Changing XP/Vista Dual Boot to Single Boot Vista

Terry, I only have the Vista drive in when I run the Vista repair from the installation disk.
My curent configuration as I type is with XP drive as system and Vista as boot, the only one that lets Vista run. As I've said before, I've loaded a couple of third party boot apps (GAG and Acronis) and neither can boot this vista partition and give the same error message (This was with a clone; the one here is original).
I haven't ran repair 3 times, only twice since the second time, repair says that there are no faults with the system and if I'm having startup problems, remove any recently added devices.
For all of the posts and help I've searched through, I haven't seen anyone getting the same error message as me. My clutching at straws assumption that it must have an XP PBR was purely based on the cluster of messages all relating to BootMgr being corrupt or not found. Since they sit next to each other, I'm assuming they are part of the PBR calling BootMgr? If you're interested, I can post the sector/byte compare of my duff vista against the one that works. As said previously, the MBR looks OK with the drive sig and partition location being the only difference. Well that only leaves the PBR and the Boot files themselves. The boot files look ok.
In EasyBCD, when I use the tool to select a new boot drive, I've noticed that for all it's whirring and clanking, nothing seems to get changed on the Vista drives BCD file. If I looked at the Vista BCD by selecting from EasyBCD, it had the XP and Vista entries in it as it had been copied from the XP drive. Selecting the vista drive as boot from EasyBCD should have rebuilt the BCD file, at least pointing the vista enty at C but the BCD file remains unchanged?
I'm going to have to put it to bed soon as I have real programming to do, which makes this problem all the more grrrr.
 
Try disconnecting the non Vista drives
Boot the Vista DVD, "repair your computer", "command prompt", run chkdsk /r against the Vista partition. (take a long lunch-break while it grinds through repairing possible disk problems)
Boot the DVD again "repair your computer" "startup repair" (this line 3 times)
(it's very stupid and only fixes one of the many things that need to be done to create a Vista boot in each pass).
If that gets Vista booting, reconnect everything, keeping Vista 1st in the BIOS boot sequence, and use EasyBCD to add an XP entry and auto-configure it if you want XP to dual-boot.
 
BananaRacer said:
Thanks Jake, I'll give it a go later tonight.
Will this write a Vista PBR to the drive then? Some bits I've read indicate that while bootsec/fixboot should fix the PBR, it may write an XP version or mend the XP one that's already there.
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Ok, first of all, there is no such command "bootsect /fixboot". If you actually meant "bootrec /fixboot" instead, then I can tell you that that will definitely write a Vista PBR, not an XP one. And anyway, I was suggesting to use the bootsect tool command, which will rewrite the code in the bootsector that searches for "bootmgr", in case its corrupted. You can also use the tool "testdisk" to repair the bootsector itself, if that proves to be the problem, after which you'll probably need to use bootsect anyway to rewrite the boot code.
 
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OK Terry, I'll give it another go, thanks.
CoolName, When you say the BootSct tool writes to the Bootsector, are you refering to the MBR or the PBR. As I was to understand, it's the PBR that calls bootmgr? http://www.multibooters.co.uk/multiboot.html
I apologise for the typo, I did mean bootrec/fixboot. That aside, I've only had the vista drive in, bootsect'd it, bootrec'd it and EasyBCD'd it, along with the Vista install disk saying nothing is wrong with it! I also tried the Paragon boot repair from ver10, all no joy.
I'll follow Terry's advice and give it another 3 restarts and chkdsk it too and post my results later.
Thanks both for your patience and help.
Regards,
Andy
 
When I use the term "boot sector", I'm referring to the PBR (partition boot record). The MBR is like a global "boot sector" for your entire HDD, while the PBR is just the bootsector for a partition.
 
Hi Guys, sorry for not posting sooner but I've been tied up with acceptance tests at work.
OK, tried three repairs with the Vista DVD and that didn't fix it. My Vista DVD is an OEM version that I bought on release day, so quite old. I got hold of another disk from work that was only a few months old and I noticed that Bootsect (and maybe more) was a newer version than mine. I got excited that this might be the problem, but the new DVD also failed to fix it.
I said it wouldn't beat me but enough is enough. I've got an image saved and I will come back to it in a week or two, once my enthusiasm levels have returned. I'll be sure to post any solution I find. Thanks for your help, Andy
 
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