Simplified dual boot configuration for Windows 7 and XP with EasyBCD

I "upgraded" my desktop PC to Windows 7 a few months back. Since Windows 7 won't do a simple OS-level upgrade from XP (what was MS thinking?!?), I decided to drop a fancy new 1TB SATA drive (a major upgrade from the old 200GB PATA drive) in the PC right along side the old timer - with the hope that the old disk could soon retire along side the plethora of old hardware in my attic. First: Install Windows 7. Check. Next: Move data. Check. Next: Install battery of software - MS Office, Acrobat Reader, JDK, Eclipse, ... (4 hours later) Check. Everything looks good. Windows 7 runs very nicely on this old dime-a-dozen 3.0 Ghz P4. I'm very impressed.

A few days later, the old drive becomes a resident of the land of misfit hardware in my attic. Cool. That drive was noisy and slow anyway...

Recently, I tried to use Pinnacle Studio 9 to pull some video off a video recorder (older MiniDV recorder with firewire link). The DV capture did not work on Windows 7 and no patch from Pinnacle (that reminds me... I should see if they've released one yet). I grumble a few four letter words and head up to the attic. A few minutes later, the old bugger is out of retirement and humming away. I use the BIOS level config to boot old the disk, capture some video, and life is good.

Irked by the BIOS flip-flop garp, I start thinking - doesn't Windows have a multi-boot facility? Can't I use that to choose which disk/OS to boot on startup? A quick Google search tells me I need to start messing with bcdedit. It is clunky, poorly documented, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up bricking both drives. Digging further into the search results I find EasyBCD. With a couple of clicks, EasyBCD added the option to boot XP to the Windows 7 boot menu and it works flawlessly. I no longer have to hit F2 at the magic moment in order to get into the BIOS config menu to boot the XP disk. As a double bonus, I don't need do it again on a reboot to reset the boot disk back to Windows 7. EasyBCD is freeware, but the publisher will happily accept donations. I think they'll see a few bucks float their way from me.