Help boot problem in windows xp and 7 dual boot.?

Question

Hi, I'm having trouble. My pc had preinstalled windows 7 ultimate along with windows 7. Former in c drive and letter in e. I formatted E to install the xp on it. Since my disk drive has gone bad, I used pendrive for installing xp. I successfully installed but the pc boot directly to xp without os list as i knew. I used easy boot to add windows 7 os entry. But i also added a xp entry because it was not shown in the os list of the software. But in msconfig only xp is listed in boot.ini file. I restarted pc and got error invalid boot.ini file booting from c:\windows. But when it boot from C drive it gives the screen which list option for safe mode, start windows normally etc. Irrespective of choosing anything system hangs after pressing enter. Please tell me what to do? Another problem is that all the drive except C And E have changed the drive letter. And all the data of one drive is deleted but of one drive in not deleted.

Answer 1

I know what you did, you installed XP with USB boot, Because if you install Windows XP after booting into windows 7, it will not allow. For dual boot you need to install the second operating system after logging into Primary operating system and while installation select New installation.



Now everything is messed up, You installed XP using USB bootable device, it corrupted the earlier boot.ini file.



Just Install Windows xp again on C drive after formatting it, After Windows XP is installed you may proceed with the installation of Windows 7 in D drive for dual boot. This way you will be able to run both Windows xp and windows 7.

Answer 2

That is a fairly complicated question for this type of answer format. Do you have a Win7 installation disc? If you do then I would boot from that disc and on the installation page Choose to Repair your Computer. Then let it run the automatic repair and see if it boots into win7. (that will make XP inaccessible but should get you into win7 using the win7 bootloader). You may have to boot from the CD and run the auto repair twice.



Then use EasyBCD to add an entry for XP.



As far as your missing drive go into Disk Management and look at the graphs for your HD at the bottom of the window. See if they are all listed as NTFS and if any are missing a drive letter. If one is listed as NTFS and does not have a drive letter then right-click it and select Assign Drive Letter or Change Drive letter and give it a letter.



*I think using the win7 boot loader is the best option. If you don't have an installation disc then post back and I will think about a way to use the XP bootloader.

Answer 3

Boot off the XP USB and choose 'Repair my computer'.



Read this guide to learn about EasyBCD Ect..

http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Installing+XP+After+Vista+or+7



You should create a "Failsafe USB"

(A Bootable USB with MSDART, Puppy Linux Or HBCD)

You can use this usb to Fix/Repair/Restore your computer.



Personally i prefer this dual boot method:

http://agnipulse.com/2010/06/install-grub4dos-hard-disk/

My Boot Screen Picture -> http://prntscr.com/1mdop6

My Menu.Lst -> http://prntscr.com/1mdpb9



Hope it helps :)