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November 24th, 2017, 02:35 AM
#1
Dual Boot not booting
I'm trying to setup a dual boot Win7 & XP on an SSD drive.
Initially I installed Win7 and stabilized it with MS updates. Booted multiple times, great! (in hindsight, I wish I had taken a backup now)
Then I re-partitioned the drive and installed XP SP3 in the new partition. (I used a Slipstream DVD I created years ago)
It completed the XP install and the first time I tried to boot it, I received a message "Error loading operating system".
My plan (from a Isoplanet document explaining how-to) was to boot to XP, then create a Boot Loader to manage Win7 & XP.
Now I'm stuck because I can't boot the XP and can't revert to the Win7 boot either, because the MBR was over-written.
I also tried to interrupt the bootup, but I can't find a "Safe mode boot". I tried F8 during boot, but it only allowed me select what to boot from (ie: HD1, DVD, or Floppy (I don't have a Floppy drive installed)).
I tried to find something that might be helpful in the Mobo/BIOS manual, but didn't see anything helpful (Mobo: AsusTeK M3A78-CM)
Any suggestions? I've spent hours and exhausted all options I could imagine.
Thanks
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November 24th, 2017, 05:06 AM
#2
If XP is installed first, you don't run into the problems you have now...
But when XP is installed last, you need a program like EasyBCD which is a boot manager program.
Dual Boot Your Pre-Installed Windows 7 Computer with XP https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/8790...puter-with-xp/
If you're happy and you know it......it's your meds.
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November 27th, 2017, 11:21 AM
#3
Steve, thank you very much for the suggestions.
I unsuccessfully attempted 2 more times to load WinXP, before going a different direction. I found out the install was never completing, it would get to the point that it reboots into XP (still installing) and just hang. After 4 unsuccessful attempts, I tried installing it on an old/clean/formatted HDD and it worked smoothly. It wasn't liking something about the dual-boot SSD.
So I scrapped that and reformatted the SSD, successfully installing WinXP first, then using PartitionMagic to create a new partition for Win7. Win7 installed without a hitch and the Dual Boot is now working GREAT! Thanks so much!
Are there any "Dual Boot management / cleanup" tools? When it boots, I get 2 options, something like "previous version OS" and "Win7". I'd like to clean the descriptions up, if possible, but not a big deal.
Thanks Again!
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