XP and 7

[ilysaml]

i have installed a pure windows xp x64 on a primary drive, then RESTORED my backed-up previous installation of windows 7 X64 ( via Acronis true image ) on the second primary drive, but bios recognizes only windows xp and boots into it, i want to have a dual boot menu prompt for both windows

 

[WyomingKnott]

There are two possible scenarios here. One is that you used Acronis to restore only the Windows 7 partition (or were there two of them?), and the other that you did a full-disk restore. The difference lies in whether or not the Master Boot Record was created on the secondary drive.

By the way, was the previous installation created on that same machine? There are all kinds of issues restore an OS that was installed on one mobo so it runs on another.

Best guess here: Disconnect the WinXP disk. Boot to the Win7 DVD and choose Repair. It will notice that you don't have an MBR / boot loader on the only drive in the system and install them.

Then reconnect the XP drive, making sure that the 7 drive is in a lower-numbered SATA port. Check the BIOS to ensure that you will boot off the 7 drive. At this point your system will boot off the 7 drive but not give you the choice of booting XP.

Download EasyBCD and search the forum for instructions on how to have it edit your BCD and add the XP boot.

If you want to make the XP disk unbootable, remove the active partition flag. Some people think this is overkill. If the win7 drive ever fails, you might want to boot from the XP drive.

Have fun.

 

[hang-the-9]

i have installed a pure windows xp x64 on a primary drive, then RESTORED my backed-up previous installation of windows 7 X64 ( via Acronis true image ) on the second primary drive, but bios recognizes only windows xp and boots into it, i want to have a dual boot menu prompt for both windows

The way you did it will not get you a dual boot menu. Install XP, then install Win7 not using an image. You will get the dual OS boot option.

 

[ilysaml]

There are two possible scenarios here. One is that you used Acronis to restore only the Windows 7 partition (or were there two of them?), and the other that you did a full-disk restore. The difference lies in whether or not the Master Boot Record was created on the secondary drive.

By the way, was the previous installation created on that same machine? There are all kinds of issues restore an OS that was installed on one mobo so it runs on another.

Best guess here: Disconnect the WinXP disk. Boot to the Win7 DVD and choose Repair. It will notice that you don't have an MBR / boot loader on the only drive in the system and install them.

Then reconnect the XP drive, making sure that the 7 drive is in a lower-numbered SATA port. Check the BIOS to ensure that you will boot off the 7 drive. At this point your system will boot off the 7 drive but not give you the choice of booting XP.

Download EasyBCD and search the forum for instructions on how to have it edit your BCD and add the XP boot.

If you want to make the XP disk unbootable, remove the active partition flag. Some people think this is overkill. If the win7 drive ever fails, you might want to boot from the XP drive.

Have fun.

thank you for your help, but i did restore 7 only with Acronis and all what i have is one HDD and i meant by DRIVE ( Partition ) sorry for any misunderstanding....
i solved the problem by formatting the second primary partition and install 7 again and it did show up a dual boot on startup
thank you again for your help

 

[ilysaml]

Best answer selected by ilysaml.