I have a newer Dell desktop and it has XP on it. I have run the Windows 7 upgrade advisor and apparently it is compatible. What I would like to do is set up a dual boot system, if possible. I have the dell disk for Windows 7. I have installed simple straight forward operating systems but I have never set up a dual boot. I'm not sure even how do go about it. Any help would be appreciated.

It is best done from the Windows 7 Forum:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

Thank you but that seems fairly complicated. Maybe I'm not capable of doing it, after all.

It is actually quite simple just start slowly. If you can install Windows at all you can do a dual boot.

OK, I followed those instructions but something happened somewhere. The Windows 7 drive boots but not the drive with XP on it. Where did I go wrong?

Well unfortunately without being there it is hard to say what went wrong. The only thing I guess I can suggest now is trying a third party boot manager.

Why not try Easy BCD Boot Manager:

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/easybcd.html

Thanks, I'll give that a shot.

I have the dell disk for Windows 7

Is this a full installation disc?

I take it that you partitioned the drive before commencing to add Win7.

If Win7 boots..... click Start >> Computer .... do you see the 2 partitions listed?

 

 

If you are in Win7, then Win7 should be the C Drive..... that's how Win7 will see it.

 

With XP on one partition and then adding Win7 to the other is as Rich said..... quite simple.

Adding Win7 when you already have XP installed is the easiest way.

Just remember that each OS has to be treated separately.

So an Anti Virus program etc will need to be installed on each OS.

 

Many moons ago i ran a triple boot:

Win2000

WinXP

Vista.

 

Now my main system is a dual boot with Win7 and Win8.1