Urgent Help needed, switching between 2 xp's

daniel101191 · 26 Feb 2010 at 18:46

Okay to cut a huge story short, i installed windows xp alongside windows 7, so windows 7 was in first, then i installed xp next to it. I lost the boot manager with windows 7 so only XP loaded up, i didn't mind this because i could still get to the windows 7 files, and i wanted to use XP.

I then tried to repair windows 7, so the boot manager worked properly, so i could choose.

This didnt work, and when ever i turned on the pc, it said bootmanger isnt installed press ctrl alt del to restart. so i installed xp on 1 of the 2 partitions, and now I have the original XP, and the 10 minute old XP. This is my problem tho...

It automatically boots into the new Xp, and can i change it or make it give me a choice? I really need to get on it tonight, and any replies are really appreciated.

i hope there is some software that will do it, or even better an option on xp.

Kind Regards, Dan

Deleted member 77746 · 26 Feb 2010 at 19:08

Backup your files and just install Windows 7 again. Is there a reason your wanting to use duel boot?

daniel101191 · 26 Feb 2010 at 19:10

i dont really want windows 7 only wanted to get onto it for some files, I really want to get back onto the other xp, but it doesnt even see it as an operating system anymore...

Deleted member 77746 · 26 Feb 2010 at 19:17

daniel101191 said:
i dont really want windows 7 only wanted to get onto it for some files, I really want to get back onto the other xp, but it doesnt even see it as an operating system anymore...

If you installed a 2nd XP into a new partition then just edit the boot.ini file to point to the partition you installed the first xp installation on. Failing that just take the drive out put it into a caddy or another pc to get the files off. There should be no reason you can't access the files from the second install other than resetting security permissions.