Still unable to boot into Vista

D

DB2101

Member
Hi there! I have a Lenovo N200 with Vista preload. I've partitioned and installed XP and can work in XP no problem now. I've installed Easy BCD and can't seem to be able to get it working to give me the option to boot into Vista again.

I followed the wiki that you have in your sticky thread, and tried all of the steps you outlined but when I reboot, I still get put automatically into XP again.

Any suggestions please? Thanks in advance!
 
Hi DB, welcome to NST.
Try downloading the recovery disk, then burn the ISO to a CD with Imgburn.
Boot the CD and select "repair your computer" then "startup repair"
Do this 3 times and Vista should boot again.
Download and Install EasyBCD 2.0 latest build (not 1.7), add an entry to the BCD for XP, letting it auto-configure for you when it offers.
 
Hi there, thanks for the replies. I installed BCD 2.0 and was immediately able to *finally* get to Vista. Unfortunately now I can't get to XP again. The error message says my \ntldr has status 0xc000000f.

Any ideas what I can do please?
 
Make sure you are using the latest build.
Delete the XP entry from the BCD and add it again.
Let EasyBCD auto-configure for you.
 
Thank you very much Terry! It works perfectly now. :smile: Now to try to figure out why the 65gb partition on Vista is full when no one has ever even accessed it!

Once again, I appreciate all the quick, helpful responses,
 
Could be system restore points. Vista will store as many as it can in the space you let it use on the Vista partition. It manages it dynamically though, so it won't stop you using it for something else. It will just keep fewer points as the space runs out.
Also of course, unless you move the "special" folders (music picture documents etc) it will be storing virtually everything you create inside your User/userid/ folder structure, including squillions of temporary files and internet cache.
You can use something like the freeware "TreeSize" to tell you what files are using all the space, and there are loads of junk cleaning apps freely available too.
 
Hi Terry, I had a peek and realised it was actually Lenovo's lovely rssbackup stuff. I removed it and freed up 50gb. I then used MyDefrag 'force together' and found two big problems. I can't move the $bitmap, so I can only shrink Vista by a max of 10gb. The bigger problem is that even after I shrink Vista - I didn't realise that I can't use that space to apply it to XP....

So, here I am again. This time to ask if it's possible to use Easy BCD to remove the Vista pre-install completely, leave XP only on the machine and be able to put that released volume space onto XP - all without losing all the stuff I have on XP?? Vista was only there because it was pre-installed, there's nothing on there that I want, and I thought I could go back and shift disk space to XP if I wanted to. :frowning:
 
Do you have the Vista "factory reset" stuff on CD/DVD ?
I'd make sure you have that available before removing Vista. The Vista licence is a fair chunk of the value of the PC if you ever want to trade it, so you don't want to just bin it. The next user might prefer Vista.
Simplest thing to do would be to use a live Linux booted from CD and just delete everything in the Vista partition, and use it as a user app/data/backup partition for XP, leaving XP where it is. (A repair install of XP will put the NTLDR boot back)
 
Terry, I'm afraid I don't know much at all about Linux, so I'm not sure how to do that.

The N200 did have the rescue and recovery installed on it, but I had to uninstall to be able to get access to the rssbackup files I wanted to delete. I'm not sure if it's possible to do a factory re-install now because of that, but honestly I don't care if I lose some value on the machine if it meant getting the full hard disk space available for XP. The laptop is acutally my son's for university and he's not technical at all, so I'm trying to set it up as user-friendly as possible for him as I can't always be there to work on it. He does need the extra space now for some complex music mixing software he's gotten, and I guess if the space remained on the formatted partition it wouldn't help him much in that the system wouldn't 'see' it.

So, even if I remove the Vista bootloader with Easy BCD, go into XP and format the Vista partition, it's not possible to merge the partitions in XP, right (other than a clean install )? I've read that it's possible using Partition Manager software and such, but the information is so conflicting. I'D really appreciate any insight you have.

thanks!

Dawna

Addendum:

Terry, I really appreciate all your help. I just wanted to let you know that I found a free program called EAseus Partition Manager and it allowed me to easily resize the partitions without having to do any clean install. So, I did manage to keep both OS, not lose any space and it was free!

Thanks so much once again!
 
Last edited:
Back
Top