Windows 7 and XP dual boot
- From: "Kari Eveli" <lexitec@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "XyList" <xywrite@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2013 13:46:01 +0300
Hi,
As Windows XP's end-of-life is nearing, I started to look more closely into
Windows 7. I would still like to run XP as long as I can with an option to
switch to Windows 7 if it becomes absolutely necessary. Towards this end I am
building a dual-boot machine based on an HP Z400. When moving from Win2K, I had
a dual-boot system (XP, Win2K, (and Linux) ), and that proved to be a good way
to switch. Now then, when faced with the task of building a dual-boot Win7 and
XP machine, I found that it is much more difficult to accomplish. The problem
lies with Win7's taking over the boot process. I used GRUB Classic to
double-boot XP and Win2K. Win7 and GRUB do not make a good match. The HP Z400
had Win7 preinstalled with separate SYSTEM and BOOT parttions, XP does not
understand these. There are drive letter problems with XP when installing. To
overcome these, here is how I proceeded (by trial and error) and finally
succeeded in doing this:
1) I backed up the entire hard disk containing a Win7 install to an external
location. This being a new system, I did not have licensed software (normally I
use Acronis TrueImage), and I found these tools to do the backup: REDO Backup
and Recovery (http://redobackup.org/) and Hiren's BootCD
(http://www.hirensbootcd.org/ (download) and http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd
(discussion) ). Hiren's BootCD has a copy of Seagate DiscWizard (a version of
Acronis) which runs on the HP Z400 even though a downloaded version of the
program does not think the HP-labeled Seagate disk is a Seagate at all.
2) I hid the Win7 partitions (system and boot = c:) and made room for XP on the
hard disk by preparing an empty primary active NTFS partition. You can
accomplish this by using GParted (on the Hiren's disk) or Acronis Disk Director
11 (version 10 does not understand Win7).
3) I installed XP. The system is XP only now.
4) To double-boot, I installed MasterBooter 3.5.
ISO image for burning at: http://www.megalab.it/file/473
Complete and verbose instruction from this Italian site:
http://www.megalab.it/4115/dual-boot-installare-windows-xp-vista-e-windows-7-sullo-stesso-pc-nel-modo-corretto
This account does not deal with the system partion, so I had to figure it out
myself.
5) MasterBooter 3.5 is configured as follows: restart from the CD, wait till
you have a DOS command prompt, run "mrbooter", select the 3 partions with
following labels:
1) Windows7 (=system)
2) ******** (= boot Win7 = C: )
3) WindowsXP
Make the hiding mask for respective partitions as follows:
1) 001 = win7 system
2) 001 = win7 boot = C:
3) 110 = win xp = C:
(0 = show, 1 = hide)
Use 1 and 3 for starting systems.
Please note that MasterBooter writes over Win7 MBR. The restore it, use Easy
BCD, BCD Deployment, Install Win7 bootloader to MBR.
(https://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/#comparison download a free personal edition).
At this point everything should be working. The operating systems are
completely separate as with GRUB. If you want to graduate from dual boot to
single boot, it is easy: restore an XP image to an empty disk to have XP,
install Win7 bootloader to MBR and delete XP to have only Win7.
Best regards,
Kari Eveli
LEXITEC Book Publishing (Finland)
lexitec@xxxxxxxxxx
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