCD 2 to add an XP entry to the boot sequence before the XP install. Thanks very much!
72. October 7, 2010 7:44 am

justin just in check

hello, any one can clear my doubt. questions: -when i insert the windows xp cd? -can the dual boot support win7 64-bit properly i mean (100%) without any problem

- i really afraid to do this , but i want to play my heavy duty games in win xp only , ??? because the windows 7 is primer for my pc i do alll things in my win 7 instead of xp i want to install win xp because i onlly want to play games freely. any one have a answer or tried this method on win7 64-bit in a dell laptop please,please,please mail to me: enquiry95media@live.com.my thanks, to who help me!!!!!!!
73. October 14, 2010 2:11 am

Vincent
So After reading this and tryiung this, I think I know what is teh boggle with may people not being able to launch into XP Like others, I started with Win 7 on the laptop. I shrunk th partition and added another, and loaded XP (yes, if you have a SATA drive, it needs to be changed in your bios to compatible to be seen in XP). The computer booted to XP like a charm. Then, I used EasyBCD, and wham, My Win 7 is back. But if I use the dual boot to go to XP, no luck. The problem is that Win 7 creates a System Reserved partition of 10 MB. Win7 igores it and does not assoign a drive letter. XP sees it, assigns a drive letter ( c:) and throws the required boot files for XP on that stupid little 10MB partition. As a result, no success. I wish I had a solution I think I will just load VMware and run XP in that to get done what I wanted.

74. October 17, 2010 5:42 pm

wuchen_pa@yahoo.com
STOP!! Dont do this process. It is in error at the last step! The EasyBCD tool doesnt work in XP, and following this process, only XP will boot right now. So, I no longer can access my Win7 because I cant boot into it. Im afraid to try to find a Win 7 disk to repair the boot for 7 because some folks have stated it breaks both instances. This is some shit though, Ive spent two days trying to get this to work. FIX YOUR INSTRUCTIONS or pull them down. Create Boot Loader Once installation of XP is successful you can now go through and install the latest Microsoft Updates and drivers. You will undoubtedly notice that the machine is booting directly into XP at this time. This is due to XP writing its bootloader over Windows 7s. To get both XP and Windows 7 as an option at the boot screen you can use the free utility EasyBCD 1.72 or their new 2.0 Beta.
75. October 27, 2010 8:49 am

Don
I think some Notebook are dedicated to Windows 7 nowadays. I tried directly installed a Windows XP on my Notebook. After the boot up on my installation i got a blue screen regarding on Hardware compatibility on XP. My Harddisk cant recognized XP on my System .
76. October 27, 2010 10:49 pm

Deb

OK have done everything without a hitch UNTIL it comes to installing XP, I get to the setup is starting windows and then nothing.as in it goes no further.???? I have XP home edition is this the problem???? Do I have to have professional???? I am getting increasingly frustrated by this whole bloody microsoft nonsense sob! I wish my old computer didnt Kark it, and I wish I hadnt bought this new pc and I AM NOT buying a new scanner etc because NOTHING is compatible with windows 7, including my blood glucose monitoring software.sighhhhh (just venting, sorry)
77. October 28, 2010 6:39 pm

jason
easy as can be thanks
78. October 28, 2010 11:00 pm

Monkey21st
If you get Blue Screen after installing XP or get Blue Screen when trying to install Win XP on new PC or laptops because Win XP CD does not have SATA drivers for the SATA Controller for SATA drives. You need to provide SATA drivers during XP installation or go in bios change AHCI to IDE in order for XP to work on newer computers that use SATA controller. Short answer for blue screening when trying to install Win XP on computers with SATA controller due no SATA drivers for that specific SATA controller on Win XP CD.
79. October 28, 2010 11:11 pm

Monkey21st

""Don I think some Notebook are dedicated to Windows 7 nowadays. I tried directly installed a Windows XP on my Notebook. After the boot up on my installation i got a blue screen regarding on Hardware compatibility on XP. My Harddisk cant recognized XP on my System ."" "Deb OK have done everything without a hitch UNTIL it comes to installing XP, I get to the setup is starting windows and then nothing.as in it goes no further.???? I have XP home edition is this the problem???? Do I have to have professional???? I am getting increasingly frustrated by this whole bloody microsoft nonsense sob! I wish my old computer didnt Kark it, and I wish I hadnt bought this new pc and I AM NOT buying a new scanner etc because NOTHING is compatible with windows 7, including my blood glucose monitoring software.sighhhhh (just venting, sorry)" If you get Blue Screen after installing XP or get Blue Screen when trying to install Win XP on new PC or laptops because Win XP CD does not have SATA drivers for the SATA Controller for SATA drives. You need to provide SATA drivers during XP installation or go in bios change AHCI to IDE in order for XP to work on newer computers that use SATA controller. Short answer for blue screening when trying to install Win XP on computers with SATA controller due no SATA drivers for that specific SATA controller on Win XP CD. go to your computer manufacturer website and download the SATA drivers, put the drivers on USB flash or floppy, provide the SATA drivers during Win XP installation if you want to use AHCI or go in to bios change AHCI to IDE then you dont need to provide SATA drivers when installing Win XP. I have done this so many times.
80. October 29, 2010 4:58 pm

Larry

I have a problem,it is,I own and can register a win xp pro media(english) and a win 7 home(german).can I put them both on one harddisk?,and will they work?Now have them both on .,cant use any e-mail on the xp,but I can on the win 7 .What did I do wrong? first I put on the xp,then 7.
81. November 11, 2010 10:03 am

Karen Spindler
I had successfully set up dual boot win7/xp but then last night i expanded the disk volume to get more space for the xp installation. Now Windows xp wont boot, I get the hal.dll missing or corrupted. What do I need to do in order to make the expanded volume boot xp? I am thinking that I need to use the xp disk and run a repair? Or can I just run fixboot from the recovery console? I dont see a boot.ini file in the xp root any more, maybe that is what is wrong? Thanks for any help..
82. November 13, 2010 11:15 am

nsikub
I think this process depends on what version of Windows 7 youre using. I have Win 7 Home Premium 64-bit. I followed through the steps quite okay, however just before creating a new partition as illustrated I got a message The operation you selected will convert the selected physical disk(s) into a dynamic disk(s). If you convert the disk(s) to dynamic you will not be able to start installed operating systems from any volume on the disk(s) (except the current boot volume. Are you sure you want to continue? I stopped right there. I hear many people have damaged good hard disks as a result of saying yes. Continuing with this process if using Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit could have serious implications as changes made are semi-permanent, which require special software to reverse. Win 7 Home Premium 64 bit is limited to 4 primary partitions and creating extra partitions without careful planning could cause you unnecessary heartaches. I find this article misleading please think twice before you follow these steps or at least be sure about the exact version of Win 7 this procedure relates to?