Duat boot windows 7 and Windows XP

[comda]

Hello Computer World!

As mentioned in my previous posts, i have built a new System which i really like. However i seem to be having a TON of compatibility issues trying to run older games and software on it. For example, GTA VC GTA SA play but with lag, crashday, trackmania nations wont launch at all. And an application i Use Autohotkeys is having issues running in some of the online versions of these game (Gta SA). SO i have decided that the Windows XP SP3 mode in windows 7 Ultimate isnt enought, so i want to install windows XP. Now, i want to dual boot it however my Hard drive runs in AHCI mode and from what i read windows XP wont boot with that. Along with my motherboard came a little slip saying i needed an AHCI driver if im going to install windows XP. Where can i get this driver and how can i install it? If i do install XP where can i get a boot manager do control which partition i boot into?
 My second question is: is dual booting really worth it, or can i install Windows XP on a virtual machine and will get i the same performance for my game out of it like a dual boot? If so what other options do i have other then Virtual PC?

My system specs:
AMD FX 8120 (8 core CPU) 3.1Ghz each core
8GB RAM (2x 4GB)
1tb Hard drive
MSI R6870 Hawk graphics

Thanks in advance for your help.

[comda]

Sorry but forgot to mention that the Motherboard was an Asus M5A97 if that helps...

[hartbeatmr]

Good morning comda and welcome back to CH

    OK who ever told you that XP doesn't like ACHI is completely wrong if they meant that XP does not natively have ACHI / Raid drivers than they were correct. If you want to leave it at ACHI for both XP & W7 you need the ACHI / Raid driver but for installing XP during the set up of XP look on the bottom of the screen it will say to install raid drivers press F6 that is when it wants the ACHI drivers (I think it was F6 ) then just finish the install as normal.

    The ACHI driver you would get from Asus (if the drivers are not on the CD already that came with the MoBo) web site on the driver download page it is under SATA http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/AMD_AM3Plus/M5A97/#download

    My recommendation for dual booting XP and W7. Install and set up XP first then install W7 and let W7 take care of the boot loader the Windows 7 will be the boot manager. You also may want to way out the options on partitioning the HD and put XP on one partition and W7 on the other or you can install 2 separate HD's that is up to you.

    Also you didn't list what PS (power supply) you had. Model and wattage. Some of the game issue may be the video card may be starving for more juice. Plus make sure the Video card has the 2 power plugs that are plugged in to the top of the video card. 

Good luck on your Dual boot PC and come back if you need anything. Mike

   

[comda]

    Also you didn't list what PS (power supply) you had. Model and wattage. Some of the game issue may be the video card may be starving for more juice. Plus make sure the Video card has the 2 power plugs that are plugged in to the top of the video card. 

Good luck on your Dual boot PC and come back if you need anything. Mike

   

My power supply is a TR2 RZ 750 WATT BRONZE thats what the box says. Plus i do have both those connections connected to my graphics card. I already have win 7 installed. Am i still able to install XP now even though win 7 has partitioned the whole drive?
My power supply is a TR2 RX 750WATT BRONZ

[hartbeatmr]

Good evening comda and welcome back to CH

    Thank you for the reply the PS should be OK to run what you have right now and is a quality PS.

You can try to install XP after W7 but honestly you will run into problems. Using XP as the boot manager will not work as well using W7 as the boot manager.

But you will have to repair the boot manager from the Windows 7 disc. The reason why is XP will install it's own (older) version, and XP's boot manager can not boot to win 7. Repairing using the Win 7 disc will re-install Win7's boot manager, which can start XP.

But really in the long run and the issues that will come up I would still either get two hard drives or partition the hard drive that you have and install XP first then install W7 on other HD or partition but that is up to you.

Good luck and let us know how you make out, Mike   

[comda]

ok thanks for the fast reply. So your saying that if i try to install windows XP after 7 on a separate partition i will ruin 7s boot manager? ok however will this little application fix it?
http://neosmart.net/EasyBCD/

I found this while surfing the web a few hours ago. wonder if it will save me the time of starting all over again, since i already have windows 7 installed on a 200GB partition and then 4 more partitions for my games, programs and extras ect. And what other problems can i run into? just curious?

[hartbeatmr]

Good evening comda and welcome back to CH

     I am Almost 100% sure that when you install XP after Windows 7 as already installed it will brake the W7 boot files. If you don't want to you don't have too buy or use a 3rd party software. All you would do is when you are done installing XP you will have to use the windows 7 disk to repair the boot loader then both OS's should work.

