Vista/XP Booting

:dead:
Hello Everyone,
As requested by Computer Guru, here's a copy of my posting on the VistaBootPro forum:
Received a notice that my previous post had been moved over to Volvoguy's since he was having a similar problem. I tried the fix detailed on his thread (disable UAC, copy bootsect.exe into win32 directory etc.) but it had no effect at all. When I rebooted, again it was directly into Vista (no boot menu choices). Then just for jollies, I used VistaBootPro and added an entry for the XP system (drive D. Now when I boot, a boot menu comes up with Vista and XP choices. When I select XP, I get a load error (ntldr - something about being corrupted). Am not sure what to do next.

Here's the Vista boot record output from VistaBootPro:
There are a total of 2 OSes installed into the boot manager.
Current timeout before default boots: 30 seconds.
Default OS: Microsoft Windows

Entry #1

Name: Microsoft Windows
BCD ID: {current}
Boot Drive: C:
Windows Drive: C:
System Bootloader: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry #2

Name: Windows XP
BCD ID: {a876fd8b-faa3-11da-9d30-00508ded2e29}
Boot Drive: C:
Windows Drive:
System Bootloader: \ntldr
Windows Directory:

I can see that there is information missing from the XP entry but am not sure what should be included. When I installed Vista from XP, the drive mappings on that side were C: for XP and F: for Vista. On the Vista side, the mappings are now C: for Vista and D: for XP.

Eagerly awaiting advice. Thanks.
 
Use EasyBCD to delete that XP entry and to create a new one with drive D: as it's partition.
Post back and let us know what happens...

BTW, Welcome to NeoSmart Technologies Mr. Bill :smile:
 
CG,

A two part reply.
1) I think there's a bug in VistaBootPro. When I deleted the XP entry and replaced it with a new XP entry using D: instead of C:, the program puts C: in the entry. The only way I could force it to D: was to use the Modify tab and change the existing entry from C: to D:. In any case, I was able to change it.
2) After the change to D:, the system goes into a boot loop when the XP choice is selected (i.e. it displays the BIOS header then goes right back to the boot menu).
Here's the way the entries look now from VistaBootPro:
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {4e1dafe3-e6c5-11da-8b13-bfd5e21a3b31}
displayorder {current}
{a876fd8e-faa3-11da-9d30-00508ded2e29}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {4e1dafe3-e6c5-11da-8b13-bfd5e21a3b31}
nx OptIn

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {a876fd8e-faa3-11da-9d30-00508ded2e29}
device partition=D:
path \ntldr
description Windows XP Pro

One thing I don't remember if I mentioned before. I'm running the 64 bit version so when I did the original install, I couldn't start the install from XP (setup.exe wouldn't run). I installed beginning with the DVD boot.
 
Oh yeah.
No that's not a bug. Your system drive is C:\ (so you need to change it back).

Please tell me your hard drives and partitions in order and show me your boot.ini and where it's located.
 
Happy Wednesday CG,

I have a single 250GB SATA hard drive with XP on C: (as seen from Vista) and D: (where Vista lives). The contents of the boot.ini file located in the root directory of D: are 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"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Thanks.
 
Happy Later Wednesday CG!

I solved the problem. When I set the drive back to C: in VistaBootPro and read the error message at boot time for XP, it said "missing or corrupt /ntldr". I looked on the XP partition and saw it was there then remembered seeing some postings about copying over boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect to the Vista partition (in my case D:smile:. After I did that, XP booted again so all is well in XP and Vistaland.

Thanks for your assistance.

Best wishes,

Mr. Bill
 
I'm really glad you got it to work, congratulations!

Hope you can enjoy the rest of Vista in peace, and remember, if anything comes up, we're here to help :smile:
 
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