Dual booting XP with Vista, Vista Installed first

I want to dual boot windows vista and windows xp. I installed windows vista first a few days ago and got everything set up. All the product updates, a few programs installed and all the drivers I needed.

I found this guide a while back to dual boot windows vista with windows xp on apc.com. Basically this is what it says to do: (it assumes vista is already installed on a partition that takes up 100% of the hard drive)

Shrink the Vista partition down to make room for XP
Install windows xp like normal
Boot off of windows vista install DVD to fix vista MBR
Install and run EasyBCD once back in vista to add XP to the vista boot manager

This is what I tried doing:

I partitioned off my 320 GB HDD into two 150 GB partitions (base 10 vs base 2 thing...)
Installed Vista on the first 150GB partition which was C:
Then I tried install windows XP
Put the XP install disk in my computer (one that I know works, I've used it a lot before)
Setup copied install files on D: and then rebooted
Upon restarting the computer gives me a disk read error press CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart which the guide said might happen and then to just use the Vista DVD to fix the MBR (Repair installation) and then use EasyBCD to add the XP entry into the Vista boot loader. So thats exactly what I did.

However when I reboot the machine I get no vista boot loader of any kind, it simply just restarts in windows vista and thats that. Every time I try and reinstall XP it does the same thing over and over I tried 3 times with no luck.

When I go back into vista and check EasyBCD this is what it gives me under "view settings"

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

Entry #1

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

Entry #2

Name: Windows XP PRO
BCD ID: {83fc0dae-bbef-11dc-82e5-000129d4b97a}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \NTLDR

This is what it gives me by default. I didn't change anything in the settings of EasyBCD except add the XP entry to the Vista boot loader (which is D: but it shows as C: in the view settings thing?)

So basically I'm not getting any vista boot loader to come up at all, even after doing essentially exactly what I should do to make this work. Every time I try and put XP on it corrupts the boot sector and gives me a disk read error and repairing the vista boot loader and adding XP to it doesn't give me any kind of access to any boot loader at all.



HELP!!!!! :wtf:

 
I clicked the write MBR (which from what I understood would only replace the original vista bootloader?) and then rebooted to no avail... still no vista bootloader with a choice to boot the XP OS.

I downloaded the bootfiles zip which contained NTDECECT.COM and NTLDR both of which were already in my root directory (but a different size? both were smaller?)

After configuring folder options in vista I see that there are all three files you said needed to be there. BOOT.INI, NTLDR, and NTDETECT.COM

Back to square one =/
 
Okay so it seems that it is not saving your configuration for some reason. This one will have to be checked by Mahmoud. Are you running the latest version? Version 1.7.1?
 
Okay so it seems that it is not saving your configuration for some reason. This one will have to be checked by Mahmoud. Are you running the latest version? Version 1.7.1?

This can happen if your BIOS miscommunicates the correct drive numbering. EasyBCD sets the master primary drive's MBR - or at least what Windows thinks is the master primary drive.

Anyway:
EasyBCD -> Useful Utilities -> Power Console
Code:
mbrfix.exe /drive <num> fixmbr /vista

EasyBCD uses "0" as the <num> value for the above. You need to play around with that number until you find the number that works for you and ends up writing the Vista MBR to the correct location.
 
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