I have quite a few questions and I hope someone can explain it to me. I'm using a certain setup right now. 2 HDD's 500 GB Win7x64 80GB WinXPSP3 Installed them in that order, installed all updates for win7, installed windows 7 loader by daz, installed xp. used easybcd to restore win7 mbr. added entry for xp the I found that my win7 was not activated anymore. Is there a way that when I restore my MBR ( In cases wherein I have to reinstall XP, because of massive beta testing) I won't get deactivated? What will be the consequence if I get deactivated say 30 days from now? will that count as the "30 days activation period" ? will i not be able to log on anymore? or will it still stay at 30 days because i was activated until i had to reformat xp? do i have other options and what would be the easiest setup for me? i hope someone can answer me. thanks for your time mates.
As a general rule it is usually best to install the oldest O/S first. Windows 7 knows all about XP but the converse isn't true. However, easybcd seems to have resolved this matter for you. I've never used a loader but logic suggests the loader needs to applied after you have used easybcd because it needs to load the SLIC before Windows 7 starts up.
Why would you even need Easy Boot? I have XP and win7 both installed on a dual boot and the build in windows boot manager comes into play that lets me select which one to boot. No special program or anything. Am I missing something here?
skylark is correct on this one Once you have used EasyBCD to correct the boot manager you must install the loader application again so that it can set the loader up to boot before Windows.
The loader must run at boot up so that the emulated SLIC table is loaded - you broke that sequence. Simply reinstall the loader in 7 so that it runs at boot. Backup the system partition and MBR when all is working as it should so you can restore or reinstall loader again next time you mess with it.
thank you so much for the detailed responses mates. i thought that was the issue as well. it's not a big deal and i can easily restore the 7 bootloader then re apply the windows 7 loader. this would get me activated again. for my other question though. what if i have to reformat my xp drive? i will be doing a lot of testing on it so this is highly likely to happen. that would mean that after i reinstall windows xp, it will break the windows 7 bootloader right? after restoring it with easy bcd, windows 7 loader will not be activated and thus my windows 7 won't be activated as well. if this happens after a month or two, won't it count against the "30 days to activate" ? will i still be able to log on to Windows 7 and apply windows 7 loader again? thanks for the responses mates.
i mean, i'm already activated, no problem with that, for now. what happens if after 6 months, i reformat xp? it will break windows 7's bootloader won't it? the i'd have to restore it through easy bcd. this will remove windows 7 loader. after that, my 7 won't be activated, will it still show 30 days? then use windows 7 loader again to fix it? or i won't be able to log in again and have a big problem? sorry to be asking over and over again. i just want to be sure of this particular detail mate. as i'm sure i will reformat xp in the future.
That may be true but you can also boot the win7 DVD and select "Repair" it will repair the boot issue and then you can boot either one, easy in my opinion. Just saying.
that could be another solution. but how about logging back in? will i still be able to log in to apply the windows 7 loader?
I have been using exactly the same configuration installed exactly in your order for quite a while now. I have reinstalled WinXP twice and Win 7 twice . After each installation you just have to install EasyBXD and repair the mbr thru that. If you are reinstaling winXP and repair mbr thru newer edition of Easy BCD then it does not affect activation status of win7.