Lost Boot Loader, Stuck in XP, Help

Vacendak

Member
Oh heck, I screwed up.

Ok, so I had XP (32-bit) working nicely. Then I loaded Windows 7 (64-bit) Beta on the same drive in another partition. I only used EasyBCD to make XP the primary loaded OS after 10 seconds, and changed the names. Then I wanted to get into XP. The boot loader said something was wrong. Some missing file… I didn’t make a note L.

Then I did something stupid. I used EasyBCD in Windows 7 and clicked some tab down on the left and clicked a button (said something about returning to XP). Rebooted and poof, no boot loader.

Now EasyBCD is pissed at me in XP when I try to use it, it barks “The application failed to initialize properly, Click OK to terminate program”.

I can see the Windows 7 partition in Explorer. Is there away to get the boot loader back?

Thank you, sorry if this is a common problem. Baby barking too, didn’t have time to do much forum searching.

Vacendak
 
EasyBCD won't run in XP because you need .net 2.0 framework from MS.

You need to preform startup repair from your Windows 7 dvd. See our wiki for the details. Its basically the same process.
 
Hi Vacendak. Welcome to NST.
It sounds like to me you accidentally replaced Win 7's IPL in the MBR with XP's, which is why you lost the ability to dual-boot. This could have been easily done in EasyBCD's Manage Bootloader section, by simply clicking on Write MBR with the Uninstall Vista Bootloader option selected.

Now, that explains what you already did, but not how to fix it. Since you can't run EasyBCD in XP, I'm thinking it may have been a bad install, and so you may want to reinstall it, which will hopefully fix the problem with EasyBCD not opening, and then we can go on from there.

Cheers, and if have any more problems, then don't hesitate to ask. :smile:

-Coolname007

EDIT: Or what Justin said...
I guess the issue with EasyBCD not opening could be .Net Framework indeed, which means you will first need to install it before attempting to run EasyBCD.
 
Last edited:
Kairazamorro and Coolname007 dead on!

WOW, Kairazamorro and Coolname007! You guys are fast and accurate.

So, yes. That install of EasyBCD on the XP was just bad, I downloaded it again, re-installed and it worked. Then I had originally used the Manage Bootloader->Bootloader Installation Opinions->Uninstall the Vista Bootloader (use to restore XP) and wrote the MBR. So I reversed that

Now I'm back to the original problem. When I try to select XP from the Vista Bootloader I get an instant error screen regarding \NTLDR. It says status 0xc000000f and states the application is missing or corrupt.

Got any ideas? Can I reinstall the "NTLDR" somehow?

Thank you for your time,

Vacendak
 
See the sticky linked to in my sig. Basically its a matter of copying over ntldr to the correct partition.
 
/woot GREAT!! That was it. I was just missing the "NTDETECT" and "ntldr" files! Thank you. Sweet dual booting system now.

Vacendak
 
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