Booting XP/Windows 7 on two different drives

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[H]ard|Gawd
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Jul 25, 2005
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Setup:
1 WD 640GB SATA Drive (new, unformatted)
1 WD 160GB IDE Drive (XP Professional installed)

In order to install Windows 7, I had to unplug my XP drive so my system would boot from the Windows 7 CD. At the moment, I'm currently installing Windows 7 on my 640GB SATA drive.

If I plug my XP Drive back in the system, what will happen? Will I have a boot menu and if so, on which drive would it reside on?

My goal is to have a boot menu when I turn my system on which allows me to boot the XP drive or my Windows 7 drive.
 
With the XP HDD unplugged during W7's install it will just load W7, even after you plug the XP one back in. (I've done it.)

To get the boot loader to work properly from the start the XP HDD needs to be plugged in when W7 is installed. This worked flawlessly for me. It will add the "Earlier versions of Windows" option. (Is your DVD set to boot first in the BIOS? Did you try using the boot menu to load the DVD?)

I think this should solve any issues you may encounter though. (Though i have never done it myself.)

The definitive dual-booting guide: Windows 7, Linux, Vista and XP step-by-step
 
Thanks for responding.

Ok I was able to boot from the DVD drive with the XP HDD plugged in. Where does the "Earlier versions of Windows"option appear?
 
My pleasure.

You have to install W7 with the XP HDD installed. Otherwise that option will not appear.

If you install W7 first, then XP, W7 will disappear from the boot menu and XP will load by default. (Being the only option.)

This is the guide you want to follow starting with XP installed first.

Otherwise as mentioned I think that tool in the previous post can be used to fix the bootloader mismatch, but I am admittedly guessing here as I have never used it.

P.S.

I'll also assume you can navigate yourself fine even though the guide is not exactly how you will do it. If not just ask.
 
Ah, my BIOS actually has an option to choose which drive to boot from which appears to work.

But this EasyBCD bootloader editor sounds useful.

Thanks for the help, Little_4nic8er.
 
Using EasyBCD, I added a Windows XP boot entry which points to the WinXP drive (labled D: in Win7). But when I restart and select the Windows XP boot entry, it just restarts my computer. The Windows 7 boot entry works fine.
 
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