Vista won't boot after bootloader restore

L

lucaspewkas

Member
OK, I've searched everywhere I promise, but to no avail...

I have installed XP onto a hard drive which had Vista on it already (on a different partition obviously).
Then I booted into XP (which it did automatically).
Then I ran EasyBCD and reinstalled the Vista Bootloader (I also added the XP option to it).
Now when I choose to boot from Vista, the computer reboots straight away and goes back to the bootloader. When I choose XP, it runs XP fine.

I've even tried restoring the bootloader using good ol'
Code: 
Bootsect.exe –NT60 All
but same problem (this time with no XP option, the computer just repeatedly reboots until I fixmbr/fixboot it in XP recovery)

Any ideas...?

It's 2am, I should go to bed...

-Luke
 
Hi Luke, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies.

Sounds like the Vista bootloader is installed and running at boot, but has an improperly configured Vista entry.

Can you please do EasyBCD | Diagnostics | Copy Debug Data and post it here (as-is) in a reply?

Thanks.
 
Yeah that sounds likely. I've pasted the debug data below, the device: unknown entry for vista is a little worrying I think? When I click 'View Settings', it lists 'drive: deleted partition', also worrying...

Thanks for your help
-Luke

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                 {f784a0e4-839b-11dc-876c-d2c2bf148418}
resumeobject            {269549de-8305-11dc-8bbf-806e6f6e6963}
displayorder            {f784a0e4-839b-11dc-876c-d2c2bf148418}
                        {f784a0e5-839b-11dc-876c-d2c2bf148418}
toolsdisplayorder       {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout                 30
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {f784a0e4-839b-11dc-876c-d2c2bf148418}
device                  unknown
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows Vista (TM) Home Basic
recoverysequence        {572bcd55-ffa7-11d9-aae0-0007e994107d}
recoveryenabled         Yes
osdevice                unknown
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {269549de-8305-11dc-8bbf-806e6f6e6963}
Real-mode Boot Sector
---------------------
identifier              {f784a0e5-839b-11dc-876c-d2c2bf148418}
device                  partition=D:
path                    \NTLDR
description             Microsoft Windows


Addendum:

Ooh just thought I'd add:
Vista is installed on C:
XP on D:
(both same hard drive, diff partitions)

When I start EasyBCD, I've been saying boot drive is C: since it asks me (although I've tried saying D: too, but it's no different)

Thanks
-Luke
 
Last edited:
As you can probably see for yourself, the BCD data is damaged and says "device unknown" for the Vista entry.

You need to do EasyBCD | Diagnostics | Reset BCD Data
 
Yep, I did reset BCD storage and it said "operation completed successfully"
Vista was then listed as C:\ so I rebooted, and it did the same thing, would reboot every time I chose Vista, and XP was understandably peeved and wouldn't boot into that either, so had to fixmbr/fixboot again and as soon as I ran easybcd from XP again, vista was on a "deleted partition" again.

Hmmm...

-Luke

Addendum:

Woot!
I think the Restore of BCD Storage was the key. After that I changed the vista settings to C:\ (It was on D:\ even though I'd previously changed it to C:\) and reinstalled the vista bootloader and walla!

Hope this helps some people, let me know if I should post anything else to help out
 
Last edited:
I don't know why it would be on D:, unless in the Reset BCD Storage procedure when it asked you what drive Vista is on you told it D: instead of C:

Anyway, glad it's working.
 
Yeah it was on C:\ before reboot, then afterwards, it listed "drive: deleted partition" and was back on D:\ under "change settings". It's quite possible I may have manually changed it under "change settings" to D:\ for some unexplainable reason and it was trying to boot from there every time...

Ah well, I guess it was 90% user error once again :smile:

Thanks for all the help, much appreciated!

-Luke
 
It's also possible that the Vista decided for itself that it "needed correction" and did that - I've seen it happen before :frowning:

No matter - it's working now and that's what counts :smile:

(and you're welcome :grinning:)
 
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