How to make dualboot Vista-XP in different HDDs

B

Blisset

Member
Hi, I have a HDD (EIDE Primary Master) with XP installed and I added another HDD on EIDE Primary Slave with Vista installed.
My motherboard BIOS is set to boot from Vista drive (Primary Slave) and it starts fine.
In Vista I changed the partition letter (in which XP is in) to B: and now I see XP partition have B: letter.
I copied ntldr, boot.ini, netdetect.com files from XP partition to Vista partition in root folder.

After this, I installed EasyBCD 1.6 in Vista, add an entry for XP but when I select XP from Vista bootmenu it can't start (black screen with no error). The only way I have to boot XP is modify BIOS motherboard boot settings to start from XP HDD !

When I configure EasyBCD for XP entry I set C: partition (where I have Vista, BOOT folder and ntldr, boot.ini copied) and EasyBCD automatically changes letter to B:.

The boot.ini (both in C: and in B: ) line is:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="XP Pro" /fastdetect

It should point to first partition of EIDE Primary Master HDD, correct ?
Have I to edit ARC path in boot.ini file?
Thank you very much
 
Last edited:
First, delete that entry, download the latest EasyBCD beta and create once more.

If it boots when you change the default boot device, that means that you have the wrong ARC path for when you're using the Vista bootloader.

Follow the instructions on identifying the correct ARC path in our documentation here: http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Windows+XP
 
Computer Guru said:
First, delete that entry, download the latest EasyBCD beta and create once more.

If it boots when you change the default boot device, that means that you have the wrong ARC path for when you're using the Vista bootloader.

Follow the instructions on identifying the correct ARC path in our documentation here: http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Windows+XP
Click to expand...

I red and followed your instructions but XP can't boot.
From Vista, the XP HDD is disk #0, same as from XP.

From EasyBCD too (as in Vista Disk Management) XP's disk appears disk #0.
But it can't boot.
 
Last edited:
OK, boot from the XP CD, enter the recovery console, and type this:

bootcfg /rebuild
Click to expand...

Ok, I solved the issue.
XP booting wasn't able to work until I set physical Vista drive (with ntldr) as PRIMARY MASTER.
I didn't need to rebuild anything, I only swap the drives and now all work.

NTLDR NEED BE in FIRST DISK to boot Windows XP, IT CAN'T BOOT FROM SLAVES OR SECONDARY IDE

You can write this with block capitals in your help guides.

Thank you very much
 
Hmmm... it should have been the primary master anyway, or else bootmgr (and the Vista BCD) wouldn't have worked.

I'll add it to the guide anyway.
 
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