Three drives-Sata 4,5,6-win xp pro-Vista Home Premium and Win 7 Ultimate

ranger72

Active Member
Hi There All!

Here is my problem.

I have just completed clean re-install of my computer which has three hard drives which are configured in sata.

In my bios this is how they show: sata 1
sata 2
sata 3
sata 4-Win xp pro
sata 5-Win 7 Ultimate
sata 6-Win Vista Home Premium

These are three separate hard drives with a single Os on each. I believe one of my mistakes was to install the operating systems in the wrong order.I was told by a

level 2 Microsoft agent to install "Win 7 Ultimate" first.Then install "Vista" and finally to install "Win XP Pro".

I was told also to pull the power and data cables from the hard drives on which I was not doing the install so as not to install to the wrong drive. The guy

specifically told me that the "Win 7 Ult" Os would see the other drives and and create a boot manager.

I ended up with no boot manager at all but I could enter and use each drive/os by pulling the power and data cables off the other two drives and then cold starting

the machine.

now I have downloaded "Easy BCD" onto the win 7 drive and also onto the vista drive. I am providing a printscreen shot of the disk management system as seen from the

Vista drive with (C:smile: being vista and (F:smile: being WIN XP Pro and (E:smile:/(G:smile: being Win 7 Ult.

Is my system fixable with Easy bcd?

Thank you very much.

ranger72
 

Attachments

  • ScreenShot003.bmp
    1.3 MB · Views: 26
Hi Ranger, can you save attachments as .jpg.

Boot with W7 1st in the BIOS boot sequence, all disks connected.
Install EasyBCD 2.0 latest build on W7
Add a Vista entry, point it to the partition letter that W7 sees Vista as.
Add an XP entry, let it auto-configure when it offers.
Don't change the drive letter Easy sets up for XP ( It knows what to do)
 
Hi Terry,

Thanks for your help once again.

I am not certain that I can change the order of the bios boot sequence but I will try and get back to you on the results.
The remainder of your instructions are clear to me.
We'll give it a go.

ranger72
 
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Hi Terry,

I was able to go into my Bios and change the boot order and it is now:

1) Sata 5 "WIN 7"

2) Sata 4 "Win XP PRO

3) Sata 6 "Vista"

Then I followed your instructions:

Hi Ranger, can you save attachments as .jpg.

Boot with W7 1st in the BIOS boot sequence, all disks connected.
Install EasyBCD 2.0 latest build on W7
Add a Vista entry, point it to the partition letter that W7 sees Vista as.
Add an XP entry, let it auto-configure when it offers.
Don't change the drive letter Easy sets up for XP ( It knows what to do)

I have provided two screenshots in JPG. One is disk management and the other is Easy BCD in present display mode of "View Settings" as they are at this writing.

Now I have a Boot Manager when I restart and/or Cold start and the manager shows "Win 7 Ult" as 1st position, Vista as 2nd position and Win XP Pro as 3rd position or last in the boot manager.

So I now have a boot manager which allows me to see all three OS', however I am able to boot into "Win 7" and "Vista" only.

For some reason windows xp pro is shown in the "View Settings" and it shown in the Disk Management window but It won't boot into Win XP. If I hit "CTRL-ALT-DELETE" The machine restarts normally and brings me back into the new Boot Manager.

What Have I mucked up?

Thank you again for your help.

ranger72


 
Can't see any screenshots.
Are you using the latest build of EasyBCD 2.0 (not 1.7) ?
Did it offer to auto-configure XP ?
Did you accept ?
 
The answer yes to all three questions.

I am having a difficult time uploading the attachments. I am using the latest version of Gadwin printscreen and also Irfanview. The images have allegedly been taken in Jpg. and or PNG and I have re-sized them to below the 2MB limit.

I will keep trying to get the screen shots to you . Any ideas about this problem?

thanks,

ranger72


Addendum:

In the manage attachment window under "upload Errors" it says that "ScreenShot003.jpg:" is not a valid image file.

thanks ranger72
 
Last edited:


Now I have a Boot Manager when I restart and/or Cold start and the manager shows "Win 7 Ult" as 1st position, Vista as 2nd position and Win XP Pro as 3rd position or last in the boot manager.

So I now have a boot manager which allows me to see all three OS', however I am able to boot into "Win 7" and "Vista" only.

For some reason windows xp pro is shown in the "View Settings" and it shown in the Disk Management window but It won't boot into Win XP. If I hit "CTRL-ALT-DELETE" The machine restarts normally and brings me back into the new Boot Manager.


What exactly happens when you try to boot into XP? Any error message? If so, which one?
 
Thank you Coolname007!

No Sir! There are no error messages. When I choose Win xp pro and hit "Enter" the machine restarts normally as if it were preparing to launch xp and then (I am using dual, widescreen monitors) I get a very slight glow around the perimeter of my right screen and then nothing further. It simply stays like that. I can re-boot by hitting "CTRL/ALT/DELETE and it brings me right back into the new boot manager where I can successfully choose "Win 7 Ult" or "Vista" but if I go once again to "win xp" i get the same as previously described.

