Windows 7 XP and 7 dual boot

The Hardware should not be a problem as long as the drivers support both windows 7 and XP. And sharing music and other media between problems will be no problem. You have to give admin permission the first time you try and gett in the folder but Windows 7 will remember it from their on out. Hope this helps

Well I know I have a piece of audio recording harware that might take a different driver between XP and 7.

But that doesn't matter, right? Depending on what I boot to, each OS uses it's own driver. I will still mess with it.

Now, what if I try XP-32 and 7-64 bit? Is that not recommended?

I installed Windows 7 in a Dual Boot setup purely by accident.

I have 2 hard drives on my home-built computer running Windows XP.

I installed Windows 7, and it asked where I wanted to install it. I ended up choosing the second hard drive.

Now every time the computer comes on, I have the choice of booting to XP or "7."

So far I'm still fiddling around, but everything works just fine.

I'm using a 22" LCD TV in VGA mode as a monitor. So I turn off the computer when I want to watch TV.

My main computer is a Macintosh. But I still like to fiddle in the Windows world.

Well, I just made a backup and did a clean install single boot to 7. No dual. Most is working fine. I tried 64 but my audio device only is 32. No drivers. The only piece of hardware holding me back. Oh well. Anyone have problems with Firefox not downloading files? That's my next question. I know it should probably be in a new thread. When i click on save file, it does nothing.

Dual Boot Windows 7 And XP: Windows 7 Install Directly From XP Without A DVD

This article,Dual Boot Windows 7 And XP Easily: Windows 7 Installation Directly From XP Without A LiveDVD shows you how to install Windows 7 directly from a previous version of Windows, without burn a DVD. The applications installed in the previous Windows version does not need to be reinstalled: they also work in Windows 7 , just create shortcuts. You will be able to dual boot both operating systems and you will not loose any data.

Cool. I will definitely check that out. Thanks.

My desktop has 1 sata 500 gb hard drive partitioned at 250 gb each. I want to set up a dual boot with XP on the d: drive. Win7 64-bit is on the c: drive. I would think that just installing the XP on d: would be all I need to do. Does this sound like the best way to accomplish this?

Thanks so much for the info. This is my 1st experience with a dual boot system. Let me run this by you to make sure I understand.
With the system as is, Win7 on c: and nothing on d:. I will boot off XP cd and install it to d:. Reboot the system and come up with XP, booted off d:. Then install Win7 on c:, overwritting current installation. On next reboot I should then be presented with boot options.
My only questions are: 1. Will the data, not pgms., currently residing in the libraries on c: be lost? 2. Will the programs installed under Win7 need to be re-installed?

Thanks again, I will begin this undertaking as soon as I hear back from you.

Chris.

cygnus333 said:

Thanks so much for the info. This is my 1st experience with a dual boot system. Let me run this by you to make sure I understand.
With the system as is, Win7 on c: and nothing on d:. I will boot off XP cd and install it to d:. Reboot the system and come up with XP, booted off d:. Then install Win7 on c:, overwritting current installation. On next reboot I should then be presented with boot options.
My only questions are: 1. Will the data, not pgms., currently residing in the libraries on c: be lost? 2. Will the programs installed under Win7 need to be re-installed?

Thanks again, I will begin this undertaking as soon as I hear back from you.

Chris.

Click to expand...

You got it! In answer to your questions:
1- You will have to create a backup of all your personal data as it will be lost when you reinstall Windows 7. (There a couple ways around this though if you don't want to be bothered wih backing it up. One if which is to move it all over to your D: once you have XP installed. That way you don't have to back it up. OR create a 3rd partition and store it there while you do the installs, then move it back and delete the extra partition afterwards.) HOWEVER I would strongly recommend you do the backup if you can. It's a guarantee that your files will be safe and really alot less hassle in the long run..

2- Yes the programs you have installed on 7 right now will have to be reinstalled.. it's a bummer but just think of it this way.. you will get to setup your computer exactly how you want from a fresh install with very little possibility of any major problems... (plus I know I sometimes install stuff than later realize I didn't need or want it installed... hahaha

Hopefully all goes well for you! Keep us posted on how you make out and if you run into any problems we'll be glad to help out..

cygnus333 said:

With the system as is, Win7 on c: and nothing on d:. I will boot off XP cd and install it to d:. Reboot the system and come up with XP, booted off d:. Then install Win7 on c:, overwritting current installation.

