NTLDR, NTDETECT, and Boot.ini errors in Vista-XP Dual-Boot

F

frustrated

Member
I spent some time on these forums reading random threads trying to find solution for my problem. played extensive amount of time with BCD ended up reinstalling XP x64 bit Pro dozen times and nothing seems to work for me, so finally I decided to address my problems to professionals.

so here its:

1. I have Vista installed on RAID0 configuration (in XP it shows letter D:\ but when I manage to boot in Vista it shows letter C:\)

2. I also just reinstalled XP X64bit Pro on a second SATA drive (not partition)
3. I can boot in XP but can't boot in Vista
4. I reinstalled Vista Bootloader
5. Reset BCD storage:
while trying to reset BCD storage I had several options see picture below


Shot at 2007-07-15

I I assumed it was asking me where is mY Vista installed so I picked letter D:\
it gave me an error:
Code: 
No valid entries found!

while trying to perform again the easyBCD crashed so I restarted again.I managed to add XP entries again. below are my settings:

Code: 
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device unknown
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {e8709fb6-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
displayorder {e8709fb6-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
{97971f07-32f9-11dc-a8f5-001320dd895d}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 14
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {e8709fb6-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
device partition=D:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
osdevice partition=D:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {e8709fb7-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
nx OptOut
Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {97971f07-32f9-11dc-a8f5-001320dd895d}
device partition=C:
path \ntldr
description Microsoft Windows


just not sure what to do anymore, please help frustrated /desperate old man
 
Last edited:
Hello mister, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies! :smile:

Have no fear, Guru is here!

Don't you worry, Guru will get to you in a sec! :smile: I'm sure he can help you. Just take it easy, and relax. There is nothing EasyBCD can't do about multiboot.

(I hope Guru don't mine me saying it.)
 
Hi frustrated, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies.

Sarge is right - nothing here is worth getting worried or anxious, it's all fixable.

1) Download the latest EasyBCD 1.61 Beta (see stickied thread)
2) Install it
3) EasyBCD | Manage Bootloader | Reinstall Vista Bootloader
4) EasyBCD | Diagnostics | Reset BCD Data

If it asks you for the boot drive, put the letter of the drive with boot.ini, ntldr, the boot folder, bootmgr, etc.

If it asks for a Vista drive, give it the letter of any Vista drive currently on your system.

It should clear your list of entries, add a new entry for Vista, and let you add further entries in peace.

Good luck, and no worries.
 
hello Mr.Guru, thank God you're here. well I perfomed the steps you described above and somehow I thought that my computer will not load any windows at all, but it still loaded my 64bit XP no menu Operating System menu promt nothing, it booted straight into XP.

Code: 
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device unknown
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {e8709fb6-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
displayorder {e8709fb6-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
{97971f08-32f9-11dc-a8f5-001320dd895d}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 5
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {e8709fb6-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
device unknown
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
osdevice unknown
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {e8709fb7-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
nx OptOut
Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {97971f08-32f9-11dc-a8f5-001320dd895d}
device partition=C:
path \ntldr
description Microsoft Windows

I don't know if anything changed in the above code.
here is how my drives look like: C XP and D is Vista:



what else can I do to get this thing to work


P.S. thank you very much for taking your time to help, it means a lot to me
 
(Sarge, I love your Ubuntu turtle :tongueout:)

Boot from your Vista DVD and do the "Startup Repair"
Looks like your BCD doesn't know one drive from the other (hence the "device unknown" bit).
 
ok, I did what you told me to I booted from Vista DVD and went into repair , Vista automatically found errors inside my boot and promted me to repair, after automatic repair I assumed that I will be loading into Visrta for sure , but guess what? XP came back and didn't promt for OS menu,

so I copied my new boot information for you:

Code: 
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device unknown
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {97971f09-32f9-11dc-a8f5-001320dd895d}
displayorder {97971f08-32f9-11dc-a8f5-001320dd895d}
{97971f09-32f9-11dc-a8f5-001320dd895d}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 5
Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {97971f08-32f9-11dc-a8f5-001320dd895d}
device partition=C:
path \ntldr
description Microsoft Windows
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {97971f09-32f9-11dc-a8f5-001320dd895d}
device partition=D:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate (recovered) 
osdevice partition=D:
systemroot \Windows
 
OK.

You need to pick a drive to be your boot drive. For some odd reason, you have the boot files on both drives - a big no-no, though I have no idea how it happened.

Get a 3rd party partition manager and set the Vista partition to the "active" partition. See if that gets you to boot into Vista.

If not, post back. I'll get back to you in the morning :smile:
 
OK, the way I figure it, Windows was originally using XP as a boot drive (hence the boot files) then switched to the Vista drive.

Get Acronis Disk Director 10 or Partition Magic 8 (latter only runs in XP), and check out which partition is set as the active partition. If it's XP, change it to Vista. If it's Vista, change it to XP.

Once that is done, run the startup repair once more and hope that gets you to Vista.

Seeya in the AM.
 
ok ( I installed PM8 but it didn't recognize my drives , it showed that drives are bad) so I removed it and tried to find other ways: I went into BIOS and set my Vista drive to boot first and XP to boot second, after reboot I was able to get into Vista, I tried changing XP to boot first and Vista second than I logged into XP , but either way no boot OS menu prompt nothing...
So right now I am in Vista: while in Vista I installed BCD latest up to date version and added XP into the boot menu, I pointed where XP partition with ntdlr is placed:

Code: 
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device                  partition=G:
default                 {b59b6ff4-333e-11dc-aa8e-9043807af9e1}
displayorder            {b59b6ff4-333e-11dc-aa8e-9043807af9e1}
                        {466f5a88-0af2-4f76-9038-095b170dc21c}
timeout                 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {b59b6ff4-333e-11dc-aa8e-9043807af9e1}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows Vista (TM) Ultimate (recovered) 
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier              {466f5a88-0af2-4f76-9038-095b170dc21c}
device                  partition=G:
path                    \ntldr
description             Microsoft Windows
as you can see Vista is located inside C:\ and XP inside G:\ (G:\ is where all XP boot files , boot.ini is located) anyway when I tried to test my configuration and this time I did receive boot menu with both Vista and XP options so when I selected XP

for some reason I got this error:

Code: 
Invalid BOOT.INI File
Booting from C:\Windows
NTDETECT failed
based on the error I am thinking that for some strange reason XP is trying to load from C:\ (Vista) drive.
 
Last edited:
Code: 
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(0)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(0)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional x64 Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

oh I am too old for this, anyway let's take alook at that boot file above, I changed
Code: 
rdisk(0)partition(1)
to
Code: 
rdisk(1)partition(0)
in both lines top and bottom
after reboot I was getting same error,

since my XP is on SATA drive should I change
Code: 
multi(0)disk(0)

to
Code: 
multi(1)disk(0)
 
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