Bootmgr "earlier version of windows" is buggy

S

Steve17

Active Member
When I have Win7 bootmgr's menu and I click on "earlier version of windows" it sometimes gives me XP's boot selection menu, as it should. Other times it simply loads the default XP installation without giving me the menu.

I have 2 XPs installed and I should get the menu every time. I don't know what the problem is. It might be the motherboard BIOS for all I know.

When it works right, it keeps on working right until I re-boot. I have an entry in boot.ini that lets me go back to bootmgr. So I can go back to bootmgr and again select "earlier version of windows" again, and it always works. I can do this forever. But if I restart the computer, it's apt to load the default XP without giving me the menu.

Does anyone else have this problem?
 
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="XP_0_2_HD" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP 1 1 HD" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
c:\mygrub="Fedora 4 sda7"
c:\run_bootmgr.vbr="Run Bootmgr.vbr"
c:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /CMDCONS
 
If anyone is interested, I think I figured it out. When I select "Earlier Version..." and I press the ENTER key quickly, it works okay and I get the ntldr menu.

But if I press the ENTER key slowly, ntldr runs the first entry on it's menu. Apparently in this case, ntldr sees the same ENTER keypress that bootmgr sees. That is, the ENTER key is still pressed when ntldr checks for a key press.
 
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