Dual boot Vista and XP on different Harddrives

S

SonOfWolf

Member
Firstly sorry if this has been answered anywere else. I have looked through the site and aread the guides for creating a boot.ini but I cant seem to get my head around it :frowning:

I have my computer setup like this
Disk :c Vista Ultimate 64bit
Disk :d XP home 32 bit
Disk :e just one for putting stuff on

I have used EeasyBCD to create the boot menu so I can start into xp or vista but when I try to load xp it comes up with an error

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:

<Windows root>\system32\ntoskrnl.exe.
Please reinstall a copy of the above file.

But vista works fine (Thank goodness lol)

So if anyone can help me solve this problem it would be great
thanks in advance

Luke
 
Troubleshooting Windows XP - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

That page will hold your answers. Basically you need to unhide your system file.

Tool>Options>Folder Options>View Tab

Click the box to show hidden files then scroll down and unhide the system protected files. The go into the XP drive. Right in the root of the drive. Meaning not in any folder or anything you should see 3 files.

NTLDR, NTDETECT and boot.ini

Copy these 3 files to the Vista partition. Then Remove the XP Entry. Make sure to save it. Close EasyBCD and then reload it. Add a XP entry. This time point it to the C:\ drive where you should have just placed the 3 XP files. Now save and reboot.

You should be able to select the OS you want and boot to either one.
 
I cant seem to find those. I'm not a beginner with computers by a long shot but I cant seem to do this :frowning:

****Edit I found them****

Addendum:

Just to be clear I just paste the three files into the vista harddrive???
 
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but wont that replace the ones I allready have??
Sorry im not trying to be anoying but chaning things without knowing exactly what im doing is worrying lol
 
Well if they are already on Vista's drive and not on XP's then no. You'll instead need to make a copy of the ntdetect.com to XP's root. If you're still having problems after that, post a screenshot of disk management and your boot.ini file.
 
Right so now im not copying them from xp to vista?

Those files you mentioned are on both hard drives. So what to do?
I didnt copy them from xp they were already there.
 
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