Windows 7 not working on my DELL XPS

Hii,

I recently installed windows XP on my dell XPS which has a windows 7 preinstalled on it. To proceed with windows XP installation i changed the BIOS setting of SATA from AHCI mode to ATA. Windows XP has been installed properly. Now when i try to reboot the system its taking me to windows XP all the time, i am not able to use windows 7. I want my laptop to show the options of switching between XP and windows 7. Any help in this regard??

Thanks a lot in advance. I really appreciated your time.

Thanks

I will give you this link, it looks like the best one to follow. You will need the drivers to be available for an install, but the site explains that.

How to enable AHCI : Windows XP « Expertester

Make note that after you install the AHCI drivers, you have to change the bios accordingly.

Let us know if you run into any problems.

Edit: I am not sure, but it sounds like if you are running Win XP SP3 you may already have the drivers..

Thanks a lot sir for your help.
To follow the above procedure mentioned i have to download and install the APCI driver. However since i dont have any driver installed on windows XP as a result i am not able to use internet, not evn the external drive to install the said driver.

Kindly suggest any alternative.

Originally Posted by Saltgrass

I will give you this link, it looks like the best one to follow. You will need the drivers to be available for an install, but the site explains that.

How to enable AHCI : Windows XP « Expertester

Make note that after you install the AHCI drivers, you have to change the bios accordingly.

Let us know if you run into any problems.

Edit: I am not sure, but it sounds like if you are running Win XP SP3 you may already have the drivers..

Might be a typo, but ACPI is not the same thing as AHCI.

Do you have a model for your Dell beside XPS?

Have you upgraded XP to SP3 yet?

Hii Sir,

First of all sorry its an typo error.....My laptop model no. is XPS L502X and i have not upgraded to SP3 i simply installed XP (SP 2) Pro on my machine having windows 7.
Thanks for your concern

I will say it is this one on the Dell Site. Make sure the correct model is specified and download the file.

Drivers and Downloads | Dell [United States]

The link may not work so you may have to find it yourself. The Driver says All OSes, so it should work for XP. I also do not remember it asking for bit type, so use you own judgement.

Edit: I also found these, but they are listed by chipset, or maybe just Intel.

http://search.dell.com/results.aspx?...at=sup&x=9&y=6

Hi

There are problems with installing Windows XP after Windows 7 is already installed.
It works a lot better the other way around.

Try downloading and installing EasyBCD.

If it can see both operating systems it will let you add Widows 7 to the boot menu.

It's free, simple and easy to use.

EasyBCD - Download.com

Mike

Thanks a lot Sir it worked after installing easybcd but the problem is i had to change SATA setting from APCI to ATA. However doing this would only enable windows7 to work whereas windows XP has stopped responding. After all i am happy that i have my windows 7 recovered but the sad part is i have windows XP installed but it not functional.....:-(.

Thanks a lot to all for your help and time

Originally Posted by MikeHawthorne

Hi

There are problems with installing Windows XP after Windows 7 is already installed.
It works a lot better the other way around.

Try downloading and installing EasyBCD.

If it can see both operating systems it will let you add Widows 7 to the boot menu.

It's free, simple and easy to use.

EasyBCD - Download.com

Mike

Did you go through the process of loading the AHCI driver before you lost XP?

Can you switch back to the IDE controller and get XP back?

i dint load the AHCI driver i just change the SAT settings back to ATA from AHCI. This made my windows 7 work properly. Whereas i can see windows XP as an option when computer starts but if i choose it as an operating system the moment it process, it stops with blue screen and stops to respond. On the other hand if i choose windows 7 it works very well.