multiple boot failure

walley

Member
I am a novice in these matters so please bear with me.
I have an ASUS P5K mobo with two separate drives (XPPro and Vista) which are usually accessed from the BIOS. The computer ware recently returned from the engineers with a dual boot screen, which failed. I made the big mistake of reinstalling XP (on C drive) while Vista was still installed on the other drive(D). Consequently, only XP will boot up. This is the 'system' boot according to 'Disk Management'. What I am trying to achieve is a dual boot screen on both operating systems. This may not be possible, but I do need to access both drives when necessary. When I try to access the Vista drive through the BIOS a screen is presented with both drives and when I boot up on the Vista I get the error screen with the available options such as Safe Mode, Last Good Configuration etc none of which work. If I try to boot into XPPro on the same screen the computer simply restarts and I am presented with the same dud screen. I can only access XPPro using the drive option in the BIOS (but not Vista). I tried to resolve this problem with EasyBDC 1.7.1. using 'recreate missing/deleted boot files' and 'reset BCD storage' and both failed. When EasyBDC was installed it did not recognise my Vista drive and I used the 'D' drive for it to recognise the drive. When it was restarted, it again did not recognise the drive until I used the 'C' drive option on which XPPro is installed. The 'Overview' shows one entry of Vista on 'C' as the default. I have tried to repair the boot with the repair option from the Vista disk, but it could not repair it. This might be irrelevant, but just before the boot problem occurred ---and while I could still access Vista from the BIOS ---my two optical drives (one from a USB) failed to work. Is there a problem with lettering? I am trying to avoid reinstalling Vista.
Can someone please help. Thanks
 
Hi,

Change your BIOS to always boot from XP.
Download and install EasyBCD 2.0 EasyBCD 2.0 Beta Builds - The NeoSmart Forums
In EBCD2, delete all entries, then add a new entry for Vista (with the drive letter that Vista appears as from the Windows XP 'My Computer'), and a new entry for XP. Let it auto-configure when it asks to do so.

Good luck.
 
You need Manage Bootloader / Reinstall Vista bootloader from EasyBCD on XP to put Vista back in charge.
Get EasyBCD 2.0 latest build /Diagnostics/ Change boot drive will copy the BCD onto Vista (point it to the letter describing the Vista partition from XP)
Then by changing the BIOS boot sequence to put Vista first, you can boot from the new copy of the BCD.
Add an XP entry on the new BCD and let Easy2 auto-configure the XP boot when it offers.
(don't change the letter it uses for XP)
 
Thank you for your responses. I followed your instructions to the letter, but exactly the same problem arises. When I try to boot into Vista from changing the BIOS sequence, the same screen appears. Vista begins to load when suddenly a blue screen in the background flashes up and the computer restarts. The 'Overview' shows Vista as the default on C and the Vista bootloader path as: \windows\system32\winload.exe on D and the second entry shows XP (device boot) path as \NTLDR.
Thanks again.
 
Smash the F8 repeatedly when Vista begins to load (or at the boot menu if you see it) and select 'disable automatic restart'

That should let you read the error message that appears on the blue screen.
 
Thanks again. I was unable to capture the blue screen while trying to boot into Vista and get only the error screen with options to boot, as I did before, none of which are successful. I tried the F8 on the XP option and got the following: invalid boot.ini/booting from C windows/NTDetect failed.


Addendum:


Just to add to my last posting, smashing the F8 button while trying to boot into Vista brings up a list of drives to boot, but no option to 'disable automatic restart.' Have now got into the error screen and it is a stop error:0x0000007b. There is no virus and CHKDSK /F shows no errors. What happens now?
 
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Have you been altering options in the BIOS setup ? or changing hardware ?
Why was the PC with the engineers ? and why did they return it with a non-functional dual-boot ?
The stop error would seem to indicate a problem with your HDD drivers. In combination with the sudden failure of the optical drives, it would seem you have some kind of SATA /AHCI problem, either with the hardware or the way the BIOS options are set.
 
