Iam runningwindows 7 build 7000 with XP sp3 on a partitioned drive.Was recently having boot problems on win7 after I deleted Windows XP Recovery Console to make moreroom for Win7, tried Startup and Repair with the help of a Repair Disk ,System Restore and Memory Check - that did'nt help.I was'nt even able to boot into Win 7. Then tried Defragmenting and Error Checking the partition housing Win7 while running XP- that helped and I'm not having boot problems since then.Another issue was that my boot options at startup showed Windows 7 ( default OS ), Earlier Version of Windows and Windows Recovery Console (for XP ) though the last option was available on the partition that was deleted much earlier.TriededitingBoot Configuration Data ( bcdedit /delete )and ended up deleting the option 'Earlier Version of Windows' from the boot. I was not able to figure out,despite help from several TechNet guys, which entry to delete. Tried msconfig while running XP, found the extra entry under the boot tab and deleted it with no further issues. But this was a problem that wasitself caused by the dual boot and also able to offer a solution.Whenever you check a disk for errors after selecting both the boxes you are required to restart the pc and it is unavailable for use for 30 min or so. Not so if you are running one OS while running chkdsk on another.I formatted my XP Recovery Console while running Windows 7.Surely, there may be more instances in which one running OS can be used to to make changes inOSs lying on other partitions which otherwise may have been difficult / not possible while running that OS, most ofyou guys here know more about pc'sthanme and I am sureyou can figure out more ways. Irfan

I see you made this question into a declaration in another post, so I'm responding here so as not to take anything away from it:my originalanswer was a self-question about Chkdsk which I'm editting hoping others might find it usefulhttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/940830 uppercase errors in xp because it was formatted with vistahttp://support.microsoft.com/kb/929755/ if MFT is messed up, chkdsk ruins the files (PRE SP3) http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931689/ undetectable errors in very large compressed files (PRE SP3, INCLUDED IN SP3, see kb946480)So what have I learned? 1. delete/Format the partition using the target OS 2. Chkdsk using the highest available OS, with patches2a windows 7 is a beta, so um, is it brave or brash to use chkdsk with it? I can't decide. I haven't had any problems yet but

Irfan, Your technique of dual booting as a method to troubleshoot another OS install isn't a bad one, there are however a number of caveats. If you have multiple partitions installed on your machine, most hope is lost if you have an underlying hard disk failure, or bad blocks as its possible that both OS's will be affected by these issues. The operating system that you are attempting to repair FROM must "understand" the underlying structure or nature of the operating system that you are trying to repair. In the case of dual booting windows, both win7 and xp should understand your more than likely NTFS file structures. A lot of folks will use their entire drive for Windows for instance and then use 3rd party or Linux based boot cd-roms to access the partitions available on the drive, inspect, modify and/or repair them. System Rescue CD is one such instance. As an aside, a great resource for Windows 7 information is http://windows-7-faq.com/

Hi Chitbill, I see from the links you gave that there are many more issues and considerationsinvolved than simply being able to access and make changes in one os while working on another, I think I was'nt being brave or brash but simply ignorant. But ofcourse, if you know the rules I still think its a tool that can be covenientlyused on the idle/inaccessable os. Thanks,your links were a great help.Irfan

Thanks sdorand,been to your site before, itsinformative for those using win7 actively.I knew about the dangers of having many OSs on a single drive but had littleknowledge of the existence of the 'understanding' win7 and xp had/did'nt havefor each other. Chitbill and you made me realise the implications involved.I plan to buy win7 as soon as available without changing my present hardware and without giving up XP,I have the option of an external drive/partitioned drive.Ineither case I shall be able to accessone from theother.The need is to learn as much as I can about the limitations of this approach.Thanks again for your help. Irfan