     That software you have link us too comes highly rated and may work for you. Personally my self I have always used the windows boot loader and I don't use any 3rd party software. But if you want too give it a shot maybe it will save you some headaches but the it may cause you some issues I honestly can not say .

Please let us know how you make out and if you use it let us know how well you like it etc. Mike

EDIT: you will also need sata driver during the XP set up you will see "press F6 to install sata driver" then continue with the setup. Plus check if your sata hard drive is listed as IDE / Raid / ACHI etc this will affect the install also

[comda]

alright. Thanks so far for your help. I was about to do the install last night when i stumbled on a thought. How do i know whether i have windows XP 32 bit or 64 bit? i know 32 bit windows will only let me use 4gb out of my 8GB. Is there a way to check? I have a legal CD of windows XP home. However over the years and the move i lost the original box and papers. All i have is the CD and the serial number writen on the back of it.

[patio]

It will say on the CD...XP 64 bit was at the time somewhat of a rare commodity...
So my guess is it's 32 bit...if it doesn't specify on the CD it's 32 bit for sure.

The other option you have outside what's been discussed is to install XP to a seperate HDD...
In this scenario you would be using the BIOS at boot to determine which OS you want to use at a particular time.
This eliminates the risk of screwin with the Win 7 bootloader and is actually the cleanest way to have a dual-boot system...beauty of it is is that neither OS "sees" each other however file transfers are seamless and some...although not all apps installed will run/launch from either OS...


If you in fact decide on this setup the procedure is relatively simple...
Unplug the existing Win7 HDD...
Connect the new HDD and boot to the XP CD and do the full install...
After installing all drivers/important apps etc. and XP is running fine it's simply a matter of re-connecting the Win7 HDD and you're good to go.

At boot time you hit whatever key it is to enter the BIOS (mine happens to be Delete ) and select which HDD/OS to boot to....

Quick and painless.

P.S. The other advantage to this setup is if you have a solid backup strategy that includes Disk imaging you create seperate images for each HDD/OS and store them in a safe place...

Let us know...

[comda]

ok so say it is a 32bit version. How can i then be able to use all 8GB? is there a patch or something?

[hartbeatmr]

Good afternoon comda and welcome back

There is nothing you can do it is a limitation to the OS max is 3 to 3.5 gigs and doesn't matter even if you have 8 gig's installed.

There is no patch, reg hack or 3rd part software that will help you, if you want to use a 64 bit OS then you should be able to see all available memory

All 32 bit OS (operating systems) will see no more than 3 to 3.5 gig and no more
64 bit OS (operating systems) will see 8+ gigs

Hope this helps you, Mike 

[patio]

ok so say it is a 32bit version. How can i then be able to use all 8GB? is there a patch or something?

In short...No...
However XP with 4G will run pretty snappy...

[comda]

ok sorry for taking a while to respond. i tried to install the Raid drivers at startup and it says it couldnt specify what i was using so i just presed enter but after that it waits a second and then gives me the BSOD what did i do?

[hartbeatmr]

Good afternoon comda

If you are getting BSOD than you might have the wrong drivers or you have the BIOS settings for the hard drive. But when you got the BSOD what was the error? (i.e  0x000007d etc)

Hope to hear from you soon, Mike

[comda]

well this is what the page says exactly"

" A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. If this is the first time your've seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen apears again, follows these steps;

Check for Virus' on your computer. remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controlers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured and terminated. run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive curruption, and then restart your computer.

technical information;

*** STOP : 0x0000007B {0xFFFFFADF2AE323C0, 0xFFFFFFFFC0000034, 0x0000000000000000, 0x00000000000000000}  "

Thats the stop error code there, not sure what it means though.

[hartbeatmr]

Good afternoon comda and welcome back

That error is a INACCESSIBLE BOOT DEVICE like a corrupt driver, wrong driver BIOS is not configured correct etc the below info is from MS http://support.microsoft.com/kb/324103

Device Driver Issues
You may receive a "Stop 0x0000007B" error message in the following scenarios:

    A device driver that the computer boot controller needs is not configured to start during the startup process.
    A device driver that the computer boot controller needs is corrupted.
    Information in the Windows XP registry (information related to how the device drivers load during startup) is corrupted.

