[rshaffer61]

I have my original XP Pro on one HD.
Installed Win7 on a second HD without the XP drive still installed.
Now the problem is the only way I can chose between the two is to go into the bios and switch which drive I want to boot from.
Is there any way to be able to chose this from the boot menu to make this easier?
I have been trying to modify the boot.ini file but cannot get it to work.


Old Boot.ini


[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


New boot.ini


[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows 7" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons



I finally got ti to try and boot but it still is going to the main drive with XP and not to the second drive for Win7


Thanks everyone for the assist.

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Vista and Windows 7 use the BCD rather than the boot.ini.......Win7 won't even look for the boot.ini file during boot.

You should be able to use a third party editor like BCDEditor to add the XP install to the BCD file in Win7 (if it will run in Win7...I haven't tried this one). Then have it boot to the Win7 drive by default and you should be prompted for which OS to start. You'll want to do this from Win7.

I have used VistaBootPro for this, but it's no longer a free app.

[wannabe1]

Vista and Windows 7 use the BCD rather than the boot.ini.......Win7 won't even look for the boot.ini file during boot.

You should be able to use a third party editor like BCDEditor to add the XP install to the BCD file in Win7 (if it will run in Win7...I haven't tried this one). Then have it boot to the Win7 drive by default and you should be prompted for which OS to start. You'll want to do this from Win7.

I have used VistaBootPro for this, but it's no longer a free app.

[rshaffer61]

Tried it but it's a no go.
Doesn't see the XP boot.ini to add it.