Windows 7 and XP dual boot

["Kari Eveli" lexitec@xxxxxxxx]

Hi,

As Windows XP's end-of-life is nearing, I started to look more closely into Windows 7. I would still
like to run XP as long as I can with an option to switch to Windows 7 if it becomes absolutely
necessary. Towards this end I am building a dual-boot machine based on an HP Z400. When moving from
Win2K, I had a dual-boot system (XP, Win2K, (and Linux) ), and that proved to be a good way to
switch. Now then, when faced with the task of building a dual-boot Win7 and XP machine, I found that
it is much more difficult to accomplish. The problem lies with Win7's taking over the boot process.
I used GRUB Classic to double-boot XP and Win2K. Win7 and GRUB do not make a good match. The HP Z400
had Win7 preinstalled with separate SYSTEM and BOOT parttions, XP does not understand these. There
are drive letter problems with XP when installing. To overcome these, here is how I proceeded (by
trial and error) and finally succeeded in doing this:

1) I backed up the entire hard disk containing a Win7 install to an external location. This being a new system, I did not have licensed software (normally I use Acronis TrueImage), and I found these tools to do the backup: REDO Backup and Recovery (http://redobackup.org/) and Hiren's BootCD (http://www.hirensbootcd.org/ (download) and http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd (discussion) ). Hiren's BootCD has a copy of Seagate DiscWizard (a version of Acronis) which runs on the HP Z400 even though a downloaded version of the program does not think the HP-labeled Seagate disk is a Seagate at all.

2) I hid the Win7 partitions (system and boot = c:) and made room for XP on the hard disk by
preparing an empty primary active NTFS partition. You can accomplish this by using GParted (on the
Hiren's disk) or Acronis Disk Director 11 (version 10 does not understand Win7).

3) I installed XP. The system is XP only now.

4) To double-boot, I installed MasterBooter 3.5.
ISO image for burning at: http://www.megalab.it/file/473
Complete and verbose instruction from this Italian site:
http://www.megalab.it/4115/dual-boot-installare-windows-xp-vista-e-windows-7-sullo-stesso-pc-nel-modo-corretto
This account does not deal with the system partion, so I had to figure it out myself.

5) MasterBooter 3.5 is configured as follows: restart from the CD, wait till you have a DOS command
prompt, run "mrbooter", select the 3 partions with following labels:
1) Windows7 (=system)
2) ******** (= boot Win7 = C: )
3) WindowsXP
Make the hiding mask for respective partitions as follows:
1) 001 = win7 system
2) 001 = win7 boot = C:
3) 110 = win xp = C:
(0 = show, 1 = hide)
Use 1 and 3 for starting systems.

Please note that MasterBooter writes over Win7 MBR. The restore it, use Easy BCD, BCD Deployment, Install Win7 bootloader to MBR. (https://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/#comparison download a free personal edition).

At this point everything should be working. The operating systems are completely separate as with
GRUB. If you want to graduate from dual boot to single boot, it is easy: restore an XP image to an
empty disk to have XP, install Win7 bootloader to MBR and delete XP to have only Win7.

Best regards,

Kari Eveli
LEXITEC Book Publishing (Finland)
lexitec@xxxxxxxx

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