Dual Boot EasyBCD Not Working

BarryBGB

Member
I just upgraded to Build 5600 from 5536, but even before that I installed EasyBCD to get rid of the annoying "Earlier Operating System" in the boot menu and not being able to choose the default.
I first installed it in WinXPpro (first partition of three), then rebooted, Chose Vista (second partition), no problem. Everything is fine at this point.
Next I rebooted and tried to select the "WinXPpro" partition and got the error msg:

"Windows failed to start" with ways to fix my computer. Ending with:
File: \windows\system32\winload.exe
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt.

The system will boot into Vista, so I did. Installed EasyBCD in Vista and ran it. Selected Manage Bootloader, then selected Uninstall the Vista Bootloader. Rebooted.
Now I have WinXP back but no boot menu and no way to get to Vista partition
:unamused: So I re-run EasyBCD and select Install Vista Bootloader and now when I reboot, I can see and use Vista. To get back to XP I must repeat the process because I am back to the error msg when attempting to boot to XP
Attached is the screen shot of the EasyBCD window as seen from XP.(I guess I won't, 47k is too large)
So, I must be doing something wrong but what is it?
Thanks, Barry
 
Hi Barry, and Welcome to NeoSmart Technologies!!

Your fix is easy: You've added Windows XP as a non-legacy/LH OS, and as such, it'll never boot in a million years.

Install the Vista bootloader, turn on EasyBCD, delete the "Windows XP" entry, and add a new entry.
When you go to add a new entry, make sure you select "Legacy OS" first.... it'll (hopefully) work then.

In EasyBCD 1.5 this will be a lot more obvious and much more bulletproof...

Cheers!
 
Computer Guru said:
Hi Barry, and Welcome to NeoSmart Technologies!!

Your fix is easy: You've added Windows XP as a non-legacy/LH OS, and as such, it'll never boot in a million years.

Install the Vista bootloader, turn on EasyBCD, delete the "Windows XP" entry, and add a new entry.
When you go to add a new entry, make sure you select "Legacy OS" first.... it'll (hopefully) work then.

In EasyBCD 1.5 this will be a lot more obvious and much more bulletproof...

Cheers!
Thank you GURU, I will try that. Makes sense though I thought XP was non-legacy. What is LH OS?

Next question: I have been around since the very early 1970's when my first HD was a 10Meg, then 20M, and WHoo-hoo a 30Meg RLL drive; PDP-ll's with 16K of Ram, Wow, and 8inch Floppies. Legacy wasn't even a word in DOS until Windows started. So, what exactly is Legacy?

I know I had to juggle IRQ's around just to get things like Sound Cards and other things to work in DOS and Win3.11. I had assumed that Legacy meant anything that was strapped using set IRQ's and such and that XP didn't have that limitation.
When is Version 1.5 due?
 
Ok, I tried that and it didn't work. I first tried it from XP and it came up with an error msg saying something about an exception, and that I can still continue. I did and rebooted. Now I am back to square 1 where it boots directly into Vista with no boot menu.
So, I tried doing the same thing from Vista and rebooted. Same thing. I am back in Vista with no boot menu.

What next?
 
OK, you need to scrub your MBR.

Basically, boot from a Windows 2000 (preferred) or Windows XP CD, enter the "recovery console" and type
Code:
fixboot
fixmbr
and that will make XP boot. From there, use EBCD to add Vista.

Hope it works!
 
I did that and the same thing. When I ran fixmbr it said something about a non-standard mbr and I could lose all my partitions. I took a chance anyway and ran it. It rebooted and I had WinXP back but no boot menu. I ran EasyBCD but Vista was already listed. I moved the Vista to the top and saved, rebooted. Still no boot menu. I ran the program again this time installing Vista boot. Then I had Vista back but no boot menu to select from.Uninstalled Vista boot, got XP back. Uninstalled easyBCD. Rebooted with XP install disk and performed the steps you mentioned earlier, Fixboot,Fixmbr. Rebooted to XP, re-installed EasyBCD and Vista was still there. I made a change in the boot menu time, Saved and rebooted. Still no boot menu to choose from. I can still reinstall Vista bootloader from the manage Bootloader menu and boot into Vista. Again without any boot menu to choose from.
I believe I mentioned that I have 3 partitions. C:XP, D:grinning:ata, E:Vista. Actually Vista is located physically between XP and Data. I used Partition Magic to create the Vista partition there.
The 3 partitons are on a two disk array setup in a Raid0 format. NVidia Nforce4 chipset. The operating systems only see one Drive in 3 partitions. Could the Raid0 be a problem here?
I tried to attach a screen image of the View Settings in Debug mode to the earlier post however the forum will not allow this. Could you tell more if you could see that image?
 
