Use Win7 "Repair Computer" with dual-boot problem?

Aboonah

Member
I had XP and Win7 working together in dual-boot. But I had to reinstall XP later because of other issues. So, no more dual-boot.

I tried to get dual-boot back by using EasyBCD, but when I chose the Win7 installation at boot, got the screen announcing that <Windows failed to start>.

The fix that Windows recommended was to use the Win7 install disk boot and then choose <Repair Computer>. I went as far as letting it give me the details of what it wanted to do to fix it. It showed that it would repair the Windows Boot Manager and then add the start-up option: "Windows Recovery Environment" with the path to "partition E".

The Win7 installation is on single-partition drive F, so that worries me - though I remember that EasyBCD documentation pointed out that the letters and physical disks don't necessarily match up.

Is it safe to let Win7 go ahead and do the repair? If the Win7 installation is damaged and won't start anyway, can I still get into XP (the XP installation was not mentioned during the Repair Computer beginning process, so I'm assuming it won't show up on the boot menu)?

If there's no option to boot into XP, can I repair the MBR and XP boot.ini to boot into XP by using the Recovery Console on the XP disk? Or no? Or something else?

TIA
 
>Startup repair should work.

O.K. ... I'll follow take it through the process. But:

>You'll need to add an entry for XP if the existing one isn't working.

I'm not sure what you mean by the above. My concern is that if Win7 "repairs" the MBR, the entry for XP will disappear.

Is that likely? If it happens, what must be done to get an entry back, including the possibility that the Win7 installation has been corrupted and it won't start, which would mean that I could not run EasyBCD?
 
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Don't worry.
Just run the, boot dvd / "repair your computer" / "startup repair" three times (possibly several things to fix, one at a time).
All OSs, including the recovery environment, assign disk letters independently. They're not a physical feature of the partition, just a virtual label in the mind of the OS.
On W7, install the latest build of EasyBCD 2.0, add an XP entry and let it auto-configure.
 
You add an entry with EasyBCD once Windows 7 is booting, but only if either the entry for XP goes missing from the boot menu, or the existing entry isn't working.

Adding an entry is simple, get the latest build from Terry's link > Add New Entry > Windows > Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3. Let EasyBCD autoconfigure.
 
Well,
i have tested the new EBCD 2.0 (Build 94) and can say:
It is function wonderfull.
EBCD have found and automatic configured the XP Boot entry.

Thank you so much for this wonderfull Tool, the EasyBCD 2.0.

Greetings from Germany,

STRUPPI
 
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