Boot.ini Error (Dual booting XP using vista bootloader and MAC OS X)

J

johndozer

Member
Alright here is what I'm trying to do. I have one hard drive with a legal copy of Mac OS X installed. This boots using a bootloader called Chameleon. Chameleon can also boot Windows 7/Vista installs. Using this knowledge I was able to triple boot Mac OS X, Windows 7, and XP all on separate drives.

I no longer use Windows 7 and I'm trying to use Windows XP with the Vista Bootloader on the same drive. Here is my setup

In BIOS:
SATA Port 0: Windows XP (Vista Bootloader)
SATA Port 1: Mac OS X (Chameleon)

Boot Order:
Mac OS X (hard drive 0)
Windows XP ( hard drive 1)

On the Windows XP drive I have bootmgr, /Boot/bcd, boot.ini, NTLDR, ntdetect.com

My Boot.ini looks like this
[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on C:\" /fastdetect
Click to expand...
My BCD looks like this

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device unknown
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {9f20c890-a17b-11de-99e8-0019d13a0f1c}
displayorder {9f20c890-a17b-11de-99e8-0019d13a0f1c}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 5

Real-mode Boot Sector
---------------------
identifier {9f20c890-a17b-11de-99e8-0019d13a0f1c}
device partition=C:
path \NTLDR
description Microsoft Windows XP
Click to expand...
The XP drive boots properly if I set it as first boot device. So I know the install isn't corrupted.

When I try to dual boot no matter what I do I get Boot.ini error NTDETECT.com failed. I've poured over the wiki and the FAQ dozens of times. I've spent many hours trying to fix it .

Any ideas? I've already tried editing the boot.ini to use rdisk(0) rdisk(1) etc
 
Last edited:
Hello John, welcome to NST

Get EasyBCD beta latest build from here. Re-add an entry for XP and let it autoconfigure.
 
Boot.ini issue

You just need to edit your boot.ini statements to reflect the fact that the drive it lives on is not the first (active) drive in the bios.

[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on C:\" /fastdetect

I think if you change it to this it should work...(remember to back it up!!!)

[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on C:\" /fastdetect

If you search M$ for how boot.ini handles enumerating SCSI drives you should be able to find the exact format for your statements.

Here is a link to their (microsoft's) page that explains all this crap:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/102873
 
Last edited:
Hi Ted, welcome to NST.
EasyBCD 2.0 configures all aspects of the XP boot automatically. That includes defining the correct rdisk/partition combination in boot.ini
 
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