Conflicting support messages regarding WinXP

L

LindaM

Member
Hi!

I've heard some really good things about EasyBCD, so I was getting all psych'ed up to use it :smile:

I have a laptop I bought in July 2008. It came with no DVDs or CDs for Vista. But it came with a Windows XP recovery DVD. Vista was installed on it by default. Early on, I created Vista Recovery DVDs from the hidden partition. I hung in there and tried to like Vista. Really, I did.

But recently, I decided to go back to WinXP because I liked it better. Less bloat, nicer user interface, better security.

I zipped a copy of Vista's "c:\windows\boot" folder, as described in this link:
http://neosmart.net/blog/2007/how-to-install-the-vista-bootloader-on-a-windows-xp-machine/

Then I used the Windows XP recovery DVD that came from the manufacturer to recover Windows XP. The DVD is not an install disk. This XP DVD wipes out Vista completely, including the Vista hidden partition. (Good thing I have those Vista recovery DVDs!) (Come to think of it, I have no install disk for Vista either... only recovery disks)

The Win XP the DVD recovered starts at service pack 2. So many hours later, after lots of Windows Updates and Service Pack 3 install and IE8 install, here I am.

Continuing with the instructions from the article at the above link, I extracted the Vista c:\windows\boot folder to the same location on the XP installation.

Note that I do have a legal license for Vista on this computer.

(side bar: For some reason, the manufacturer made it extremely difficult, perhaps impossible to have both Vista and XP installed on it at the same time. Why? Back in 2008 Vista was being shoved down our throats, like it or not. Why? Maybe one day I'll have the answer to that.)

After I extracted the \windows\boot folder, I installed EasyBCD.

When I ran EasyBCD I got the message
The boot configuration data store could not be opened. The system cannot find the file specified. Would you like to manually load a BCD registry for EasyBCD to manage?
Click to expand...
If I click Yes, it browses for a file w/ extension ".BCD"

At the following thread:
http://neosmart.net/forums/showthread.php?t=7870

the conflicting message is that EasyBCD is not supported on a machine which has Windows XP installed but does not have Windows Vista installed.

I plan to put at least one Linux OS on this computer in addition to Windows XP.

Eventually, I intend to install Windows 7, if I have the $ and sufficient RAM. But I don't have it yet.

What can I do to get EasyBCD working on my laptop to manage my partitions?

I don't particularly like the fact that Lilo/grub take over my bootloader, because then if I want to uninstall Linux, it would corrupt my bootloader.

I prefer to keep bootloading control in Windows XP because I'm not planning to remove WinXP for quite sometime to come.

Suggestions?

thank you!
Linda

Edited: Note that I've used CloneZilla (a great tool, btw) to make images of my internal hard drive with
a) Vista installed and
b) XP installed (just before trying EasyBCD)
SO: I can quickly put Vista back on my system, find some vital piece of data and store it on a USB stick, and then very quickly restore the Windows XP image to my internal HD - I don't have to go through all the hours of recovery from DVD, Windows updates, SP3 & IE8 install, etc.
 
Last edited:
Hi Linda,

This feature was dropped from EasyBCD 2.0

If you want to use EasyBCD to install the Windows bootloader on XP, you'll need to download and install EasyBCD 1.7 from Download EasyBCD 2.0.2 - NeoSmart Technologies

As soon as you've done that, you can install EBCD2 and start using that for all the improvements and new features.

Welcome to the forums, thanks for a well-written question, and good luck!

(btw, we were in contact with a *major* computer manufacturer to ship their machines with EasyBCD. It would have meant making life soooo much easier for a lot of people!)
 
Computer Guru said:
Hi Linda,

This feature was dropped from EasyBCD 2.0

If you want to use EasyBCD to install the Windows bootloader on XP, you'll need to download and install EasyBCD 1.7 from Download EasyBCD 2.0.2 - NeoSmart Technologies

As soon as you've done that, you can install EBCD2 and start using that for all the improvements and new features.

Welcome to the forums, thanks for a well-written question, and good luck!

(btw, we were in contact with a *major* computer manufacturer to ship their machines with EasyBCD. It would have meant making life soooo much easier for a lot of people!)
Click to expand...

while your at it, maybe suggest an option to create & adjust additional partitions? Or at least assume they don't have the whole internal hard drive to themselves? If I have a license for MS Windows XYZ, why am I restricted to ONLY that operating system on my computer? I don't think it should be allowed to lock users into one OS like that. After all, I bought the machine and I bought the OS - one from Sony, the other, in a sense, from MS.

thanks about the 1.7 tip. I'll look at it later today.
Linda
 
I uninstalled EasyBCD 2 using Revo Uninstaller.

I downloaded EasyBCD 1.7, and installed it.

When it ran, it showed me the following message:
EasyBCD1.7-ErrorMsg.JPG

I clicked 'No'. Should I click 'Yes'? I don't have Vista on this laptop - I had it on here, but I prefer XP, and I'm not sure how to install both XP and Vista at the same time, given that I don't have an actual install disk.

thank you,
Linda

Edited: I clicked 'Yes' and added Windows XP, removed Windows Vista. Saved settings

Now when I reboot, I am seeing two black windows. After the first one selects XP (rather than the recovery console or memory diagnostics), the second one comes up which also offers win XP and the recovery console.

Is that normal? is it necessary? If not necessary, how do I fix?

thanks!
 
Last edited:
Well, like I said, you were supposed to *only* use EasyBCD 1.7 to get the bootloader installed.

Download a copy of EasyBCD 2.1 from here: EasyBCD 2.1 Beta Builds - The NeoSmart Forums - no need to use revo, EasyBCD will uninstall automatically when updating to a new build.

Use EasyBCD 2.1 to delete the old XP entry, and add a new one. It'll clean up the boot menu for you.
 
Computer Guru said:
Well, like I said, you were supposed to *only* use EasyBCD 1.7 to get the bootloader installed.

Download a copy of EasyBCD 2.1 from here: EasyBCD 2.1 Beta Builds - The NeoSmart Forums - no need to use revo, EasyBCD will uninstall automatically when updating to a new build.

Use EasyBCD 2.1 to delete the old XP entry, and add a new one. It'll clean up the boot menu for you.
Click to expand...

Okay, I downloaded and installed 2.1 beta.

I ran it, and used it to delete my previous Windows XP entry.
Then I added a new Windows XP entry.

The I rebooted - and now my Recovery Console is gone. It's going straight into Windows XP. Whoops. I guess I missed something.

thank you in advance for your help,
Linda
 
OK, this is a *little* bit complicated, but bear with me:

1) Add *another* entry, but this time, select the Windows XP partition (instead of letting EasyBCD autoselect it for you).
2) Open boot.ini, and *replace* the Windows XP partition in there with the entry for the recovery console.
 
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