I currently have Windows XP Pro installed on one hard drive & Windows Vista Ultimate on a separate hard drive. I just downloaded & installed EasyBCD on the Vista HD & cannot figure out what settings I need to use in order to dual boot with the XP HD. Do I need to download EasyBCD to BOTH hard drives & configure from there? Right now in order to "dual boot" I have to shut down the computer & physically switch cables to boot to the opposite hard drive & OS. Any assistance would be appreciated.
Where to Install EasyBCD?
- Thread starter dennisdb
- Start date
Hi Dennis, welcome to the boards.
At the moment, with your 2 systems on separate disks, you could just change the BIOS boot order to swap which one you want to boot. At least that will save you switching cables.
As for a proper dual-boot, with EasyBCD on your Vista system, you're ready to go. You'll want to edit Vista's Boot Loader to tell it that there's an XP system to add, and from then on whenever the Vista bootloader in invoked, it will give you a choice.
Read http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/EasyBCD+Documentation+Home
for the background and follow the XP link, bearing in mind that you've already got your XP installed so you won't need to do that - just the modification of the Vista boot entries.
At the moment, with your 2 systems on separate disks, you could just change the BIOS boot order to swap which one you want to boot. At least that will save you switching cables.
As for a proper dual-boot, with EasyBCD on your Vista system, you're ready to go. You'll want to edit Vista's Boot Loader to tell it that there's an XP system to add, and from then on whenever the Vista bootloader in invoked, it will give you a choice.
Read http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/EasyBCD+Documentation+Home
for the background and follow the XP link, bearing in mind that you've already got your XP installed so you won't need to do that - just the modification of the Vista boot entries.
Thanks, Terry!
However I still seem to be having issues. I used the "Add/Remove Entries" portion of EasyBCD to add an entry for the Windows XP Pro OS on drive f (Vista is on drive c), but when it boots up & asks me to choose which OS to go to I select Windows XP Pro & all it does is go into a loop. It starts to look for Windows XP but then comes back to the original screen asking me which OS I want to go to. Any words of wisdom? Is the NTLDR folder missing?
However I still seem to be having issues. I used the "Add/Remove Entries" portion of EasyBCD to add an entry for the Windows XP Pro OS on drive f (Vista is on drive c), but when it boots up & asks me to choose which OS to go to I select Windows XP Pro & all it does is go into a loop. It starts to look for Windows XP but then comes back to the original screen asking me which OS I want to go to. Any words of wisdom? Is the NTLDR folder missing?
Check in Admin tools/computer Mgmt/disk mgmt which partition is your active system and make sure that all the relevant boot files are on there. (On mine it's XP even when I'm booted into Vista, but if yours is the Vista partition, you'll need a copy of XPs boot files on there too)
Check here if you come up with any XP boot problems
http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Troubleshooting+Windows+XP
PS make sure in folder options that you don't have "hide system files" ticked or you won't be able to tell where anything is.
Check here if you come up with any XP boot problems
http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Troubleshooting+Windows+XP
PS make sure in folder options that you don't have "hide system files" ticked or you won't be able to tell where anything is.
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I Think I'm There!
I had to add NTLDR, ntdetect, & a new boot.ini file to the c drive (Vista) which was the default drive when I checked in computer management. I was able to choose Windows XP Pro during the start up & it went right to it. The ONLY caveat I have is that it seemed to take FOREVER for any program to boot up in XP Pro. Is it because it was reconfiguring itself (XP Pro) for the additional drive f? Normally I only run the XP drive by itself. Any words of wisdom would be welomce & THANK YOU for the assistance!
I had to add NTLDR, ntdetect, & a new boot.ini file to the c drive (Vista) which was the default drive when I checked in computer management. I was able to choose Windows XP Pro during the start up & it went right to it. The ONLY caveat I have is that it seemed to take FOREVER for any program to boot up in XP Pro. Is it because it was reconfiguring itself (XP Pro) for the additional drive f? Normally I only run the XP drive by itself. Any words of wisdom would be welomce & THANK YOU for the assistance!
