Vista dualboot with XP-bootloader not showing up

B

Bikonja

Member
Hi all!
I have just installed Windows Vista...
I have a few partitions, C: was used for XP (Sp1) and now I booted from the Vista DVD and installed a clean install of Vista... At the point of the first restart, the dvd was still in the drive and the system was still set up to boot from dvd first...
So I got the message to press any key to boot from dvd, so thinking I need to let it boot normally, not from the dvd and being in a rush, I opened the dvd tray knowing it instantly procceds with normal boot, but my XP booted normally...I then restarted again, but this time I thought maybe I need to boot from the dvd again.. So I booted from the dvd again, and ofcourse I just got the normal installation procedure... I thought something must have gone wrong so I went ahead and installed the Vista on D partition over the old installation... When it got to the restart point, I let it restart and when it got to the press any key to boot from dvd part I didn't do anything until the boot procedure continued normally (not from dvd) and Vista continued to install... Everything was fine... BUT, when I restarted, I disabled the boot from dvd thinking I don't need it anymore and again I got no bootloader, just went straight to XP.... To cut a long story short, I figured that (no matter the content of the bootloaders) I get the XP bootloader when I boot normally, but I get the Vista bootloader when I let the press any key to boot from dvd part go...

I tried every option in EasyBCD... Including Re-create... whatever the command is... I forgot.... But that option told me that it can't find the folder or something like that.. I deleted the boot folder but to no avail...

I tried installing Vista from XP, but I got the "Windows could not update the computers boot configuration. Installation cannot proceed." error... Googled for this error and found something in the registry... Doesn't help...

What should I do? I'm really not planning on waiting for the press any key part every time I want Vista...
 
You shouldn't have chosen to re-create BCD data, instead you should have just reinstalled the bootloader from the "bootloader management" screen.

Now in XP, delete all "BOOT" folders from your hardrive and use EasyBCD to re-create EasyBCD data (not reset, re-create).
 
As I said, I deleted the BOOT folder and tried to re-create (among other things I tried) but I got an error, something like that the program can't find the folder... Or something... I'm sure I've selected the correct partition (I tried both the Vista and XP partitions).... But still I have the problem...
 
First I get another chance to select the drive letter and I have this message along with it:
"Unfortunately, EasyBCD could not automatically detect the drive letter of your boot device. This can be caused by a non-standard MBR, use of a 3rd-party bootloader, or a failed Windows Vista install.

To proceed, please enter the letter of your boot drive below. The boot drive is identified by the presence of special files and folders like boot.ini, ntldr, and bootmgr. If you continue to see this error message, please run "Reset BCD storage" from the Diagnostics section."

Then when I select the C partition again (which Vista by default makes your Vista partition even though it is some other letter in XP) I get this error:
"The system can not find the file specified".
 
That's why.
You need to enter the drive letter of Vista and the boot drive as XP sees them. You're in XP, you do as XP sees. I and EasyBCD have no way of knowing what drive letter Vista thinks it is, only what XP sees.

So use the letter for Vista and the letter for the boot drive AS THEY ARE in XP to make it work :smile:
 
Hmm, but aren't I suppose to run this program from Vista? I'm running it from Vista all the time...
I'll try running it from XP...


EDIT:
WOOHOOOOO!
I've ran EasyBCD from XP and set the settings from XP (corrected drive letters) and had to reinstall the bootloader and now it works like a charm!
Thank you very much Computer Guru!
 
That's pretty much it :smile:

Logically though, if Vista is damaged, it may not be able to fix itself. Makes sense: a sick doctor can't heal himself, can he?
 
It seems as if no matter what I do with EasyBCD in XP, it still won't work. I've tried reinstalling MBR, resetting BCD files, reset BCD storage, I either get errors or nothing happens.
What did you do exactly?
 
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