Triple boat XP - Vista - Win7

B

Berlin

Member
I have one hard drive (volume 0).
I used to have two NFTS partions.
- my normal big one with XP (called C: under XP, but G: under Vista)
- a smaller one with Vista (called C: under Vista).
The Vista partition was hidden from XP -- I did this, because otherwise system restoration information would be overwitten.

Today I made a third NTFS partition and installed Win7 on it.
My main partion with XP is "gone".
EasyBCD tells me that the "Bootloader Path:" for the XP partition is " \ntldr".
When I add a NT/XP/2k partition in EasyBCD I can NOT choose a drive. Automatically "Bootloader Path: \ntldr" and no "Windows Directory" is added.

Bootloader Timeout: 10 seconds.
Default OS: Vista kl.Part (D=C)

Entry #1
Name: Frhere Windows-Version
BCD ID: {ntldr}
Drive: G:\
Bootloader Path: \ntldr

Entry #2
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {74a17a2c-eaf0-11dc-aa66-8114ada3dd4f}
Drive: M:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry #3

Name: Vista kl.Part (D=C)
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry #4
Name: WinXP
BCD ID: {74a17a2f-eaf0-11dc-aa66-8114ada3dd4f}
Drive: G:\
Bootloader Path: \NTLDR


Drive Manager tells me that
- my XP partition is
system partition
active
primary.
- my Vista drive is
start partition
primary
Auslagerungsdatei and
Absturzbild (sorry my Windows is in German).

Any idea what I could to
either to choose between all three Windows
or at least between my old ones?
 
Last edited:
Hi Berlin, welcome to NST.
What were you using to hide Vista from XP ?
When you installed W7, it appears to have taken over the boot process. Did you install it from Vista, or a standalone boot of the W7 DVD ?
If you can see a 369k bootmgr on your XP partition root - that's W7's.
When you use EasyBCD to add an XP entry, it "greys" the drive option if it can detect the "system" partition, because that's where the XP boot files have to go. In your case "system" is the XP partition.
/NTLDR is the correct boot loader for XP. Bootmgr will chain to it to load XP. It doesn't load XP itself.
 
Last edited:
Hi Terry,
all very complicated. I installed win7 from mounted iso drive -- mounted from vista.
I do not remember how I hide vista from XP, but it worked and system restoration was not damaged.
bootmgr on my ssytempartition is very old and different size (429 kb).

"Rescue My system" asks me serious question like: "EasyBCD needs to know (beyond the shadow of the doubt) the correct letter of your boot drive." I do not know the correct answer, because the letter of my XP-drive is C: under XP, but G: under Vista, where I am now, and from where I start EasyBCD.
Berlin


Addendum:


Terry60 said:
Hi Berlin, welcome to NST.
When you use EasyBCD to add an XP entry, it "greys" the drive option if it can detect the "system" partition, because that's where the XP boot files have to go. In your case "system" is the XP partition.
/NTLDR is the correct boot loader for XP. Bootmgr will chain to it to load XP. It doesn't load XP itself.
Click to expand...

Could it be That I am just to impatient?
From what you say my earlier Windows Version
Entry #1
Name: Frhere Windows-Version
BCD ID: {ntldr}
Drive: G:\
Bootloader Path: \ntldr

should be correct. Should I give ten minutes to the machine to come up with WinXP?
 
Last edited:
The drive letters that you specify to EasyBCD are the letters as seen from the system running EasyBCD.
Can you attach a screenshot of your disk management, and paste the EasyBCD "display settings" output, and screenshots of your partition roots for the 3 systems.
 
Last edited:
three option:
earlier system
windows 7
vista

windows 7 and vista work fine,
earlier windows gives me a white blinking cursors in the top left corner on a black screen.
After five minutes I gave up, bootet in vista and asked you for help.
 
OK. We're into simple XP troubleshooter territory.
Read the sticky 3,5 and 6 and make sure that the XP boot files are all present where they should be.


Addendum:


Auslagerungsdatei = page file
Absturzbild = crash dump
Startpartition = boot
Systempartition =system
Aktiv = active
 
Last edited:
Hi Terry,
thanks both for the link and for the glossary.
But, ...
Here is my boot ini
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\windows="XP Media Center" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT


And I've downloaded the boot files from Mahmud al-Qudsi, have replaced ntldr and ntdetect.com in the sytem partion (seen from here in G:\), but still get the blinking cursor, which is meant -- I guess -- by "blank screen" in "After choosing to boot into Windows, I get a black, blank screen. This means that NTLDR was found, but NTDETECT.COM wasn't."
And .... this morning -- before installing windows 7 -- both vista and xp were working fine.
Any idea, what I should do?
Berlin


Just to make sure that I did not screw it up.
My EasyBCD settings are as follows:
There are a total of 3 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader Timeout: 10 seconds.
Default OS: XP (G=C)

Entry #1
Name: XP (G=C)
BCD ID: {ntldr}
Drive: G:\
Bootloader Path: \ntldr

Entry #2
Name: Win 7 (test22)
BCD ID: {74a17a2c-eaf0-11dc-aa66-8114ada3dd4f}
Drive: M:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry #3
Name: Vista kl.Part (D=C)
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows
 
Last edited:
The partition number of XP in boot.ini, shouldn't have changed, but It's such a struggle trying to second guess how MS does things, that Guru has written a utility to discover the truth of the actual partition numbering (unfortunately pre-Beta).
It won't take you long to try partition(1) and 3 (It's got to be one of them), and it does no harm to get it wrong (it just won't boot till it's right)
Remember to alter both lines to the same value.
 
Back
Top