trouble reverting xp's old bootloader

[i4004]

have xp/2k on old drive, and win10 on new ssd, tried to use easybcd (even though i knew chances were slim, it's more of an old bios issue that prevents it from booting straight to win10) installed on win10 to make xp/10 dual boot (i can access 10 via super grub2 boot cd).

so i do this

Windows XP

This page describes the configuration and properties of a correctly set-up and working Windows XP – Windows Vista dual-boot. Don’t be put-off by the title though, these same steps apply…

neosmart.net

and, like i said, it doesn't work (issues are a bit deeper, with old mbr bios etc.) so i wanna revert back, but i don't really see an easy way to do this after doing "easybcd reset" and then creating a new xp/2k bootloader with easybcd (selected the proper drive where xp/2k are etc.)

now i get
"invalid boot.ini file
booting from c:\windows"
rather brief screen (less than a second) and i boot to xp, but no xp/2k boot menu as it originally was, even though i re-created the boot.ini just as it was before....

can this be fixed, does easybcd modify the original ntldr (and other) files on the xp/2k disk or it just adds stuff to /NST folder on win10 drive?
i'm noticing same filesize for both ntldr versions(one on xp/2k and other on win10 disk).
ie would this

NTLDR is missing: Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart

Get the fix to the NTLDR is missing boot error message affecting Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. About the “NTLDR is missing” error Descript…

neosmart.net

(fix #4) be the solution?
or maybe the next entry
"Fix #5: Rebuild boot.ini file" ?


thanks

 

[Terry60]

Post your "invalid boot.ini file" here.
If there's the tiniest syntax error, you'll get that message and NTLDR will resort to a hard coded internal version which (if you're lucky - as you seem to have been) will still get XP up and running.

 

[i4004]

nah, i don't do syntax errors, esp. in boot.ini, i use cmd on/off for 20 years.
ntdetect.com and ntldr that easybcd wrote are not the same files as original ones (different filesize, see pic) and i dunno how much attention was payed (during coding) to possible need to revert bootloader to prev. state...for example do you store the old boot.ini file anywhere? it's surely not in the root of xp drive.
or, will making backup via easybcd make sure everything is brought back in previous, original state?
ie the old ntldr and ntdetect.

either way, i took old files (ntdetect.com and ntldr) from acronis image and it's working now.

offcourse this (easybcd full reset i mentioned above) broke win10 bootloader, but that's another story, which probably has to do with the (relative..heh) paths in 10s bootsector (5 disks in mbr bios machine) which i fixed (left just ssd win10 disk plugged) via fixmbr and rewrite of bootsector ("bcdboot /s /f all") plus win10 "startup repair", but it got broken again once i connected other 4 disks, but that's beyond the scope of this thread....
(i think chris titus on yt has some useful clips on assigning letters via cmd in such situaitons etc.)

another thing to mention, in addition to old mbr machine: win10 was installed on existing ntfs partition, there is no "system reserved" partition here (if we look at that disk with diskpart), and i kinda think (by now) that 10's bootmanager likes to be there on the system partition that's "invisible".
it also likes uefi and gpt, but we don't alwas get what we want.
i've put the ssd in machine to speed up virtual machine (8.1 guest running inside xp host 😜) and installing 10 was just a test to see if it could be done, it's mobo from 2007....works well enough, lan driver is buggy, but wlan usb stick could solve it.

cheers and thanks