Windows XP requires a miniport driver to communicate with the hard disk controller that is used to start your computer. If Windows XP does not supply a device driver for your controller or if Windows XP is using a corrupted or incompatible driver, you must replace the driver with a valid copy that is compatible with your controller and Windows XP.

During the first phase of the Windows XP installation, Setup displays the following message at the bottom of the screen:
Press F6 if you have to install a third-party SCSI or RAID driver.
Press F6 and then follow the instructions to install a mass-storage device driver from your Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). For additional information about using F6 to load an OEM device driver to support, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
314859 Limited OEM driver support is available with F6 during Windows XP Setup
To determine if your hard disk controller is compatible with Windows XP and to obtain information about drivers that are included on the Windows XP CD-ROM or that are available for download, see the latest Windows XP Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). For additional information about the latest Windows XP HCL, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
314062 The latest Windows XP hardware compatibility list
If your hard disk controller is not listed on the HCL, contact the manufacturer of your computer, system board, or hard disk controller for information about the availability of a driver. Microsoft does not guarantee that a resolution is available for non-HCL equipment. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
315239 Microsoft support policy for hardware that does not appear on the Windows HCL
If the System hive in the Windows XP registry is corrupted, Windows XP may not be able to load the miniport device driver that the boot controller requires. To resolve this issue, restore a registry backup. For additional information about restoring a registry backup, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
307545 How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting
Hardware Issues
You may receive a "Stop 0x0000007B" error message if there is a resource conflict between the boot controller and another controller or between SCSI devices. You may also receive this Stop error message if drive translation is not being performed or if drive translation was changed. To troubleshoot this issue:

    If an IRQ or I/O port address conflict exists between the boot controller and another controller, Windows XP either stops responding (hangs) or displays a "Stop 0x0000007B" error message. If you recently added new hardware, remove the new hardware or reconfigure it so that it does not conflict with the resources of any other installed controllers.
    If you are using a SCSI hard disk, check the SCSI chain for correct termination. Remove any unused SCSI devices or make sure that each SCSI ID is unique.
    Make sure that drive translation is turned on (if it is required) and that it has not been changed. For example, if you recently switched controllers, this issue may occur. For additional information about this issue, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
    314082 You receive a Stop 0x0000007b error after you move the Windows XP system disk to another computer

Other Issues
Other potential causes of a "Stop 0x0000007B" error message include:

    The boot volume is corrupted and cannot be initiated by Windows XP. If the file system is corrupted and if Windows XP cannot initiate the boot volume during the startup process, either move the drive to another computer that is running Windows XP and run the chkdsk command on that drive or try to create a parallel installation of Windows XP on the drive (in a separate folder). The Windows XP Setup program checks the integrity of the volume before it copies files, and it may fix some problems in the process.
    You are installing Windows XP on a mirrored boot partition that was created by Microsoft Windows NT 4.0. Windows XP does not support Windows NT 4.0 Ftdisk volume sets. If you are running Microsoft Windows 2000, you must convert all Ftdisk volume sets to dynamic volumes before you upgrade to Windows XP. If you are running Windows NT 4.0, break any mirrors and back up all the data on the stripe, the RAID5, or the extended volume sets before you upgrade to Windows XP. Ftdisk sets might not be accessible after the upgrade.

General Troubleshooting
If none of the issues that have been described in this article apply to you, use the following general troubleshooting steps:

    If you receive one of these error messages while you are installing Windows XP, update the computer BIOS or obtain Windows XP drivers for your hard disk controller (from the manufacturer of your computer, system board, or hard disk controller), or do both. For information about how to update your computer's BIOS or obtain Windows XP drivers, contact your computer manufacturer. For additional information about the availability of drivers, see the Device Driver Issues section in this article.

    Note: If Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000 was installed previously on a mirrored boot partition, see the Other Issues section in this article.
    Use the Last Known Good Configuration feature. This may resolve the problem if you recently installed an incompatible device driver for your boot controller. For additional information about using the Last Known Good Configuration feature, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
    307852 How To start your computer by using the Last Known Good Configuration feature in Windows XP
    Use the Repair option with Windows XP Setup. For additional information about repairing Windows XP by using the Setup program, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
    315341 How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP
    Restore a registry backup. For additional information about restoring a registry backup, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
    307545 How to recover from a corrupted registry that prevents Windows XP from starting

Try running the check disk with repair     chkdsk /f if that doesn't fo it just run  it again with the /r so it will look like this    chkdsk /r
Make sure you have the correct driver for your sata drive

Please let us know how you make out, Mike 

[patio]

Chkdsk /r assumes the /f command...

