Dual Boot XP/7 on separate HDD's - XP sees Win 7 partitions as RAW

Discussion in 'Windows 7' started by FFManHole, Oct 6, 2010.

  1. FFManHole

    FFManHole MDL Member

    Nov 27, 2009
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    Hi guys - really appreciate any advice you may be able to provide for this issue.

    Have a dual boot XP/7 setup, OSes on separate SATA HDD's. Win 7 (Ult) clean install on NTFS formatted 400GB HDD with 3 partitions (System Reserved = 1, OS = 2, Apps/Data = 3) - activated and working fine. XP, on the other NTFS formatted 400GB HDD, has a single partition, activated and working fine also.

    The issue arises when trying to view two partitions in Win 7 from XP. In Disk Management (XP), the partitions where the Win 7 OS and Apps/Data are located (drives G and H) are RAW format (and cannot be accessed/contents displayed) but the System Reserved (drive F) is NTFS format.

    As mentioned, the Win 7 HDD was formatted in NTFS (not using the "Quick" method) and is correctly displayed as NTFS in Win 7's Disk Management console. Please note that there is no problem viewing the contents/drive/partition info of XP from Win 7.

    Is there a way (easy or convoluted) to get XP to view ALL the Win 7 partitions as NTFS? Can anybody explain why XP can see the Win 7 System Reserved partition as NTFS and the other two as RAW? Is it to do with permissions?

    Have tried Googling (interestingly there are many instances where this has occurred to others but no solution appears to rectify this problem) so thought I would throw it your way and see if any of you talented techs can offer any suggestions.

    Appreciate your time and efforts and for providing such a wonderful forum.
     
  2. randomboy

    randomboy MDL Junior Member

    Feb 10, 2010
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    #2 randomboy, Oct 6, 2010
    Last edited: Oct 6, 2010
    It looks that you have tried to fix the loss of restore points problem in dual boot using the "\\DosDevices\\Z:"=dword:00000001 method. If you use this method to stop XP from deleting the restore points of Win7 installation then the Win 7 system partition appears as RAW formatted. What you are seeing is as a result of the fact that Win XP sees drive as encrypted. This problem can also occur if bitlocker is on in the win7 system drive
     
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  3. FFManHole

    FFManHole MDL Member

    Nov 27, 2009
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    #3 FFManHole, Oct 6, 2010
    Last edited: Oct 7, 2010
    (OP)
    Thanks for the reply randomboy (not enough posts to have "Thanks" button enabled)

    That's exactly what I did (ie using the workaround to fix the restore point problem). In fact, I set up another PC with the same/similar config (XP on one HDD, Win 7 on another (larger) HDD, applying the restore points workaround) and, as you correctly mentioned, the end result was the same - XP could only see the Win 7 partitions as RAW.

    So, I take it there's no way (in this dual boot XP/7 configuration) to prevent XP from deleting Win 7 restore points while preserving access to Win 7's partitions/drives? In other words, you have to either remove the restore points workaround from XP to view Win 7 drives/files/folders/etc or physically disconnect one of the HDD's each time (thus, no dual boot) to preserve Win 7's restore points but then cannot copy/view/share files between HDD's/OSes?

    Just curious if there's other XP/7 dual boot configurations I could consider which somehow overcome this issue. Again, randomboy, appreciate very much your response.

    After following up, re-read the MS article hxxp://support.microsoft.com/kb/926185 which pretty much indicates that, if you go the dual boot path, then using the restore point workaround (or Bitlocker option) allows retention of restore points but not access to affected Win 7 volumes/drives.
     
  4. randomboy

    randomboy MDL Junior Member

    Feb 10, 2010
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    Not as of now. I have tried almost all methods found on internet but have yet to find an answer. The only workaround I could use was to have a virtual environment for XP.
     
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  5. FFManHole

    FFManHole MDL Member

    Nov 27, 2009
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    Thanks again for your reply, randomboy. (Maybe the forum Admins can add a couple of "Thanks" to you on my behalf). Appreciate the advice.
     
  6. randomboy

    randomboy MDL Junior Member

    Feb 10, 2010
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    No problem FFManHole. Be regular at the forum and soon you will have enough posts to thank anyone you like
     
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