Dual-Boot issue

B

Brady12

Member
Gigabyte motherboard with multiple SATA/RAID controllers. 1 controller has 2 SATA ports, 1 controller has 6 sata ports.

I have 2 SSD's in RAID Configuration with windows 7 loaded on the controller that holds 2 drives. On the other, I have a regular SATA HDD with windows xp professional installed.

-When I run easybcd in windows xp, it tells me that it can't find the .bcd file so I can't do anything.

-When I run easybcd in windows 7, it allows me to add the entry for XP, then write the MBR like I read in the directions. However, it still boots straight to one drive or the other and never displays a menu.

Please help, thank you.

Addendum:

Update: Now the menu is appearing after completely shutting down. Windows 7 boots fine, Windows XP displays a mode that there's an error with \ntldr and to insert the installation CD to fix it... but I fear that will just remove the menu again.
 
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If that doesn't work, use EasyBCD to change the boot drive (BCD Repair/Install) to the Windows XP disk. Then delete and re-add both the XP and 7 entries, and configure the BIOS to boot from the Windows XP Disk.
 
Computer Guru said:
If that doesn't work, use EasyBCD to change the boot drive (BCD Repair/Install) to the Windows XP disk. Then delete and re-add both the XP and 7 entries, and configure the BIOS to boot from the Windows XP Disk.
Click to expand...
Tried it again, no luck. When I open EasyBCD in windows XP, it says that there is no .bcd file found and I can't do anything.


side-note, all of these drives are SATA, and the operating systems see the drives as different letters once loaded. For example, the windows XP drive is E:\ when in windows 7, and the windows xp drive is C:\ while in windows xp. This sounds like it may be related?

thanks for your help.
 
OSs keep disk letters as registry entries. They don't exist in the real world. They're unique to each system and will only ever agree from one OS to another by coincidence or if you set them manually to agree.
Why do you want to run EasyBCD in XP ?
If you can boot W7 and run Easy there, that's the logical place.
Boot W7 and post a Disk Management screenshot and the contents of EasyBCD "view settings" (detailed).
(Instructions in the sticky if needed)
 
Terry60 said:
OSs keep disk letters as registry entries. They don't exist in the real world. They're unique to each system and will only ever agree from one OS to another by coincidence or if you set them manually to agree.
Why do you want to run EasyBCD in XP ?
If you can boot W7 and run Easy there, that's the logical place.
Boot W7 and post a Disk Management screenshot and the contents of EasyBCD "view settings" (detailed).
(Instructions in the sticky if needed)
Click to expand...

2rn7ghg.jpg

mjxpcj.jpg


The Storage and Windows XP volumes are separate partitions on the same physical drive.



Thanks.



Wait... after looking at this, should I set windows XP as the active primary partition and storage as the logical drive? They seem to be reversed.
 
You can't, because XP is logical. Only primary (non-logical) partitions can be boot drives. Which is fine. Just press "Cancel" in XP when EasyBCD says it can't find the BCD, and the installl/repair -> change boot drive. Select F: not E: and that'll make F: the new boot drive.
 
Computer Guru said:
You can't, because XP is logical. Only primary (non-logical) partitions can be boot drives. Which is fine. Just press "Cancel" in XP when EasyBCD says it can't find the BCD, and the installl/repair -> change boot drive. Select F: not E: and that'll make F: the new boot drive.
Click to expand...
Thank you. Will give it a try.

Addendum:

Do you mean run windows install/repair or a function inside of EasyBCD?

If it's easyBCD, can I do all of the work from windows7?
 
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Yes, it's EasyBCD > Backup/Repair BCD > Change boot drive.
Point it to F if you want to copy the boot files there.

Before you do though, just check your BIOS boot sequence.
I think you've already got XP before W7, and that's making the boot skip a disk before it finds W7.
Subsequently EasyBCD in W7 will be confused by the fact that it's booting from a HDD which isn't 1st in the BIOS.
Sort the BIOS out first and only then resort to moving the boot if that's unsuccessful.
 
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