Messed-up drive letters and more -

B

Bruce Mundy

Member
Using the APC mag article I am attempting to dual boot XP/Vista on my HP Pavilion Elite m9077c. Following the tutorial, I created a partition for the XP operating system to install on.

Prior to installing XP my machine looked like this:
C:\ - Factory Installed Vista, 350 MB
D:\ - NTFS partition created for the XP install, 11MB
E:\ - Factory_Image, 10MB
F:\ - Removable Disk
G:\ - Removable Disk
H:\ - Removable Disk
I:\ - Removable Disk
J:\ - CD/DVD Drive

Then, after the XP install, activation, and install of downloaded updates it changed to:
C:\ - Factory_Image, 10MB
D:\ - Removable Disk
E:\ - Removable Disk
F:\ - Removable Disk
G:\ - Removable Disk
H:\ - Factory Installed Vista, 350 MB
I:\ - Windows XP Pro, 11MB
J:\ - CD/DVD Drive

I would like to complete the dual boot setup using easyBCD (or VistaBootPRO) but I am not sure what to put where. I would also like to grow the Win XP partition.

I tried installing Partition Magic 8.0 but I couldn’t find my S/N (I used an earlier v2.0 S/N) and the software said OK (more or less) and seemed to proceed OK but the installation did not properly complete. I tried to uninstall but Add/Remove Programs did not find the software.

The Win XP Pro install also seems very slow to load. I searched for NTLDR, NTDETECT, and BOOT.INI on both H:\ and I:\. Here is what I found:

NTLDR:
Three copies on I:\ -
I:\WINDOWS\$NtServicePackUninstall$
I:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download\e9500597a78495f397efb821e37bf356
I:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386

NTDETECT:
Two copies on I:\ -
I:\WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download\e9500597a78495f397efb821e37bf356
I:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386

BOOT.INI – Not found

So, do I win the award for most hosed-up dual boot install attempt?

Seriously, how can I straighten out this mess? Right now, I’m afraid to even RESTART for fear that nothing good will happen if I do so.
 
Hi Bruce, welcome to NST

So I can assume your in XP after applying updates. When you reboot it should boot to XP right off the bat, but grab a Vista DVD and preform startup repair to get Vista back. When you get back into Vista, use EasyBCD to add an entry for XP if startup repair didn't already do it for you.
 
Uh, did I forget to mention that I don't have a Vista CD? HP did not provide one - that is why there is a Factory_Image on the hard drive. I do have a trio of recovery discs that I made when I first got the computer but they don't have the Repair option like a real Vista disk does.

Thanks
 
Our recovery disc is free. Its like a Vista DVD but you cant reinstall Vista with it, only do repair stuff.
 
Bruce Mundy said:
Using the APC mag article I am attempting to dual boot XP/Vista on my HP Pavilion Elite m9077c. Following the tutorial, I created a partition for the XP operating system to install on.

Prior to installing XP my machine looked like this:
C:\ - Factory Installed Vista, 350 MB
D:\ - NTFS partition created for the XP install, 11MB
E:\ - Factory_Image, 10MB
F:\ - Removable Disk
G:\ - Removable Disk
H:\ - Removable Disk
I:\ - Removable Disk
J:\ - CD/DVD Drive

Then, after the XP install, activation, and install of downloaded updates it changed to:
C:\ - Factory_Image, 10MB
D:\ - Removable Disk
E:\ - Removable Disk
F:\ - Removable Disk
G:\ - Removable Disk
H:\ - Factory Installed Vista, 350 MB
I:\ - Windows XP Pro, 11MB
J:\ - CD/DVD Drive
Click to expand...

:S Sure its MBs for your OS partitions, and not GBs? :wink: If not, then no wonder you want to grow your XP partition! :brows: And even if your XP partition is 11 GBs, that's still pretty small for an OS partition, unless you plan to have all of your programs and stuff on separate (larger) partitions.

