Recently I had to install XP on top of my Windows 7 install to be able to update by Nokia E71 as I did not want to run NSU on 7 and risk bricking my phone! However, in the process I realized that I had lost the ability to boot into Windows 7!! Thank you Microsoft!

Did some googling around and found that Microsoft had changed the boot configuration format and I cannot simply edit boot.ini and add an entry for Windows 7. More googling followed, but all I found was how to install one on top of the other and nothing that showed how to restore the Windows 7’s boot menu.

Atlast, I found and entry at TechArena forums that helped me do what I wanted to do!

I had installed Windows 7 and XP on different hard drives and hence both systems’ boot files were already in place and all I had to do was execute the following commands.

bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d “Windows XP Pro”
bcdedit /set {ntldr} device boot
bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr
bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast


Thank you Devasis @ TechArena Forums.

UPDATE: You have to run the above commands on a command prompt (“cmd”) which itself, you need to run as an administrator. Else you will get the “Access Denied” error.