Installing XP AFTER W7 for a Dual Boot System

Horror stories of getting this operation wrong are scattered all over the Net. Sooo … This is first-hand experienced, easy and updated instructions worth following (from often good, but more complex earlier and older, other instructional source sites). OK, you have a new HD (or two) and want to install W7 as C: drive. After the W7 install you get down to partitioning and formating to suit your needs. Here is my twin HD set-up as an example: Disk 0 —— 1st. section of disk - C: 'W7 Pro' 2nd. section of disk - D: 'Data' All contents of 'Lee' folders, My Docs, etc. end up automatically here in duplicate folders by altering their 'destination' in properties of each folder, so nothing except the W7 OS stays on drive C: 3rd. section of disk - E: 'ISO' XP Drive snapshots and other ISO's etc. F: Optical Drive Disk 1 —— 1st. section of disk - P: 'Paging file' for W7 only and formated in Fat 32 2nd, section of disk - G: 'XP Pro' 3rd. section of disk - H: 'Archive' Keepers for regular off PC backup and W7 drive snapshots go here. Now why didn't I call XP 'D:'? Well for a very good reason! When in W7 and you click on 'Computer' (or XP clicking My Docs) you will see my present folder list like this: C: W7 D: Data E: ISO F: Optical drive G: XP H: Archive P: Page I naturally wanted the Paging file right at the bottom as I will never be accessing it and 'Data' is between W7 and XP because both OS's will access it, but trust me, you do NOT want W7 and XP right next to each other (been there done that) ! Right, your ready to go and pop in your XP home or Pro. disk and do the F8 thing etc. until finally you get to the 'selecting the drive to install on' bit and …"Oh dear, what have we here"? Alphabet soup, that is what we have here. The volume sizes do not match the Letters at all and the volume you want to install XP to is now the letter 'F'(maybe, but it WON'T be 'G'!) and all the other volumes have mixed up letters too! "Has the XP installer changed all the Letters on my drives"? What to do? The correct volume size and HD position that you so 'carefully' planned out for XP is now 'F', or worse still it might be 'D', right next to W7, which is what happened to me on my 2nd. set-up attempt (my first was a disaster)! I'll spare your the gory details of when I moved on to using 'Easy BCD' to enable my Boot loader to recognize W7 again, as now of course it won't boot to W7, only XP and no boot 'choice' is offered until after it's been sorted (correctly) by BCD. The strategy required for a successful, no tears, dual install with W7 first, is to 'fool' the XP installer so YOUR the boss of what letters go where! Here is the simple 'trick': Leave 'G' (or whatever letter you chose for XP) as 'unpartitioned space' when setting up your HD(s). When you have to choose where you want XP installed, select that space and ignore all other options and have no fear, none of your other partitions have been re-lettered by the install. XP will end as 'G' or whatever letter you decided on for sure! It's a process of elimination for the installer as my 'G' was the only 'letter hole' open to it and sure enough there it was on boot-up, 'G' ! The next step after booting to XP ( your not given any other choice yet), is to install the latest version of 'EasyBCD' (goggle is your friend) AFTER you have installed Net Framework 2 as easy BCD won't work without it in XP. Open easy BCD and select 'view' and you will see both W7 (C:) and XP (G: in my case) Next, click on 'Manage Bootloader' and then chose the 'Reinstall the Vista bootloader' option. Finally, click on the 'Write MBR' button. Re-boot and you will be presented with a boot to W7 and XP choice option. Cheers and good luck! Lee PS: It's important for anyone following this in who knows, maybe a year or 2 yrs. time?, to know that when I said I used the 'latest version' of BCD, I'm referring to version 2.0.2. Also that I have deliberately not supplied a step by step instruction guide of how to install XP nor W7, because if you are not (very?) familiar with doing an OS install, you maybe shouldn't attempt this dual install just yet ?

Lee, have you seen this tutorial by Brink on sevenforums.com: Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP - either installed first

Lee, have you seen this tutorial by Brink on sevenforums.com: Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP - either installed first

Yes I have.

In fact I used those instructions in my 2nd attempt. My first was without BCD and a total disaster


Brink really needs to update it as the instructions for using BCD cannot be followed with the last version of it let alone the latest version. He should make mention of what version he used maybe?

Which reminds me, I'd better edit my post and add that info. to which version I used!

Another area he makes no mention of is the 'letter mess' I described and how to get around the problem.

It is a real cruncher during the XP install operation. Many people will (for sure) believe that the letters on their HD (s) have been altered and will be panicked into making a fatal decision of which lettered drive to install XP onto. They might quite possibly even overwrite their W7 install or worse, valuable Data volume.

I just went with the correct volume size (ignored the letters) and after boot-up I found that I never got the letter that I had marked for the XP drive during my partitioning. I was dished out F, my optical drive letter which had now changed to something else. All other letters were still the same as originally partitioned..

After a good think, I worked out the unlettered, unformatted volume strategy. XP had NO choice but to give the volume the letter G !

So that was 1,2,3 goes at it until finally getting it right


Cheers,
Lee

Lee, you should mention this to Brink. He's pretty receptive to suggestions, especially where his tutorials are involved. If you do, drop a link here so we all can follow it

I don't know the Gentleman, so I'm not going to make any suggestions that might improve or update his articale. Although my attempt at following it never led to success, as I was second-guessing his Easy BCD instuctions, it certainly put me on the road to eventual success with my next try. So, 'thanks Bink" (just in case you ever read this) With your interest in following any (urged) discourse beetween myself and Brink about his artical Ztrucker, I smell 'entertainment' in the air. For yourself and others maybe? Sorry, but I'm not going to be it! Cheers, Lee