Vista boot fails after XP install

DiiCE

Member
Hi,

I used this http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp guide to add an XP installation next to an existing Vista installation, with the difference that I used a second hard disk for XP.

This is what I did:
- Add second hard disk as slave and boot Vista. Vista boots (from primary) and recognizes the second hard disk and I can browse the files on it.
- Boot with XP cd-rom and install XP on the second hard disk (which it calls D:smile:. The XP installation copies its files and reboots. Then I get a boot error.
- Boot with Vista cd-rom and repair the MBR. Vista recognizes the (one) Vista installation, I choose to repair the MBR and it reports that it found an error and fixed it.
- Reboot Vista -> boot error!

And there I get the standard boot error message at the command prompt. I disconnected the second hard disk (with half-way XP install) and set the DVD player on that cable back to primary. Still the same error.

Now I can only boot with the Vista cd-rom. It still finds the (one) Vista install, when I try to repair it it reports there was nothing to repair. But still I can't boot it...

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Regards,

- John
 
Hi John, welcome to NST.

Don't worry, we'll have you up and running soon :smile:

In the Vista startup repair section, open a up a console window (command prompt) and type the following:
Code:
del c:\boot\ /f /s 
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /rebuildbcd

This'll get you into Vista. From there you can use EasyBCD normally to get stuff working again.

Cheers
 
Thanks :smile: And thanks for the fast reply.

I found the problem: for whatever reason the one and only primary partition on my main hard disk was not set to active anymore. To find
that out and set it to active I booted from the Vista DVD, and at the repair installation screen you can start a command prompt. (I recall
that in some other step in the installation process you can press shift+F10 to get a command prompt, don't recall which step.) Anyway, at the command prompt I used:

diskpart
select disk 0
list volume

The boot partition should have an asteriks (*) in front of it. If not:

select partition 1
Active
exit

Btw my main hard disk is a single SATA disk. My second hard disk is IDE, on one cable with my DVD-ROM. Vista is up and running again, I'll continue my dual boot in a couple of days.


Thanks again, regards,

- John
 
Cool, I had no idea shift+f10 worked in Vista - I thought it was XP-only.

Anyway, glad to hear its working, congratulations. Good luck with the rest, we're here if you need anything :smile:
 
Urgent, same problem

In the Vista startup repair section, open a up a console window (command prompt) and type the following:
Code:
del c:\boot\ /f /s 
bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /rebuildbcd

This'll get you into Vista. From there you can use EasyBCD normally to get stuff working again.

Hi, I am having the same problem--I installed Xp after vista on the same hard drive, different partition and now only Xp will boot. I did what you said above, but when I restart, it just goes right into Xp again. When I try to get Vista to repair the boot thing it says it does but still does not work.

Anyway, at the command prompt I used:

diskpart
select disk 0
list volume

The boot partition should have an asteriks (*) in front of it. If not:

select partition 1
Active
exit
I did that, I have 5 volumes [5th has vista] so I typed
diskpart
select disk 0
list volume
select volume 5
active
exit
Then I restarted and again it went to Xp. I need both Xp and Vista for working here, and I only have one Pc to do this.

Please help,
Muit
 
Back
Top