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He Installed XP and Lost Windows 7

Subscriber Raju Malhotra wrote recently with an interesting problem involving Windows XP and Windows 7 — he lost his Windows 7:

good afternoon sir!

i have a system pentium 4 motherboard
i have already load xp on c partition (first) ntfs
window 7 on d partition (second)ntfs

xp was corrupt
I again install xp on first partition
but there is a problem with running window 7
system does not show window 7 option
starting boot option

isn't again window 7 will be install or
any other solution?????????

Raju ran into a typical problem with dual-booting the Microsoft way.

Each Windows version has the capability to dual boot with earlier versions. However, you have to install the early version of Windows (e.g., WIndows XP) before you install the later version (e.g., Vista or Windows 7).

Otherwise, Windows XP writes over the Windows 7 (or Vista) dual-boot instructions when XP is installed.

That way, the booting computer thinks that Windows XP is the only thing installed.

Of course, the same thing happens if you install Windows and Linux &mdassh; you have to install Linux last, or Windows will overwrite the boot record on the hard drive, losing the boot information for Linux.

What's the fix?

Well, the more difficult one is that Raju could reinstall Windows 7 and set up his dual-boot structure again.

The easier way would be to boot the Windows 7 installation DVD and use its Repair function to rewrite the master boot record.

Copyright © 2009 Terry A. Stockdale. All rights reserved.