Vista-XP to 7-XP Failed me.

Kochon · #1 January 13th, 2009, 04:26 AM

Hey guys, I've been dual booting for almost a year now, on different setups, mainly my current setup before it broke, which was Vista-XP. I did it following this excellent guide : How to dual boot Vista and XP (with Vista installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots

My setup was basically:
500gb hard drive(2 partitions):
C: (Windows vista)
and G: (Windows XP)
120gb hard drive on a RAID Controller, used for data.

Everything was forking perfectly. I didn't use Vista that much, so I decided to try to install Windows 7 over it in the partition. Problem happened when I tried to just upgrade. Wouldn't want to upgrade because my RAID controller driver was old, so I went to update it, it said I had the latest version. So I thought, Ok, full install. Reboot, go to bios, switch DVD to first in boot sequences, install windows 7(by formatting the vista partition and installing over it). Right! Now I installed drivers and stuff, then installed EASYBCD because I thought 7 wouldn't be that different from Vista. It seemed to work. Tried to boot off XP, colossal failure, black screen. I freaked out.

Formatted Windows 7 partition, put vista back on, EasyBCD, then added xp. Problem is, the drive letter for my XP partition wasn't G. I changed it to G using the Drive manager in Vista. Th en in easybcd it said something about NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM, so I downloaded them off the wiki here, put the files in G:/.

Tried to boot XP, said that BOOT.INI was screwed, alright. Back in vista here, tried to create a BOOT.ini, failure.

So Here I am. Can anyone help me? I'm a hardcore gamer and all my games were on the XP partition. I know I can recover my data and format, but I want it back if it is possible, you know.

Thanks.

kairozamorro · #2 January 13th, 2009, 04:35 AM

Insert your XP cd and do a repair install on your XP installation. This won't wipe out your programs or files. It'll just replace updated system files with the orginals and try to fix your boot if its broken.

Kochon · #3 January 13th, 2009, 04:36 AM

Yeah, I forgot to say I tried going that stuff but uh, I'm not very experienced with the Repair function of the XP CD and these console commands didn't look too friendly, so could you care to explain just a little bit more? àEven point me to some tutorial or resources. Thanks.

kairozamorro · #4 January 13th, 2009, 04:43 AM

See method 2 in this KB article...

Refrain from using beta software in the future unless you are comfortable with basic troubleshooting.

Coolname007 · #5 January 13th, 2009, 04:59 AM

Originally Posted by Kochon

Yeah, I forgot to say I tried going that stuff but uh, I'm not very experienced with the Repair function of the XP CD and these console commands didn't look too friendly, so could you care to explain just a little bit more? àEven point me to some tutorial or resources. Thanks.

You will need to run:

fixmbr
fixboot

in a Command Prompt. That should repair the problem.

-Coolname007

Kochon · #6 January 13th, 2009, 05:30 AM

yeah, i did that, it screwed both OS's. (NTLDR IS MISSING) I recovered Vista, but still no XP.

One weird thing is that in the repair utility it asks which windows installation i want to use. I select D:/WINDOWS because the other one is C:/Windows and I figured that the capitals for WINDOWS would mean XP since it's older or something,

kairozamorro · #7 January 13th, 2009, 05:33 AM

No don't use recovery console do a repair install like outlined in the article I linked to. This if went will will boot XP straight away and than you'll need to repair the Vista bootloader and see if an entry for XP starts working.

Kochon · #8 January 13th, 2009, 05:33 AM

OOOH I see, k thanks.

Coolname007 · #9 January 13th, 2009, 05:42 AM

Originally Posted by Kochon

yeah, i did that, it screwed both OS's. (NTLDR IS MISSING) I recovered Vista, but still no XP.

One weird thing is that in the repair utility it asks which windows installation i want to use. I select D:/WINDOWS because the other one is C:/Windows and I figured that the capitals for WINDOWS would mean XP since it's older or something,

Oh, sorry...

I skimmed through the rest of the thread, and just noticed where you asked about the repair function on the XP CD, and that is why I gave the commands!

I didn't realize you had Vista, which MBR will get overwritten when running those commands, as it put's XP's in its place.

My bad.

I am truly sorry for being the cause of screwing up your computer...

-Coolname007

kairozamorro · #10 January 13th, 2009, 05:47 AM

Hey cool congrats on the making the wizard ranking

This method will also overwrite the mbr, but simply repair as you did before after you've verified XP is booting.

Kochon · #11 January 13th, 2009, 06:10 AM

Ok, I got XP back by reinstalling Windows over the old one. Now I have the files, but not the registry or user configurations. I noticed all my new user files are followed by .KOCHON-XP.

Example: Kochon.KOCHON-XP as my user directory in Documents and settings.

So is there a way to recover my registry and user files?

kairozamorro · #12 January 13th, 2009, 06:12 AM

If you installed over in an upgrade than no. If you did a repair install it should all be intact as before.

Kochon · #13 January 13th, 2009, 06:18 AM

I didn't see repair install, damn. I'm using a custom version of XP, thats probably why. Anyways, I have XP now, thank you.

Coolname007 · #14 January 13th, 2009, 06:27 AM

Originally Posted by kairozamorro

Hey cool congrats on the making the wizard ranking

Thanks, Justin!

I just noticed it myself...

Now I am officially a "wizard"...even though I always knew I was before!

But this just confirms it!

Thanks for the compliment!

-Coolname007

Addendum:

Originally Posted by Kochon

Ok, I got XP back by reinstalling Windows over the old one. Now I have the files, but not the registry or user configurations. I noticed all my new user files are followed by .KOCHON-XP.

Example: Kochon.KOCHON-XP as my user directory in Documents and settings.

So is there a way to recover my registry and user files?

This is one of the reasons why I always advise people to first BACKUP all their data, before doing stuff like this!

You never know what may go wrong, no matter how professional you may think you are, or how safe the procedure may seem. So just a small word of advice...next time before doing something like this, BACKUP all your data first!

-Coolname007

kairozamorro · #15 January 13th, 2009, 06:34 AM

Yeah... backup is important. If I had not done a backup before I did this win 7 stuff today I would've been in the same shoes as you, trying to get everything back up and running