Click to expand...

It is not necessary to install Windows 7 again. It is correct that Windows XP overwrites the Windows 7 boot manager and can not include Windows 7 as boot option because Windows XP doesn't know Windows 7.
But you only need to boot from Windows 7 installation DVD. After language selection choose "System repair". This should install the Windows 7 boot manager again and integrate Windows XP as boot option.

True, that will work but for all the time it takes to reinstall windows 7 it's worth it more in the long run to just reinstall it.. plus by doing so it guarantees no little unforseen problems as there sometimes can be with 'repairing an OS'...

So far I am still at square one. I need to get another copy of XP. Last night I booted off the XP cd I have and before getting to the 1st prompt screen the blue screen of death would appear. I tried several more time with the same results. Unfortunatly I didn't copy down the msg. and I am at work now. My desktop is back at the hotel where I'm staying here in Springfield, MO. If I have time at lunch today I'll swing by there and get the msg. details. This is a copy of XP 32 bit I downloaded with SP3. Being away from home (Chattanooga, TN) I don't any of my discs with me so I thought I would just get a copy of XP online.

Thanks, Chris.

BTW: Here's the system I am trying this experiment on:
Acer am5620-u5210a

I have another XP image to try out but since I do not have any blank cd's I tried extracting the iso image and running setup. The install link was ghosted out. Is it possible to put this version in XP, that's an iso image, on a dvd and make it bootable using Nero 9.

cygnus333 said:

Is it possible to put this version in XP, that's an iso image, on a dvd and make it bootable using Nero 9.

Click to expand...

Have you tried to mount the ISO file in Windows XP? Microsoft offers a program to mount ISO files:
Link Removed (for XP only, not running with Vista).

After burning 4 different versions of XP to CD at trying to install I have come to the conclusion that my system is incompatible with XP (both 32 or 64 bit). Right after the Starting Windows message appears I get the blue screen of death. Here's what it says:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.
Then at the bottom
*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF78D2524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

Each time I have booted off the CD. The system model is Acer AM5620-U5210A
It has 3 GB DDR2 memory, Q6600 Intel Core 2 Quad processor and ATI Radeon HD2600 Pro graphics card.

cygnus333 said:

After burning 4 different versions of XP to CD at trying to install I have come to the conclusion that my system is incompatible with XP (both 32 or 64 bit). Right after the Starting Windows message appears I get the blue screen of death. Here's what it says:

A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.
Then at the bottom
*** STOP: 0x0000007B (0xF78D2524, 0xC0000034, 0x00000000, 0x00000000)

Each time I have booted off the CD. The system model is Acer AM5620-U5210A
It has 3 GB DDR2 memory, Q6600 Intel Core 2 Quad processor and ATI Radeon HD2600 Pro graphics card.

Click to expand...

Your system is not incompatible with XP.. your ISO may be corrupt, but there's no way your system is incompatible with Windows XP... What prog did you use to burn the ISO or mount it? I'd suggest using Nero to burn the ISO...

I have used nLite to modify my Win XP Pro with SP3 to include Intel SATA drivers. Now I need to know how to burn that to a bootable CD using Nero 9. I wasted about 5 CD's so far.

Thanks, Chris

I think I got it, it's installing XP right now and rebooted to finish install. Next step is to get Windows 7 back. Funny thing, when I selected a drive to install XP on, the drive letters were different.

unawave said:

It is not necessary to install Windows 7 again. It is correct that Windows XP overwrites the Windows 7 boot manager and can not include Windows 7 as boot option because Windows XP doesn't know Windows 7.
But you only need to boot from Windows 7 installation DVD. After language selection choose "System repair". This should install the Windows 7 boot manager again and integrate Windows XP as boot option.

Click to expand...

Okay, I am at this point. When I select 'startup repair' under system repair the system finds no problems and none of the other repair options seem to have anything to do with boot options.

vista and windows 7 also in in that way

cygnus333 said:

When I select 'startup repair' under system repair the system finds no problems and none of the other repair options seem to have anything to do with boot options.

Click to expand...

At this stage choose "Command Prompt". Then enter:

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /RebuildBcd