Thanks again. I sent the computer to the engineers in the first place because Vista crashed without a performance problem and the boot drive had disappeared in the BIOS. It was held for 9 days without saying what the cause was and they then suggested upgrading? I pulled the computer and sent it to other engineeers who held it for 3 weeks and said the water cooling pump needs replacing and the XP hard drive needs replacing. I was not convinced, but let them do the work. On return, I noticed Vista was firing on only one processor and so I returned the computer. They reinstalled Vista (now on four cores) and returned it to me. I did not ask for a dual boot installation. They have already charged me an arm and a leg and are insisting upon further charges for what I believe is the same problem, if the computer is returned. I would not do so anyway, as I have no confidence in them. Having spoken with them at length, their knowledge of computing was superficial and contradictory, as were the previous engineers.
I understand that this problem is no longer within the remit of your forum, but I would appreciate any suggestions. Would reinstalling Vista help? The drivers for the HDD seem correct according to Device Manager. I cannot find any immediate problem with the computer or software. How would I test for BIOS corruption?
 
If they replaced the XP drive, presumably they reinstalled XP ?
If the XP CD they used was pre SP2, it would have come without SATA drivers, which they might have circumvented by altering the BIOS SATA mode option.
That would cause a clash with Vista if it was installed with the BIOS set differently.

This is all idle speculation of course, but since the stop error indicates this area, I'd start by looking at how the BIOS is set.
I won't claim any great expertise in this area. I've never hit the problem personally, but it has been discussed in this forum. Search on SATA AHCI and users Coolname007 and kairozamorro, and you should find a few hits.
Also a general BING of the net with for SATA AHCI might find some helpful info.
 
Thanks again. I am not clear why this problem emerged while configuring the bootloader. Unable to access Vista I decided to bite the bullet and reinstall Vista. It is working better than ever now, but the installation, oddly enough, retained the dual boot screen. When I try to boot into XPPro from this screen a familiar message states 'invalid boot.ini and 'NTDetect missing.' This suggests to me that it is trying to boot into Vista. I don't know. Both local drives are on 'C'. I can access both drives from the BIOS. I am reluctant at this point to meddle any further with the boot, due to the serious problems it can give rise to and the amount of time needed to resolve them. I checked the BIOS and the SATA configs are on IDE, as per normal. The other two options are AHCI and RAID, which I have never used. It is a RAID mobo.
 
Post a Disk Management screenshot and "display settings" as described at the end of the sticky, and we'll get the dual-boot working for you.
 
Thanks again for your response.
My optimism was short-lived, as Vista refused to boot from the retained bootloader again with the usual error messages. While on Vista, for some unknown reason, my optical drives disappeared again from 'My Computer' and the 'Device Manager' displayed errors 39. I then edited the registry and deleted all the Upper Filters (there were no Lower Filters) from the ' Current Control Set'/'Class' and was surprised to find two 'Current Control Sets' in the registry. I have used this temporary solution before for this problem with the optical drives with some success, but this time my system crashed as it did before when using Easy2. I am back on ye olde faithful XP. Note: I do not currently have EasyBDC on Vista.
 

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I am back on a stable machine booting Vista or XP from the BIOS. I reinstalled Vista, but this time I formatted the drive to remove the bootloader. This was successful and I immediately got 70 updates from microsoft as well as a further four updates on the last three days!! Some of these updates, taking a long time at boot up to configure, contained the 'registering machine components' configuration, which I have not seen before. I may be wrong but it looks as if I had the rather deadly alureon rootkit virus. This affects the atapi.sys and the boot files of XP and produces a BSOD on boot up. This may be why my CDROMS suddenly disappeared from the Device Manager (in Vista only) at about the same time I was using EasyBDC. On the first failed install of Vista (without formatting) Vista failed when receiving updates from Microsoft. This is not the fault of Microsoft but the alureon rootkit which was still on my machine, probably in the boot files. This might have been picked up by the previous engineers who had installed a new internal CDROM drive and reinstalled Vista with a bootloader. The Alureon rootkit cannot be manually removed and it was only the massive updates from Microsoft that finally stabilised the computer.
 
OK now you've got 2 stable systems, just run EasyBCD2 latest build from Vista and add an XP entry to the BCD. (It won't alter your XP drive - that can still be booted from the BIOS in an emergency). Let Easy2 auto-configure when it offers and don't change the drive letter it specifies for XP. This copies all the XP boot files into the Vista root alongside Vista's and correctly configures the copy of boot.ini to point back to XP.
Leave Vista 1st in the BIOS, and next time you boot you'll get the menu choice.
Regardless of how you boot the systems, you should apply this registry hack to XP to protect your Vista restore points.
 
I have got Easy2 on Vista and applied the hack on XP. It seems to be fine for the last few days when I have tested it.
Thanks for your patience and sharing your expertise.
 
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