Dual boot WinXP and Win7

[coucou]

Hello,

I have 2 drives an HDD with WinXP SP3_x32 and an SSD with Win7 SP1_x64. Both works separately just fine.

In fact, when I choose working on WinXP, I shutdown the machine then physically I disconnect the SSD. Vice-versa when I choose working on Wiin7.

To prevent connecting and disconnecting physically the drives:

1) By setting-up the BIOS for a "HDD First boot", will the second drive MBR be damaged?

2) It is possible to install a dual boot on these existing drives? If so, can someone explain to me, step by step the How to?

I'll appreciate any help.

Regards

[jaclaz]

Sure it is possible.

And no, no damage can happen by simply connecting the two disks at the same time.

As a matter of fact connecting/disconnecting SATA (I presume) connectors is MORE likely to create issues

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_ATA

The eSATA connector has a design-life of 5,000 matings; the ordinary SATA connector is only specified for 50.

There are several way you can have a dual boot setup.

Right now you have on hard disk NTLDR that doubles as OS loader for XP and boot manager (using BOOT.INI for "menu") on the Hard disk and BOOTMGR that doubles as OS loader for Windos 7 (using \boot\BCD for "menu").

The simpler (in the sense of the one less susceptible of any error) would be to add grub4dos grldr to the BOOT.INI.

Set the hard disk as first boot device.

Edit BOOT.INI (which is a plain text file, which you can edit with Notepad - though it may be hidden/read only) adding to it a line like:

C:\grldr="grub4dos"

add to the root of the hard disk the grldr file and a menu.lst, get the package from here:

http://code.google.com/p/grub4dos-chenall/downloads/detail?name=grub4dos-0.4.5c-2013-03-03.7z&can=2&q=

menu.lst contents:

timeout 30

default 0

title Windows 7

find --set-root /bootmgr

chainloader /bootmgr

This way you boot normally to NTLDR, then choose grub4dos and from this latter choose BOOTMGR.

No binary files (or disk sectors) are modified (only the BOOT.INI text file has an added line/choice).

jaclaz

[coucou]

TNX jaclaz for yr quick reply and sorry for bothering you.

Right now, I'm working on HDD SATA with WinXP SP3_x32, is it as the BIOS first boot. So, I'm looking to add the dual boot on the HDD which have a BOOT.INI and NTLDR files at the root.

If I well understood, I've to add grldr and your menu.lst files to the root of the HDD, then add line C:\grldr="grub4dos" to my BOOT.INI (see here bellow)

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professionnel" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

[spybotsd]
timeout.old=30

C:\grldr="grub4dos"

1) what about all the other files inside grub4dos-0.4.5c-2013-03-03.7z package? No need any?

2) I've to confess that I never used grub4dos before. So, does yr menu.lst will give me the choice option for booting from HDD-WinXP and SDD-Win7?

3) Do I have to add/modify any in SDD-Win7?

Regards

[jaclaz]

1) yep, you need just grldr and "a" menu.lst in root of the hard disk.

2) No, the idea is simpler, when you boot from the hard disk you will have the choice to boot either your XP (as is) or to boot grub4dos, when grub4dos (grldr in this setup) will load it will look for a file named menu.lst, the choices available depend from the content of the menu.lst, the sample I provided you will load your Windows 7. If everything works (as it should) you can later decrease (or nullify) the "timeout" in the menu.lst (it makes little sense to have time to make a choice when only one option is available. And later you can "evolve" and remove completely the menu.lst by editing the embedded manu.lst inside grldr

3) No, the idea of this approach is to avoid modifying the \boot\BCD on the Windows 7 install or anyhting on the SSD, this way you can have also revert to connecting one or the other device as you are doing now.

To get into deeper detail, with this approach you boot to NTLDR that acts only as the XP OS loader if you choose XP whilst if you choose grub4dos you use this NTLDR as (primary) bootmanager, to load grldr (secondary) bootmanager that calls BOOTMGR (that works only as the OS loader for Windows 7).

The alternative would be to set the SSD to first boot device (hence boot to BOOTMGR) and add an entry for NTLDR in the \boot\BCD (wthrough BCDEDIT or similar dedicated program, since the \boot\BCD is not "plain text" but rather a Registry hive) and modify the BOOT.INI to reflect the fact that the hard disk is not anymore "first disk", this would make the hard disk not anymore "self standing" in case you want to go back to have one or the other device connected.

Right now your entry in BOOT.INI is:

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professionnel" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

you would have to modify to something like:

[boot loader]

timeout=30

default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professionnel 1st disk" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professionnel 2nd disk" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

In order to be able to boot in the two cases (with just the hard disk or with the hard disk + SSD connected)

I hope the above is clear enough.

jaclaz

Edited April 16, 2013 by jaclaz

[coucou]

Many TNX jaclaz

I'll give a try this weekend and let you know

Regards

[coucou]

Hello jaclaz,

As promised I did the test as described in post# 3:

I added grldr file to the root of C:\

BOOT.INI

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professionnel" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

[spybotsd]
timeout.old=30

C:\grldr="grub4dos"

MENU.LST

timeout 30
default 0
title Windows 7
find --set-root /bootmgr
chainloader /bootmgr

When I boot Nothing happens

The system ignore the modifications I made, I boot as normally from my HDD WinXP.

NO menu inviting to boot from the SSD

Regards

Edited April 22, 2013 by coucou

[jaclaz]

Remove this:

[spybotsd]

timeout.old=30

which is of no use anyway.

And try again.

Or add the line:

C:\grldr="grub4dos"

under the [operating systems] label (BEFORE the [spybotsd] label).

jaclaz

Edited April 22, 2013 by jaclaz

[coucou]

Well Done jaclaz

I works

[jaclaz]

Well Done jaclaz

I works

Good.

jaclaz