Multiboot XP and W7?

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I wanted to create a system with two drives, one XP SP3 and the other
W7, selecting the drive I want using the BIOS boot drive menu. Should
I be able to do this?

I have installed the two OSs independently - XP drive runs fine. The
W7 drive wants to hang up.

Thanks

me
 
[email protected] said:
I wanted to create a system with two drives, one XP SP3 and the other
W7, selecting the drive I want using the BIOS boot drive menu. Should
I be able to do this?

I have installed the two OSs independently - XP drive runs fine. The
W7 drive wants to hang up.

Thanks

me
Click to expand...

Considering I run multiple OSes here on separate disk drives,
and use the BIOS boot menu, yes, it works.

If the computer is old enough, the BIOS boot menu (popup) might
not be available. In that case, you enter the BIOS setup screen,
change the boot order, save and exit, and then your alternate
OS boots. The popup boot menu is a more recent innovation,
and my year 2000 computer doesn't have it.

I recommend installing the OS in question, while all other disk
drives are disconnected. This for me is the nasty part, because
it's going to wear out the SATA connectors on my cabling :-)

Paul
 
I wanted to create a system with two drives, one XP SP3 and the other
W7, selecting the drive I want using the BIOS boot drive menu. Should
I be able to do this?

I have installed the two OSs independently - XP drive runs fine. The
W7 drive wants to hang up.

Thanks

me
Click to expand...


If you installed W7 on the second drive while your XP drive was
attached, the bootloader probably was installed to your XP drive and if
so, you will need to use the boot menu rather than the BIOS select option.

If you absolutely insist on using the BIOS boot select option
you will have to disconnect the XP drive and see if you can boot from
your Win7 DVD and repair the boot loader.
 
If you installed W7 on the second drive while your XP drive was
attached, the bootloader probably was installed to your XP drive and if
so, you will need to use the boot menu rather than the BIOS select option.

If you absolutely insist on using the BIOS boot select option
you will have to disconnect the XP drive and see if you can boot from
your Win7 DVD and repair the boot loader.
Click to expand...

I appreciate your attempt to help me/

I installed W7 on a single SATA drive with no other drives connected.
Then I connected up the XP drive. They now became selectable within
the BIOS, which does not proved any boot menu which often is
selectable via F12.

My problem is that the W7 drive keeps hanging up when I use it. Now
maybe the problem is my antiquated mobo and/or cpu and/or ram. I
dunno. I would not surprise me. Yet, the XP drive has never hung
similarly. Not yet anyway. Yes I have tried a second SATA drive for
W7.

My mobo is a M3A78-CM and the CPU is a AMD Phenom 9950 Quad Core. I
am running 2GB RAM. The XP is SP3. W7 is Ultimate.

That's my story, and I am sticking to it.

Thanks

me
 
I appreciate your attempt to help me/

I installed W7 on a single SATA drive with no other drives connected.
Then I connected up the XP drive. They now became selectable within
the BIOS, which does not proved any boot menu which often is
selectable via F12.

My problem is that the W7 drive keeps hanging up when I use it. Now
maybe the problem is my antiquated mobo and/or cpu and/or ram. I
dunno. I would not surprise me. Yet, the XP drive has never hung
similarly. Not yet anyway. Yes I have tried a second SATA drive for
W7.

My mobo is a M3A78-CM and the CPU is a AMD Phenom 9950 Quad Core. I
am running 2GB RAM. The XP is SP3. W7 is Ultimate.

That's my story, and I am sticking to it.

Thanks

me
Click to expand...



OK, but if I understand, the machine did not hang when you did /not/
have the XP drive in place?
 
OK, but if I understand, the machine did not hang when you did /not/
have the XP drive in place?
Click to expand...


Just the opposite. It did not hang when I did not have the W7
drive(s) in the picture? Ran fine with only XP.

me
 
What do you mean by "hanging up"?
Click to expand...


