Dual Boot Question--desperate for help

[kannanni]

hi there,


i have 3 internal sata hdd-s installed and recognised fine by mobo Asus P5Q E,

1: 300 GB - windows 7 x64 - already installed previously
1: 80 GB - xp x32 - just installed now
3: 1 Terrabyte - Storage


I'm intending to dualboot xp and win 7, i have managed to do do dualboot in 1 single partitioned hdd in the past.. but when i tried now 1st time in 2 different drives i can only boot in to the xp drive, and cannot boot into the previously installed win 7 drive..

have i messed up by installing xp after win 7 ? i thought by installing it into a different drive and not a partition was going to be fine, as i thought not to mess with the mbr..

question is, how can i restore win 7 drive install, and if yes both drives are ok to boot, will i be able to choose which os to start when booting, or do i have to select hdd booting order in bios every time i want to boot to a different os ? can someone pls enlighten me as its past 3 am now and still not clear what/how to do..

ps: drives are all recognised in bios and xp install.. i can actually see my windows 7 hdd and its files from when booted in xp drive


cheers,
kannanni

 

[Yiuca]

Well generally installing an old Windows OS after a newer OS rewrites the boot order as the older OS doesn't take into account other OS (or really this applies to XP & older) generally 1 thing I would try it booting the Windows 7 disc & it should come up to install but if anything like Vista (I haven't got retail Windows 7 yet) it should have an option to repair & then go into command prompt, eitherway aim at getting into the command prompt & using bootrec.exe /fixmbr & then bootrec.exe /fixboot, this should have Windows 7 control it & thus if successful you'll have the screen which shows both options are boot. (Please note that while I've done this recently for Windows Vista & XP, I haven't played with Windows 7 so some of it is just guess work on my part)

 

[robinbredin]

I'm intending to dualboot xp and win 7, i have managed to do do dualboot in 1 single partitioned hdd in the past.. but when i tried now 1st time in 2 different drives i can only boot in to the xp drive, and cannot boot into the previously installed win 7 drive..

have i messed up by installing xp after win 7 ? i thought by installing it into a different drive and not a partition was going to be fine, as i thought not to mess with the mbr..

question is, how can i restore win 7 drive install, and if yes both drives are ok to boot, will i be able to choose which os to start when booting, or do i have to select hdd booting order in bios every time i want to boot to a different os ? can someone pls enlighten me as its past 3 am now and still not clear what/how to do..

ps: drives are all recognised in bios and xp install.. i can actually see my windows 7 hdd and its files from when booted in xp drive


cheers,

Have you read this fix it HERE, or www.vistax64.com/.../224397-dual-boot-installation-windows-vista-xp.htmland you will also need easybcd.