Dual booting between XP Pro SP3 and 7 - Page 3

kairozamorro · #31 January 13th, 2009, 05:21 AM

Now this boot.ini file is at the root of your Win 7 partition?

Coolname007 · #32 January 13th, 2009, 05:24 AM

Originally Posted by Sailorcancer

Could it be with the ntldr? What would the next course of action be?

If its the ntldr, then replace the one you have currently with a downloaded copy, which can be found here:

Windows XP - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

Good luck.

-Coolname007

Sailorcancer · #33 January 13th, 2009, 05:25 AM

Originally Posted by kairozamorro

Now this boot.ini file is at the root of your Win 7 partition?

Yes. Along with the other three files.

Now I was looking at the Disk management again and it looks like my Disk 0 (Windows 7) has three partitions on it.

200 MB
107.01 GB (Windows 7 C Drive)
4.58 GB

Could this be doing anything?

Coolname007 · #34 January 13th, 2009, 05:27 AM

Originally Posted by Sailorcancer

Yes. Along with the other three files.

Now I was looking at the Disk management again and it looks like my Disk 0 (Windows 7) has three partitions on it.

200 MB
107.01 GB (Windows 7 C Drive)
4.58 GB

Could this be doing anything?

No, that will not affect things, since we are dealing here with XP's partition, not Win 7's, in boot.ini...

-Coolname007

kairozamorro · #35 January 13th, 2009, 05:28 AM

Nope... I know this sounds crazy since I told you to do the opposite, but I'm curious if it'll start working if you put back rdisk(1) to rdisk(0). Have you tried this yet? Also, is your XP really on partition 1? Is there multiple partitions on your XP drive like there is on Win 7s'?

Coolname007 · #36 January 13th, 2009, 05:31 AM

Originally Posted by kairozamorro

Nope... I know this sounds crazy since I told you to do the opposite, but I'm curious if it'll start working if you put back rdisk(1) to rdisk(0). Have you tried this yet? Also, is your XP really on partition 1? Is there multiple partitions on your XP drive like there is on Win 7s'?

Good question.

Especially since you were jumping my case earlier, saying that the partition numbers didn't need to be changed!

Hahaha!

-Coolname007

Sailorcancer · #37 January 13th, 2009, 05:33 AM

Well I did change my NTLDR file and when I tried to boot into XP it told me I had a bad boot.ini file.

So I'll just re copy over the one form the XP drive back int he 7 drive and give it a try.

Coolname007 · #38 January 13th, 2009, 05:35 AM

Originally Posted by Sailorcancer

Well I did change my NTLDR file and when I tried to boot into XP it told me I had a bad boot.ini file.

So I'll just re copy over the one form the XP drive back int he 7 drive and give it a try.

Good idea.

Let us know if it works!

-Coolname007

kairozamorro · #39 January 13th, 2009, 05:37 AM

Originally Posted by Coolname007

Good question.

Especially since you were jumping my case earlier, saying that the partition numbers didn't need to be changed!

Hahaha!

-Coolname007

Typically partition won't matter. But in cases such as the Vista/Win 7 bootloader it could be anything, regardless of how Vista sees it. I know first hand from today's experiences I've had with getting my laptop setup with win 7.

Sailorcancer · #40 January 13th, 2009, 05:39 AM

No go. Got the same message again:

Invalid BOOT.INI File
Booting from C:\windows\
NTDETECT failed

kairozamorro · #41 January 13th, 2009, 05:42 AM

Ntdetect failed... you sure you got ntdetect.com on both drives? They need to be on the "active" partitions.

Sailorcancer · #42 January 13th, 2009, 05:44 AM

Yes the Ntdetect.com files are on both the 7 and XP drive. In the root.

Coolname007 · #43 January 13th, 2009, 05:47 AM

Originally Posted by Sailorcancer

No go. Got the same message again:

Invalid BOOT.INI File
Booting from C:\windows\
NTDETECT failed

Yeah, like Justin said, you will need to have a working ntdetect.com on your Win 7 partition.

That file is included in the zip on that page I gave the link to. Try replacing your ntdetect.com file with the downloaded copy, and see if it works.

-Coolname007

Addendum:

Originally Posted by Sailorcancer

Yes the Ntdetect.com files are on both the 7 and XP drive. In the root.

Try the one from here: Windows XP - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

Maybe it will help. Or maybe it wont!

Just try it though, to see if it does...

-Coolname007

kairozamorro · #44 January 13th, 2009, 05:48 AM

Go into disk management and see which partitions have the "active" flag for each drive. If the ntdetect.com file doesn't reside on any of those partitions, it needs to be copied there.

Coolname007 · #45 January 13th, 2009, 05:53 AM

Originally Posted by kairozamorro

Ntdetect failed... you sure you got ntdetect.com on both drives? They need to be on the "active" partitions.

Active partition, Justin...not partitions!

There can only be one active partition at any particular point in time on the same computer.

-Coolname007