I'm trying to setup a dual boot with Windows 7 and Windows XP. The OS are on 1 drive with 2 partitions and Norton Ghost 14 is installed. What I want is to restore a Ghost image of Windows 7 on the C: drive and restore a image of XP on the D: drive. The Windows 7 works although after selecting XP on the boot menu the blue error screen appears for 1/2 second and then the computer reboots. When I install the full versions of both OS on the partitions without using Norton, the dual boot works.
Not sure when to use fixmbr and fixboot. Do I use the bootrec /rebuildBcd option? Using the easyBCD BootGrabber, Windows 7 is found but XP is not there.
The options set on the Norton emergency boot disc are - Set drive active is unticked - Restore MBR is unticked - Restore original disk signature is ticked
The following is how I setup the dual boot:-
(1) Installed full version of Windows XP and then Windows 7 (2) Restore Ghost image of Windows 7 to C: drive (3) Added a XP entry in the easyBCD program with both OS pointing to the C: drive (4) The dual boot works until now. When restoring the image of XP this is when this stops working
I'm trying to setup a dual boot with Windows 7 and Windows XP. The OS are on 1 drive with 2 partitions and Norton Ghost 14 is installed. What I want is to restore a Ghost image of Windows 7 on the C: drive and restore a image of XP on the D: drive. The Windows 7 works although after selecting XP on the boot menu the blue error screen appears for 1/2 second and then the computer reboots. When I install the full versions of both OS on the partitions without using Norton, the dual boot works.
Not sure when to use fixmbr and fixboot. Do I use the bootrec /rebuildBcd option? Using the easyBCD BootGrabber, Windows 7 is found but XP is not there.
The options set on the Norton emergency boot disc are - Set drive active is unticked - Restore MBR is unticked - Restore original disk signature is ticked
The following is how I setup the dual boot:-
(1) Installed full version of Windows XP and then Windows 7 (2) Restore Ghost image of Windows 7 to C: drive (3) Added a XP entry in the easyBCD program with both OS pointing to the C: drive (4) The dual boot works until now. When restoring the image of XP this is when this stops working
There are certain rules that need to be observed when setting up a dual boot whether it be on a single drive split into two or two seperate drives.
The older O/S MUST be installed on the first volume C: (XP) and the newer version installed on the second volume D:(Win7).
In your case you will need to install XP on C: and Win7 on D:on drive 1. Once that is setup properly you must then install Ghost on the second volume D:, a restore point can then be created onto an Internal drive or preferably on an external drive. Only select "Back Up My Computer" and Not "files and folders"
When a recovery is selected (one touch) the image is restored in the correct order XP on C: and Win7 on D: if you try and swap them arround then you will get an error, Windows only likes the oldest O/S first. Drive letters do not get changed if the above rules are observed.
Why you want Win 7 on C: and Win XP on D: I am at a loss to understand, those are the rules if you want to break them then you are just looking for trouble, try this link (if it works) I am not very good at "Linking" and read all the thread. Here
Now before redK gets on his horse and gallops over here to show me how to "Link" again, I know what I did or didn't do and that is copy the url and here it is Here
Another rule that I missed out in the previous post was, before you create a partition on drive 1 install the oldest Windows O/S (XP) and then partition the drive.
If you have another HDD connected it is better to disconnect it before creating the partitiom on drive 1 or you may have to re- letter the drive. Drive 1 has to be lettered C: and D: for a dual boot on a partition to work properly. Hope that helps sort your problem out.
It doesn't have to be installed that way Deric. Installing the older OS first is easier because the windows boot loader sets everything up automatically. But it can be installed the other way around, you just need to fix the windows 7 boot loader and easyBCD makes it easy.
What I was getting at is that you can't really install it one way and then try to move them around if the drive letters change. When you install it all the registry entries, system variables, and all the installed software is set to the current letter.
You can't later change the drive letter and expect anything to work.
Windows XP was on my old computer's C: drive. Will this image still work on another computer? The reason why I preferred Windows 7 on C: is this is my main OS. I'll try again with installing Windows 7 on D:
Dave, I am not questioning what you are saying because I fully respect your views, all I am saying is that I do it the old conventional way and have never had a problem other than our discussions on multi booting which is another story.
I totally agree with your last paragraph about swapping letters and drives around etc.it's just asking for trouble, and to be truthful I have never messed with the boot loader because I am not confident with that.
I have never used EasyBCD because I stick to the conventional method, having said that I am always open to experiment with it, fully supervised of course.
So I suppose the answer really then is to stick to basic rules when producing a dual boot and don't try and swap it around when restoring an image.
