vista xp mutiboot on different hard drives

D

Diablo

Member
i had xp on my primary slave then installed vista on my primary master but installed vista when the IDE cable wasnt connected to my slave system. so now i cant pick which operating system to boot into.
i installed easybcd on vista which is on my primary master, ran add and remove entires and added windows xp and picked e- drive from the drop down since xp is installed on an e drive letter.. clicked save
vista is c drive.
i then wrote MBR
I rebooted and both options were there vista and xp.. i picked vista and it booted, then when i tried and picked xp it said ntrl is missing or corrupt . cant boot into xp

both 32 bit
vista- master, c -drive letter
xp- slave, e - drive


havent any clue what to do next

thanks
 
Hi diablo, welcome to NST.
You need to copy the XP boot files into the Vista partiton root and point the copied version of boot.ini back to the XP partition. EasyBCD 2.0 Beta will automate it for you.
Please read the sticky thread points 5 and 6.
 
downloaded the beta version and from my primary master drive which has vista on it, i did the automatic option from the tools menu , to automatically do the boot.ini, clicked yes, then added windows xp and let it automatically pick the drive letter, it picked c. im assuming thats what its suppose to pick even though my other system is on e drive..
remember my other drive letter e is not on the same drive its on another drive connected as primary slave

-then hit write mbr
- rebooted
-still get a error message
can boot into vista but when i pick xp i get the error message missing or corrupt ntldr so cant boot into xp

say missing or corrupt ntldr

what am i missing, doing wrong? read the articles 3, 4 & 5 but didnt help!

thanks

Addendum:

here is my boot.ini file from my primary slave drive which on vista , PRIMARY MASTER it says that itsetter E

[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
 
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You need to copy the XP boot files, like I said in my 1st reply. (they're ntldr and ntdetect.com)
Yes Easy BCD points to C: because that's where you need to copy the files to.
Follow the link to the wiki on the 1st line of point 5 in the sticky, and you'll see what to do and why.
 
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so i copy the files onto my vista's c -drive which include the ntldr and ndetect.com and my boot file from my slave drive?

and i dont need to change anything in my boot.ini file as well. i leave it like the way i posted it


thanks


Addendum:


ok, i can boot into both systems... both xp and vista booted up.
now im on to hide vista from xp, from what ive read there are 2 options to hide vista
one with a program called vista HnS and the other is by a registry hack from within XP..

Is the HnS program changing the registry with a program whereas the registry hack is what ill be doing manually to hide vista or are are they doing different things?
which is safer, better?
since i already booted into xp and deleted my restore points, should i just reboot into XP and do the registry hack manually like in the article.
http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/127417-system-restore-points-stop-xp-dual-boot-delete.html

i guess i have to do option two since vista is on my c-drive and not on D like the article says..

another concern, sometimes i have to change running my primary slave e-drive with XP and run it as a primary master. will either HnS or the registry hack option prevent me from running my slave booting up as a primary master..

thanks
 
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The registry hack puts the Vista disk(s) offline to XP, and if it works for you will be fine.
HnS (and manual use of Neogrub before it) were developed because the hack doesn't always work. (It didn't for me).
It works in a different way, by imposing itself above the Vista bootmgr, and chaining to the Vista and XP boot processes after having set the "hide" flag on the partition on or off, as appropriate to the OS you selected from the boot menu.
If you ever boot directly from the XP HDD without going through HnS, then Vista will not be hidden, and its restore points will be destroyed.
If you use the registry hack, it's internal to XP, so it will work whichever way you boot XP.
Don't worry about the letters in the Hack, they're just examples. You subsitute the appropriate letters for whatever XP calls itself and Vista when XP is running.
 
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im going to try the registry hack, but how will i know if the hacks working?
i didnt read anything saying how ill know if the hack works? i dont know what to check to see if its hidden?

if the hack doesnt work, Next a clarification, on using HnS in this article http://neosmart.net/blog/2007/hide-vista-partition-from-xp/ what does the sentence below mean.
"Remember in each OS before you start, to turn off system restore on all partitions except the OS itself and any partition on which you have installed 3rd party software for that OS."

it tells you to turn off your system restore on all partitions then it tells you not to...
huh?!
i can use one or the other HnS or Neogrub but not both?!
you said in your last post "HnS (and manual use of Neogrub before it)"
i dont use Neogrub before using HnS right? do you mean neogrub was the first workaround created?

Thanks!

Addendum:

if the hack or HnS hides the whole drive will i be able to transfer files to and fro, from vista to xp and xp to vista??? ....or does it just hide the restore files???
 
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HnS hides Vista from XP by hiding Vista's partition, so no you won't be able to transfer between the two with the OS partitions anyway. Either create a separate data partition for exchnage or save everything on a usb drive.
 
can you just hide the system restore point folders and not the whole drive?

does HnS do the same thing as using tweakUI ON my XP windows system to hide vistas drive?

are there any advantages to using HnS instead of tweakUI?
 
Nope

If tweakui's got a feature for protecting restore points its probably taking advantage of the registry hack. The registry hack doesn't hide the partition like HnS does, but it makes it "offline". By offline you can still access it my computer, but you still cannot access the partitions contents. With the drive offline, XP skips over it as it is booting and doing its check routines and what have you, so the restore points are protected cause XP won't touch 'em.

You'll still be able to access all of the partitions in Vista as you don't need to hide XP from Vista, only Vista from XP, so its just in XP that you won't be able to transfer data to/from Vista's partition.

Like said before, use a data partition or USB device for data exchange.
 
tweakUI has an option to hide drives ....

if i do the reg. hack which suppose to show Vista offline but not hide the partition, how will i know ithe hack is working and hiding the restore points from XP? so if im in XP then vista drive letter should be gone then its working???
 
The registry hack uses the letter to reference that paticular partition, so the letter still appears in "My Computer" and can even be accessed. To tell if its working, you should not be able to view the partition's contents (it'll appear as an empty drive).
 
"Remember in each OS before you start, to turn off system restore on all partitions except the OS itself and any partition on which you have installed 3rd party software for that OS."

it tells you to turn off your system restore on all partitions then it tells you not to...
huh?!

Sorry I don't know how to make it any plainer. The key word is except.

Here's an example (my own SATA disk)
On Vista system restore is turned on for C and E and off for all the others. On XP system restore is turned on for D and H and off for all the others.
You only need system restore on the OS partition and anywhere where it might have to uninstall a new app which might have broken the system.
Notice F: has system restore turned off for both systems and can be used to share data between them because there's no restore folder to corrupt.
Any attempt to prevent XP screwing Vista's restore points by fiddling around with system restore options or even services will fail ( I know, I tried them all).
The registry hack works for some. Like Justin said, try to look at the contents of your Vista partition from XP. If you can see the contents, the hack didn't work.
You'll know immediately, whether whatever method you use worked as soon as you boot Vista. Just go into system restore. If XP has reset the restore points, Vista will tell you there are none.
 

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the offline registry hack worked!
anything else i need to do to fix, correct multibooting vista & XP or am i finised? if im finised, any tweaks someone figured out i can utilize?
thanks! everyone for the assistance
 
If XP is leaving Vista's restore points alone, and you can boot both systems, then you're finished.
Happy dual-booting.
 
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