Dual boot Windows XP and 7 - ntldr is missing

washington04

New Member
I installed Windows 7 in C partition and I have Windows XP in E.
The problem is when I did it, the Windows XP boot screen is gone.

Then I installed and opened Easybcd, clicked on add new entry, added an XP entry and saved. Now there are "Windows 7" and "Windows XP" in the boot screen. When choosing the last one, I see that \NST\NTLDR is missing or corrupted.

In fact Easybcd shows:
Default: Windows 7 Ultimate (recovered)
Timeout: 30 seconds
EasyBCD Boot Device: C:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7 Ultimate (recovered)
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Microsoft Windows XP
BCD ID: {2ea20c9b-78ec-11e1-b89f-c60b4c496b9b}
Drive: E:\
Bootloader Path: \NST\ntldr



It doesn't point to any file. How do I fix it?






------------------------

Nevermind. Solved. :smile:
I just clicked on advanced, picked XP and chosed drive C instead of E.
Wow. This program is amazing!
 
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Glad you got it working. For reference, you must not change the drive letter that EasyBCD sets up for XP entries.
 
I installed Windows 7 in C partition and I have Windows XP in E.
The problem is when I did it, the Windows XP boot screen is gone.

Then I installed and opened Easybcd, clicked on add new entry, added an XP entry and saved. Now there are "Windows 7" and "Windows XP" in the boot screen. When choosing the last one, I see that \NST\NTLDR is missing or corrupted.

In fact Easybcd shows:
Default: Windows 7 Ultimate (recovered)
Timeout: 30 seconds
EasyBCD Boot Device: C:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7 Ultimate (recovered)
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Microsoft Windows XP
BCD ID: {2ea20c9b-78ec-11e1-b89f-c60b4c496b9b}
Drive: E:\
Bootloader Path: \NST\ntldr



It doesn't point to any file. How do I fix it?






------------------------

Nevermind. Solved. :smile:
I just clicked on advanced, picked XP and chosed drive C instead of E.
Wow. This program is amazing!

Hi washington04 ,
I have got the same problem as yours and I fixed it by your solution Many Thanks ! :wink:
 
I had the same problem with a triple boot system. Windows 8.1 gives me so many problems that I decided to go ahead and install both Windows 7 and XP. All three are on the same drive. I have worked for 2 days trying to get the boot loader to work. I did so many thins to get all 3 to show up I could not even trace my steps for you. When I finally got all 3 Windows XP gave me the same error as above. Missing \NST\ntldr. I searched Google and it brought me to this thread. I thought what the hell nothing else has worked I might as well try this. Wow, I was so happy to see Windows XP start booting. Below is my EasyBCD output.


There are a total of 3 entries listed in the bootloader.


Default: Windows 8.1
Timeout: 30 seconds
Boot Drive: G:\


Entry #1
Name: Windows 8.1
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \windows\system32\winload.exe


Entry #2
Name: Windows 7 Ultimate (recovered)
BCD ID: {253cf772-9012-11e4-9a21-c20605c42c2f}
Drive: E:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe


Entry #3
Name: Microsoft Windows XP
BCD ID: {170807b2-908d-11e4-83e1-00224d47c255}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \NST\ntldr

I don't understand how pointing XP to drive C: works when it is actually physical Drive f:, but I am happy it does. Thanks for posting this!!!!!:??:S
 
The BCD only points to the target drive for an OS booted directly by the BCD (i.e Vista/7/8/8.1/10).
XP isn't booted by the BCD, the BCD chains to the legacy loader (NTLDR) which boots XP as it always did.
However, catch 22 is that all MS boot managers have to be on the "active" partition, so the NTLDR on the target drive cannot be used.
EasyBCD makes a copy on the "active" drive (where the BCD is) and also creates a boot.ini in the same location.
Is is this boot.ini which contains the information about where the XP system is located, not the BCD.
The BCD points to "C" to find the XP boot file copies. They in turn point to the real location of XP via the arc values.
All this is done automatically for you by EasyBCD including searching for and identifying XP.

Windows XP
 
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