Vista and XP 64-Bit Edition on Separate Drives

[dj_ash1983]

First up, I'm glad that there's a BCD editor which is "easy to use", and it shows promise, really. I find it hard to use bcdedit bundled on vista with all the command lines and stuff. It's damn confusing. I really need a user-friendly GUI-based BCD editor, and thank god you guys made this tool.


Ok, here's my sitrep....

My SATA drive (80GB) has 2 partitions: one for Vista, and the other for my important files (music, videos, documents, pics, software backups, etc..). Now, I have a 6GB IDE drive; enough space for installing XP 64-Bit Edition, so I've decided to install it right away. But seeing that I'm worried about messing up with the Vista on my SATA drive, I've disconnected it first before I installed XP.

I've installed the EasyBCD on Vista and added a "XP 64-Bit Edition" entry (I noticed that there's no "XP 64-Bit Edition" on the version droplist, but I chose NT/2K/XP/2K3 anyway). I restarted my PC, then after the POST, the Vista boot selection appears with these lineup:

Windows Vista
Windows XP 64-Bit Edition

I've selected "Windows Vista", and it loaded without problems. Now, I've restarted my PC again, and chose "Windows XP 64-Bit Edition", and what I get is "0x00000f ntldr not found" error. I"ve searched the forum topics for this problem, and I found out that I have to copy 2 NTLDR files in XP. I get the error "invalid boot.ini", but the previous error have gone. But what I get next is that nothing happens after loading the NTLDR files.... just black screen, without HDD activity (I've been keeping an eye on the HDD LED to make sure). Seeing that "invalid boot.ini" error, I've copied the boot.ini from already installed XP 64-Bit Edition and restarted my PC. Yet, same black screen happens. I've tried to change the drive letter to where XP 64-Bit Edition was installed, yet same thing happens.

Anyway, here's the details of my PC from EasyBCD:

Overview:
There are a total of 2 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader TimeOut: 30 seconds.
Default OS: Microsoft Windows Vista

Entry #1

Name: Microsoft Windows Vista
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry #2

Name: Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition
BCD ID: {19b81cb2-0a30-11dc-b901-00138ff689e4}
Drive: E:\
Bootloader Path: \ntldr


Detailed (Debug Mode):
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {0318f8ec-0aa3-11dc-a093-e3ddc5e66bdd}
displayorder {0318f8ec-0aa3-11dc-a093-e3ddc5e66bdd}
{19b81cb2-0a30-11dc-b901-00138ff689e4}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {0318f8ec-0aa3-11dc-a093-e3ddc5e66bdd}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {0318f8ed-0aa3-11dc-a093-e3ddc5e66bdd}
nx OptIn
quietboot Yes
bootlog Yes

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {19b81cb2-0a30-11dc-b901-00138ff689e4}
device partition=C:
path \ntldr
description Microsoft Windows XP 64-Bit Edition

Here's my PC specs:

Asrock AM2NF6G-VSTA Motherboard (2 SATA, 1 IDE, dual-channel memory supported)
AMD Sempron 3000+ (64 Bit Supported)
PQI DDR2-533 512MB (2 pcs., total of 1GB)
80GB Seagate Barracuda SATAII
6GB Fujitsu IDE

Pls help me find ways to solve this problem. Thanks in advance.


Oh yeah, before I forgot.... I've installed EasyBCD on XP 64-Bit Edition. The installation went smoothly, but when I tried to run it, this thing happens:

EDIT: Abut the subject, it's "How to dual-boot both OS'es in separate drives", not "How to dual-boot both drives in separate drives". Sorry about that. *pokes my head*

 

[mqudsi]

hi dj, welcome to NST

First, you need to install the .NET 2.0 Framework for EasyBCD to run. That'll take care of the message you're seeing now.

As for your problem, it's because Boot.ini is incorrectly configured.
You're going to need to change the disk() paramater to reference the new location.

 

[dj_ash1983]

Thanks for the reply ComputerGuru. I really waited for this.

Hmm... .Net 2.0 Framework, huh? Guess I forgot about that, since I have that installer. Wait.... isn't that already included in Windows XP 64-Bit Edition? Maybe service pack 1, perhaps?

Anyways, here's the contents of the boot.ini of the XP side:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional x64 Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Do you mean I have to change this one?:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS

I used the DISKPART utility in Windows to see te exact location of the disks like what I've quoted above, but it isn't. Anyway, here's the list of the disks and partitions from DISKPART (I'm in the Vista side while doing this):

DISKPART> select disk 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ---------- ------- ------- --- ---
* Disk 0 Online 6188 MB 13 MB
Disk 1 Online 77 GB 1331 KB

DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Primary 6173 MB 32 KB

DISKPART> select disk 1

Disk 1 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> list partition

Partition ### Type Size Offset
------------- ---------------- ------- -------
Partition 1 Primary 20 GB 7680 B
Partition 0 Extended 57 GB 20 GB
Partition 2 Logical 57 GB 20 GB

BTW, I noticed something... when I'm in Vista, the system drive (labeled as "C") is on partition 1 of my SATA drive, while I can see the XP system drive contents on my IDE drive which labeled as "E". Now, when I'm in XP, te opposite thing happens: system drive is on my IDE drive but labeled as "C", while the system drive contents of Vista on my SATA drive now labeled as "E".

 

[mqudsi]

Yeah, that letter-switcheroo is a know MS bug, they can't do anything right anymore :x

The easiest way of identifying the drive numbers:
In EasyBCD go to the Add/Remove -> Linux/BSD
Look at the list of drives and partitions at the bottom of that page.
Identify the one that refers to your XP partition, and use these values in boot.ini:

multi(0)disk(x)rdisk(0)partition(y)

x = Disk as read from EasyBCD's Linux section
y = Partition + 1 as read from EasyBCD's Linux section

Windows XP does not install .NET, only Vista does.

Good luck.

 

[dj_ash1983]

Yeah, that letter-switcheroo is a know MS bug, they can't do anything right anymore :x

I see, I'm glad to know about this one.

multi(0)disk(x)rdisk(0)partition(y)

x = Disk as read from EasyBCD's Linux section
y = Partition + 1 as read from EasyBCD's Linux section

Hmm... should I copy the NTLDR, NTDETECT, and BOOT.INI to Vista and edit the BOOT.INI there? Or should I edit the BOOT.INI from the XP side only?

BTW, what about the RDISK? And what's with the RDISK anyway?

Maaaaaaaaan... guess I have to learn more about disk partitioning. :shame:

 

[mqudsi]

rdisk is raid.

MOVE all three of the files from the XP drive to the Vista drive (if the Vista drive is the boot drive).