if I reinstall my xp how will this affect my dual boot?

drumtrucker

drumtrucker

Active Member
getting ready to try (again) to reinstall (repair) my XP install on dual boot (XP/Vista) machine. Each OS has its own HD and XP resides on the 1st physical drive.

Both OS installed by booting off CD so each OS is on drive C when running. What do I need to do to ensure I can get back to functioning dual boot after the XP repair.

My concern is for the status of MBRs i guess
 
Are we talking about the same computer from your other thread? If so the info should be posted there. There is no need to create multiple threads on the same topic.

Anyway, install each OS with the other drive disconnected so they can boot independant of each other. Plug in your Vista drive as first (if not already done so) and XP as second. Boot into Vista and open boot.ini on XP's partition and change the rdisk() values to reference the correct disk (ie rdisk(1)). Open EasyBCD and add a new entry for XP. Reboot and test.
 
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kairozamorro said:
Are we talking about the same computer from your other thread? If so the info should be posted there. There is no need to create multiple threads on the same topic.

Anyway, install each OS with the other drive disconnected so they can boot independant of each other. Plug in your Vista drive as first (if not already done so) and XP as second. Boot into Vista and open boot.ini on XP's partition and change the rdisk() values to reference the correct disk (ie rdisk(1)). Open EasyBCD and add a new entry for XP. Reboot and test.
Click to expand...

Am I missing something, or isn't the boot.ini file, along with "ntldr" and "NTDETECT.COM" supposed to be copied over to the Vista partition first, before the entry added by EasyBCD for XP will work? :wink: You can correct me if i'm wrong about that, of course...i meant no insult. :smile:

Cheers! :nerd:

-Coolname007
 
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kairozamorro said:
Anyway, install each OS with the other drive disconnected so they can boot independant of each other. Plug in your Vista drive as first (if not already done so) and XP as second. Boot into Vista and open boot.ini on XP's partition and change the rdisk() values to reference the correct disk (ie rdisk(1)). Open EasyBCD and add a new entry for XP. Reboot and test.
Click to expand...

With a working dual boot already standing the boot.ini, ntdetect.com, and ntldr files are already present on the Vista root. Any further changes made in the boot.ini are made there with the copy not the original on the XP drive alreasy configured by the XP installer.

Once XP is installed with the Vista drive unplugged and plugged back in later the only correction needed will likely be first removing entry for XP if previously installed as D onto the second drive with both drives plugged in at the time. With XP seeing itself then as C the new entry entered into the BCD should see XP load right up since the first copy of the boot.ini file is already rdisk(1)partition(1) in the default OS and under "operating systems" lines there.
 
i consider this a new topic and so should you.
previous threads were about a different problem caused by probems encountered from a failed reinstall of XP.
I have recovered from those problems and looking for different information now.

Addendum:

do i have to start a new thread again? READ CAREFULLY and if you don't like me being a smart ass move on to a different thread:

I currently have a box with 3 hard drives 2 of which have OS's on them

1st drive XP pro SP3
2nd drive VHP32
after fixing problem in other thread, the dual booting is working fine. It is now the XP one that is booting super slow and I am tired of trying to figure out why and..

I want to (without disconnecting anything, preferably) to do a repair installation of the XP drive. If you do not have a way to do this WITHOUT disconnecting anything, then just watch the thread and see if someone does, please.

What does the installing of XP do to the critical boot files that I can get around by saving something? and rewriting it after?? Or??

Addendum:

I want to know how to (WITHOUT DISCONNECTING) do a repair install of XP on my 1st physical drive and then recover my currently function dual boot ability. (VHP32 on 2nd drive)

Can't I just save the boot.ini file and replace it after? Or something along those lines.

AGAIN, MY BOX NOW DUAL BOOTS FINE WITH XP/VHP IN 1st and 2nd DRIVES.
 
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When you install (or repair) XP after Vista, it will replace the Vista IPL in the MBR with an XP version.
This makes the boot search for NTLDR instead of bootmgr.
All you need to do is repair the Vista boot, which you can do by booting the Vista DVD and letting it do the repair automatically. You can also repair the boot manually using EasyBCD from within XP.
Each of these methods is detailed in the wiki.
 
Vista's drive can currently boot on its own without XP, correct? I mention disconnecting Vistas drive during XP's installation if you want Vista's drive not to depend on XPs being connected in the event the installer puts the boot files in the wrong place. If you put Vista as first it would be best since that is the drive you want to boot from, but a modified boot.ini will be required to point to the right disk though like others have said time and time again here so you can just copy the files to Vista's partition and make any needed modifications to those copies. Properly best so no matter what you can boot XP (whether that is on its own or from Vista's bootmgr).
 
Terry60 said:
When you install (or repair) XP after Vista, it will replace the Vista IPL in the MBR with an XP version.
This makes the boot search for NTLDR instead of bootmgr.
All you need to do is repair the Vista boot, which you can do by booting the Vista DVD and letting it do the repair automatically. You can also repair the boot manually using EasyBCD from within XP.
Each of these methods is detailed in the wiki.
Click to expand...
thats what i m talkin bout
this all happens on the 1st physical deive, correct?

where is that ISO in here of the fail safe rescue cd? i thought i had it bookmarked
 
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It's 2 clicks away from the other link I gave you, here.

The repair will happen to the MBR of the 1st HDD in the BIOS boot sequence, and the boot sector of the "system" "active" partition on that HDD if needed.
 
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The 120.5mb image works just as well as the repair tools section on the Vista installation disk itself. The one advantage of the recovery image there is being able to burn that onto a cd-r as well as a dvd-r in case you lack a dvd drive to boot from.

Your actual best option has already been suggested in setting the Vista drive as the default boot device and rebuilding the BCD on that as well as mbr information there and copying the XP boot files over to it. Once XP Is added in you can set that as the default OS in the EasyBCD "change settings" section.

 
wow, is there some reason auto d/l not allowed? i use getright pro and this torreint threw it into tizzy

is there an nzb version?
 
There is no HTTP download cause a chinese site got a hold of the link and there was over 3 or 4TB worth of downloads in a single month. It cost Guru a lot of money that month to keep the site going.

So it was put up to Torrent only to prevent that from happening again.
 
Ouch! That must have pulled the bandwidth down a bit as well. I would simply disable the Getright Pro download manager to allow the download to work like it should with the torrect already provided. It only takes a few minutes for it to be downloaded and saved to a folder.
 
I didn't need uTorrent or any other separate downloader when simply clicking on the link there to download the iso image. The links for both the 32bit and 64bit versions already have a torrent provided. But if it works go ahead since the idea is seeing it downloaded and saved to the drive for burn to disk later.

Once you have it burn it to a cd-r for use on cd drives even if you already have a dvd rom or burner. This way it will be available for use on all types. I say that since the dvd burner here has to be replaced but I was prepared simply due to having a second cd writer installed when performing a repair.
 
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