Windows 7 Win 7 does not like XP, crash reverts OS to XP

[mtuhodari]

I have XP. I installed Win7(7000) 64Bit into another partition, same system disk.
Win7 installed without a problem, albeit, is slower than Vista install.

1. After installation, I could not use XP. Machine would boot directly into Win7, no XP option.
Boot.ini edit was no help. This has happened twice.

2. Everytime an error occurred, the machine reverted to booting XP as if Win7 did not exist.
First time, I was investigating "?" devices (on board sound?) when it crashed with a register dump.
Second time, I was running "performance rating" after install. Automatic updates issued
a reboot prompt and simultaneously "performance" issued an error. Performance rating has completed successfully before.

I have Asus a8n-sli delux mobo with Nforce4 chipset; 4mb memory. This machine has no problems running 32bit XP or 64bit Vista. Bios are current.

 

[Radenight]

First of all to fix the 'no XP boot option' you could have tried using EASYBCD.. it's a very easy to use program that allows you to tweak the boot manager's settings, among other things.. it most likely would have solved that problem for you...

Secondly, Windows 7 is definitely NOT slower than Vista OR XP for that matter... so there must have been a driver issue or something there that was making it slower than Vista...

I'd suggest starting fresh if you can.. As in create backups of all your personal files first, than format the entire HDD and create your partitions than clean install each OS from old to new.. So Windows XP first than Windows 7.. the boot manager will configure itself. You'll than have a dual boot config setup which will give you the option of which OS you wish to boot into on startup...

The only reason I can think of right off the top of my head for Windows 7 seeming slower than Vista (besides a driver issue like I said before) would be maybe because it was on the second partition.. remember the 1st partition on a HDD is always going to be the fastest (simply because it's placed on the outer edge of the HDD platter).. the last partition on the HDD will always be the slowest simply because it's placed closer to the inside of the platter (which results in the drive having to do more work).. There might be more to it than that but I don't think so, your motherboard is more then good enough to run Windows 7 so I really don't think it's anything more than what I've mentioned..

The RC is just around the corner so you may wish to wait until that is released before starting fresh again... Not that there's anything wrong with build 7000 (I'm also still using that build until the RC is released), it's just with it being this close it might be more worth it for you just to wait instead of installing build 7000 again than turning around in a couple weeks time and installing another build...

 

[mtuhodari]

Thanks for suggestions.

I shall wait for RC before another attempt. I have always done a fresh install (reformatted the partition). Assuming it is a driver issue, Win7 is definitely picking up wrong drivers compared to Xp or Vista. Lets hope the RC is more reliable.