[comda]

Im so confused. Im sorry i dont really understand the last two posts. Am i supposted to check if my system will work with xp? Like am i supposed to check if the bard drive will or what? im sort of lost now. Lol

[hartbeatmr]

Good afternoon comda and welcome back to CH

OK I am sorry If i had put to much info in and yes it is a lot. The point that patio was making he was letting both of us you and me know that if you do the chkdsk /r takes care of both.

A  few post back I was trying to give you a heads up that installing the OS backwards can be an issue. But you can run the chkdsk /r to try and repair the corrupt windows files. You error code that you are getting can come from a couple of different issues
#1... Corrupt XP windows files / registry
#2... Wrong achi / raid drivers were used & not the correct ones for your hardware
#3... Bad cable going to the harddrive.
#4... BIOS settings are incorrect for the way you are trying to install windows
#5... BIOS may need to be updated (do not do this yet)

I was trying to give you all the info that I could in order to help you.
The part of the MS info that I put up is a little old and i just gave it to you whole and I didn't edit it at all, so I am sorry that was my fault. It was written for when XP was first coming out.

Hopefully this will clear up some of your questions, if you need more questions answered before you proceed please just let us know.

Please let us know if you need anything else, Mike   

[comda]

ok sure thing. I spoke with some guys at work and they told me the same thing, so what ill try is reseting the bios to factory default and if that doesnt work ill delete the partition on the drive and will get back to you guys.
just one question about this:

#2... Wrong achi / raid drivers were used & not the correct ones for your hardware

is this after installing windows? like the drivers from the mobo CD that came with the motherboard or what? the drivers from the win 7 DVD?

[hartbeatmr]

Hello again comda

     Nope that is not what I am talking about but you are close. This is where it can get a little confusing there is a AHCI driver you use during the windows install and then there is chipset / raid driver that you install after windows is installed.  Remember when you asked if XP could be installed in AHCI mode because you were told it wouldn't. Those drivers the AHCI / SATA are the drivers you use during the windows XP set up and you will see during the install on the bottom of the screen press F6 for additional drivers.

Here is what the image will look like. Just look at the bottom of the screen for F6 that is when you install the AHCI / Raid drivers. 

Hopefully this helps you, Mike

[comda]

yes. i do hit F6 and it does load the drivers. i then get a screen saying Windows hasnt detected the correct driver for my device and if i would like to continue or specify which one it is. I believe it is something with wrong drivers cause it cant find one for my device. But i unglugged the SATA drive and plugged it back in now im at windows setup and have a selection. its asking me if my computer has ACPI multiprocessor x64 or a uniprocessor. looks like my SATA connection maybe be was at fault. now which one do i have and whats the diffence?

[hartbeatmr]

comda

     You have a x64 CPU. "computer has ACPI multiprocessor x64"
If it doesn't find the correct drivers during the set up stop and go try a different set. Also some CD / DVD's that you get with the MoBo will have the drivers sometimes. If you tried continuing with out the drivers that is why you got the error. Also just in-case you don't know do not un-plug the sata cable while the PC is setting up / running because windows may get grumpy on doing this considering it will be a boot drive.
     Sata are suppose to be hot swap on paper but when they are connected to the MoBo like your are shut the PC down first if you need to unplug it.

Hope this helps, Mike   

[comda]

no no of course i shut it off but im saying i guess the SATA wire was at fault cause i unplugged it while th PC was off and plugged back in and started it and didnt get a error got that menu for the first time. but thanks will try that.

[comda]

well looks like im jsut gonna do a fresh XP install wipe 7 cause your right it is creating issues.

[hartbeatmr]

Hello again

Did you create the driver off the cd?

EDIT: This is off your manual page 3-17

• When the SATA Port1–Port 4 and the SATA Port5–Port 6 items are set to [AHCI], the
information of the SATA connectors 1–6 can be seen only under the OS environment
or during POST.
• For Windows® XP OS, you have to install the AHCI driver, so that you could use the
SATA connectors 1–6 in AHCI mode under the OS environment.
If you use a SATA optical drive to run the Windows XP OS installation disk, we strongly
recommend that you install the optical drive to the SATA connectors 5/6 and set them to
[IDE] mode.
S.M.A.R.T. Status Check [Enabled]
[Enabled] Enables the S.M.A.R.T feature.
[Disabled] Disables the S.M.A.R.T feature.
SATA Hot Plug on Port1~6 [Disabled]
These items appear only when you set SATA Port1 - Port6 to [AHCI] and allow you
to enable or disable

[comda]

how do i get the driver off the CD and install it? i did what the last post said. no longer get an error but the setup says it doesnt detect any drives. It asking for the driver on floppy but my PC has no floppy. how to get the driver onto the instal so it recognizes the drive?

