vista then xp dual, separate sata hdd, black screen lock on xp boot

dinapoli

Member
can't add xp entry to appropriate drive

I am trying to dual boot vista and xp. Vista came preinstalled on the system on drive C. I've installed a second sata drive as drive D. Following the initial XP installation on drive D, the system reboots and I get a "unable to read disk press ctrl alt del to reboot" message. This problem is addressed on the dual boot directions given at http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp, which tells me to use EasyBCD to add an XP entry to drive D. However, when I use EasyBCD to add the entry to drive D, it adds it to drive C instead. When I tried to boot with the XP entry, it says "XP not found" or something similar. Does anybody have any suggestions? Any help would be appreciated.

Further info:
1) I cannot find ntldr or boot.ini on the xp install drive (perhaps due to incomplete install?)
2) The XP install inverts the drive letters. I.e. the c drive in vista is the d drive according to the xp installation software and vice versa.
 
Hi dinapoli, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies.

Adding an XP entry in EasyBCD won't fix your problem, since XP isn't even installed yet.

What you need to do:
Format that second partition you were installing XP to.
EasyBCD | Manage Bootloader | Install XP Bootloader
Restart and boot from the XP CD and proceed to install it to the partition you created.

Once XP is running (and it should), install EasyBCD | Bootloader Management | Reinstall Vista Bootloader, then add an entry for Windows XP and reboot.
 
continuing problems

Thank you for your help! The MS support site had some additional info, and it turns out that NTFS partitions created by Vista cannot be read by XP, thus causing my problem, as I was not formatting the drive prior to install. Unfortunately, this led to a new problem almost identical to that described by blisset in the thread "How to make dualboot Vista-XP in different HDDs" My case is different in that I have two unpartitioned sata drives, so setting master and slave is irrelevant. After following your instructions, XP installed completely and booted. I repaired the Vista installation with the CD and then added the XP entry using EasyBCD. When I rebooted the system and chose the XP entry, the system hung in a black screen. The Vista drive/active partition is disk 1 partition 1 (it is the only partition on disk 1). The XP drive is disk 0 partition 1 (also the only partition, 2 discrete hard drives). The boot.ini file is located on disk 1 (the active/system disk) and is as follows:

[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="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect


I think this is correct, but obviously something is still wrong. Also, after the black screen hang caused by choosing the XP option, the next time I boot to vista after a failed XP boot, the computer behaves as if vista did not start properly (i.e I get the options to boot to safe mode, etc). Any additional help would be appreciated. Thank you very much, your support is invaluable!
 
I have installed XP on sata hdd 0 of a system that came preinstalled with Vista on sata hdd 1. I followed the directions for dual boot (i.e. install xp, boot from vista disk and repair vista, use EasyBCD from vista to add entry for xp); however, the XP option causes a black screen lockup prior to the startup logo. I can boot xp if a choose to boot directly from that drive in the bios. I have seen several similar posts, but none address my scenario specifically. My debug info is as follows:

Code:
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                 {f2bd4391-df55-11db-b36b-8f1c179e03a9}
resumeobject            {f2bd4392-df55-11db-b36b-8f1c179e03a9}
displayorder            {f2bd4391-df55-11db-b36b-8f1c179e03a9}
                        {23274a06-475a-11dc-8087-001a920a615b}
toolsdisplayorder       {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout                 30
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {f2bd4391-df55-11db-b36b-8f1c179e03a9}
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            {f2bd4392-df55-11db-b36b-8f1c179e03a9}
nx                      OptIn
increaseuserva          2900
Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier              {23274a06-475a-11dc-8087-001a920a615b}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \ntldr
description             Microsoft Windows XP

My boot.ini is duplicated on both drives and is as follows:

Code:
[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="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect

Please help before I try to teach my system how to fly :joy:

Thanks in advance!
 
If XP were HDD 0, then it would always boot from the XP drive and you wouldn't have to choose to boot into it from the BIOS - meaning it's actually something other than rdisk(0) most of the time.

Instructions on how to obtain the full path: http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Windows+XP

Try deleting that old XP entry and creating a new one with EasyBCD 1.61.
 
There is absoloutely no need to open another thread for the same problem!

Merged back with original thread.
 
I apologize for the extra thread. I was very frustrated and also concerned that mine was ignored because my original post was so far off mark.

Last night, before you supplied an update, I tried deleting the XP entry, Recopying the boot.ini, ntldr, and ntldr.com to disk 1, and the readding the entry. That didn't work. The drive info from EasyBCD is as follows:

At least based on the link you provided, boot.ini is configured properly. XP is on the 466 gb drive, which is disk 0 partition 0. Thus, Rdisk is 0 and partition is 1 in boot.ini. The computer boots to vista from rdisk 1, partition 1. I don't know if this matters, but I have 4 sata connections on the mobo. Disk 0 is in sata 1 and disk 1 is in sata 4.
 

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I just wanted to post one other possibly relevant aside. When I originally installed the 460 gb drive, intending it just for storage, i think I accidentally switched the plugs of the drives (i.e. the 360 gb drive was plugged into sata 1 originally rather than sata 4). I think I then had to change the boot order in the bios in order to force the computer to boot from the 360. Could this explain the apparently odd situation where the preinstalled OS is on drive 1 rather than drive 0?
 
Can you do EasyBCD | Useful Utilities | Power Console
Code:
bootpart.exe

And paste the output here?
 
When I type bootpart.exe I get the following message:

'bootpart.exe' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program, or batch file

I tried running it from where it first started, the root directory, and from c:\windows
 
It still didn't work. Just to be sure we're on the same page, I am booting into vista and running easyBCD version 1.6.2683.20667. When I start easyBCD power console it drops me into c:\users\josh\favorites. When I type cd bin, it says "the system cannot find the path specified".
 
Seriously? That shouldn't happen.

Try using the latest 1.61 beta.
It should drop you in c:\program files\neosmart technologies\easybcd\
 
Before installing 1.61 beta, I navigated over to the appropriate directory and was finally able to run bootpart.exe. The results are on the attachment. Let me know if I should still install 1.61 beta, and if you have any other comments regarding my issue.
 

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