Windows XP was on my old computer's C: drive. Will this image still work on another computer? The reason why I preferred Windows 7 on C: is this is my main OS. I'll try again with installing Windows 7 on D:
I was typing my reply to Dave when you posted this, I have a multi boot machine and my main operating system is on the 4th drive and all you do is select the boot priority in boot manager. I have XP, Vista, Win7(1) and WIN7(2) no need to swap around.
DaveH can advise on the question of whether an image will work on another computer because I haven't tried to transfer an image from one pc to another, I would only be guessing, yes, but I am not sure.
I think I understand now. You trying to restore an image from another system and make it dual boot with an existing installation of windows 7.
You have a couple problems here.
The first problem is that for the reason I explained above, these operating systems were both installed and working as the C drive and they have to remain that way. They will not work as any other drive letter.
Unless your willing to re-install windows 7 from scratch as the D drive, you may have to use a third party boot manager.
A dual boot can be installed so that each OS takes the C drive when it is booted but I have no idea if it's possible to configure 2 existing operating systems to boot that way.
Hopefully Brian can comment on that.
Your second problem is that your trying to restore XP into a different hardware enviroment, thats whats causing the blue screen.
The main reasons are usually a different hal or different hard drive controller. It would be helpful if you could read the blue screen and see if it says 00000007B.
A different hal would be when the one system has a single core CPU and another has a multicore CPU.
The different hard drive controller would usually be going from IDE to SATA or having different chipsets that use different AHCI drivers.
I think the first step if you really want to do this would be to try to get XP working on the new system as the C drive.
Has Dave described the situalion correctly? You have Win7 installed on your computer (Computer 1) and it is working properly. You have WinXP on another computer (Computer 2) and it is working properly. You want to "transfer" WinXP to Computer 1 and have two working OS on HD0.
Can you give us a brief description of each computer?
Yes, I've actually formatted the drive first then created 2 partitions. The Windows 7 had already been installed on the computer before formatting and both are working correctly. Just want to mention the OS are on drive HD2. Does this matter? I can't read the number on the blue screen since the computer restarts straight away.
I've restored the XP image onto the C: drive and this still has the same problem. Doing a clean install of XP onto the C: drive works.
(old computer with XP Pro) Brand: eMachines 770 Processor: Pentium 4 2.4Ghz (1 Core) Hard Drives: 1 x 80GB IDE (Windows XP), 1 x 250GB IDE RAM: 2GB DDR memory
(new computer with Windows 7 Pro) Brand: Self built PC Processor: Intel Core i7 2.8Ghz (4 Core) Hard Drives: 1 x 250GB SATA2 (Windows 7), 1 x 500GB SATA2, 1 x 1TB SATA2 RAM: 8GB DDR3 memory
Thanks. I think it is doable but there will be a steep learning curve for you. You need to install a third party boot manager so that each OS can be hidden from the other and each can boot as C: drive. Then restore the WinXP image, install SATA drivers into the non booting OS and change the HAL. WinXP should then boot. Now you can install drivers for the new hardware as seen by WinXP.
Regarding the OS on HD2. Where are you seeing this? In Disk Management or in the BIOS? Win7 Disk Management can be misleading. If the OS is really on HD2 in the BIOS it means the booting files could be in an active partition on HD0.
Brian- Is there no way to recreate the "double C drive" that happens when both are installed from booting to the CD?
Dave, I think you are correct in that if you don't hide one OS from the other then the booting OS is still C: drive, So for example if Win7 is booted it will be C: drive and WinXP will be D: drive. And vice versa. I don't like OS seeing each other as it allows cross talk. For example a program can put its program files on one OS and its user files (Docs and Settings) on the other OS. A good example of cross talk is when WinXP boots and sees the Win7 partition. The Win7 restore points are deleted.
A while back there was a thread about scheduled ghost backups not working on a dual boot, everytime the system booted into the other OS, the main OS would then get stuck trying to do an incremental backup.
I remember trying to setup a dual boot using vista so they would be both the C drive when in use.
Very similar to what fraiser is trying to do. I had 2 working vista installs in virtual pc and tried to put them together as a dual boot where they would both boot as the C drive. I didn't spend too much time but I kept having problems, I didn't spend too much time and ended up booting to the install disk to setup the second version.
But it seems to me if you can set it up that way booting to the install disks, there should be a way to combine 2 working OS together so it boots the same way.
Not sure if I got time to try that today.
I know it can be done with 2 hard drives and selecting the drive to be booted in the BIOS but I consider that the wrong way to do it and not sure if I could reccomend it.
The second system here is pretty powerfull with lots of RAM, it would be very easy to boot the system in virtual PC. The ide driver would not need to change, I'm not sure about the hal though.
Let me see if I got the time to try to put together a dual boot real quick
Dave, be my guest. Your method is a lot simpler to describe than mine. If fraser1 doesn't like the Microsoft boot manager, a third party boot manager could be installed at a later date.
