Dual Boot on Win8 & XP

[cincode5]

Hello,

I built a Win8 machine and as an afterthought added a 3rd HDD that has XP loaded onto it. I would like to have the option to select either OS, but don't know how to set it up. I can get it to boot off the XP drive thru BIOS but I would like to use Win8's optional OS select feature. Any suggestions from the forum?

I said I got XP to boot up but that led to another problem that I'll post under Motherboards. The mouse and keyboard are not functional when XP loads. I think its a driver issue with my P6T MB. Please see my other post under "P6T WinXP Mouse/KB issue" if you have any suggestions.

Thanks kindly,
Steve

 

[dodger46]

Need to use Command Prompt to set up Startup to dual boot.
Open Charms Menu, restart your machine whilst holding down the Shift key.
Choose Troubleshoot, Advanced Options, then Command Prompt. You'll need to sign in using your Administrator P/W
At the Command Prompt, type
bootrec.exe /scanOS (Note space before /)

Should find Win XP

Type bootrec.exe /rebuildbcd

You will then be given a choice of OSs to add to boot. Choose what you want and type exit to reboot and you should then be presented with a choice of XP or 8 to boot from.
Was the XP drive installed on that Motherboard? If not, the drivers will be mismatched, best update them if you can.

 

[cincode5]

Dodger46,

Tried your solution through the win Administrator account and the operation returns with zero identifiable Win installs. Shouldnt it at least see Win 8, instead of nothing. The only diff in what you proposed is that I had to enable the Admin account using lusrmgr.msc. Any suggestions?

 

[dodger46]

Discovered a probable explanation, your new machine is too 'new' for XP. ACPI and SATA drivers are no problem to Win 8, but your XP install would have to be updated to run properly, and if you now disable ACPI in BIOS it will cause Win 8 to crash. The correct way to dual boot would be to install XP 1st with updated drivers from your Motherboard site, including SATA drivers. I believe you could leave ACPI enabled in BIOS for the XP install as the correct drivers would then be installed. Then when you clean install Win 8 the MBR would enable dual boot. Means totally starting from scratch if what I've gleaned is correct, probably easier to boot individually via boot order in BIOS! Meanwhile a complete overhaul of your drivers in XP should restore all functionality...