Problem that XP cannot be found solved but...

S

stubi

Member
My setup:

Disk 0

WinXP (active partition)
Win 7 32
Win 7 64

Disk 1

WinXP (active partition)
Win 7 32
Win 7 64

I tried version 2.0 and 2.1 but it cannot find WinXP - only Win 7 is found.

Downgraded to 1.7.2. No problem to find WinXP. Seems to be a bug in version 2.x

Back to 1.7.2:

But when I want to enter the WinXP of disk 1 it always takes the WinXP from Disk 0 instead. So both WinXP menue entries point to the WinXP on disk 0.

What can I do? Please help
 
Thank you for your response. I rebuild this with the DVD - until uncluding step 3 - at least 10 times already. Win7 finds all Win7 systems and puts them in a menu. Then I start Win 7 and want to add WinXP .

In 2.x I get the message "EasyBCD failed to detect a valid versin of Windows NT-2003 on the selected drive...." I can use automatically or manual - no difference.

In 1.7.2 it adds at least the first WinXP correctly.

The only special thing on my system is that all partitions are 4K aligned - what WinXP normally does not have. Or perhaps the 2 times WinXP as active partitions are wrong? Other special thing is that it runs on RAID 0 (but should not create a problem).

Please help!
 
I don't think you've read the linked thread carefully enough.
This is nothing to do with repairing the boot with the W7 DVD.
It's an issue with users who install XP under a non-standard name.
If your XP installation is not inside a folder with the name "Windows" or "WinNT" then EasyBCD has no way of detecting it.
Simply adding an entry with an outdated version won't help (1.7 makes no attempt to detect XP or configure it for you. It expects you to understand how to customize the XP boot files yourself)
It will add an entry, but on 99% of configurations that entry won't work without further copying and editing of files. If it works for you you're very lucky, but it cannot circumvent the Microsoft restriction of one XP entry in the BCD, so you will still need to add a second XP to the first's boot.ini manually.
Follow the instructions in the link, and EasyBCD 2 will find and configure both into one boot menu for you.
 
My installation is standard and it is inside the folder Windows.

[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


This installation has been running for years without any problem. The only thing that I changed recently was the 4 K alignment of all partitions.

Tried this with the alternative BootGrabber.exe. Did not change anything. Still the same error message.

At the moment I am in Win 7 32 and assigned drive O to WinXP on the first partition. So both WinXP entries point to this - what is wrong for the second one - Entry #4. Again those entries were done with 1.7.2 because version 2 just brings the error message that it does not find WinXP.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


There are a total of 6 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: Windows 7 32
Timeout: 3 seconds
Boot Drive: O:\

Entry #1
Name: WinXP
BCD ID: {1450cc97-04d3-11e0-b5b8-00241d7e2152}
Drive: O:\
Bootloader Path: \NTLDR

Entry #2
Name: Windows 7 32
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #3
Name: Windows 7 64
BCD ID: {1450cc89-04d3-11e0-b5b8-00241d7e2152}
Device: \Device\HarddiskVolume3
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #4
Name: WinXP BA
BCD ID: {1450cc98-04d3-11e0-b5b8-00241d7e2152}
Drive: O:\
Bootloader Path: \NTLDR

Entry #5
Name: Windows 7 32 BA
BCD ID: {1450cc8a-04d3-11e0-b5b8-00241d7e2152}
Device: \Device\HarddiskVolume8
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #6
Name: Windows 7 64 BA
BCD ID: {1450cc8b-04d3-11e0-b5b8-00241d7e2152}
Device: \Device\HarddiskVolume9
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Can I add/change the entry manually?
 
