Dual Boot XP and Vista with 2 HDD; XP issue

[sabot2112]

Hello all. I’m new to the world of dual booting. I build my own computers as a hobby, so I know enough to be dangerous. I recently decided to dual boot because I still need XP for some programs, but want to start to learn Vista.

Brief history: XP Pro was installed first on a single partition 500GB HDD. I added a second 500GB HDD (same make and model – Seagate) for the Vista Install, also with a single partition. All was fine for the first few days.

Issue: When booted into XP Pro, Device manager shows an exclamation point for Disk drives and states, "Windows cannot load the device driver for this hardware because there is a duplicate device already running in the system. (Code 42) Click Troubleshoot to start the troubleshooter for this device." So it only sees the XP HDD and not the vista one. Also, due to this, no information is available under Disk Management. And SeaTools will not identify any HDD.

When Vista is booted, all is good. It can see both HDDs with no issues. Disk Management shows the following:

Seagate500GBvista (C), Healthy (Boot, Page File, Active, Primary Partition)

Seagate500GBxp (D), Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)

EasyBCD 1.7.2 shows the following:

For Vista:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader Timeout: 30 seconds.
Default OS: Windows Vista Home Premium

Entry #1

Name: Microsoft Windows XP Professional
BCD ID: {f7492942-17fb-11dd-baf6-9c6d0e8eb198}
Drive: D:\
Bootloader Path: \NTLDR

Entry #2

Name: Windows Vista Home Premium
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

For XP:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader Timeout: 30 seconds.
Default OS: Windows Vista Home Premium

Entry #1

Name: Microsoft Windows XP Professional
BCD ID: {f7492942-17fb-11dd-baf6-9c6d0e8eb198}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \NTLDR

Entry #2

Name: Windows Vista Home Premium
BCD ID: {default}
Drive: Deleted Partition
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Of note, is the "Deleted Partition" for XP. But, in XP, since the drives are Code 42, I can’t change it to D:\ in EasyBCD. Only C:\ and BOOT are available. Any advice…thank in advance!

[Makaveli213]

You do not want to change the drive. You want it to be either C or Boot. That is because it is on those drives that the boot information is obtained and used to boot.

You should be using EasyBCD and adding XP to your BCD from there. Is Vista the default OS? Did you reset the XP Bootloader? If so you will want to repair the Vista bootloader.

Following the information provided in the Wiki:

Windows XP - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

You will want to make sure all your XP Entries are on the boot drive and just add a entry from within Vista. That will make your life so much easier. the files in question are the NTLDR, NTDETECT, and the boot.ini files.

[sabot2112]

Thanks Makaveli213.

I have Vista set as the default OS. I didn't reset the XP Bootloader.

NTLDR, NTDETECT, and boot.ini files are on the boot drive (one with XP installed). At first, I could only boot into Vista. So within Vista using EasyBCD, I deleted the XP entry "Add/Remove Entries" and then used "Add an Entry" to place it back towards Drive D:\ (XP install). That got me back to dual booting into XP or Vista.

While I can boot into XP again, I just have that code 42 issue in XP with the HDDs and the Vista installed HDD is not visable.

I'm thinking it's something to due with that "deleted partition" for entry #2 under XP, but due to the code 42, drive D:\ (vista install) cannot be seen.

I'm not sure what driver XP is trying to install for code 42, but states it's a duplicate device already running. Perhaps, something due to the fact that the drives are the same make/model?

I've read all over this site (nice BTW), but I have not really found the same type of issue as mine...with the HHD code 42 in XP.

Thanks

[Makaveli213]

The code sounds to me like a driver install error. You would have to contact Seagate.

[Terry60]

Sabot, You've got the ideal situation now by pure accident.
If XP ever gets to see Vista, it will destroy Vista's restore points and shadow copies.
If you use system restore, you'll end up having to contrive a way to hide Vista from XP anyway. (It's written by Guru, called HnS and available from the Ideas and wishlists forum).
Thank your lucky stars and leave well alone.

[sabot2112]

Thanks Makaveli213 and Terry60.

I was thinking the same thing. Both XP and Vista in dual boot work fine. It's just that code 42 in XP for the HDDs. I've been trying to decide whether to leave well enough alone or re-do the Vista install fresh (go back to just XP like before and start over).

Since it all works and serves its purpose, I'll leave it as-is. I'm booting to Vista now most of the time anyway.

Thanks again!