[hartbeatmr]

Good evening comda

      You are not going to like this  XP will only take the AHCI drivers off of a floppy drive for the windows XP set up. I would borrow a USB floppy drive may work. That is a limitation of the OS not the MoBo or buy a USB floppy drive they are like 25 dollars.

I had edited my last post and you may not of seen that yet. But your manual on pages 3-16 & 3-17 tell you about setting the CD drives and what ports should be used for HD and CD drives and it also tell you about making the AHCI drivers that you will need for the XP install you may be able to make the driver disk in windows and before windows is installed more than likely. I thought you knew of this and that is what you were trying to do.

Now on the plus side you can use a usb thumb drive to load the drivers for windows 7 and you don't have to use a floppy drive but you can.

Sorry to giving you the bad news. Mike   

 

 

[comda]

ok how would i create this driver from the CD? if i got a USB floppy which i know i can, would the driver im looking for be on the CD that came with the motherboard? is that what you mean when you said get the driver off the CD?

[hartbeatmr]

Hello again comda

     Yes that is what I am talking about. A lot of the CD/DVD's will have the drivers on the disk and they must be unzipped / uncompressed and then created on the floppy the instructions should be very clear on making the floppy. Take a look in the manual around the pages that I posted for you each MoBo / manufacture will have the drivers in different spots / sections of the disk but the whole procedure is very similar from one company to another when it comes to creating the disk.

     Take a look in your MoBo manual as see how they say to make the AHCI drivers, around the same pages they will have what sata ports should be for what devices when I was scanning through the 112 page the information I found was on the pages that I posted for you and there may be more information on some of the other pages.

Hello again

Did you create the driver off the cd?

EDIT: This is off your manual page 3-17

• When the SATA Port1–Port 4 and the SATA Port5–Port 6 items are set to [AHCI], the
information of the SATA connectors 1–6 can be seen only under the OS environment
or during POST.
• For Windows® XP OS, you have to install the AHCI driver, so that you could use the
SATA connectors 1–6 in AHCI mode under the OS environment.
If you use a SATA optical drive to run the Windows XP OS installation disk, we strongly
recommend that you install the optical drive to the SATA connectors 5/6 and set them to
[IDE] mode.
S.M.A.R.T. Status Check [Enabled]
[Enabled] Enables the S.M.A.R.T feature.
[Disabled] Disables the S.M.A.R.T feature.
SATA Hot Plug on Port1~6 [Disabled]
These items appear only when you set SATA Port1 - Port6 to [AHCI] and allow you
to enable or disable

Hope this helps you, Mike     

[BC_Programmer]

Optionally, you could switch the host controller from AHCI/SATA to IDE/Compatible mode.

[jason2074]

You might get another idea in this thread as to switching to IDE when installing XP http://www.sevenforums.com/installation-setup/149065-dual-boot-windows-7-xp-installation-problem-2.html as gregrocker gave a link and 2 methods regarding installing AHCI.

http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=M5A97&p=1&s=24&os=30&hashedid=wlwpxOCHGKQvVRLb

[comda]

ok thanks for that last post. At the moment i have deleted the windows 7 partition and installed windows XP 64bit SP2, in IDe mode. Question, am i able to update to SP3? or will that be once again 32 bit?

[BC_Programmer]

ok thanks for that last post. At the moment i have deleted the windows 7 partition and installed windows XP 64bit SP2, in IDe mode. Question, am i able to update to SP3? or will that be once again 32 bit?

XP x64 doesn't have an SP3.

[comda]

so what will happen if i put in a 32bit SP3 CD? it will update but convert to 32bit?

[hartbeatmr]

Good afternoon comda and welcome back

No matter what your OS is XP, Vista, Windows 7 etc you never want to or force it to use any 32 bit updates / drivers etc when you have a 64 bit OS.

But more than likely it will not install because if you used / installed windows XP 64 bit and the update is 32 bit it will stop and not continue.

