Windows Xp Not Showing on Easy BCD

B

blueteams01

Member
Hello Everyone,

I am attempting to dual boot my Hp desktop with Windows Xp MCE 2005 and Vista Home premium on two seperate hard drives. My system did not come with a vista install disk but two Recovery dvds that I made right away. What I did was formatted both drives (xp for my 80gb and vista on my 300gb) and installed Xp first. After the install was complete I then recovered my system using my recovery dvds. After that was completed I then installed Easy BCD and the only Windows shown is for Vista. Xp is not showing. So I then manually installed Microsoft Windows Xp and attached it to drive d:. When I restart my computer I do get the Boot Manager screen and when I attempt to load Xp I error occurs stated that file/windows/system32/winload.exe is not valid. Please reinstall your versionof Windows again. Does anyone know how to help with this step by step and/or with pictures? Thank you all for you time. Have a good day.

Cheers,
Adam
 
Hi Adam. Welcome to NST.
Ok, so you first need to obtain a Vista installation DVD before you will ever be able to install Vista. :wink: As for getting XP to boot with your setup with the way it is, you need to copy your XP boot files (ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini) from your XP partition over into your "system" root. Next, use EasyBCD 2.0 to autoconfigure boot.ini for you, by simply adding an XP entry under the Windows tab in the Add/Remove Entries section of EasyBCD, making sure to select XP in the "Type" drop-down menu.

I believe that will cover it.

Cheers, and enjoy your dual-boot once you follow these instructions. :brows:

-Coolname007

EDIT: Sorry, I misunderstood your problem. Actually, since you have no Vista, and can't boot into XP, you obviously wont be able to follow those instructions! What you will actually need to do is use your XP reinstallation CD (if you have one) to repair XP's boot, and to put XP's bootloader back into the MBR, instead of Vista's. Then you should be all set.

Addendum:

Once booting from the XP reinstallation disk, you can then push "R", and run the following commands in the recovery console:

Code: 
fixmbr
fixboot
And that should fix XP's boot. Let me know if you have any problems.

-Coolname007
 
Last edited:
Adam, when you say you used the OEM recovery disks, what options do they give you ?
Normally there's a "factory reset" which will put things back to the way they were when you bought the PC, which might be undoing your attempts to dual-boot.
Since you're using 2 HDDs, you should be able to factory reset the main drive so that you're back with vanilla Vista.
Disconnect the main drive temporarily and Install XP to the 2nd hard disk as if it were a new-build PC.
Reconnect the main HDD (1st in the BIOS), Vista should now reboot with XP visible (but not bootable) on the 2nd HDD.
Do you use system restore ? What you do next depends on that. When you boot XP and it can see a Vista system, it will destroy Vista's restore points. If you want Vista to be protected from that, you need to hide Vista from XP whenever XP is booted.
NST has a solution for that problem, "Vista Hide 'n Seek" (HnS), which you can download and run, and it will automate the setting up of your dual-boot, with appropriate hiding/unhiding of Vista.
If you don't use system restore, follow the advice in the sticky thread to copy the XP boot files to the Vista drive root, and use EasyBCD 2.0 to add an entry to the BCD for XP. It will automate the creation of a valid boot.ini for you.
 
Terry60 said:
Adam, when you say you used the OEM recovery disks, what options do they give you ?
Normally there's a "factory reset" which will put things back to the way they were when you bought the PC, which might be undoing your attempts to dual-boot.
Since you're using 2 HDDs, you should be able to factory reset the main drive so that you're back with vanilla Vista.
Disconnect the main drive temporarily and Install XP to the 2nd hard disk as if it were a new-build PC.
Reconnect the main HDD (1st in the BIOS), Vista should now reboot with XP visible (but not bootable) on the 2nd HDD.
Do you use system restore ? What you do next depends on that. When you boot XP and it can see a Vista system, it will destroy Vista's restore points. If you want Vista to be protected from that, you need to hide Vista from XP whenever XP is booted.
NST has a solution for that problem, "Vista Hide 'n Seek" (HnS), which you can download and run, and it will automate the setting up of your dual-boot, with appropriate hiding/unhiding of Vista.
If you don't use system restore, follow the advice in the sticky thread to copy the XP boot files to the Vista drive root, and use EasyBCD 2.0 to add an entry to the BCD for XP. It will automate the creation of a valid boot.ini for you.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately he doesn't have Vista, Terry...:wink: Read the first post again:
blueteams01 said:
Hello Everyone,

I am attempting to dual boot my Hp desktop with Windows Xp MCE 2005 and Vista Home premium on two seperate hard drives. My system did not come with a vista install disk but two Recovery dvds that I made right away. What I did was formatted both drives (xp for my 80gb and vista on my 300gb) and installed Xp first. After the install was complete I then recovered my system using my recovery dvds. After that was completed I then installed Easy BCD and the only Windows shown is for Vista. Xp is not showing. So I then manually installed Microsoft Windows Xp and attached it to drive d:. When I restart my computer I do get the Boot Manager screen and when I attempt to load Xp I error occurs stated that file/windows/system32/winload.exe is not valid. Please reinstall your versionof Windows again. Does anyone know how to help with this step by step and/or with pictures? Thank you all for you time. Have a good day.

Cheers,
Adam
Click to expand...

What his recovery dvd must have done is put Vista's bootloader in the MBR, but he doesn't have Vista...hence the instructions to put XP's bootloader back into the MBR, so XP would at least be able to boot. I'm thinking since he created a partition for Vista, he's probably planning to install Vista sometime in the future, but I don't think he has done that yet.
 
Last edited:
The way I interpret what he said Cool, is that he's got an OEM PC with a pre-installed Vista, no Vista DVD provided, but he has made the Vista backup disks from his recovery partition. That's why when he uses them to put Vista back after installing XP, he's losing XP.
Have to wait for a post back, one way or the other.
 
Hey guys. Thanks for your help.
I am using two different hard drives on the computer. The vista pre-load has been restored back to factory from day one. I did go into the bios and changed the master hard disk to see if xp will load and not vista. But vista will load up everytime. When I do attempt to program EasyBCD This is what I start with this image.
Untitled.jpg

Then when I go to the second image to add Windows Xp I get this image:

Untitled1.jpg

Now when I go to the I get the screen below:
Untitled2.jpg

When I restart the computer I do get two listings for operating system.
1.) Microsoft Windows Vista
2.) Microsoft Windows Xp

Windows Vista will load as designed everytime, but Windows Xp will come up to a screen that said cannot find NTLDR.exe. Any help guys? Thanks

Adam
 
So download ntldr and ntdetect.com from the link provided, and place them in the root of your "system" partition as shown in Disk Management. Next, download and install EasyBCD 2.0 and use it instead of 1.7.2 to add the XP entry (a new entry-delete your current one), and it will create and autoconfigure boot.ini for you, and then you should have a working dual-boot...:wink:

I guess Terry was right, and you do have Vista installed.

-Coolname007
 
Last edited:
Thanks guys for your help. Now I can get into Windows Xp but when I load into Windows Vista the start up screen starts up and then the computer will restart back to the computer splash screen and restarts back to windows boot manager. Windows xp restarts without a problem. Any thoughts??

Adam
 
Back
Top