Having trouble dual booting XP and Vista

Octopussy

Member
Hi,

I was having trouble installing XP because the setup wouldn't see the partition that I had set up for it. Eventually I had to delete that partition and let XP create its own which turned out to be only 6 GB in size. I decided to go ahead and install anyway, and then later booted back into Vista using the recovery disc and extended the XP partition to 50 GB manually using the Disk Management utility.

Now, I've installed EasyBCD and added a new entry for XP as follows...

Code:
There are a total of 2 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader Timeout: 30 seconds.
Default OS: Microsoft Windows Vista

Entry #1

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

Entry #2

Name:  Microsoft Windows XP
BCD ID:  {d1dd62ea-bc22-11dd-b1d7-000000000000}
Drive:  D:\
Bootloader Path:  \ntldr
The problem now is that I whenever I select "Microsoft Windows XP" during boot, my computer simply restarts instead of loading XP. The "Microsoft Windows Vista" option is working perfectly though.
 
It's working now, but I keep getting the blue screen a couple of seconds into the Win XP startup. What's the best course of action now?

Thanks for getting me this far, by the way.
 
Did XP ever boot normally before you installed Vista or did you install XP after Vista? Some machines have an adjustable setting in thier BIOS for the mode in which your SATA controller operates in. On most Dells now, you have regular SATA or AHCI. Only SATA mode well boot XP correctly, but if Vista was on the machine and its in AHCI, Vista won't run in SATA. While Vista is capable of working under either mode, it only boots within the mode the system was in when it was installed.
 
My laptop came with Vista pre-installed, so I had to install XP afterwards on a seperate partition. Also, XP was running perfectly right after the installation.
 
Try selecting XP then immediately hit F8 to intercept NTLDR and make it present its extended boot menu.
When you get the menu, choose the "no auto restart" option (it might be on a second page), and the boot should stop at the BSOD enabling you to see the error code. Google that to get an idea what's causing your problem.
 
I get a BSOD when I boot into Windows XP

Congratulations! As hard as it may be to believe, this means your dual-boot is working just fine. Unfortunately, after EasyBCD successfully starts to load Windows XP, it crashes. This can be caused by using an imaged copy of a Windows XP installation from another PC, a hardware mis-configuration, or one of the zillion other BSOD-causing problems. Your best bet is to perform an in-place upgrade/repair install of Windows XP and/or ask for help in our friendly forums.

There is something wrong with your XP Install which is not tied to EasyBCD. First try a repair isntall.

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install
 
I tried doing a repair install first, but for some reason, XP setup can't detect the previous installation (or any of my primary partitions) unless I delete my third primary partition. After that was done, I booted between Vista and XP just to make sure everything was going fine, and then proceeded to recreate the third primary partition which I was forced to delete previously. Now XP is giving me the exact same blue screen again.

XP seems to boot up just fine if I delete the third partition, but isn't there a way I can have it without getting a blue screen during XP startup? I need that partition to store large files.
 
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Is this 3rd partition between the other 2 ?
If so the rdisk() value in boot.ini, would go from being right to being wrong, though you ought to see a HAL .dll error or something like it, rather than a BSOD.
 
I'm pretty sure it comes after the two. The first 112 GB partition with Vista has an offset at 10 GB, while the second 56 GB partition with XP has an offset at 121 GB. If I create the third partition, it definitely isn't going to come between those two since they're right next to each other already.

edit: I just extended the XP partition to use the unallocated space that I had left over for the third partition, and everything seems to be working fine. I figured that it'd be a lot easier to just use the XP partition to store large files instead of going through the trouble of creating a third one. Anyway, so long, and thanks for all the help. :smile:
 
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You're a pragmatist obviously. I confess in your position I'd be determined to work out what on earth is happening. At least using XP as your data partition is OK since Vista will do no harm to XP in a D: labelled partition.
However, bear in mind that XP, if it sees Vista as C: and itself as something else, will put a load of 3rd party junk into Vista's C:\Program Files\Common Files, even if you tell it to install to D:\Somewhere Else.
In the case of Adobe Acrobat Reader or Flash, since you'll probably have them installed in Vista too, this can cause unpredictable conflict.
Even if XP is C:\ too (in its own mind), it will destroy Vista's restore points every time you boot it unless you take action to hide Vista from XP. There is a MS registry zap for this which works for some configurations (but not mine, which is similar to yours). Failing that NST has a solution with Vista Hide 'n Seek (HnS) which will do the job for you.
 
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You could try last known good configuration by intercepting ntldr before it boots XP. If XP was running fine before, that should fix it.
 
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