Hope this helps, Mike   

[BC_Programmer]

so what will happen if i put in a 32bit SP3 CD? it will update but convert to 32bit?

It won't work. Windows XP x64 doesn't have an SP3 because Windows XP x64 is not from the XP codebase, and is instead branched off from Windows Server 2003's codebase. (technically, Server 2003 SP1). XP x64 updates are distributed in unified packages with Server 2003 updates.

Latest SP for XP x64 (and 2003) is SP2. Features of XP x86's SP2 service pack were already present in x64's RTM.

[comda]

ok but ill stil be able to run all my programs and games like i did in Win XP pro SP3 32bit right?

[comda]

ok so i ended up installing windows Xp using ide mode and want to convert it to AHCI now. i found this article but not sure where to look for the driver.

http://expertester.wordpress.com/2008/07/27/how-to-enable-ahci-windows-xp/

i tried my DVD but it tells me to use a compatible one? any ideas?

[jason2074]

Asus M5A97

SATA - AHCI -> http://support.asus.com/download.aspx?SLanguage=en&m=M5A97&p=1&s=24&os=30&hashedid=wlwpxOCHGKQvVRLb
Unzip from a created folder then use the EXE file when following the link by navigating or pointing the hardware wizard to the location of the extracted exe file.

[comda]

OK this is where i run into issues. i downloaded this a few times. and the procedure i use is opening devide manager then going into ide atapi controlers and trying to install the driver from there. However when i select the .inf file that is windows Xp 64bit windows gives me and error saying to pick a driver that is compatible with windows XP 64bit. And it is?! i've been trying this and registry stuff all day yestrerday is there anyone that can help me install this driver so i can finally get it running? PLease.

[patio]

Have you tried right cliking the file ans slecting Merge and re-boot ? ?

[comda]

ok i didnt know what to do in the last post or how to get it working so i borrowed a USB floppy drive seems everything works! it found the driver i made a partition then formatted it, however when it tries to install windows after format it says it cannot copy the file ahcix64.inf??? it tells me i can retry  but it doesnt even read the drive? am i doing something wrong? and if i fit skip file it gave me BSOD cause it doesnt see the drive without the driver.

[jason2074]

Might wanna install again Win XP and this time use the F6 floppy disk option during reinstall.

[comda]

ok did i not say it clearly? i am using the USB floppy, i did hit F6 upon startup of the windows setup. i select my driver from the Floppy, i then proceed with formatting my drive and then when it wants to copy files it gives me the error saying this exactly:

Setup cannon copy the file: ahcix64.inf

-to retry press ENTER.
if you are installing from a CD, make sure the Windows Cd is in the CD-rom drive.

-to skip this file, press ESC.
Caution: if you skip this file, setup may not complete and windows may not work properly.
-to quit setup, press F3 "

thats what i get. what am i doing wrong? the Drive is set to Ahci and the CD ROm is set to ide mode.
 

[comda]

Alright! I finally Got my system up and running and i'd like to take this opportunity to thank computerhope and all those who helped in this post! Since i had a hard time figuring this out and couldn't find anything online of how to do it with AMD chipset i shall explain how i found a simple and easy way to get this to work:

First:

I downloaded and installed this application called nlite. A simple app that lets you customize any Cd and create one. you can download a fully legal copy from their cite here:

http://www.nliteos.com/

Next, using my old system i inserted my Legal cd of windows XP 64bit and copied all continents into a folder on my desktop.
i then copied the ahcix64.inf driver to another folder in my desktop. Next i opened nlite and followed a simple guide found here:

http://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/kb0/TSB85017Z0000R01.htm
jsut scroll down.

then after it created the ISO i siimply burned it to a CD and poped it into my new system and didnt even have to hit F6 it found the drivers and installed away. after installing windows XP i simply installed windows 7 on second partition and the boot menu automatically was created.
Once again big thanks to all who helped out in this LONG and painful process and thanks for being patient with me as im not the smartest in computers i learn along the way.

Its safe to say this can be marked as solved. thanks COmptuerhope!

[hartbeatmr]

Good evening comda and welcome back to CH

That is great news  and yes using a program like nlite is nice isn't it. I didn't even think that telling you about it sorry that's my bad.

I knew that you would get it. You were very determined and that's a good thing !!

Enjoy, Mike

PS thank you for taking the time once you were all set and coming back to let us know.