Dual Boot Setup refuses to Boot to Vista

C

cbender

Member
The Scenerio As Follows:
The Pc currently had Xp Home Sp3 installed, added a new larger harddrive and partitioned into 3 active partitions and used my Windows home server to re-install Xp to drive C: first, then proceeded to install Vista Ultimate from cd on partition D: and during Vista setup when the computer is rebooted It cannot boot back into Vista returning with the usual error:

Windows Failed to start
File: Windows/System32/winload.exe
status: 0xc000000f

Have tried using the Startup repair feature on the Vista cd with all attempts to be unsuccessful. Installed EasyBCD on my Xp side and configured via the instruction in the help documention with EasyBCD, still same problem, same error on boot, verified the drive settings and tried using the "Rescue My Sytem" under the "Diagnostics" tab and choose "Recreate missing/deleted boot files" and get the return "Boot files already present, Easy BCD will not be recreating the Windows Vista BCD files."

So now I'm lost and don't know where to go next!
My Current BCD Settings are as follows...

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader Timeout: 20 seconds.
Default OS: Earlier Version of Windows

Entry #1

Name: Earlier Version of Windows
BCD ID: {ntldr}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \ntldr

Entry #2

Name: Vista Xtreme
BCD ID: {372eff50-170f-11de-b65d-00096bb6671a}
Drive: D:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows
and still get the same error as stated above on boot!

Debug Info
Code: 
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device                  partition=C:
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default                 {466f5a88-0af2-4f76-9038-095b170dc21c}
displayorder            {466f5a88-0af2-4f76-9038-095b170dc21c}
                        {372eff50-170f-11de-b65d-00096bb6671a}
toolsdisplayorder       {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout                 20

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier              {466f5a88-0af2-4f76-9038-095b170dc21c}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \ntldr
description             Earlier Version of Windows

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {372eff50-170f-11de-b65d-00096bb6671a}
device                  partition=D:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Vista Xtreme
osdevice                partition=D:
systemroot              \Windows
My next question, if it is even relevant has to do with hardeware config of the pc in question. This PC is a desktop PC with only 1 harddrive and the jumpers are set to cable select and the IDE cable only has 1 black plug on it! Not sure it should matter but I have another newer pc that I have successfully installed a dual boot using Xp Pro and Vista Ultimate that went flawless and I did not even have to use Easy BCD.

It worked and booted to both Os's correctly immediatly after install, no config was necessarry and the only hardeware difference is that physically both Os's are installed on totally different HD's and they are newer Sata drives and have no jumper designations!

My ultimate goal is to install Linux on the 3rd partition after I figure out what is going wrong with the Vista Boot.

Thanx in advance, I'm personally out of ideas, hopefully someone has seen this issue before!
Corey
 
Hello Corey, welcome to NST

Check the boot sequence in your BIOS. The drive Vista is on should have priority over the other hard drives in your system.
 
I do not seem to be able to change the boot order excepr between hd, cd, and disk, I cannot choose the D: partition that is on the drive. This computer only has 1 physical HD that is partitioned. In the bios the only thing it shows under Devices>IDE Drives Setup is Ide Drives 0 thru 3 and I cannot change the order of them. So if the problem is that Vista resides on the D: partition I guess my question is do I need to reinstall starting with vista first,installing it on the C: partition and Xp second on the D:? It does'nt make sence to me cause on my last install like this I did it opposite, I ran Xp for a few months, added a second HD, installed and it worked flawlessly and vist was on the D: partiton! I'm debating another alternative which is running Vista on Virtual machine in the Xp enviroment and I also want to run Ubuntu as well and I have not tried installing yet to see if the outcome is the same.
 
cbender said:
I do not seem to be able to change the boot order excepr between hd, cd, and disk, I cannot choose the D: partition that is on the drive. This computer only has 1 physical HD that is partitioned. In the bios the only thing it shows under Devices>IDE Drives Setup is Ide Drives 0 thru 3 and I cannot change the order of them. So if the problem is that Vista resides on the D: partition I guess my question is do I need to reinstall starting with vista first,installing it on the C: partition and Xp second on the D:? It does'nt make sence to me cause on my last install like this I did it opposite, I ran Xp for a few months, added a second HD, installed and it worked flawlessly and vist was on the D: partiton! I'm debating another alternative which is running Vista on Virtual machine in the Xp enviroment and I also want to run Ubuntu as well and I have not tried installing yet to see if the outcome is the same.
Click to expand...

If you only have one HDD, then there is no point going into the BIOS. :wink: The partition order can not be changed in the BIOS...that must be done (if necessary...which in your case, its not) in the partition table of the MBR. But there is no need to change the partition order. It sounds like to me that the problem is a corrupt winload.exe file, which just FYI happens to be the bootloader for Vista...it is what actually loads the OS. If Startup Repair however can't fix it, you could try a parallel repair install to see the new Vista go on a separate partition than your other two OSes, and then simply copy over the winload.exe that is working into your old Windows/System32 folder, and replace the old which will hopefully fix the problem.
I don't think there is much else for you in terms of options, short of completely reinstalling and starting over...

Cheers.

Jake

EDIT: And BTW, Startup Repair usually requires it having to be run 2-3 times before it fixes everything, so if you only did it once, you may want to run it a couple more times, which will hopefully fix the issue...
 
Last edited:
Coolname007 said:
If you only have one HDD, then there is no point going into the BIOS. :wink: The partition order can not be changed in the BIOS...that must be done (if necessary...which in your case, its not) in the partition table of the MBR. But there is no need to change the partition order. It sounds like to me that the problem is a corrupt winload.exe file, which just FYI happens to be the bootloader for Vista...it is what actually loads the OS. If Startup Repair however can't fix it, you could try a parallel repair install to see the new Vista go on a separate partition than your other two OSes, and then simply copy over the winload.exe that is working into your old Windows/System32 folder, and replace the old which will hopefully fix the problem.
I don't think there is much else for you in terms of options, short of completely reinstalling and starting over...

Cheers.

Jake

EDIT: And BTW, Startup Repair usually requires it having to be run 2-3 times before it fixes everything, so if you only did it once, you may want to run it a couple more times, which will hopefully fix the issue...
Click to expand...

Yeah I had the same similar ideas and they all failed. I tried copying over the winload.exe file from a backup off my Home Server for my other dual boot system that has a working Vista Os' on it. Tried the startup repair 5 times and have reinstalled numerous times with 2 different Vista install cd's. This does'nt make much sense to me. I've never had much problem with dual boots! All I can think of is trying the Linux install and see if I encounter the same problem.
Thanks for the input!
 
Try booting the recovery CD, but before you try repairing the boot, go into the recovery console and execute a chkdsk /f command on your Vista partition. Maybe there's a bad block in the boot sector that the repair keeps on reusing, which needs to be prevented from ever being used again.
 
I was wondering if that could be the case, I did try deleting the partition and retrying install allowing the cd to format the drive and that did'nt work as well but I'll try the checkdisk f command and see what happens! thanks for the info!
Corey
 
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