Triple boot unable to boot XP

J

Jaymie1989

Member
Hi,

About 3 days ago I reinstalled Windows 7 and though I would XP on this same HDD rather than my seperate one the installed Linux Mint. So I installed it in this order - Windows 7, XP and Linux Mint

Rather than using the Linux boot menu because it showed me Windows 7 twice rather than Windows 7 and XP So I used EasyBCD in Windows XP and added XP to find the drive its self and linux as well. Linux and windows 7 I can boot ok but when I choose the option for XP it just goes to a black screen no windows loading screen or anyhing just a black screen.

Does any have ides with this for me?


Thanks.
 
Hi Folks,
Similar difficulty here. I loaded WIN XP (for some odd reason) and used EASY BCD to dual boot Win 7 64 and Win XP. It worked great (thanks! When I get a job I'll send a donation!) However, I decided to try Ubuntu again so I loaded that as well. I ran into a huge problem and ended up doing a complete restore of win7 but I left WinXP as it was. Now, I can boot Ubuntu and Win7 just fine from EASY BCD but when I try to boot XP I get the splash screen - and that seems to go okay, albeit slowly - and then it goes to the "welcome" screen...and just sits there. It isn't as though it's frozen, there is no HDD activity at all. That's as far as it gets.
Unfortunately, I don't know what you mean by "copying NTDETECT to all drives" either but it seems to have no problem detecting XP - it just doesn't ever completely load.
(Any help would be appreciated but it isn't THAT big a deal so help those that need it most first.) Really nice boot program Mahmoud!
 
I also have this problem, I have windows 7 and linux Mint 11 on one harddrive and xp on another, linux and windows 7 boot fine but xp does not, and searching the harddrives finds NTDETECT in three files on each harddrive. When I go to load XP the computer tells me that "because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem, it will not load, Could not read from the selected boot disk check boot path and disk hardware. Please check windows documentation for hardware configuration and your hardware referrence manuals." Of course all of that information is on the disk that has XP on it, and I need to open it to retrieve the information. I can access the files on that disk with windows 7,
 
@yombute
Getting to welcome, and no further sounds like your XP might have changed drive letter and be suffering from schizophrenia.
Goodells.Net :: Understanding MultiBooting
Have you been moving drives/cables ?
If so, try putting things back as they were so that XP sees itself in the same relative position as when it was originally installed.
 
mplsyrp said:
I also have this problem, I have windows 7 and linux Mint 11 on one harddrive and xp on another, linux and windows 7 boot fine but xp does not, and searching the harddrives finds NTDETECT in three files on each harddrive. When I go to load XP the computer tells me that "because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem, it will not load, Could not read from the selected boot disk check boot path and disk hardware. Please check windows documentation for hardware configuration and your hardware referrence manuals." Of course all of that information is on the disk that has XP on it, and I need to open it to retrieve the information. I can access the files on that disk with windows 7,
Click to expand...

It sounds like this installation of XP is from another system. You will not be able to just add an entry to get it working. What you will need to do is perform an XP Repair install with the XP CD in order to get it working properly. But if this is the case where did the drive come from? If it came from a system that was purchased with XP pre-installed from a manufacturer like Dell or HP then you are technically in violation of the EULA (End User License Agreement) of Windows. That is considered an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) version of Windows installed and it is tied to the mother board of that system and cant be transferred to another system legally.
 
Thanks for the input!

Terry60 said:
@yombute
Getting to welcome, and no further sounds like your XP might have changed drive letter and be suffering from schizophrenia.
Goodells.Net :: Understanding MultiBooting
Have you been moving drives/cables ?
If so, try putting things back as they were so that XP sees itself in the same relative position as when it was originally installed.
Click to expand...

Thanks Terry,
I'll make sure I back everything up and then play around with this a bit. I do remember assigning XP as partition D and now win7 sees it as K so that's most likely the problem. At any rate, it'll be fun reading through the article (and deciphering it!) and learning more. I appreciate it!
Yom
 
It doesn't matter what W7 calls XP, just how XP thinks of itself.
Their letter maps are not connected (just a set of registry entries on each system).
 
Well....I was able to get Win XP to boot. The problem is that now Ubuntu won't.
I cheated and took the longer (cowards) way out.
First, I deleted the XP entry in EasyBCD.
Next, I deleted and formatted my XP partition and, of course, rebooted.
Next, I put my XP disk in and installed it again and let Windows put it in unallocated space.
As would probably be obvious, once I rebooted, it went straight to XP. So...
I put in my win7 Repair disk and let it "repair problems with startup", which it did without problem.
I rebooted and my Easy BCD menu came back up but only included Ubuntu and Win7. I booted on into Win 7.
Went to E-BCD and ADDED WINXP back to the settings. Booted into XP just fine after that.
Decided I needed to check Ubuntu and, although nothing was changed in my setup for Ubuntu, it now won't let me boot into Ubuntu.
*sigh*
I remember having to give control of the grub menu to Linux initially to get it to work but not sure how I can do that if I can't get in there.
I think, unless there's a really simple solution I'll just keep win7 and Win XP instead of going through the whole thing over again.
Still love the program, I'm just not sure it likes working with XP very much. (and I, obviously, don't know enough to be trying all of this!)
Thanks for the GREAT help guys. You roll!
 
Have you tried deleting the Linux entry from the BCD and adding it again ?
If you added it with a different physical setup than currently exists, the device addresses might be wrong now.
 
Terry60 said:
Have you tried deleting the Linux entry from the BCD and adding it again ?
If you added it with a different physical setup than currently exists, the device addresses might be wrong now.
Click to expand...

Hey Terry,
Yep. GOOD question. I have tried that in a couple of different ways (Grub Legacy/grub2/neosmartGrub.
Shows up in the menu now as Neosmart Linux (even under Grub2 that I was utilizing before) and I get the error...
Multikludge blah, blah..
Unknown file system
Grub rescue>
Seriously, thanks for all the help. I've been through some of the other threads and may even be able to help some other folks with some questions that are a bit less advanced than this and I do feel like I owe something back. For right now, I think I'd best make sure my computer is working through the weekend so I can check on developments of the hurricane coming through to the east of me. It's not supposed to get as far inland as the middle of North Carolina, U.S., but one never knows. Might wish I had some of those scones by tomorrow!
Anyone else in Irene's path or surrounding areas: Best of luck. Stay safe! "Don't be stoopid be a schmarty."
 
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