As a system builder I can tell you it is possible to dualboot xp and win7, I do it for my customers often! Since you are at a clean point, meaning you can reinstall stuff, here's what you do: Pop in the xp disc, when you get to the partition area, wipe the drive (delete all partitions), then create a partition for xp of the required size, then leave the rest empty. Go ahead and install xp. After you're done, start the windows7 installation (from outside of windows). When the installer passes the license, select custom, not upgrade. When it asks where to install, just select the unalocated/unpartitioned space on the drive. Win7 will install and do its thing. When it restarts and is done, win7 will be the first option, then legacy OS or whatever microsoft calls it will be the second option. That would be the XP OS. You can install something like EasyBCD to edit the name and call it xp or whatever. HTH, D!J!X! -----Original Message----- From: realmusicians-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:realmusicians-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Indigo Sent: Tuesday, November 22, 2011 9:50 PM To: realmusicians@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [realmusicians] Dual boot pro I want to wait for the Samsung F3 to become available again, it's on back order in many web stores, unless I pay twice the price. Meanwhile, I want to install XP Pro on another partition on the hard drive of my 64 bit Windows 7 machine. Yes, I have XP Pro, and also XP drivers on disk from the computer maker, and I also checked to learn if the motherboard is XP compatible. .Has anyone used Dual Boot Pro? Sure, it's easy and all that, same as all sellers say, but has anyone here used it without sighted help? Microsoft warns that you cannot go backwards; from Windows 7 already installed to Windows XP, there's a problem with the older OS recognizing booting files, or some such thing, so, no, you can't use the built in dual boot system in Windows 7 to go back to XP. I want real XP, not those virtual XP, or XP mode in Windows 7 substitutes. So, any experience using Dual Boot Pro? there's another way, I guess. Besides Windows 7 64 bit, I haven't installed anything really essential on my new computer, nothing I don't still have the installers for. The manufacturer, ZT Inc., supplies a full Windows 7 64 bit on disk, plus XP drivers, even a version of Lenux and its drivers. Besides that, I already bought Windows 7 32 and 64 for another machine, and still have that disk, so I'm well fixed for Win 7. I could just do a clean install of my XP Pro., plus drivers from the manufacturer's disk. If I ever decide to return to the 21st century and Windows 7, I could, but I'll bet I won't. Comments, judicious warnings, anyone? Indigo L