[How-To] Install Windows XP over Windows 7 in a dual boot?

May 11, 2010 Category

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Featured, How To

: Image via CrunchBase

There has been a request from one of our reader: How to dual boot Windows 7 and Windows XP with Windows 7 pre-installed.

This case is applicable for users who have Windows 7 pre-installed on laptop/desktop and want to install XP on a different partition.

You’ll Need:

An open mind to test, experiment and take risk. It worked for me, but it dosen’t mean it should work for you. ( Just a statutory warning. )
Original genuine copies of Windows XP and Windows 7. You will be asked to restore your system (Windows 7) in later steps, which might require your Windows 7 CD or a genuine check being performed.
EasyBCD : Since Windows XP and Windows 7 bootloader formats are completely different, you will need EasyBCD for setting up and configuring Windows boot entries.
A computer with Windows 7 preinstalled. (dhaa.. )

Now lets proceed to the steps involved:

Make a normal, clean Install of Windows XP on a different desired partition of your hard drive. Now when you restart your computer it will automatically boot into XP. This is because windows xp had changed the boot entry to older XP format from newer windows 7 format.
To restore Windows 7, you need to Boot from the Windows 7 DVD and “Repair your computer”. About.com has an article about How to Perform a Startup Repair in Windows 7. You can check that out for reference.
After reparing, your system will now boot into Windows 7 rather than windows XP.
Image via Wikipedia
Install EasyBCD on your Windows 7 to add boot entry for XP. Launch EasyBCD and go to Add/Remove Entries. Under Add an Entry open the Windows tab and select the Type as Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3. Give it a name like ‘Windows XP’ and click on ‘Add Entry’. Then select Save.
Now restart you PC and you’ll be presented with two options, Windows 7 and Windows XP. Select the one which you want to work on.
Done!

Is there any other better way? Please let me know!

Tags

ohpretty
this is happening because the recently installed os will overwrite the active partition of windows 7.TO make the windows7 active no need to install any soft
just straight away insert the windows 7 boot cd/dvd and click repair your computer and click on commmand part and type diskpart at the prompt.
At the DiskPart prompt, type in list disk. You will see the list of disk currently attached to your computer. Now type in select disk n, where n is the disk number. In my example, I would type select disk 0.
Now that we have selected the correct disk, type in list partition to get a list of all the partitions on that disk. To select the partition we want to set as active, type in select partition n, where n is the partition number.
Now that we have selected the disk and partition, we can mark it as active by just typing the word active and pressing Enter. That’s it! Now the partition is set.
Most people are familiar with using FDISK to mark a partition as active, but that is now an older and out-dated method.

http://www.madharasan.com/ Jayarathina Madharasan
Thanks for commenting, your suggestion will repair Windows 7 boot option, but how to add XP as an option in the boot option menu? Else how will u login to XP?

ohpretty
once you have executed these commands while inserting boot cd and then you can see the both the bootloaders when you restart the pc (after executing the commands i have checked it is working perfectly)….
In linux also similar case have you ever encountered this when you first install xp and then install linux separately ,suppose assume your xp was crashed what will you do then,it’s obviously you will reinstall xp in this case your linux will be there as it is but only the bootloader will be overwritten by xp to enable the dual bootloader you just have to insert the linux cd and you have to go to the terminal and you have to type the command in order to make the bootloader active
sudo find/boot/grub/menu.lst
it will find out the partition where you installed linux and then you can make it active easily
then atlast you grub bootloader will be active so that you can able to boot in xp as well as in linux man
similar in case of windows 7 over xp
Now you would have understood i think so

http://www.madharasan.com/ Jayarathina Madharasan
Yes. Thanks. Hope its helpful for others too.

ohpretty
this is happening because the recently installed os will overwrite the active partition of windows 7.TO make the windows7 active no need to install any soft
just straight away insert the windows 7 boot cd/dvd and click repair your computer and click on commmand part and type diskpart at the prompt.
At the DiskPart prompt, type in list disk. You will see the list of disk currently attached to your computer. Now type in select disk n, where n is the disk number. In my example, I would type select disk 0.
Now that we have selected the correct disk, type in list partition to get a list of all the partitions on that disk. To select the partition we want to set as active, type in select partition n, where n is the partition number.
Now that we have selected the disk and partition, we can mark it as active by just typing the word active and pressing Enter. That�s it! Now the partition is set.
Most people are familiar with using FDISK to mark a partition as active, but that is now an older and out-dated method.

http://www.madharasan.com/ Jayarathina Madharasan
Thanks for commenting, your suggestion will repair Windows 7 boot option, but how to add XP as an option in the boot option menu? Else how will u login to XP?

ohpretty
once you have executed these commands while inserting boot cd and then you can see the both the bootloaders when you restart the pc (after executing the commands i have checked it is working perfectly)….
In linux also similar case have you ever encountered this when you first install xp and then install linux separately ,suppose assume your xp was crashed what will you do then,it’s obviously you will reinstall xp in this case your linux will be there as it is but only the bootloader will be overwritten by xp to enable the dual bootloader you just have to insert the linux cd and you have to go to the terminal and you have to type the command in order to make the bootloader active
sudo find/boot/grub/menu.lst
it will find out the partition where you installed linux and then you can make it active easily
then atlast you grub bootloader will be active so that you can able to boot in xp as well as in linux man
similar in case of windows 7 over xp
Now you would have understood i think so

http://www.madharasan.com/ Jayarathina Madharasan
Yes. Thanks. Hope its helpful for others too.

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