Dual boot XP Pro on Vista 64 System Originaly.

H

Hawks1200

Member
Hello, I am somewhat new at dual booting. I have a Dell 1721 originaly running Vista, on drive C. I found this website that walked me through the process of seting up dual booting. http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm

Here is a screen shot of my Disk Management

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On a completly diffrent drive, I have succuessfully installed XP Pro. Pro boots up fine, I install EBCD 1.7.2, And end up at this screen.

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I click add an entry, switch drive letter from C to D, Switch type to NT/2k/XP/2K3, and name it Windows XP, Note: There is already an XP Above, In this screen I have not added the entry.

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So I change the name to XP 2, to make them diffrent.

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Now, there are 3 entries existing

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Now, I click on Manage Bootloader, and click write MBR, to re-install the Vista bootloader.

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Then I restart. When I select Vista, It loads properly, but when I select either XP entry. I get an error. Canot remember what, but I think it was somthing like this

NTLDR is missing or corrupt (or one of its variants)

Windows Boot Manager has experienced a problem.File: \ntldrStatus: 0xc000000fInfo: The selected entry couldn't be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt..

Hope that is enough info for someone to help.


Also, after completing the steps above, If I try to enter EBCD, it gives me an error that no entries could be found. The only way to regain access to XP is to run a repair of the boot with the XP disk.

Thanks
 
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I did this and I still get the same error message. I deleted both XP entries, then add new one. Should I not click on the Re-Install Vista bootloader button under Manage Bootloader?
 
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If you're at step 4 of the sticky thread, (XP booting, no Vista), you need to repair the Vista boot before you can proceed.
Follow the link and you'll find tutorials both for repairing with EasyBCD and the simpler option of letting the Vista DVD do it for you (if you have one. If not there's always our download)
 
It has been a while since I have worked on this setup, im bored tonight so I will give it another try. I have been running with XP for a while, and Vista has not been able to boot. I just used EasyBCD to re-install the Vista Bootloader, in XP. I restarted the computer, and now Vista works, not XP.

I must be missing out on somthing, becuse everyone says it should be easy. Maybe I should re-format, and reinstall XP, and maybe when I do, I will make some space for the Windows 7 RC.

Let me know if there is any more info you could use.

Also got to thinking, is it possible that I need to install a SATA driver or somthing, Im sure that i mentioned it but I am using a laptop with two seperate drives, Vista on the original drive, and XP on another one. Both OS's are functional, but not at the same time.
 
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Don't reinstall or repair XP. That will just reverse what you've done. You don't want XP to be in charge of the boot process, it's not forward compatible.
Now that Vista is booting, just download the latest build of EasyBCD 2.0, add an entry for XP, letting it auto-configure when it offers, and don't change what it sets up for you.
 
I have EBCD Build2.0 63. Do i need to delete the existing entry for XP, and create a new one.

Screen Shot in Vista OS

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Addendum:

After some tweeking, I was able to make this work. Thank you very much.

Now that I am up and running on both OS's, lets see if I can ruin that. I would like to Add Windows 7 to the drive that XP is installed on. Can I use the shrink utility in Vista to make room for 7?
 
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Yes you can. Do a defrag first and if you're short of space still, move the pagefile onto a different partition. (it's fixed in place and won't be moved by defrag).
Format your W7 partition before you install it (don't let W7 install to an unformatted space - it'll create a secret unlettered boot partition which you probably don't want or need.)
 
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