-Coolname007
 
OK, so I used easyBCD to reinstall the Vista bootloader and the computer now asks on startup if I want -

Windows XP Pro, or
Windows Vista (TM) Home Premium

If I select Vista it boots without problem into Vista

If I select Windows XP Pro I get the Recovery Console which does nothing useful.

If I boot using the Recovery disk provided by kairozamorro I get the Vista Splash screen and a list of choices. Choosing Repair Startup results in several minutes of attempted repair followed by a message that windows can't do anything.

In Vista, easyBCD reports the following:
_____________________________________________________________________
There are a total of 2 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader Timeout: 30 seconds.
Default OS: Windows Vista (TM) Home Premium

Entry #1

Name: Windows XP Pro
BCD ID: {572bcd55-ffa7-11d9-aae0-0007e994107d}
Drive: [boot]\sources\boot.wim,{ad6c7bc8-fa0f-11da-8ddf-0013200354d8}
Bootloader Path: \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \windows

Entry #2

Name: Windows Vista (TM) Home Premium
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows
___________________________________________________________________

I can uninstall the Vista bootloader to boot into XP but that's a major pain and not a solution.
 
You didn't add the XP entry right!

Download EasyBCD 2.0 and install.
EasyBCD | Add/Remove Entries | Windows
Select "XP" from the drop-down menu then "Add Entry"
 
Thanks for the heads up on easyBCD 2.0.

I have added Microsoft Windows XP and let easyBCD add and configure the boot.ini file. Should I now delete the 1st entry (Windows XP Pro) with the incorrect info?

Also, should I copy NTLDR and NTDETECT to the root of the C:\ drive?
 
Bruce Mundy said:
Thanks for the heads up on easyBCD 2.0.

I have added Microsoft Windows XP and let easyBCD add and configure the boot.ini file. Should I now delete the 1st entry (Windows XP Pro) with the incorrect info?

Also, should I copy NTLDR and NTDETECT to the root of the C:\ drive?
Click to expand...

Yeah, go ahead and delete the XP entry that doesn't work, and also copy ntldr and ntdetect.com into the root of C, if its "system". First check though to see if it is in Disk Management, and if its not, put it in the root of whatever partition is "system".

-Coolname007
 
Last edited:
I'm currently in Vista.

Disk management reports the following:

Factory_Image (E:\) System, Active, Primary Partition
Vista (C:\) Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary partition
XP Pro (D:\) Primary Partition

easy BCD added the new Windows XP as -


Entry #3
Name: Microsoft Windows XP
BCD ID: {f2e805c5-f22d-11dd-b127-ffd6ebab3ea1}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \NTLDR



Yes, it did prompt me for NTLDR and NTDETECT, but I thought since I already had them on my hard drive I could just copy them to the correct location. Would I have been better off having easyBCD do it for me? Is there a way to have it repeat the offer to download if that's preferable?
 
Bruce Mundy said:

Yes, it did prompt me for NTLDR and NTDETECT, but I thought since I already had them on my hard drive I could just copy them to the correct location. Would I have been better off having easyBCD do it for me? Is there a way to have it repeat the offer to download if that's preferable?
Click to expand...

You could create a new entry for XP, and you will be back at that point, but there's no point in doing that if you can just copy them over from XP's partition now, which is why I deleted that last comment. Just point your current XP entry at E instead of C in "Change Settings" and you should be good. :smile:

-Coolname007
 
You cannot do that, Cool.

NTLDR can be loaded from wherever, but it'll look for NTDETECT and BOOT.INI from the active partition.
 
Computer Guru said:
Point EasyBCD to NTLDR on a drive other than the boot partition.
Click to expand...

I wasn't saying you could do that! :lol: What I was saying was copy over XP's boot files over to his E partition, which is "system" in his case, and then point the XP entry there...:wink: I think you misunderstood me.

-Coolname007
 
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