RAID shouldn't matter, it's not visible to the OS....
Try posting that image again, it should work this time.
 
Still having trouble attaching the image so here it is in Text format:

This is the view settings while in XP
************************************************

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {default}
resumeobject {f39be409-4147-11db-9b7b-957c891ac9ef}
displayorder {f39be408-4147-11db-9b7b-957c891ac9ef}
{default}
{0bddf910-40bc-11db-acc2-0015f2b0b009}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {f39be408-4147-11db-9b7b-957c891ac9ef}
device partition=E:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice partition=E:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {f39be409-4147-11db-9b7b-957c891ac9ef}
nx OptIn

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {default}
device partition=C:
description Microsoft Windows XP

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {0bddf910-40bc-11db-acc2-0015f2b0b009}
description Microsoft Windows
************************************************
 
I just removed the image from the previous post and inserted the text info instead. Please see previous post for the view while in XP.
I reinstalled the vista bootloader and got into vista. Deleted the two xp entries and added an XP legacy entry

Below is the view while in Vista:
********************************************************
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
resumeobject {f39be409-4147-11db-9b7b-957c891ac9ef}
displayorder {current}
{0bddf911-40bc-11db-acc2-0015f2b0b009}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=E:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice partition=E:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {f39be409-4147-11db-9b7b-957c891ac9ef}
nx OptIn

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {0bddf911-40bc-11db-acc2-0015f2b0b009}
description Microsoft Windows XP
***********************************************************
I hope this make it much clearer.
Any Ideas?
 
Damn...
It looks like a bug.

Hang in there, let me send you an alpha version of 1.5, it should fix your problem.. Really sorry about this!!
 
Cool :happy:
Leave it to me to find a bug. What doe PM mean or are you going to send it in an Email?


Famous last Quotes:
"Hmm, I wonder What This Button Does"
 
With regards to the information you sent me:

No problem.

Open a CMD window as an administrator again
Code:
bcdedit /delete {default} /f
bcdedit /delete {ntldr) /f
bcdedit /delete {legacy} /f

Then run EasyBCD 1.5 (the newest one, not the one you had from before) and tell it to add an XP system to drive C:\

That should do the trick.
 
Computer Guru said:
With regards to the information you sent me:

No problem.

Open a CMD window as an administrator again
Code:
bcdedit /delete {default} /f
bcdedit /delete {ntldr) /f
bcdedit /delete {legacy} /f

Then run EasyBCD 1.5 (the newest one, not the one you had from before) and tell it to add an XP system to drive C:\

That should do the trick.
That did the trick. I now have both Operating Systems in a boot menu.
Thanks for all of the help Guru
 
I am having a similar problem.

I have my computer setup like this:
C: Vista
D: Data
E: data
F: Windows XP
H: Data
and a sata drive which I have unplugged for the moment.

I installed vista RTM recently to check it out, and now i can't get into windows xp. The boot manager comes up and i select windows xp then it says the same error that barry had, \ntldr the selected entry could not be loaded coz the application is missing or corrupt.

I tried running those commands that were just suggested to barry and only one of them succeeded yet I still can't load windows xp.

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader TimeOut: 10 seconds.
Default OS: Microsoft Windows XP

Entry #1

Name: Microsoft Windows Vista
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry #2

Name: Microsoft Windows XP
BCD ID: {default}
Drive: F:\
Bootloader Path: \ntldr
Windows Directory:

Help is greatly appreciated as Nvidias Nforce 3 250 sound drivers aren't working on vista 64bit and I'm having withdrawls from my music collection!
 
after reading a few more of the threads.. I remembered that I should mention this:

I had Windows 2003 Server installed on Drive C and XP on drive F (when I installed vista it recognized drive F as drive G, so i renamed it in drive management)

When i installed vista i formatted C and put vista on there. In another thread it was mentioned that XP sometimes installed the /ntldr stuff in other locations, perhaps it installed it on drive C (as I installed XP after 2003 was already there) and i just wiped it when installed it?

In which case how do I get it back, and put it on drive F? I've tried a bootcfg /rebuild but it didnt fix it.
 
Do you have viewing of hidden and system files enabled on your Vista?

BTW, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies & sorry for the delay.
 
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