Vista + xp + xp

C

crabhunter

Distinguished Member
I have just built a system for my son,he wants two xp's to optimise for sound and video and vista for everything else.
I created the partitions and first installed XP, then I installed another XP so I had a boot menu with 2 XP's.I then installed Vista expecting 3 entries bit only got Vista and an Older windows which then takes me to the 2 XP entries.
All this does work but means 2 boot pages.
I tried to add two entries using BCD but got file missing errors.
Is there any way to get all three choices on one screen?
Mike
 
Hi Mike, welcome to NST.
Thats the way the Vista bootmgr/BCD is designed. It hands control to NTLDR for XP and lets the legacy bootloader load its own systems.
Normally, with one XP, you don't notice it because the NTLDR defaults without showing a menu (but it's still there)
Don't despair however, there is a solution.
Vista Hide 'n Seek is a Neosmart boot manager which supplants Vista's, and can hand control to XP systems individually, all from the one menu.
It's actually designed to supersede the use of Neogrub in hiding Vista from XP which also was a 2-stage boot.
If you're using Vista and XP together, you should be hiding Vista from XP anyway, because XP corrupts Vista's restore points every time you boot it.
 
Well I tried that and it completly screwed things up.
It was looking good to start with,I got a boot screen with all the os's to choose from.
Each one gave an error 17.
I recoverd Vista using the vista dvd but then when I tried selecting an older version of windows I got more errors.
Tried running hide and seek again but got errors saying files were missing.
So I am going to have to reinstall at least the two XP's again.
So, if I was to start from scratch again how should I go about it.
Just to remind you,
I want 2 XP's and 1 Vista all one 1 pata drive.
Thanks in advance.
Mike
 
You shouldn't need to reinstall any OSs. At the worst, we'll help you fix the boot back to the 2-stage working state.
If HnS won't remove itself (it's still Beta, and not as tidy as it will be), just delete any files with an HnS extension before you rerun it.
Run the UI.exe, tell it which partitions have bootable XP systems (2 clicks), which partition(s) has(have) Vista restore points to be protected (1 click) (That'll be the Vista OS, and any other partition where you install 3rd party apps for Vista if you have any)
Leave any partitions which fall into neither category blank.
When you ran it before, it should have created a diagnostic text file in the same folder as the UI.
Paste that here so we can see if there were any problems.
I've never known anyone get an "error 17", so can't advise till Guru gets here.


Addendum:


Just one afterthought - you don't have your XP's inside an extended partition on logical disks do you ?
 
Last edited:
I've just gone back and tried booting again and Vista boots fine.
If I choose Old version of windows I get;

Ivalid boot ini
booting from C:\


I think I would like to get back to the 2 screens and put up with the loss of restore points in Vista.
Mike


Here's that file


NeoSmart intelliLogger 1.0
Logging started on 17/10/2008 at 19:14 using log level Debug
19:14 Vista Hide 'n Seek 0.5.0.61
19:14 Boot drive: C:\
19:14 Listing drives involved in the procedure.
19:14 F as XP
19:14 E as XP
19:14 D as Unknown
19:14 C as Vista
19:14 Beginning Install process.
19:14 Attempting to rename C:\boot.ini to C:\boot.ini.hns
19:14 Copying NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM to F:\
19:14 Copying NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM to E:\
19:14 Creating boot.ini on F as partition(3)
19:14 Creating boot.ini on E as partition(2)
19:14 Creating Vista entry in menu.lst.
19:14 Adding XP entry F to menu.lst
19:14 Adding XP entry E to menu.lst
19:14 Renaming BOOTMGR, creating GRLDR on C:\
19:14 Renaming BOOTMGR, creating GRLDR on F:\
19:14 Renaming BOOTMGR, creating GRLDR on E:\
19:14 Updating the bootsector on all partitions.
19:14 HnS installation successfully completed. Happy dual-booting!

NeoSmart intelliLogger 1.0
Logging started on 17/10/2008 at 19:32 using log level Debug
19:32 Vista Hide 'n Seek 0.5.0.61
19:32 Boot drive: C:\
19:32 Listing drives involved in the procedure.
19:32 Beginning Uninstall process.
19:32 Reverting BOOTMGR on C:\
19:32 Access to the path 'C:\BOOTMGR' is denied.
19:32 Cannot create a file when that file already exists.
19:32 Reverting BOOTMGR on D:\
19:32 Reverting BOOTMGR on E:\
19:32 Reverting BOOTMGR on F:\
19:32 Removing menu.lst from C:\
19:32 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on C:\
19:32 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on D:\
19:32 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on E:\
19:32 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on F:\
19:32 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from C:\
19:32 Access to the path 'C:\NTLDR' is denied.
19:32 Access to the path 'C:\NTDETECT.COM' is denied.
19:32 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from D:\
19:32 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from E:\
19:32 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from F:\
19:32 Re-creating NTLDR and NTDETECT on C:\
19:32 HnS has been successfully uninstalled.