Also I am having major trouble uploading screenshots to this thread. I have sent a detailed explanation to NeoSmarts Webmaster of what I am using and the procedures I've followed in trying to upload a couple of screenshots to help you, help me.

I have been able to upload Bitmap files but cannot seem to get JPG. or PNG files to upload to this thread.Terry has asked for JPG. uploads and I'm doing my best to oblige.

Thank you very much for your help!

ranger72
 
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Did you change where the XP entry in the BCD was pointed, after you created it..?
(Under "Change Settings")
Don't do that. Delete the XP entry, add a new one, letting it auto-configure, and this time don't adjust where the entry is pointed. EasyBCD knows what its doing. The BCD points at the NTLDR which XP uses (and which should be stored in the "system" partition, according to Disk Management). The NTLDR then uses boot.ini to locate XP, so it can load it.
 
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I don't think I touched anything after following terry's instructions. I don't think I went into change settings. I followed Terry's instructions in Add/Remove entry's. I do remember that the win xp setting autoconfigured.

Here is the overview under "View Settings" in Easy BCD 2.0 which I have copied/pasted into notepad.

This is current. Does that help? I haven't changed anything yet (per your instructions) as I would like you to see what Easy BCD is showing us.

There are a total of 3 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: Windows 7 Ultimate (recovered)
Timeout: 5 seconds.
EasyBCD Boot Device: E:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7 Ultimate (recovered)
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Microsoft Windows Vista
BCD ID: {294c96c3-d122-11de-bd2f-827f94d335ba}
Drive: F:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #3
Name: Microsoft Windows XP
BCD ID: {294c96c5-d122-11de-bd2f-827f94d335ba}
Drive: E:\
Bootloader Path: \NTLDR

I am still trying to get an image to you of the "Disk Management" window which will show the current settings from that point of view. Haven't figured it out yet.

Does this help you?
Thanks very much!

ranger72
 
Ok, the XP entry is pointed at the correct place then (i.e. the "system" partition, which is E: in your case).
Does XP boot when you put its HDD first in the boot sequence of the BIOS?
If not, then perhaps its a problem with the XP install (not the boot).
 
trying again with a screenshot of the disk manager.

And once again it tells me that screenshot003.jpg is not avalid image file.

I will try to upload a bitmap image just to see if that still works for me.
 
Forget Gadwin printscreen and Irfanview, and just Prnt Scrn, then paste the screenshot into Paint, saving it as a .jpg image. Then upload it, and I bet it'll work. :wink:
 
I will try to change the boot order in the bios to make xp the first in bootload orderand then get back to you.

Addendum:

Ok I used paint and created both a PNG and a Jpeg file under the required 2mb size limitations and neither of these would upload to the thread. Scratching my head!

Now I will try to change xp boot order and see what happens..thanks
 
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Ok, you're right.
I just tried to upload a .jpg and also a .png image myself, and was told that it wasn't a valid image file.
Seems to be a problem with the attachment feature...

Hopefully Guru will look into it, and fix the problem.
 
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I hope so too! I am relieved to find that that particular problem is NOT from my end. I have enough to deal with re: the bootload manager!:>)

Ok! I changed the boot order in the bios to make win xp 1st and rebooted and got a message to boot from the windows recovery disk to do a system repair.

I did this and just used the "fixboot" command in the recovery console. That fixed the win xp problem and I was able to boot into and use win xp. All seemed normal. I had disconnected the power and data cables from win 7 and vista before doing this.

When I reconnected all 3 disks the system would only boot into win xp and no longer shows the boot manager.

I think now I need to go back into the bios change the boot order with "WIN 7" booting 1st and then maybe we can go back to fixing the boot manager with out problems. What do you think?

thanks again for your patience!
ranger72
 
Yes, in order to get your multiboot menu back, you'll need to adjust boot order to put W7 disk 1st. Once you do that, try booting into XP that way again, and see if it boots now that you fixed the bootsector.
 
Dear fellow
I have a multiboot system on two separate HDs, the win vista ultimate 64 bit along win XP on one HD (the boot one) but on different partitions, latly I fited a second HD which has originaly WIn 7 ultimate 64 bit preinstalled.
Now i am abel to boot succesfuly the vista and the xp but my pc is not able to feel the win7.
I did use easyBCD 1.7.2 and after that BCD2 beta and I did add a new entry in the boot for the win7 but every time I try to boot the win 7 it doeas not boot and giving me a massage that a thierd party software added a file wich windows can not verify its signature
\system32\winloader.exe
error:0x0000428
with the choice of esc or enter to go to reboot option again.
How can I make my pc feel the win7 and make it boot succefuly with it?
can you help
Thanks a lot
Eng. Hossam
 
Hello Hossam, welcome to NST.
You're experiencing a fairly common problem where Vista doesn't like the W7 version of winload.exe, and will complain about it.
To fix the problem, put W7's HDD first in the boot sequence of the BIOS, boot W7, run EasyBCD 2.0 Beta, and add a Vista and also an XP entry to the W7 BCD, letting it auto-configure for XP, and making sure to point the Vista entry at the correct drive letter of the Vista system as seen from W7. Do not change where EasyBCD points at for XP, it knows what its doing.

Now you'll have a triple-boot system. :smile:
 
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