You cannot have 2 XP entries in the BCD using the standard MS NTLDR.
The MS design only allows multiple XPs to be booted via a second menu (NTLDR's) where you must edit the boot.ini to put a second choice of XP system.
EasyBCD 2 circumvents the MS restriction by using its own customized version of NTLDR from the NST folder. 1.7 has none of those features. (see this)
The BCD uses UIDs to locate systems (not letters - they're just a translation of the UID which EasyBCD displays for your convenience)
The UID is a combination of the disk's physical signature and the starting block address so I imagine your problem is connected to your altering of the XP alignment, though CG will have to say whether that has (or should have) any effect on bootgrabber.
For the moment, you will have to delete the second XP entry from the BCD and add an extra line to boot.ini for the second choice of XP.
CG will have to determine why the change of alignment of your partitions prevents bootgrabber from identifying them.
 
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In respect of altering the alignment there is not much choice for RAID and SSDs - it has to be like this for performance reasons and in respect of SSDs in addition because of reduced lifetime.

"For the moment, you will have to delete the second XP entry from the BCD and add an extra line to boot.ini for the second choice of XP."

I tried to add the second XP in the boot.ini already. So I did this

[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Clean" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect


But the result was not really good. The first XP partition was now drive letter D - what is my main program/data partition and not this one. I tried to change the drive letter D but the system told me that I cannot change the letter of the system partition - BUT it used a different XP and this had drive letter C. So it saw D as C but the loaded sytem was from C - what was correct. No way to get rid of the D WinXP. So I had drives

C WinXP from the correct first partition of drive 1 - correct and used
D WinXP from the first partition of drive 0 - not correct but blocked
 
I don't quite understand your explanation.
Are you saying that one XP (C) sees the other one as D ?
That's normal. All Windows letters are just internal (registry entries), and not physically associated with the hardware.
If you're saying that one, (C) sees the other as D and that D boots and sees the 1st as C, then that's also a normal consequence of installing a second OS from a running system (not from a booted CD). It can cause logistical problems which we won't discuss unless necessary.
If you're saying that you've cloned one XP from the other, so both should be C but one is mistakenly calling itself D and won't boot, then you've run into a well-known cloning problem.
Try reading this
http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/partsigs.htm
 
It is like this:

disk 0 partition 1 XP 1
disk 1 partition 1 XP 2

I started disk 1 partition 1 XP2 from the XP boot menu (jump form the BCD to a second menu for XP). The result is

Drive C: disk 1 partition 1 XP 2
Drive D: disk 0 partition 1 XP 1

Drive C is correct. But now I try to change the drive letter D - take it away to hide the drive in the explorer. It does not allow this because it says that D is a system partition. So it gives the same error as if I would try to change drive C.

I read the link you gave me - thank you a lot. So it is not that easy... The partitions are clones. No idea why Microsoft makes booting into several systems so complicated. But then my idea will not work anyway. The clones are the clean systems. There I just want to install what was tested for a while in the other test systems. After a while I will update this test systems with the clean systems by cloning again. This will be repeated all the time. This will work for not XP systems but never for XP if I understood the text in the link correctly.

So that means that adding the second XP to a boot menu would not help me at all because of the cloning problems. Have now one partition empty - sadly. But thank you a lot for the link again - I would have produced scrap on XP.

Addendum:

Just one more question - did I unterstand this correctly that the cloning problem only exists for my XP? Did not get any errors so far with my Win 7 32 and Win 7 64 systems. But no errors now does not mean no scrap later. Are there any problems with the Win 7 OS and cloning?
 
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Similar problems can happen with Vista/7 clones having the letter change.
The difference is that those systems can get just far enough into the boot to be able to get into regedit, and fix the problem
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/223188
There's no problem with 11XP seeing 01XP as D. (it has to be notC since there obviously can't be 2 Cs)
It won't allow you to remove its letter because it IS "system" (i.e. the place containing the boot files that were used to start it running).
You can make it "invisible" though by making it offline in the registry
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/127417-system-restore-points-stop-xp-dual-boot-delete.html
 
Thank you for the link with the deleted restore points. I was wondering already why my restore points always disappear despite having enough space on the disk. Microsoft really made OS concepts that cannot be more scrap. I am shocked. So the whole multi boot idea has a problem. Thank you for all the information - have learned a lot.
 
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