Apologies but another Win 7/Xp dual boot problem

D

davemazo

Active Member
I`ve searched and searched, tried and tried, and followed the guides on this but I just can`t work it out.
I recently decided to build myself a new PC and installed 4 HDDs into it. One is a 120Gb Seagate for WinXp, a second 500Gb WD Caviar for Win 7, a third 120Gb Seagate for backup and a fourth IDE Seagate which contains backups from my old PC.
I installed Xp first no problem, I then installed Win 7 on to the Caviar and my dual boot up worked fine. I then decided to remove the Backup 120Gb Seagate and replace it with the 500Gb HDD from my old PC. That is when my problems started and both Win 7 and Xp refused to boot. As soon as I reconnected the Seagate Win 7 boots but Xp doesn`t.
I downloaded the latest EasyBCD, used the autoconfig option, following the guide to the letter, and when that didn`t work fiddled about with it but the problem remains the same.
The settings page is as follows:-
There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: Windows 7
Timeout: 15 seconds.
Boot Drive: D:\

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

Entry #2
Name: Windows XP
BCD ID: {1444d164-c342-11de-9cd5-b73255ef9177}
Drive: E:\
Bootloader Path: \NTLDR

The entry for Xp now reads Drive E: it was originally showing as Drive D:
The drives in Disk Management are shown as:-

Backup (D) Simple Basic NTFS Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)
IBM (H) Simple Basic NTFS Healthy (Primary Partition)
Windows 7 (C) Simple Basic NTFS Healthy (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)
XP (E) Simple Basic NTFS Healthy (Primary Partition)

The only thing I can think of that has caused the problem is that when I was installing XP after building the PC, I stopped the installation half way through because I thought I was installing to the wrong drive and started again on the drive it is now on. When everything worked I then deleted a Windows folder on the Backup (D:smile: drive and everything still worked but it seems I hadn`t deleted the ntdlr, ntdetect.com etc etc files as they were hidden, which, I think, explains why the system booted and why the whole system stopped booting when I disconnected it.
Hope this all makes sense.
 
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Disconnect (or at least power off) all HDDs except for the W7 one. Boot from the W7 DVD, run Startup Repair until W7 is booting again (it might take 3 times). Then connect all other HDDs up again, enter your BIOS, put the W7 HDD first in the boot sequence, save the changes, and exit the BIOS.
Boot W7.
Run EasyBCD from W7, go to Add/Remove Entries, delete any XP entry already there. Add a new one, letting it auto-configure, and you'll have your dual-boot, and you'll be able to replace the Seagate drive with the 500 GB HDD like you wanted.

Cheers.
 
davemazo said:
W7 already boots, it`s just Xp that won`t boot. Do I still need to run Startup repair?
Click to expand...
Yes, in order to change the boot drive (i.e. the HDD that contains the boot files). Right now, the boot drive is your backup HDD, hence why you can't disconnect it, and still boot. :wink:

Addendum:

Sorry, forgot about the new feature Guru recently added to the latest beta builds. Diagnostic Center | Change the Boot Drive. You can use that method if you want to, and point it at the W7 partition, and you'll achieve the same result.
 
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Ah right. Just one more question. Like I said my plan was to replace the 120Gb with a 500Gb for backup purposes. The 500Gb drive still has my Vista installation from my old PC. Will this interfere with my boot up before I can delete the Vista installation or am I best formatting it before I put it into my new PC.
 
davemazo said:
Ah right. Just one more question. Like I said my plan was to replace the 120Gb with a 500Gb for backup purposes. The 500Gb drive still has my Vista installation from my old PC. Will this interfere with my boot up before I can delete the Vista installation or am I best formatting it before I put it into my new PC.
Click to expand...
Ok, if there's a Vista on there (which boots fine when you connect it and put it first in the boot sequence of the BIOS), then you can use its own boot files to boot your other OSes if you want to (though sometimes there is a problem with Vista not liking the W7 version of winload.exe). Just use EasyBCD to add two entries to the Vista BCD: one for W7 and the other for XP (letting it auto-configure of course).

Or whatever you want to do. If you want to format, and get rid of Vista, then sure, do that (never liked Vista myself, anyway...). :smile:
If its not first in the boot sequence, it wont interfere with the boot.
 
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Change Boot Drive in Diagnostics Centre doesn`t seem to work for me. I get an error message saying:-

"Unhandled exception has occurred in your application.If you click Continue, the application will ignore this error and attempt to continue. If you click Quit, the application will close immediately.
Object reference not set to an instance of an object"

Most times the program seems to crash with a "Not Responding" message, so I close it and run it again, it then seems to work
 
Hmm...
No idea why that's happening sorry, though judging by other posters on this forum with exception issues, its usually a .Net problem. You don't have multiple versions of .Net installed, do you? If so, uninstall all but the latest.
(This time it might be a problem with BootGrabber.exe though)
 
Thanks, I think I`ll format the Vista drive first. I don`t want to use it as I`m selling the old PC with the Vista retail discs

Addendum:

As far as I can see I only have one instance of .Net installed. I havent intentionally installed several versions of it.
 
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I don`t get it. I just ran EasyBCD again (for the 5th time) to see exactly what was happening when I hit Continue and it seems to have worked. I`ll reboot now and see what happens.

Addendum:

Nothing has changed. Win7 boots fine but Xp doesn`t. Do I still need to run auto configure after changing the boot drive
 
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davemazo said:
I don`t get it. I just ran EasyBCD again (for the 5th time) to see exactly what was happening when I hit Continue and it seems to have worked. I`ll reboot now and see what happens.

Addendum:

Nothing has changed. Win7 boots fine but Xp doesn`t. Do I still need to run auto configure after changing the boot drive
Click to expand...
Yes, you will need to run Tools->Auto-configure now to get XP working.
I'm assuming Win7 is booting now without the backup HDD connected? If so, then it worked. :smile:
 
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We`re halfway there. I can now disconnect the Backup drive and can boot into Win7. I ran auto configure and created an Xp entry but when I choose Xp on boot up the PC just restarts. I can then choose W7 and start as normal
 
Brilliant, everything is back to normal. Many, many thanks to you and the creators of EasyBCD for all your help. You have the patience of a saint.
 
No problem, and thanks for the saint comment. :smile:
(Btw, I'm wearing a New Orleans Saints shirt right now...might be a coincidence, or perhaps not :wink: )
 
New Orleans, one of my "places to see before I die", hopefully soon. See that is, not die, obviously :wtf:
Maybe I can come and watch the New Orleans Saints to try and understand this game you call football. Soccer is the way forward :wink:
 
Yeah, soccer is a cool sport too, but football's awesome ! :grinning:
You have guys knocking each other over, not something you see in soccer... (well, I guess they trip sometimes and fall, but that's not the same :wink: )
lolz
 
I get your point, too many of todays footballers (soccer variety) fall over their own shadow and cry foul, holding their leg/face/arm in agony, a minute later they are running around like race horses.
You`ve converted me.
Anyway I think we are getting off the subject of multi booting, thanks again for your help.
 
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