Triple boot no longer works.. only XP does

[frustrated999]

Had a working triple boot system, XP, Vista and Windows7. Over the weekend I was working in XP and did two things. I installed an anti-keylogging security app as well as moving some free space from further down the drive and added it to the XP volume. Now neither Windows7 Ultimate RTM boot (The boot selection failed because a required device is inaccessible) nor Vista (The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt) boot.

I am using HideNSeek along with EasyBCD to handle the bootup. I already uninstalled the ant-keylogger software from XP but that did not help. Did the process of adding additional space cause the problem?

[Computer Guru]

The free space shenanigans probably messed up the dual boot

Happens all the time, no sweat. Just follow the instructions here:
Recovering the Vista Bootloader from the DVD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

[Terry60]

How did you get more space onto XP ?
Did you change the start position of the Vista and W7 partitions ?
http://www.multibooters.co.uk/partitions.html

[frustrated999]

How did you get more space onto XP ?
Did you change the start position of the Vista and W7 partitions ?
http://www.multibooters.co.uk/partitions.html

Yes I moved free space that was further down the drive up to the end of the XP partition and then resized the XP partition. This would of moved the Win7 and Vista partitions further down the drive.

[Terry60]

That's how you broke the boot then.
Note that DM "shrink" and "extend" only allow the end of the partition to be moved, never the start.
The BCD describes exactly where the OS is, HDD and offset. Move it and the boot is broken.
Follow CG's link to repair the BCD, but remove HnS first, then reinstall it afterwards, otherwise you'll leave it half installed and broken too.

[frustrated999]

Thanks. Fixed the problem. Did not see your post re uninstalling HnS first. Had to fix it after fixing the bootup. HnS was installed in Vista so could HnS be uninstalled via XP since neither Win7 nor Vista were bootable.

[Terry60]

If you've repaired the BCD and are running a standard MS bootmgr now, make sure that you do a clean-up and remove any files with a .hns filetype before running the HnS UI again.

[frustrated999]

Attached is a screenshot of the current drive layout. The Win7 partition is running a bit low on space and I would like to enlarge it by doing one of two things. Add some of the free space before the Win7 partition on to it OR moving some of the free space further down the drive up to the end of Win7 partiton. I assume the latter would cause me the least amount of booting problems with XP and Win7.

[JustinW]

Best to use the unallocated space before W7's partition. Moving the partitions around too much could be disaterous.

[frustrated999]

Best to use the unallocated space before W7's partition. Moving the partitions around too much could be disaterous.

Won't that cause boot problems with Win7 per Terry's comment earlier in this thread "The BCD describes exactly where the OS is, HDD and offset. Move it and the boot is broken."

[JustinW]

If you do it with disk management inside W7 itself it should be safe.

[frustrated999]

If you do it with disk management inside W7 itself it should be safe.

Disk Management will not work since the existing empty space is to the left of the Win7 partition and there for unusable via the expand command in DManagement.

[JustinW]

Its still better than moving the other two partitions out of the way. Use Partition Wizard's bootcd.

[frustrated999]

I have several partition managers I just do not want to wind up with an unbootable Win7 partition.

Terry60 indicated the following previously:
"The BCD describes exactly where the OS is, HDD and offset. Move it and the boot is broken.'

I took that to mean that if I move the beginning of the Win7 partition (primary partition after XP and unallocated space) then the offset would be changed resulting in an non booting Win7.

[Terry60]

There are vista/7 compatible 3rd party partition managers which will automatically fix the BCD if you move the OS, and older ones which will leave the OS unbootable until you fix it yourself.
Check the documentation on the one you intend using.