Dual boot help needed. HP dv9000 laptop Vista Bus / Xp Media center

mpmltah

Member
My story!
Started with XP media center original install from factory. dv9000t Intel duo Core
Wiped and installed Vista business 2 years ago. all was well.
Recieved a spare new drive, so I decided to install XP media center from the original HP DVDs onto the new drive by removing the other/Vista Drive and installed stand alone XP media center on the new drive. Removed Drive 2 (new w/XP) reinstalled Vista (drive 1) downloaded BCD 2.0 and set it up as per instructions. then installed second drive to the system.
Drive 1 = Vista business
Drive 2 = XP media center edition Sp1 i believe because I havent been able to boot into xp and do updates yet.

My system boots up an I get boot menu as expected.
Windows Vista
Windows XP

Vista works just fine but Xp starts to load, has the lg Windows XP banner with black back ground and moving green bar meter, then goes blank for a few seconds and comes back with just the mouse curser for a few seconds then the blue background with the smaller Windows XP logo and a movable mouse cursor but nothing happens after that it just sits there.

I have spent the last two days reading the FAQs and following the threads on here.
I just can't seem to find the problem. I have edited the Boot.ini file and even copy and pasted as per the instructions. i even let BCD 2.0 configure for me.

I am just not getting anywhere. Hope this is the correct place to ask for help..

Is there something I missed or maybe XP media Center edition is not compatible??????

Thanks in advance for you help

Michael H.
mhump at uidaho.edu
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Hi Michael, welcome to NST.
Did you verify that the XP disk booted by itself before you put the Vista disk back ?
The symptoms you describe are of an XP system that's getting past the boot and failing shortly after.
 
Hi Terry

Yes I did verify, XP was working, in fact I proceeded to set up networking and a few other things. Including removing most of the original "crapware" from the oem install.
everything was working fine. then I just had to try the dual boot again and it happened as soon as I booted with both drives using the Boot menu BCD.20

I agree it is like it loads into XP 90% then stops.

Note this is the second time it happened. ie I had just returned the laptop to HP for repairs
and they installed the new drive and reset everything to original OEM. when I got it back it worked fine . That is when I decided to do a duel boot senario because I now had a second drive with a complete original XP install. (when I sent in the laptop for repairs I refused to let them mess with the Vista install on my 1st drive so they provided a new drive.)
this is what I used the first time. ( I just figured I really screwed up the dual boot the first try so I performed a complete restore from the original disks and carefully followed the instructions and info on here and tried again with the exact same results.


Michael
 
Can you verify that it still boots natively by putting the XP disk 1st in the BIOS, then go back to the Vista-first boot and copy/paste the "display settings" output from EasyBCD 2.0 in detailed (debug) mode, and post a screen shot of Vista Disk Management.
 
Terry, Thanks for hanging in there with me on this.
Here is what I have done this morning.

I removed the vista disk and reinstalled the XP Media Center disk back into the laptop by itself. (My BIOS does not alow specific Hard drive selection, only Notbook Hard drive or CD /DVD Rom or USB boot options -currently set to boot laptop HD) I tried to boot XP and got the following message. "Windows could not start becuse of a computer disk hardware configuration problem" "Could not read from selected boot disk" "Check boot path and disk hardware" So I removed the Drive , inserted into another computer via external Sata / USB adapter and viewed the XP c: Boot.ini file it was set
Multi (0) disk(0) rdisk (1) Part (1 \windows
O/S multi (0) disk(0) rdisk (1) part (1) windows="windows XP Media Center Edition" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin

This is the way it was set from yesterday and having the problems mentioned before in not finishing the XP boot I described.

While hooked to the "other" computer I did an edit of the Boot ini and chaned both rdisk's to (0) then put the drive back into the laptop and retried. This time it was back to loading up part way and hanging at the blue background with small windows XP logo with movable mouse. just as before. Now this is still as XP disk drive only.

So now I put the vista drive back in #1 and the XP drive #2 and retried booting XP from Boot menu with same Hanging result. Then booted back up and choose Vista from boot menu and it still works ok. So I am in the process of grabbing screen snips and copies of Boot.ini files to post on here as you requested, (soon as I figure out how to do it)

Michael
 
Terry hre are some screen snips starting with BCD Debug view
Then a paste from the Vista C: root boot.ini
>>[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin

Then a paste from the XP disk boot.ini
boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /fastdetect /noexecute=optin

Then a snip of the Comp Management screen
and also snips from xp root and XP recovery partition rrot as well

Hope this dosen't overload the forum upload syatem or you for that matter lol.
While you are absorbing all this info 1 quick question about the steps I used this morning.
If I got the "windows could not start error--" because obviously the boot ini was pointing to the wrong rdisk (1) to boot by itself and when edited it went back to the hanging problem, then why when I put back the dual drive setup did it not have the "windows could not start -- error" when I tried to boot the XP side from the menu with Xp disk boot ini still set to (0) ?

Thanks again,
Michael H.
 

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To answer your last question first, the XP version of boot.ini isn't used when you dual boot from the BCD. The copy in the same partition as the BCD is.
I don't know what N:\ is in your screenshots ? it doesn't appear in the DM display.
I do however notice that your HP recovery partition contains XP boot files.
I suspect that it was the "system" partition when you had just XP, and that's why it's not booting properly now.
Set the HP partition "active" and try booting from the XP disk again.
If that works, put the Vista system back, boot it and use EasyBCD 2.0 to delete and readd the XP entry, letting it auto-configure.
 
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