Can windows vista recovery disk repair startup of Portuguese vista and German XP?

[waigy]

I have a pc with a German version of xp on one hard drive and a Portuguese version of Vista on another drive.
Both installations work fine, the only thing that needs repaired is the startup/boot.
I had XP working on it's own then vista on it's own, but I'm trying to get the option of both at startup.

Can the vista recovery disk repair this?

[Terry60]

If they both boot on their own (via the BIOS boot sequence, or switching drives) then you don't have any reason to repair anything. The Vista repair disk is to fix Vista if it won't boot.
If you just want a dual boot menu, boot Vista, install EasyBCD and add a boot menu entry to the Vista BCD for XP, letting EasyBCD "auto-configure".

[waigy]

Just now it won't boot.
I tried visual bcd first, but only vista booted.
Visual bcd says you need ntldr ntdetect and boot.ini on the active drive.
After adding those files it now only has an xp option which doesn't work so I know the boot.ini file needs edited.

I was hoping vista repair would fix both, but I assume going by what you say that I will have to repair vista first then use easybcd.

Will the fact that they are different language installs affect the boot files?

[Mak 2.0]

Different languages shouldnt matter. But from what I gather you can boot to each OS on its own right? So you should be able to boot into Vista, use EasyBCD and add an entry for XP within Vista and have it boot for you. EasyBCD should auto configure XP for you.

[waigy]

Thanks for the replies.
I was concerned that the different languages maybe needed boot files in that language.

I mentioned before that it doesn't boot right now, but both versions of windows have no faults once booted.
I will use the vista recovery disk first to boot into vista then try easybcd.

[Coolname007]

Thanks for the replies.
I was concerned that the different languages maybe needed boot files in that language.

I mentioned before that it doesn't boot right now, but both versions of windows have no faults once booted.
I will use the vista recovery disk first to boot into vista then try easybcd.

You may be able to boot into Vista if you change hard drive priority in the BIOS, and put the other hard drive first.
From what you were saying earlier, it sounds like both OSes can boot from its own hard drive, you just wanted a dual-boot menu.
To accomplish this, just change hard drive priority, like I already said, and then boot into Vista, and load EasyBCD (make sure its the latest free version).
Next, add an entry for XP, leaving the default option to auto-configure set, and then reboot and you should see a dual-boot menu now, with both options working...

Doing this will eliminate having to use the vista recovery disk.

EDIT: You should also be able to do this from XP, if you can't boot into Vista, though you may need to use EasyBCD's "Reinstall the Vista/7 bootloader" Write MBR option, since XP's MBR is likely in place.

[waigy]

Hi Thanks again

At the time of asking this I thought I couldn't boot into any OS because the boot.ini file was wrong, but it turned out I could boot into vista.
As suggested I added an xp entry in easy bcd and it worked, but the xp install was broken by that time.
It got as far as "start windows normally" "last known config" etc. but none of them worked including safe mode.
So I ended up forgetting the dual boot and reinstalled XP only.
Since then I have climbed over another 100 or so hurdles and am still working on getting all the programs/settings back the way they were before.
At least I know easybcd works fine if I need to dual boot again.

cheers

[Coolname007]

Hi Thanks again

At the time of asking this I thought I couldn't boot into any OS because the boot.ini file was wrong, but it turned out I could boot into vista.
As suggested I added an xp entry in easy bcd and it worked, but the xp install was broken by that time.
It got as far as "start windows normally" "last known config" etc. but none of them worked including safe mode.
So I ended up forgetting the dual boot and reinstalled XP only.
Since then I have climbed over another 100 or so hurdles and am still working on getting all the programs/settings back the way they were before.
At least I know easybcd works fine if I need to dual boot again.

cheers

Lol...that's Windows for you. I hate it when that happens.
Stuff like that is the reason I install Ubuntu Linux in a multiboot with Windows on nearly every computer system I own...that way I have a working operating system to fall back onto if and when Windows breaks.
Ubuntu is a way more stable and secure OS than Windows, and is pretty user-friendly as well (not to mention all the free software available in Ubuntu Software Center which is accessible straight from the desktop...). Plus, they have a friendly support community to help you (for FREE) with almost any kind of problem you may run into. And since most issues are not unique to a single person, your issue is usually resolved by them pretty quick too.

[waigy]

If you want more of a laugh, here's more info on what I've spent the last 5 days solid doing.
I'm trying to help a friend in Portgal by rescuing her pc which had a c drive that was full to the brim.
I managed to clear a lot of space, but it was so full that everything I did took hours.
Then I confidently decided I would get her vista/xp dual boot working again as it has only worked on xp for years.
During that process the above mentioned boot problem happened.

Prepare yourself:
I am in Scotland using teamviewer (excellent remote access program) to repair her pc.
My friend is in the algarve, Portugal.
She is German, has a German version of XP and a Portuguese version of vista on her Portuguese dell pc.
I first had to connect to her daughter's laptop (to communicate with mic/speakers) which was bought in Scotland so has an English keyboard layout and a Portuguese version of windows 7.
At one point I was looking at my screen with the laptop's desktop inside that and the dell pc's desktop inside that and I could control all 3 pcs.
I can't speak Portuguese or German, so I'm having to type into google translate all of the commands/menus etc.
I've had lots of marathon sessions trying to get pcs working, but I think this will be hard to beat.

[Computer Guru]

Thanks for the early morning laugh, I don't envy you. Good luck!