In the middle of a process, such as a folder copy from external drive
to W7drive, the system hangs with the mouse and/or keyboard
unresponsive. Have to unplug the machine to get going again.
Thanks
me
 
[email protected] said:
In the middle of a process, such as a folder copy from external drive
to W7drive, the system hangs with the mouse and/or keyboard
unresponsive. Have to unplug the machine to get going again.
Thanks
me
Click to expand...

Check the Event Viewer to see if anything is being logged there.

Other than that, if it was me, I'd be running...

1) http://www.memtest.org (downloads halfway down the page)

A single complete pass error free is good enough. You can also
use the mersenne.org/freesoft Prime95 and included torture test
as a memory tester. But the memtest one is good enough for a
quick test of all the memory. Only one megabyte of low memory
doesn't get tested with the bootable memtest86+ program.

Memtest86+ is better than any Windows memory tester, which can't test
the memory in the kernel area.

2) Both Seagate and Western Digital will have downloadable
diagnostics for their hard drives. One version is "DOS-like"
and comes with a version of FreeDOS. You burn a CD with it, boot
it, and it runs FreeDOS with the disk test program included.

The other version runs in Windows.

A caveat with at least the Seagate one - if you have USB hard
drives connected to the computer, Safely Remove and disconnect
them from the computer before running the Seagate software.
I think the Seagate Windows version is the one that erased the
config EEPROM in my USB enclosure. I had to find a repair tool
to put it back ("Cypress chip problem").

It could be, there is a "bad spot" in the drive, and that's
where things are hanging up.

Paul
 
I have taken multiboot out of the picture. Still have hangup.

The machine is a M3A78-CM mobo with a AMD Phenom 9950 Quad CPU and 2GB
RAM. All the internal hard drives are SATA.

I have a large 38GB data folder with many sub-folders archived on an
external 1TB Seagate Freeagent hard drive. There are some 4K
sub-folders and some 93K files therein.

When I run the XP hard drive by itself, and copy/paste the large data
folder to that drive, it works just fine, and the data seems perfect.

When I run the W7 drive by itself, and try to copy/paste the large
data folder to that drive, it hangs up quickly, and I have to power
down/up to get going. Of course, W7 doesn't like the abnormal
termination.

Should I get a new mobo and cpu?

Oh my

me
 
Just the opposite. It did not hang when I did not have the W7
drive(s) in the picture? Ran fine with only XP.

me
Click to expand...


Ok I think I get it. XP runs fine but Win7, though it boots up hangs
when you use it.

Even though XP runs OK...I'd run a RAM test just to be sure.

2Gigs of RAM is OK...but a bit on the low side for Win7

I'd go into the control panel and adjust for best performance...
there may be problems running some of the "effects" which I'd turn off
completely.



(Performance options, visual effects)
 
Tried memtest86 v4.3.4. No errors.

Thanks

me
Click to expand...


Well that was a good step to take anyway.

Did you try setting the machine for best performance by disabling effects?
 
Somewhere said:
I have taken multiboot out of the picture. Still have hangup.

The machine is a M3A78-CM mobo with a AMD Phenom 9950 Quad CPU and 2GB
RAM. All the internal hard drives are SATA.

I have a large 38GB data folder with many sub-folders archived on an
external 1TB Seagate Freeagent hard drive. There are some 4K
sub-folders and some 93K files therein.

When I run the XP hard drive by itself, and copy/paste the large data
folder to that drive, it works just fine, and the data seems perfect.

When I run the W7 drive by itself, and try to copy/paste the large
data folder to that drive, it hangs up quickly, and I have to power
down/up to get going. Of course, W7 doesn't like the abnormal
termination.

Should I get a new mobo and cpu?
Click to expand...

Are the correct chipset drivers installed in W7? Are you running the drives
in AHCI mode or 'compatability'?

Doesn't F8 bring up a boot menu if you press it during BIOS load?
--
/Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a
cozy little classification in the DSM."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)
[Sent from my OrbitalT ocular implant interface.]
 
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