Recover windows.old from vista to NT

Witte0612

Member
Hi,

I'm in serious trouble, I have a laptop from the company and suddenly i had problems starting it up so i've put in the bootdisk who was delivered with it but instead of NT it was Vista.
Now I need to recover my old version of windows because VPN doesn't work on vista.

I've tried several thing but didn't find a sollution. I have a file windows.old with 2 subdirectories : documents and setting and program files, I have also on the C directory a folder named winnt can i do something with it??

It will save my ass!!! :wink:
Many thanks
 
Ok, I've managed thanks to the great guide to start up my PC in Windows XP, but it ends after the Windows XP screen with a blue screen and no log-in. I've tried to copy my Documents and Settings folder to C: but I can't see the folder in Dos. What have I done wrong or what can I do???

Thanks
 
Folders such as boot, the old Windows folder, the Users folder, etc. I haven't done this myself, so can't be of much more help than this. Can you boot the computer ok in safe mode (F8 repeatedly until the advanced boot options menu appears)? Some Vista only compatible software or drivers may have been installed that are still present with XP that might be causing these problems. You could also try last known good configuration to see if that works. No restore points are going to help at this point because they were likely created after the computer was upgraded, so system restore is not an option.

I'd go ahead and start looking for your XP disc, in case a re-install is necessary. A lot of other users here have got XP to boot again but have had similar issues that we have yet to get to the bottom of short of re-installation.
 
ok, I'm back at the beginning of the end :smile:
This error message was the reason I've put in my Cd of Vista. I get the message "Couldn't find boot.ini"
Starting op from hal.dll but this is an incorrupt or defective file. I copied hal.dll from a working PC but no result.
How can i get my boot.ini file back??
 
The HAL missing or corrupt is telling you that boot.ini is not pointing to the right place. (If boot.ini is not there, NTLDR uses internal defaults, which will work if they point to your system by pure serendipity - not a good thing to rely on)
Make your own boot.ini from scratch using the wiki as a starting point. Copy/paste the sample and edit rdisk() and partition() to the correct values to point at your XP partition.
Put the file in the root of your "system" "active" partition.
 
Post what you've created here and we'll take a look at it.
Post a screenshot of your disk management display from Vista too, and the contents of the "settings" page from EasyBCD (in detailed - debug mode) so we can see where everything is (or should be).
 
Thats the thing though Terry, he's already downgraded and doesn't have Vista up (Unless he's running it on another hard drive/machine), just a broken XP that BSODs or doesn't boot.

But anyway, your boot.ini file and if you could describe your partition layout without being able to look at disk management is fine.
 
Sorry, didn't read far enough back. (I assume everyone here is dual-booting Vista /XP - slapped wrist !)
 
boot.ini:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINNT="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

What do you exactly mean by partition?
 
ok, I've made it:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
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" /fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons

But still no result? Still the same error...
 
Ok I've changed my boot.ini file to partition (2) and now I have the option for choosing start up: Windows XP pro, Windows recovery and Windows (default).

If Y choose Windows XP pro: Still the hal.dll error
If Y chosse Recovery: Just a black screen, nothing else
If Y choose Default: "Windows could not start because of an error in the software. Please report this problem as: load needed DLLs for kernel."

Euh...any suggestion?
 
Last edited:
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