Dual Boot not booting
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Thread: Dual Boot not booting

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Posts
    34

    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

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Sep 1999
    Location
    Largo, Fl.
    Posts
    22,322
    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.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
    Posts
    34
    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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