NeoSmart intelliLogger 1.0
Logging started on 17/10/2008 at 19:33 using log level Debug
19:33 Vista Hide 'n Seek 0.5.0.61

NeoSmart intelliLogger 1.0
Logging started on 17/10/2008 at 21:28 using log level Debug
21:28 Vista Hide 'n Seek 0.5.0.61
21:28 Boot drive: C:\
21:28 Listing drives involved in the procedure.
21:28 Beginning Uninstall process.
21:28 Reverting BOOTMGR on C:\
21:28 Access to the path 'C:\BOOTMGR' is denied.
21:28 Cannot create a file when that file already exists.
21:28 Reverting BOOTMGR on D:\
21:28 Reverting BOOTMGR on E:\
21:28 Reverting BOOTMGR on F:\
21:28 Removing menu.lst from C:\
21:28 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on C:\
21:28 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on D:\
21:28 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on E:\
21:28 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on F:\
21:28 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from C:\
21:28 Access to the path 'C:\NTLDR' is denied.
21:28 Access to the path 'C:\NTDETECT.COM' is denied.
21:28 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from D:\
21:28 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from E:\
21:28 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from F:\
21:28 Re-creating NTLDR and NTDETECT on C:\
21:28 HnS has been successfully uninstalled.

NeoSmart intelliLogger 1.0
Logging started on 17/10/2008 at 21:29 using log level Debug
21:29 Vista Hide 'n Seek 0.5.0.61
21:29 Boot drive: C:\
21:29 Listing drives involved in the procedure.
21:29 Beginning Uninstall process.
21:29 Reverting BOOTMGR on C:\
21:29 Access to the path 'C:\BOOTMGR' is denied.
21:29 Cannot create a file when that file already exists.
21:29 Reverting BOOTMGR on D:\
21:29 Reverting BOOTMGR on E:\
21:29 Reverting BOOTMGR on F:\
21:29 Removing menu.lst from C:\
21:29 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on C:\
21:29 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on D:\
21:29 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on E:\
21:29 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on F:\
21:29 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from C:\
21:29 Access to the path 'C:\NTLDR' is denied.
21:29 Access to the path 'C:\NTDETECT.COM' is denied.
21:29 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from D:\
21:29 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from E:\
21:29 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from F:\
21:29 Re-creating NTLDR and NTDETECT on C:\
21:29 HnS has been successfully uninstalled.

NeoSmart intelliLogger 1.0
Logging started on 17/10/2008 at 21:29 using log level Debug
21:29 Vista Hide 'n Seek 0.5.0.61

NeoSmart intelliLogger 1.0
Logging started on 17/10/2008 at 21:36 using log level Debug
21:36 Vista Hide 'n Seek 0.5.0.61
21:36 Boot drive: C:\
21:36 Listing drives involved in the procedure.
21:36 Beginning Uninstall process.
21:36 Reverting BOOTMGR on C:\
21:36 Access to the path 'C:\BOOTMGR' is denied.
21:36 Cannot create a file when that file already exists.
21:36 Reverting BOOTMGR on D:\
21:36 Reverting BOOTMGR on E:\
21:36 Reverting BOOTMGR on F:\
21:36 Removing menu.lst from C:\
21:36 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on C:\
21:36 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on D:\
21:36 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on E:\
21:36 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on F:\
21:36 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from C:\
21:36 Access to the path 'C:\NTLDR' is denied.
21:36 Access to the path 'C:\NTDETECT.COM' is denied.
21:36 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from D:\
21:36 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from E:\
21:36 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from F:\
21:36 Re-creating NTLDR and NTDETECT on C:\
21:36 HnS has been successfully uninstalled.
 
Last edited:
OK for now we'll fix the 2 stage boot till Guru says what an error 17 is. (you're an unlucky guy, HnS has been working perfectly for months, and from the log you posted looked like it went on perfectly)
If it's still around on your "system" partition, can you post the menu.lst file that HnS created and we can check that the boot menu looks right too.
Don't give up on HnS completely though, it works fine trust me, I've been using it for ages. (and it can be a real life saver to have some useable Vista restore points ).
What you need to do to get back your standard 2 stage boot, is check that copies of NTLDR and ntdetect.com are both in the root of your "system" partition with Bootmgr and the BCD folder (probably Vista C:\ but check in disk management to be sure), and you'll also need a boot.ini in the same place with entries which point to your 2 XP partitions which looks something like this

[boot loader]
timeout=5
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP 1" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Windows XP 2" /fastdetect

You can copy and paste this as your template and adjust the partition numbers to correctly identify your XP partition numbers
Alter the default line to be the same as your preferred XP system (the one you'll most usually boot), and with a suitably low timeout value you'll get into XP when selected from Vista's bootmgr with the minimum of fuss and delay, whilst retaining the ability to jump in and pick the other XP when desired.
 
Thanks for your help with this but my son is moaning about how long Im spending just installing the os's.
He says now he just wants Vista and will see how he gets on with it.
Thanks again for the help,I've been quad booting my machine for ages and never knew xp was screwing up vistas restore points, I'm lucky i've never had to use restore.
Mike
 
Back
Top