HDD Not a boot choice in BIOS

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xMTone

Geek Trainee
In trying to make my system dual boot, I royally screwed it up thanks to XP offering to format my existing Win 7 drive for me. Anyway I changed drive type from AHCI to IDE and installed Windows XP on the intended drive that was actually empty before. But that doesn't show up as a choice when selecting boot order in BIOS. Please help?

If it matters, I would like to go back to getting my drives in SATA mode and having dual boot with Win 7 (I don't think the comp came with an install disk though). But first things first.

Thanks!
 
If you still want a dual boot system, you will have to reformat and install Windows XP first then Windows 7.. If you just want Windows 7, you will need to remove the Boot loader from Windows 7... I would just do a fresh install, But you will have to wipe Both Partitions..
 
I have deleted the partion of one drive installed XP on it. I selected it as the first boot order. I can choose the "R" repair option from the XP disc and get to the C drive. However, I get the "Select a proper boot device" message upon startup rather than having XP start up. I unplugged the other drive for the moment. Why might XP not start please?
 
Ok, I am going to need more info here !!! Is this a desktop or laptop ? How many drives do you have ? What drive did you install XP on ? And why are you trying to repair a freshly installed OS ?
 
Thanks for your attention. This is a desktop that came with a HD pre-installed, and I slapped another one in there as well. There is a DVDR drive as well. I have unplugged the factory-installed HD, and installed XP on the other one. I only hit the repair option up to make sure the drive was indeed OK which I verified by seeing the command prompt "C:\Windows". But if I allow the computer to try and boot to that drive, it's "Select a proper boot device"
 
It sounds like you are getting ahead of yourself here !!! Why did you put in another hard drive with XP on it ?? If XP was installed right on the second drive there is No need to Repair anything to that drive.. Why do you want Two version of XP on Two different hard drives ? What are you trying to do here ????
 
Sorry if I'm not explaining things clearly. First of all, forget I said anything about the repair thing, it's not important.

The end goal is having a dual boot system with XP installed on one HDD and Win7 on the other.

Here's my computer: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=6753723.

I had one of these http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822144160 leftover from my previous system and added it. Win7 could see and use it. I ended up with some kind of RAID configuration according to BIOS. For whatever reason, something I read about XP drivers or a problem I encountered or whatever, I changed the BIOS drive controller from RAID/AHCI to Integrated IDE. Then:

Both HDDs were both formatted as part of the XP install. The one that XP was installed on is set to second boot order in BIOS, after a DVD drive. But when I try to boot from that XP HDD I get the "Select a proper boot device" message.

This hard drive is pretty old, but it seemed to take the XP installation just fine (and worked before using Win 7) so I wouldn't think it's a bad drive. But I'll try installing to the preinstalled one instead to eliminate that possibility.
 
Dude, What you want to do is the following, Take the 640 gb hard drive and Split it, Or put 300 for xp and 340 for windows 7, You will have to use something like Partition magic or something like that.. Split the hard drive and You want to install Windows XP FIRST On C: drive , next Install Windows 7 to the bigger Partition.. It will go on either D: drive or can be E: or even F:, This all depend on how many CD/DVD you have.. Last you can use your other drive as Storage.. I have had up to five OS's on one hard drive before, the only problem is the boot managers..
 
Crap, I created two partitions on that drive with Partition magic. The XP Install recognized the first one only, and I installed XP on it. It says the computer will restart and setup will continue.. I left the install disc in and when it restarts it goes right back to like you're doing a fresh install. So I quit the install and tried to let it boot from the C: drive or whatever. And I get disk read error, press ctrl-alt-del to restart. :/

So I tried reformatting the partion during the XP re-install on that same disk, and took out the disk after it says "Remove anything from the A: drive". And now it reboots endlessly! WTH is this being so difficult?
 
That's they way XP installs, You don't remove the disk until It tells you to, You MUST leave the disk in and let it restart... It will restart a couple of times, Plus it will take over 45 minutes to install..Plus it might not find all your drivers, so be prepared to hunt down some drivers, Like Video/sound or Network.
 
Yeah, but it was acting funny until I deleted the partition I had created in Partition Magic IN the Win installer and then went through with the process. Currently installing tons of updates and looking into converting the drive to use AHCI and then make dual boot Win 7 which I have a key but not a disk for.
 
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