Vista Home Premium/XP Pro Dual Boot Help

A

adeemnisar

Member
Been trying to battle this for about 6 hours now and really getting hacked off. I'll keep this short and simple.

I am trying to get a Dual Boot menu for Windows Vista and Xp Professional.

Hardware is as follows:
1 x 80 GB SATA Hard Drive - Vista Installed Here
1 x 60 GB PATA Hard Drive - XP Installed Here

I use Vista myself and the family uses XP.

Scenario:
Yesterday it was all working fine but I decided to re-install Vista becuase my the installation was bogged down with uneeded rubbish. So, I re-install Vista, only to find that I can't boot into XP.

I have used EasyBCD to add XP to the menu but when it is selected the PC just restarts and leads me back to the menu. Only Vista will boot. EasyBCD shows the following:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader TimeOut: 60 seconds.
Default OS: Microsoft Windows

Entry #1

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

Entry #2

Name: Microsoft Windows
BCD ID: {default}
Drive: D:\
Bootloader Path: \ntldr
Click to expand...

D: is the drive with XP

The PATA hard drive can be accessed through Vista with no problem to access any files.

Any help will be MUCH appricated.
 
Hi adeemnisar, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies.

When asking for help, please go to Diagnostics | Copy Data to Clipboard and then post it here in your post/reply so we can help.
 
Hi,

I tried doing a fixmbr whilst waiting for a reply and when I chose the XP option now I get something like NTDETECT FAILED

The information you need is:
Code: 
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device                  unknown
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default                 {b4c186fa-317e-11dc-8645-00508de7b613}
displayorder            {b4c186fb-317e-11dc-8645-00508de7b613}
                        {b4c186fa-317e-11dc-8645-00508de7b613}
toolsdisplayorder       {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout                 60

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {b4c186fb-317e-11dc-8645-00508de7b613}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows Vista
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {5202b830-3205-11dc-85fd-806e6f6e6963}

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier              {b4c186fa-317e-11dc-8645-00508de7b613}
device                  partition=D:
path                    \ntldr
description             Microsoft Windows
 
Looks like you fried your BCD when you did that.

Diagnostics | Reset BCD Data (use the latest 1.61 beta - see the stickied thread for a download link)

After that, change the XP partition to the same drive letter that is shown for "Windows Boot Manager" in the detailed scree.n
 
I have Reset the BCD data but in the detailed screen I dont see a drive letter under Windows Boot Manager. It is as follows:

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device unknown
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default {e8709fb6-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
displayorder {e8709fb6-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout 5

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {e8709fb6-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
device unknown
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
osdevice unknown
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {e8709fb7-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
nx OptOut
Click to expand...
 
Then your boot drive is D:\, not C:\

Do the Diagnostics step once more and this time pick D:\ as the boot drive when turning on EasyBCD.
 
Ok, I have reset the data through following the option in the Diagnostics setting. Have set the boot drive to D: and as asked, the Vista drive to C:

Details are now as follows:
Code: 
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device                  unknown
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default                 {b4c18700-317e-11dc-8645-00508de7b613}
displayorder            {b4c186ff-317e-11dc-8645-00508de7b613}
                        {b4c18700-317e-11dc-8645-00508de7b613}
toolsdisplayorder       {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout                 60

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier              {b4c186ff-317e-11dc-8645-00508de7b613}
device                  partition=D:
path                    \ntldr
description             Microsoft Windows

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {b4c18700-317e-11dc-8645-00508de7b613}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows Vista (TM) Home Premium (recovered) 
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {2ac7db97-323d-11dc-b0f3-806e6f6e6963}

However, When selecting XP it simply restarts again.

Would it work if I was to re-install XP and then re-install Vista? If it works, I dont mind doing it!
 
OK, it looks your MBR is having issues.

Here's what I'd recommend:
First try this:

Bootloader Management | Reinstall Vista Bootloader
Diagnostics | Rest BCD Data

If that doesn't work:
(NOTE: this will clear all data on the hard drive!!)
EasyBCD | Useful Utilities | Power Console
Code: 
mbrfix /clean
mbrfix fixmbr

Then you can go ahead and repartition the hard drive, install XP, and then install Vista.
 
Tried the first think and it messed up something called winresume.exe or something. Had to repair the startup using the Vista disk. Backing up important files to try the second suggestion now.

When starting up EasyBCD shows an error saying No Valid Entries found

UPDATE: Second suggestion isn't working. None of the commands are recognised.

As I said above, will re-install XP, then Vista work?

Thanks for the help so far.
 
Last edited:
Are you using the latest 1.61 beta? (see stickied thread)

If not, you'll have to add a
Code: 
cd bin
at the top of those commands.
 
Looking at the About the version is showing as:
1.6.2683.20667

The setup for the Beta version came with some error. Can you please explain how to add the cd bin part?

UPDATE: EasyBCD seems to be messed up now, tried uninstalling as well. Keeps not responding!

Will a re-install of the OS's work?
 
Last edited:
Not if your MBR is screwed-up, it won't (and it looks like it is).

As for the EasyBCD setup error - if it was about msvcr* not found, you can safely ignore it.

Just delete the "\Program Files\NeoSmart Technologies\EasyBCD\" directory and then attempt to install 1.61 BETA again.

"how to add the cd bin part"
Just after pressing "Power Console" type in "cd bin" then type in the commands I wrote above - not hard :smile:
 
Ive got the BETA version working and still doesn't work. Had to do another repair as this time winload.exe was corrupted or missing.

Be re-installing the OS's I mean a format and re-install both. Would that work?
 
Can you please define "still doesn't work"?

Just run those commands in the Power Console, and reboot. That will auto-reformat and clear your MBR. You can then install XP then Vista.
 
Turned the PC on again this morning and there was a problem with winload.exe again. Had to use the Vista Repair Function. I have run the commands now. Backing up data and going for re-installations!
 
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