Vista, XP Pro, Ubuntu Triple Boot Repair Help

Mr Roboto

Member
Hi,
I'm in need of some help and figured this was the place to ask. I had a nice triple boot setup with Vista, XP Pro and Ubuntu Linux, all OS's x86. My fatal mistake was using Vista's ***** disk cleanup feature. I don't know what made me think it had improved over XP's version, needless to say it deleted just about everything that was critical to things running smoothly. It deleted almost all of my installed programs, custom settings, XP Program files, etc. I tried system restore (which took about and hour to complete) but no luck because it wouldn't boot after that and trying to repair it was futile, as I got a ton of errors. I have two Acronis disk images (50 Gb each), one of Vista and one of XP, that I made for exactly this reason. I figured that it would be easier to just scrap the Linux install and try to restore the two Windows images that I use the most since I really didn't want to mess with the GRUB boot loader on top of it all . Both OS's are going on the same disk but with two separate 50Gb partitions. I was able to restore the Vista image with no problem as it booted right up. Using EasyBCD I created an entry for XP and pointed it to the partition, saved the settings and rebooted. The boot screen shows the two entries, however when selecting the XP installation I get the NTLDR error. I read through the Wiki you guys have and downloaded the two NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM files, then placed them in the XP root folder. I also tried to use the XP recovery console bootcfg /rebuild command but to no avail. When I tried to reinstall the XP boot loader using EasyBCD it copied over the GRUB loader and I also deleted the Linux partition so I don't think that's a reason for my troubles. I have also looked through the forums here as well as the Acronis site and only see similar problems scattered through out the posts but nothing pertaining to the exact situation I'm in. I'm really lost as far as what to do next. I can't remember having this much trouble with a dual boot before. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
 
Hi Roboto, welcome to the forum,
You say you copied NTLDR etc to the XP root. Are you sure that's your boot partition ?
With a dual boot all the boot files from both OSs have to be on the boot partition.
Check with admin tools/comp mgmt/disk mgmt where it is and follow the instructions in the wiki XP troubleshooter about all the files that need to be there
http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Troubleshooting+Windows+XP
 
Thanks for the warm welcome :smile:

Ahhhh.. Makes sense. I kind of thought it would be something simple. My primary boot partition is the Vista partition C:\ where XP is D:\. I'll give it a shot and let you know. Thanks!

Addendum:

OK so now I'm getting a blank screen which according to the Wiki means that my boot.ini is missing an entry or two. I don't really know too much about the boot.ini configuration. Looking at the Wiki though gives me a general idea. If you could give me some pointers it would be great.

Alright so here's my setup and drive numbers in Vista.

C:\ = Vista Ultimate x86

D:\ = Win XP x86

E:\ = DVD Drive

G:\ = 2x500Gb Drives in RAID 0 Array (Non Bootable Storage)

Here's my current Boot.ini
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[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 /NoExecute=OptIn
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Would I add something like this below? It's the same physical disk so the only setting I would want to change is the partition right? I would like Vista to be the default.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[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="Windows Vista" /fastdetect/NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for the help!
 
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Vista loads from its own bootloader/manager BCD and only passes control to NTLDR if you request a legacy windows boot. That's when boot.ini gets read and its only for XP (or earlier NT OSs)

You don't have an entry for Vista in there, it will already have loaded without going to boot.ini if you choose it, and if you didn't, then obviously it won't require an entry.

Are your C and D drives physically separate or are they 2 partitions on the same drive ?
In the first case XP will be 0 0 1 1, in the second it will be 0 0 0 2
Either way, the 0 0 0 1 is not going to work.
 
The installations are on one hard drive, two Partitions. By the way your advice has helped tremendously and for that I thank you!. I finally got it to load into the XP boot screen using this rather simple entry. Your right the Vista entry was pointless as it uses a different method than XP. I even read that in the Wiki but it didn't register immediately :smile:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"/fastdetect/NoExecute=OptIn
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
However now I'm getting a strange BSOD I've never seen before.

Stop:C0000139 {Entry point not found}
The procedure entry point LdrSetMUICacheType could not be located in the dynamic link library ntdll.dll

I even replaced ntdll.dll in WINDOWS\System32 that I downloaded from a MSDN site in case it was corrupt, but still no luck. Unless you know anything else I could try I'm starting to think that I might have to just reinstall Windows. Thanks.
 
Did you get to the end of the troubleshooter ?
Last para
I get a BSOD when I boot into Windows XP

Congratulations! As hard as it may be to believe, this means your dual-boot is working just fine. Unfortunately, after EasyBCD successfully starts to load Windows XP, it crashes. This can be caused by using an imaged copy of a Windows XP installation from another PC, a hardware mis-configuration, or one of the zillion other BSOD-causing problems. Your best bet is to perform an in-place upgrade/repair install of Windows XP and/or ask for help in our friendly forums.

Try getting XP to repair itself from your installation CD.
 
I did read that Terry thanks. The reason I'm asking about this here is Because I already tried to repair XP using the recovery console. I've never heard of an in place Upgrade\Install. I'm reading it now.

You wouldn't happen to have 4GB of memory, would you?

Yes...Yes I do. Your question makes me think I should try to boot into XP with just two Gb's of RAM installed or even one stick. I'll try it and let you know how it goes. Once again thanks to the both of you for your help.
 
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I removed two sticks of RAM but still got the same BSOD. In the end I decided to back up what data I needed to save and just scrap the installation. Thanks to both of you though, I feel I have learned a lot form this. Thats what it's all about right? Takes care and thanks again.
 
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