dual booting Win XP and win 7

[Luftyman]

Hi,

Could somebody explain me how to make dual booting win XP and win 7.
my scenario is like this:
 - Windows 7 on partition 1
 - Windows XP on partition 2
 - A shared partition for both Windows as partition 3
 - No Windows has access to the other Windows partition

How to realize with the plop boot manager (step by step because I am a novice for computer system)?
And how to use USB drive for this propose? cause I do not have any floppy drive installed on my computer.

Thank you in advance

[jan4]

Hi Luftyman,

"step by step because I am a novice for computer system" so READ more to get the info you need!

Begin here and read at least 1 to 6!! "http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html"
If you have important data back it up!!!

There are different ways to do what you want.
You can burn an ISO image to a CD or if your USB is bootable copy plop to usb(more risky as HD's may be swapped so be sure to install on the right one) .

Do you already have operating systems installed?
Dit you make the partitions 1,2 And 3??
After installing a windows the MBR is overwritten , this is normal and only preventing plop from load, run installer from plop to enable again.

If one windows may not see the other you must use the Clear functon op plop , Be sure to first SAVE the partitions in the bootmanager.
And keep in mind that there is data in the space windows is saying not used .

Warning windows COUNTS partitions so if you have the partitions 1,2,3 and they all work and you clear partition1 partition2 will NOT work without change boot.ini of XP.

So read more and try

Regards , Jan 

[Luftyman]

Hallo Jan4,

Thank you for your reply.

Here the step by step of my installation, please correct it if some thing wrong.
1. I have 500 Gb new HDD installed on my notebook.
2. I run Windows 7 installation CD and creates partition for Win 7, Win XP and Data Sharing,
but when I create for Win7 partition there are automatically create 2 partitions, system partition and primary partition. so in total there are 4 partitions on the HDD.
 Partition 1 : System partition 80 MB
 Partition 2 : Win 7 partition 150 GB
 Partition 3 : Win XP partition 100 GB
 Partition 4 : Data 200 GB

3. After win 7 installed in my notebook at partition 2, I boot from USB stick with grub4dos installed for booting the usb stick and I install the plop boot manager to the hardisk from usb stick and I create profile for win 7 and win XP,

the profile is look like this:
Win 7 linking partition : HDB 1 (because HDA in the profile is the USB stick)
                               HDB 2
                               Cleared
                               Don't touch

Win XP linking partition: HDB 3 (booting partition )
                                Cleared
                                Cleared
                                Don't touch

4. I boot to the Win XP and installed the WIN XP cd installation on the partition 2, and windows XP they found 3 partitions:
 Partition 1 Un-formatted 150 GB
 Partition 2 (C) 100 GB
 Partition 3 (D) 200 GB.

After finish Win XP installation the notebook is always rebooting, never entering to the windows.

5. When I boot from USB stick where the plop boot manager installation file created it say that partition changed, and I click Yes to enter the plop boot manager.

Then I stuck in this step because I could not boot to win 7 or win XP either.

Please help me, what I should do?

Thanks in advance.

[Elmar]

hi,
it sounds like you installed the boot manager to the usb drive and not to the hard disk. did you change the destination drive in the boot manager install program?

regards
elmar

[jan4]

Hello Luftyman,

"Win 7 linking partition : HDB 1" you are going wrong there!!!
Your Harddisk is ONLY HDB is you BOOT FROM USB.

The first time you boot from HD again that drive will be HDA so you must make profiles for HDA .

And as Elmar stated on The harddisk and not on the usb drive You should see The boot manager if the usb drive is NOT Pugged in.

[Luftyman]

Thanks Elmar and Jan4 for your fast response.

I don't know if the plop boot manager installed to the USB or to the HD, but I found that the 1st partition on windows & changed from 80 MB to 100 MB.

I didn't see the plop boot manager show up while rebooting the PC except when I boot from USB. And I didn't see anymore grub4dos show up when I rebooted from USB, only the plop boot manager.

Could you please advise me when/where I should install the plop boot manager after installed Windows 7?
directly inside the windows 7 OS or from bootable USB with grub4dos as I did.

And how to uninstall the plop from bootable USB?

Thank you.

[Elmar]

Could you please advise me when/where I should install the plop boot manager after installed Windows 7?

bootup again the usb drive with grub4dos and start the plop boot manager installer. use option 7 (change destination harddisk) and choose 81h. then install with option 1. (full boot manager install)

And how to uninstall the plop from bootable USB?

there are many ways, but install grub4dos again too the usb drive and install it to the mbr of the usb drive -> the plop boot manager is removed.

[jan4]

Hi Luftyman,

I think you installed on USB.
So Start from usb again and from the menu make a profile with all Partitions visable and try to boot from HD (or start over again making partitions).
Then Start from usb again and run plop install and select uninstall.
Then Change Drive to Disk1 and install on Harddisk (Master Boot Record)
Close Program and REMOVE usb device , then reboot.

You Can now go in plop config menu and create partitions and profiles.

Then install the not installed operating systems after trying to boot the corespondending profile.

On finish install Windows will Direct start (plop seemt to be gone!)
Now place the usbdisk again and boot from it , then go to plop install and  select restore MBR.
Then Close program and remove USBdrive and reboot.

Regards jan.

[Elmar]

the important thing of installing from usb is always to select the destination harddisk. when you boot from usb, then the usb drive became the first internal hard disk and the real first internal hard disk became the second and so on.

[Luftyman]

Thanks Elmar and Jan4 for your advices, I will try as you suggested. I hope I'll be lucky this time...

have a nice day.