Dual boot win 7 XP

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Hi all, I need some guidance please. I would like to make a dual boot desktop. I have read the article as in here :http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html. The question is as follows : Can I use my E-SATA external drive( 1 terabyte ) partitioned to 160 gig to install XP unto? Also the article talks about SATA drivers for the XP installation are necessary is this true? WIN 7 Home Premium 64 bit is installed on my C: Drive and working well
The reason for doing this is to play the game Age of Empires2. Which does not work with win7 no matter how much I have tried and read.
Your advise will be much appreciated. Regards Peter

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You can install to and use e-SATA as a system drive for an OS, no problemo. Just make sure the connection is always safely guarded from accidental disconnect while running.

The more complicated part;
If Win 7 is currently using the AHCI BIOS SATA setting, you will also need the SATA drivers for XP for that system board. If you installed XP without them you would need the BIOS SATA setting to be legacy or IDE mode instead and then Win 7 would not boot unless you first switched back to AHCI mode in the BIOS OR hacked Win 7 so it would boot with IDE mode set in BIOS. The best option here is to slipstream the SATA drivers into a XP install disk with a program like nLite.
Also, if XP or any older Windows OS is installed after a newer OS, the newer OS will not boot until the boot manager is repaired to reflect both OSes are present and bootable. EasyBCD is a little program that can be used for this particular task after XP is installed.

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As an alternative to dual boot, I’d suggest you consider running XP under a virtual machine. I have used the free VMware Player to run XP on Windows 7 both 32 and 64 bit with no problems. Some prefer the free version of VirtualBox. Either would give you immediate access to your game without rebooting…

Chris

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Thank you F.U.N. downtown and wartaaids for your help. I will try the easier option of going with the Virtual Machine. I will report back on how it goes. Regards Peter

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Hi wartaaids, the virtual machine works good. The game is playing. Thank you very much indeed. Regards Peter

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@petrox: Glad that worked for you…

Chris

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