Does win 8 write to the bios? Is there a fix?

I installed XP on C: then Win 8 on D: All went fine until Win 8 startup said it would do repairs.
This ran on forever so I booted up on active boot disc and corrected XP configuration.
Deleted all D: win 8 boot stuff. Restarted the PC and a message came up saying there was no windows.
Remove any hard drive etc. A reboot with active boot disc would not load the bootable CD and reverted to the same message.

I decided to try another hard disc and inserted win xp install CD. Now it is installing as I type.
I guess the only way to retrieve files from the other hard drive is to slave it.
Will try that when xp install completes.

Any Gurus know what is going on?
I did read some place that Win 8 writes to the bios and some other forum said there was a fix but no details.
Will look forward to feed back.

Win xp just finished installing so I hung the original hard drive back and the PC boots up again with access to both drives.
I must add that I hid the win 8 partition with Partition Magic until XP finished installing.
I just un hid it and rebooted. I now have access to all drives.

Frank

Don't know what went wrong. See Dual Boot Installation - Windows 8 and Windows 7 or Vista. XP is not mentioned here primarily, I think, because newer hardware may not be supported by XP, and getting needed drivers can be a problem. I don't get the feeling that your Win8 was OEM preinstalled, but check this thread out anyway: Dual Boot XP with 8 (Laptop pre-installed 8).

Dual booting

The computer was dual booting XP and Win 8 very nicely. Installation was from XP desktop.
I had shut down and restarted Win 8 several times with no problems.
I had installed Wifi station and got internet connections OK.
Then I shut down win 8. Next restart started the infinite repair cycle.

Comparing both systems: Win XP is far better for me than win 8. Win 8 shows no better performance.
It froze my favourite games so it is being sent to the trash bin.
The access in Win 8 is deplorable. It is great in XP.
I have four motherboards in storage that all are XP compatable. I would even prefer Linux to Win 8.

My XPSP3 was developed by the Russians and it replaces major system files at each start up.
"Nasa Sata Raid XPSP3"

Glad it's all good. Some programs can change BIOS, but don't think Win8 does.

znod said:

Glad it's all good. Some programs can change BIOS, but don't think Win8 does.

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I did read somewhere that it does write to the bios but we will soon probably know all its tricks.
Cheers from Frank.

kingull said:

My XP SP3 was developed by the Russians and it replaces major system files at each start up.
"Nasa Sata Raid XPSP3"

Click to expand...

and this means you are using bootleg winxp ,dose it not, or did the Russians really get some piece work from Microsoft.

Win XP is far better for me than win 8. Win 8 shows no better performance

Click to expand...

its likely because you hardware was not created to utilize win8 . might be your system is a little olde for newer OS's like win7and8