Dual booting Windows XP 32-bit and Windows 7 64-bit on Core i5

[Amit3945]

After I upgrade my current machine, I'm thinking of dual booting Windows XP 32-bit and Windows 7 64-bit on my Core i5 machine.
This way I can have the experience of playing all the old Windows 98 / XP games and also play all the current ones with Windows 7.

Is it possible to have such a setup (XP 32 bit / Win 7 64 bit) on a Core i5 machine?
My system assember said that XP on core i5 wont install and work.

Note : The virtual box version of Windows XP included with Windows 7 Pro might have some compatibility issues with the drivers so I want a bit more control over it.

Thanks.

 

[Matt1970]

The only issues will be the drivers. Keep in mind 32 bit XP will only see around 3.5 gigs of ram.

 

[ninaholic37]

This way I can have the experience of playing all the old Windows 98 / XP games and also play all the current ones with Windows 7.

Which games do you play that are for Windows 98 / XP? Mostly Dos ones?

 

[Amit3945]

Thanks.
3.5 Gigs for XP is no issue as I plan to use this OS for FEAR/FarCry/Homeworld/PoP-TSoT/NOLF/Commandos.....and a few others.

 

[fire400]

easybcd does boot adjustments as you need it (user controlled)

or linux controlled boot startup is more desirable if you want a 3rd party manager outside of the windows operating systems

easybcd is easier to manage with uefi OFF

if you're lazy and don't like custom software, then just install xp first, and then windows 7 on a different partition, then microsoft will auto adjust the bootloader for a dual boot screen. the other pain is finding proper SATA controller drivers for installing XP on newer motherboards if AHCI/IDE (bios option if allowed) mode doesn't work, slip streaming guarantees nothing.. as fragile as the XP installation may be with 3rd party tweaks.

also, if the i5 mobo/hardware components do you not support XP, and even if it does, winXP may not not run as well as an older pc that has more/better for XP.

or you could do trial and error - installed XP pro sp3 with tweaks of every kind onto a thinkpad t430s i5 3rd gen and the OS environemt with most software is inferior in many ways to a thinkpad t400s c2d with XP pro sp3. tested with both HDD 7.2k rpm and SSD's.

if you really wanna play old games @ max, get an older computer before the OS generation shifted with newer hardware.

 

[Whisper2]

Is it possible to have such a setup (XP 32 bit / Win 7 64 bit) on a Core i5 machine?
My system assember said that XP on core i5 wont install and work.

If you mean Haswell and Series 8 chipsets, your assembler is correct.

I tried to install XP on a system with a Gigabyte Z87 board and a i7 4770K and I could not get it to install. I tried Gigabyte's drivers for the previous chipset (Series 7) and that did not work either even though Series 7 does support XP. I did not get into changing the BIOS OS settings so I do not know if that would be of any help. I lost interest at that point and did not investigate any further.

 

[Amit3945]

Thanks guys.
I did some testing yesterday :
Installed Win 7 (64 bit) on 1 partition & Win XP SP2 (32 bit) on other (after AHCI/IDE bios change).
The problem started when I was trying to install the sound drivers from the M/B CD.
Auto start did not display ANY S/W's available on the CD. (The Readme talked about Win XP 32bit SP3, so I will try with that today).
Also on installing the CAT display drivers (the latest ones 14.4 from AMD site), the system did not detect the card.
Any suggestions from people who have tried something similar?

 

[fire400]

try a diff. soundcard and/or an older graphics card for xp if you've already gotten that far and still want to pursue.
manufacturers and software developers aren't treating xp/vista with as much support anymore.

 

[Amit3945]

Some more testing :
I am able to dual boot Win 7 (64bit) & XP SP3 (32bit) & had to manually install the Realtech audio drivers (the MB driver Cd still did not display any SW's on the CD)
However there is a new problem w.r.t cat display drivers
I downloaded the latest ones (14.4) from http://support.amd.com/en-us/download for XP 32 bit but after running the setup the display drivers simply do not install.
Windows shows VGA instead of identifying the gfx card.
Restarted the machine but still the same.
Can anyone point me to stable driver that I can test with?
The Log shows display driver installation as failed while all other installations from the setup have succeeded
Thanks'

 

[KillerBee]

Have you tried disable driver signature enforcement

http://social.technet.microsoft.com...re-enforcement-in-windows-xpe?forum=itproxpsp

 

[postmortemIA]

I thought cat 13.4 is last ati catalyst supported on XP. Which means your gpu must be over a year old so that is supported by the driver.

 

[Amit3945]

Thank's everyone who is pitching in.
For the past few days I was testing with all sorts of drivers that I could get my hands on & success FINALLY !!!
Yesterday I tried with the 13.6 drivers that come with the MSI R9 270X card and everything just installed smoothly.. (Should have tried this option at first before rushing to get the latest and greatest drivers from the net.)
A single reboot and I am good to go
Sorry for all the bother but thanks all the same.

 

[Whisper2]

Amit,

Which i5 do you have? If Haswell, I will try again. As I mentioned earlier, I had next to "0" success when I tried XP with mine.

 

[Amit3945]

I am using Core i5-4440 Haswell Quad-Core.
Where exactly were you stuck up?

 

[Whisper2]

Amit,

I tried to install XP last November. I do not recall exactly what the system could not detect, but it would not even start to install. I read Gigabyte's info about my MB and it does not include XP as a supported OS, so I gave up at that point.

Based on your experience, I will try again -- with more effort. Thanks.

 

[Amit3945]

If it's the blue screen error that you are getting at the start of XP installation, you need to change the setting in bios (AHCI to IDE....that's what worked for me.)....but I think you might have already tried that.
If you are giving it another try let me know if you have any luck.