dualboot xp and vista, lost vista

julio

Member
I had xp pro with vista installed afterward, but had to format the pro partition because of domain login issues. I installed xp home but now cannot boot into the vista partition at all. I don't have a vista disc to fix this with either.

When running easybcd I get this msg;
Unfortunately, EasyBCD could not automatically detect the drive letter of your boot device. This can be caused by a non-standard MBR, use of a 3rd-party bootloader, or a failed Windows Vista install.

To proceed, please enter the letter of your boot drive below. The boot drive is identified by the presence of special files and folders like boot.ini, ntldr, and bootmgr. If you continue to see this error message, please run "Reset BCD storage" from the Diagnostics section.
with choices of "c:\", which is the vista partition, or "e:\", which is xp home.

here are the entries shown;
There are a total of 2 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader Timeout: 20 seconds.
Default OS: Microsoft Windows Vista

Entry #1

Name: Microsoft Windows Vista
BCD ID: {default}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry #2

Name: XP Home
BCD ID: {02d652b8-a94f-11dd-978b-d0a4b4d16f62}
Drive: E:\
Bootloader Path: \NTLDR
and here is the debug mode
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device unknown
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {df29eac0-1add-11dd-a5b8-e91eaf5b4025}
resumeobject {df29eac1-1add-11dd-a5b8-e91eaf5b4025}
displayorder {df29eac0-1add-11dd-a5b8-e91eaf5b4025}
{02d652b8-a94f-11dd-978b-d0a4b4d16f62}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 20

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {df29eac0-1add-11dd-a5b8-e91eaf5b4025}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {df29eac1-1add-11dd-a5b8-e91eaf5b4025}
nx OptIn

Real-mode Boot Sector
---------------------
identifier {02d652b8-a94f-11dd-978b-d0a4b4d16f62}
device partition=E:
path \NTLDR
description XP Home
Hope you guys can help! :grinning:

Addendum:

here is a pic of computer management.
v8gb4g.png
 
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Thanks for the link but I haven't a cd/dvd burner available. In any case, I've since screwed up the boot.ini and haven't a system that boots at all now! I'm now messing about with booting from usb drives and such in an attempt to restore boot.ini. Thanks for the assistance!

Addendum:

Ok! I found an old ubuntu install disc and managed to restore boot.ini and get xp working again. :grinning:

Now I'll look into getting a vista dvd or from kairozamorro's link.

Addendum:

A friend was able to burn me a working copy of the vista recovery disc. Booting from it on my laptop gets this message though.
Windows Boot Manager
Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer.

Status: 0xc00000e9
Info: An unexpected I/O error has occured.

Googling for information on this turned up a few disreputable opinions that it's due to a corrupted hard drive. I doubt that it is the case in this instance, but am open to other suggestions for testing.

Addendum:

I've tried using some copies of bootsect.exe I have from within an xphome cmd prompt but complaints of the volume being denied access are shown. Currently thinking about getting a usb drive loaded with dos and the bootsect file. Any thoughts on the matter?
 
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Can you access Vistas drive from XP? If yes, you might want to start thinking about getting your files off of there. Install EasyBCD in XP and try recovering the Vista bootloader (Make sure got your XP disc handy in case something goes wrong.).

Run chkdsk on it from XP's command prompt: chkdsk <drive letter for Vista:> /f
 
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Can you access Vistas drive from XP? If yes, you might want to start thinking about getting your files off of there. Install EasyBCD in XP and try recovering the Vista bootloader (Make sure got your XP disc handy in case something goes wrong.).

Run chkdsk on it from XP's command prompt: chkdsk <drive letter for Vista:> /f


Yeah, it's cool. everything was backed up. None of those steps on your link worked, ah well. No errors found either. I've since wiped everything and done a triple-boot of xp, vista, ubuntuserver so everything is fine now. Thanks for attempting, man.
 
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