CEONSS

Hey guys,

(Gigabyte GA-H77M-D3H UEFI Board, 3 Harddrives)

i already posted this in hardware forums, but they couldn't help me out.

I have an XP 32 installation on harddrive 1 with c: system and d: data.
Also i got a f: data partition on harddrive 2. Both drives were new.

I also bought new harddrive 3 for the win 7 c: system and d: data.

Today i tried to setup a multiboot. What i want is: Boot XP to desktop / select Win 7 with f12 quickselect.

To do so i unplugged the xp harddrive 1 which is in legacy boot mode and also the harddrive 2 with the data.
After that i plugged in the win 7 harddrive 3. Format, clean new install with uefi, 2 system reserved partitions, c: active and d:active.

Windows XP can boot whatever drives are plugged in.

Windows 7 will ONLY boot when ONLY harddrive 3 is plugged in.
When harddrive 1 harddrive 2 and harddrive 3 are plugged in, the first Win 7 loading screen comes. Then it says "Windows is loading files" (2 times), after that it will boot to secondary boot option on harddrive 1.

What i did: Clean reinstall of Win 7
-Tried another USB DVD drive
-Checked memory with memtest, took out of slot and back into
-tried other sata ports
-tried 25 zillion uefi configurations
-cleared cmos

I am near to giving up, and starting to believe that a dual boot win XP 7 on an UEFI board is not possible. That sucks.

Can sb give me a hint?

Greetings
Rotten

What a mess did you create, man
It is hard to advice anything without proper understanding of your setup, but why did you disconnect HDD 1&2 before installing Win 7? I've installed different OS combinations over years, and every guide says Win 7 can automatically load old Windows, too (e.g. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/80 ... -7-xp.html).

As far as I understand it, now your WinXP loads first when all HDDs are on (because it's on first primary section). Win 7 can't load if HDD1 (WinXP) is plugged in, because it's not on first primary. I can speculate that with HDD3 (Win7) and HDD2 (data, no primary) Win 7 will load nicely, too. Swapping HDD1/HDD3 will probably help Win7 to load, too, but I'm not sure about it.

My advice is to format HDD3 (Win 7) and install Win7 on HDD3 when HDD1&2 are both plugged in. The Win 7 Loader have to find Win XP boot and use it correctly.

This computer I have duel boots to linux and Winxp. I cant remember how me and my buddy set it up but it defaults to Ubuntu unless I push the keyboard button on boot up and then a purple screen comes up and I can choose what I want.

Sorry wish I could come up with more but I think what you want can work.

Not sure about the booting into win7 when your already in winxp.

If you are using WInXP, do not connect the PC to the internet as it is no longer supported by MS...so no more updates and patches hence you will be vulnerable to all the hackers out there looking for PCs to turn into bots, or install malware etc...

Not really an issue in my world. I never had/have confidence that MS is safe nor secure.

GNU grub is what is used on my computer for duel boot.

https://www.gnu.org/software/grub

The thing was, that there was no chance for a "normal" dualboot with selection via Win-7-bootmanager, as i wanted to install XP in legacy mode and 7 in UEFI.

So... i gave up this project and went the normal way that Maniac suggested, and i used legacy for both. Thx for the input

Greetings

PS: I chose a new admin password. Dunno if it is secure enough? The page http://howsecureismypassword.net said, "It would take a desktop PC about 2 quintillion quadragintillion years to crack your password". But can a passwort be secure???

It's security is somewhere near 0 now that you typed it into that site... Even if site itself is clear, connection is not guaranteed to be secure, nor the signal all the way between your keyboard and the site's server-side software. The rule of a thumb is: at least one of each: latin alphabet letter, decimal digit, special char + total length of 6+. It will not make your password invulnerable for hacking, but it is enough to defend it from all the script kiddies and casual malevolent people.

Sincerely yours,
there are manufacturer-induced hardware-level backdoors in most modern desktop PC's.