Dual Boot Windows7 and XP

I have some old programs here I'd like to still be able to use and they are processor intensive so I'd like to take advantage of this new computer. I tried XP mode using virtual machine but there is lot of issues and it's really slow anyway so I thought I'd try dual boot. Here's drive setup:

SSD drive: Windows 7 installed

2 HDD's in Raid 1 configuration for files/data.

Single HDD I want to install XP on.

I slip streamed a CD with nlite with the RAID drivers and XP setup recognizes the drives. The probelm is when I go to install on the drive I get the following error:

To install Windows XP on the partition you selected Setup must write some startup files to the following disk:

<windows 7 disk>

However, this disk does not contain a Windows XP-compatible partition.

To continue installing Windows XP, return to the partition selection screen ) and create a Windows XP-compatible partition on the disk above. If there is no free space on the disk, delete an existing partition , and then create a new one.

Now I understand that the XP setup will overwrite the bootloader and fubar the Win7 boot but that can be fixed. None of the tutorials I've read say anything about XP wanting a new partition though and I believe the reason it does is because the Win7 disk is partitioned with GPT and XP needs MBR.

I'm guessing here the only way I can do this is reinstall 7 on MBR partition?

Funny you should mention this. I just went through a fatal crash on Win7 and had to reinstall. Since I was doing that anyway, I also installed Linux Mint 13 on a dual-boot setup. It was a HUGE PITA, but I really like Linux.

EDIT!! Found this on the EasyBCD site essentially tellime that I'm full of crap:

Warning!

If you're installing Windows XP to a separate physical drive, do not disconnect the Windows Vista or Windows 7 drive, and do not change the drive boot order in the BIOS. This will not help and will make it terribly difficult to get your dual-boot working again!

http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/I ... Vista+or+7

Anyhoo, I'm not sure if this will work, but here's what I would try. Shut down, unplug all the other drives except the one that you want to install XP on, then reboot with the XP drive in the DVD-ROM. Install it. This will prevent it from touching the Win7 drive. Not sure if you'll have to touch the BIOS to do this.

Shutdown and plug in the Win 7 drive. Boot into Win7. It won't find XP anywhere (I think). Don't panic. Go download EasyBCD:

Info: http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/
Download: http://download.cnet.com/EasyBCD/3000-2 ... 56865.html

I was using this pretty extensively until Linux put the GRUB loader on my drive. Use at your own risk, of course, but it worked fine for me. Then again, it could totally brick your system

Linux Mint is cool. Have 3 hard drives on a hot swap front loading rack, one Windoz, one spare, one Linux. Bios allows drive select to boot so when Windoz gets unhappy no worries just select another drive to boot and get done what is needed.

I have misc old computers laying about so I put one in the basement with Linux KDE on it, the minimal requirements make the old pc's run like new sans Windows.

Black_And_Blue wrote:Linux Mint is cool. I have misc old computers laying about so I put one in the basement with Linux KDE on it, the minimal requirements make the old pc's run like new sans Windows.

The more I use it, the more I dislike Windows for what I'm trying to accomplish. The only problem I'm having is that MS Access won't work under it and I use that extensively. I can get it to start with Wine, but it can't open/edit/access databases. It's a known problem that I haven't worked out yet. At this point, I'm ready to try VirtualBox and say the heck with Windows if it works. It's the only non-open-source non-cross-platform piece of software that I use.

There's a distro call Puppy Linux which is very light. Burns on a CD using only 50 megs. It's made to run off the CD all the time - it will save a config file on your hard drive so it saves your changes and applications. I put it on a 20 year old laptop for my kids and it breathed much new life into it. My kids like it but that could be because it barks whenever it loads.

Back on topic: Richard, did any of that work?

Horace wrote:

Black_And_Blue wrote:
Back on topic: Richard, did any of that work?

Nope installation failed with an error about the drives and reset my HDD's to non raid........

Crap. Sorry. Have you looked into Oracle's VirtualBox. I just loaded that one today on Linux, installed XP, and have access to all the drives/files/old software I need. That's one piece of software that I would gladly pay for.

https://www.virtualbox.org/

I think the issue is this is a UEFI system, there is system reserved partition with no drive letter and you can't even assign one. If what I'm reading is correct that is where the system boot files are.

I've tried installing again with the Win7 drive detached and managed to get XP running but I can only boot into it from the bios. It doesn't see the drive Win7 is installed on at all. If I run easyBCD from Win7 the XP installation is not detected....

I'm pretty well convinced the only way I'm going to solve this is to first install XP and then install Win7.

Richard S. wrote:I'm pretty well convinced the only way I'm going to solve this is to first install XP and then install Win7.

I was just getting ready to type the same thing.