How to Dual Boot Win7 and XP

Discussion in 'Software' started by Terry D, Nov 4, 2009.

  1. Terry D

    Terry D Private E-2

    I disconnected my XP HDD and installed Win7 on a new HDD and set it up to run fine. I reconnected my XP HDD as a second HDD and it was seen as just another drive, which I've now renamed as drive G:. I have now decided I would like to have the ability to boot up from either drive but my BIOS does not give me that option. Any ideas on the best way to do this?
    I am also concerned about updates going to the correct drive for whichever system I'm using.
     
  2. Earthling

    Earthling Interplanetary Geek

    If you had left your XP drive connected, and installed W7 to the new drive, W7 would have created a dual boot for you. It did with Vista anyway, and Vista and W7 use the same boot configuration.

    From where you are now you would need to install a boot manager of some sort, such as Grub4DOS, or install W7 again with XP connected.
     
  3. collinsl

    collinsl MajorGeek

    I recommend EasyBCD or a similar program. It adds a boot entry to the windows 7 boot loader, so on the startup of the computer you get a choice of which OS to boot into.
     
  4. Terry D

    Terry D Private E-2

    Many thanks for the advice guys, much appreciated.
     

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