In Need of help - unable to boot into XP

all your base are belong to us

# NeoSmart Technologies' Vista Hide 'n Seek Beta
# DO NOT MODIFY!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
timeout 30
default 0
title Microsoft Windows Vista
find --unhide /Vista.C.HnS
find --set-root /BOOTMGR.HNS
makeactive
chainloader /BOOTMGR.HNS
boot
title Windows XP [WinXP (D:\)]
find --hide /Vista.C.HnS
find --remap-root /XP.D.HnS
find --set-root /XP.D.HnS
makeactive
chainloader /ntldr
boot
# All your boot are belong to NeoSmart!
 
OK, what happens if you change it to:

Code: 
# NeoSmart Technologies' Vista Hide 'n Seek Beta
# DO NOT MODIFY!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
timeout 30
default 0
title Microsoft Windows Vista
find --unhide /Vista.C.HnS
find --set-root /BOOTMGR.HNS
makeactive
chainloader /BOOTMGR.HNS
boot
title Windows XP [WinXP (D:\)]
find --hide /Vista.C.HnS
find --set-root /XP.D.HnS
makeactive
chainloader /ntldr
boot
# All your boot are belong to NeoSmart!
 
:frowning:

I am sad to say that after installing the new version pf HnS, I continue to get the same screen as in the pic I posted previously. I will continue to watch this site for a version or fix that allows me to dual boot without losing Vista restore points.

Until then I remain

Hopeful
 
Can you please post a screenshot of Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Computer Management | Disk Management?
 
The photo of your screen shows a hide of (0,4) failing. Because your XP is a logical disk inside an extended partition, (0,4) is refering to one of them. The recovery partition must be either 3 or 5, which is what I assume you're trying to hide.
Try running HnS again, without trying to hide the recovery partition (don't mark it as Vista - it doesn't need to be hidden anyway) and see if HnS works then.
CG will then have to find why the last partition is being misidentified ,if my analysis is right. (I have a similar setup which has been correctly detected since about build 5)
 
Sweet! I only just found out that if you click a thumbnail attachment it opens up on top of the same screen in a lightbox :grinning:

..

Terry, the problem isn't the hiding of 0,4 because if you refer to the menu.lst rouge posted HnS is attempting to hide drive C:\ (not the recovery partition) and boot from D:\

As the snapshot on the previous page shows, Vista C:\ was found to be hd0,0 and was hidden OK, but XP on D:\ was detected as hd0,4 and that's where the problem.

The thing is, Windows XP shouldn't be booted from a logical partition as I've mentioned/experienced before.

I don't think this can be solved via HnS, ideally that logical partition should be converted to a primary one. Technically there is no reason that it's a logical partition in the first place - with only 4 partitions they should all be primary ones.

It may be possible to manually fix this by using this syntax instead:
Code: 
# NeoSmart Technologies' Vista Hide 'n Seek Beta
# DO NOT MODIFY!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
timeout 30
default 0
title Microsoft Windows Vista
find --unhide /Vista.C.HnS
find --set-root /BOOTMGR.HNS
makeactive
chainloader /BOOTMGR.HNS
boot

title Windows XP [WinXP (D:\)]
find --hide /Vista.C.HnS
root (hd0,5)
makeactive
chainloader /ntldr
boot
# All your boot are belong to NeoSmart!

If that doesn't get rid of this particular error message (error messages generated by NTLDR/Boot.ini can be dealt with) then try other numbers instead of (hd0,5)
 
Sorry, I was misreading the thumbnail photo as hide 0 and hide 4, which I took to be a consequence of an earlier discussion about whether to hide the recovery partition.
But I don't understand how the latest build doesn't correctly identify the logical partition number for XP.
One of my hides is for a logical partition and HnS has been correctly numbering it since the very earliest builds.
I think the partition number is right, but the problem is with the makeactive command

Vista Help

You cannot make a logical drive or an extended partition active. Only a primary partition can be made active.
 
Ah - you're right. I was figuring the problem was at the chainloader step, but I think you're right and it's not reaching that far, dying instead at makeactive.

NTLDR requires that the partition it reads boot.ini from is active, and HnS stores boot.ini for each installation on its own partition so there's no way around this...

In this particular case, it's possible since there is only a single XP partition to forgo the makeactive step. In that case:

Try this menu.lst
Code: 
# NeoSmart Technologies' Vista Hide 'n Seek Beta
# DO NOT MODIFY!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
timeout 30
default 0
title Microsoft Windows Vista
find --unhide /Vista.C.HnS
find --set-root /BOOTMGR.HNS
makeactive
chainloader /BOOTMGR.HNS
boot

title Windows XP [WinXP (D:\)]
find --hide /Vista.C.HnS
find --set-root /XP.D.HnS
chainloader /ntldr
boot
# All your boot are belong to NeoSmart!
 
Thank you so much for your help CG and Terry!

I've copied the new text to the menu.lst file, afterwards when trying to boot into XP the message was: booting c:\windows and the screen stayed black. I thought c: was missing the boot.ini file (it was) so I copied it to c: from d:

Then upon restarting into XP I got a new message

Plz see attached photo.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2368.JPG
    IMG_2368.JPG
    832.2 KB · Views: 8
:smile:
boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
 
Try changing the partition(4) bit to partition(5) in both places.

If it still doesn't work you're going to have to change it to a primary partition. Has XP always been a logical partition?
 
Ok, I'll give that a try and let you know how it goes.

Yes, it's always been a logical partition. How would I go about changing it to a primary partition? Also, do you know of third party software that is similar to system restore?
 
Acronis Disk Director is the best tool for the job of changing the partition's type, but any decent partition manager should be able to pull it off. Try GParted for a free solution.

There used to be Roxio GoBack, which was my preferred alternative to System Restore, but it was bought out by the jerks at Symantec back around when Windows XP was released. GoBack had basic support for NT-based operating systems, but unfortunately Symantec abandoned the project and GoBack is now broken on XP and even more so on Vista.
 
My hat is off to the very patient and helpful folks at Neosmart forums!

Seems that the whole time I've been trying to boot from the EasyBCD bootloader rather than the HnS bootloader as Terry instructed me to do way back when. I am pleased to say, now that I am using the options properly, that all systems are up and running as expected.

Now I'm gonna go off and hone my reading skills :tongueout:
 
Back
Top