Dual boot?

[Caramac]

Ok l have two hard drives on my pc so l formatted one of them and did a clean install of wiindows 7. Can any one help re a program out there that will give me the option to choose which o/s to load upon boot?

 

At the moment it just boots as normal and loads xp.

 

muchos gracias

[Guest simon]

Ok l have two hard drives on my pc so l formatted one of them and did a clean install of wiindows 7. Can any one help re a program out there that will give me the option to choose which o/s to load upon boot?

 

At the moment it just boots as normal and loads xp.

 

muchos gracias

I'm sure F11 at the start does it mate.

[dirty_sanchez]

There's a file on your computer called boot.ini which you need to modify.

 

Instructions on how to do so are in this article: How to edit the Boot.ini file in Windows XP

 

Assuming that it's just a boggo install on your second hard disk, you'd need to add a line a bit like this to the end of it:

 

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows 7"

 

but substitute "WINDOWS" for the name of the folder that you've installed it in.

 

The boot.ini file is in the root of your C Drive and you need to turn off the "Hide Protected OS files" option in Windows Explorer to be able to see it. (My Computer > Tools > Folder Options > Advanced)

[Caramac]

thanks for the replies guys..

 

Still a no go unfortunatley

 

F11 does nothing.

 

After some research l edited the "boot ini" file (as Mr Sanchez kindly suggested) with several different variations.They worked to the extent of giving me the option to boot from xp or windows 7 when l started my pc up, but when l choose Windows 7 and hit "enter ..nothing.

 

The only way to do it is to physically remove my pc side panel and unplug the main hard drive and then boot up and it loads windows 7 no problem.

Not sure whether its something in the bios that needs changing...

 

"scratches head"

[dirty_sanchez]

thanks for the replies guys..

 

Still a no go unfortunatley

 

F11 does nothing.

 

After some research l edited the "boot ini" file (as Mr Sanchez kindly suggested) with several different variations.They worked to the extent of giving me the option to boot from xp or windows 7 when l started my pc up, but when l choose Windows 7 and hit "enter ..nothing.

 

The only way to do it is to physically remove my pc side panel and unplug the main hard drive and then boot up and it loads windows 7 no problem.

Not sure whether its something in the bios that needs changing...

 

"scratches head"

 

I've just had a dig in some articles and they all suggest that Windows 7 is supposed to have done all of this for you when you install it.

 

You can use this program to do it for you.

 

Download EasyBCD 1.7.2 - NeoSmart Technologies

Edited May 11, 2009 by dirty_sanchez
Sorry, scrub that. That's for Windows Vista.

[dirty_sanchez]

Here's how you should have done it!

 

How to Dual Boot Windows 7 With XP Or Vista | Lifehacker Australia

[dirty_sanchez]

Here's how you should have done it!

 

How to Dual Boot Windows 7 With XP Or Vista | Lifehacker Australia

[Caramac]

I've just had a dig in some articles and they all suggest that Windows 7 is supposed to have done all of this for you when you install it.

 

 

You can use this program to do it for you.

 

Download EasyBCD 1.7.2 - NeoSmart Technologies

 

Cheers mate...looks promising. Will download and give it a try when l get home from work tonight..........working 2 till 10 this week :(

[dirty_sanchez]

Ok, but be careful with it. It looks like it's designed for Vista rather than XP.

[Caramac]

Here's how you should have done it!

 

How to Dual Boot Windows 7 With XP Or Vista | Lifehacker Australia

 

Yeah that option looks good but l did'nt really want to install it on the same drive as l have xp on.

[stringvest]

dual boot? it's not another 'twin airbags' joke is it - the wife and the mother in law....

[Uncle_Meat]

Win7 "should" have sorted all this out for you, if you had both drives plugged in at the same time.

 

Thing is, Win7/Vista likes to control the boot process by itself rather than letting a legacy bootloader do the honours. You could try booting up from your Win7 install DVD and choosing the "Repair my Computer" option. It should then scan all available partitions, see there's a valid Win7 install on there alongside XP and reinstall/fix the bootloader accordingly. You should then get the amusing "Earlier version of Windows" choice when booting, which you can then use EasyBCD or similar to change back to saying "Win XP" if you prefer.

[Caramac]

Its weird...

 

Sanchez that EasyBCD would'nt run once it discovered l didn't have vista on my pc.

 

Cheers uncle meat, l wondered if you would show ;)

 

I tried booting from the win7 dvd and it didn't even give me the option to repair, it just started the install process

 

Thing is when l boot from win7 and go to my comp the other hard drive is'nt even showing up, and yet when l boot xp the hard drive with win7 on shows up. lts like win7 won't even recognise l have 2 hard drives.

 

My main hard drive with xp on is sata, and the win7 one is just connected by ide, is there a jumper setting on one of the drives that could be wrong?

 

Maybe will just have to keep unpluging the xp drive when l want to use win7 till l'm ready to ditch xp altogether.

[Caramac]

Its weird...

 

Sanchez that EasyBCD would'nt run once it discovered l didn't have vista on my pc.

 

Cheers uncle meat, l wondered if you would show ;)

 

I tried booting from the win7 dvd and it didn't even give me the option to repair, it just started the install process

 

Thing is when l boot from win7 and go to my comp the other hard drive is'nt even showing up, and yet when l boot xp the hard drive with win7 on shows up. lts like win7 won't even recognise l have 2 hard drives.

 

My main hard drive with xp on is sata, and the win7 one is just connected by ide, is there a jumper setting on one of the drives that could be wrong?

 

Maybe will just have to keep unpluging the xp drive when l want to use win7 till l'm ready to ditch xp altogether.

 

 

 

Well it fucking won't show up in windows 7 if its fucking unplugged WILL IT!! How can you expect it to show 2 hard drives when you've only got one fucker plugged in.........you fucking thick twat.

[dirty_sanchez]

Self e-Flagellation. It's just going to run and run.

 

Seriously, wipe the Windows 7 drive and reinstall it using an ISO image. I just did it and it worked perfectly.

[George Costanza]

At startup you should be able to chose your boot option. always a 'f' key. look at the options when your pc first turns on, if you eneter the boot device menu you'll get the option of booting off either hdd, cd rom, lan , floppy etc etc. just pick whch hdd has the os you want to load.