Working 3 OS's now XP rebooting at load screen

G

GCL

Member
Hello All,
Been using a 3 OS set up for years w/o issues. That is, Win 8.1, Win 7 and XP Pro on own hard drives.
Easybcd used to set up long time ago and working until now. Recently went and cloned Win 8.1 to a SSD and left other 2 drives alone. I was able to boot at first with any 3 OS. (see picture 1)

I tried booting to XP later on (8.1 and 7 still booting up fine using picture1), got a screen (picture 2) stating Windows not started properly (screen we most have see already) and by selecting any menu choices, it appears to load with bars running at the bottom (picture 3 using safe mode as example) but boots back to bios then back to menu for OS selection (picture1).
Tried different combinations, check for needed files in directories and so on.
Picture 4 is the EasyBCD bootmanager description.

I need XP as some of you know for legacy programs and do my payroll for work.
Read as much as I could Google and the forums on EasyBCD.
If one of you has a plausible solution, let me know.
I did try using my XP Pro disc using repair function but did not do a thing.
I tried to (possibly repair) install XP over, came back stating it could not find windows. I am able to see all files and have access to the XP hard drive but not booting to XP.
Picture1.JPG Picture2.JPG Picture3.JPG Picture4.jpg
 
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Boot W8.1, delete the XP entry from the BCD and add it again, letting EasyBCD auto configure.
 
Thanks for responding and an option to try. I will check it again BUT it's been attempted several times without success. Tried different drive letters as well w/o success. Selecting the option for XP just goes to the screen above (example) and reboots again.
I tried many options/combinations including booting XP drive by itself and still not working. Took out ntldr and so on, system come back stating its missing. Somehow it knows drive is there. My gut instinct tells me it's in the master boot of that drive (XP). Worked ok before it went south. Drive relatively new and not hardware related but in software configuration.
Having the 3 drive combination may have added or scramble the MBR on the hard drive (XP).
Pure speculation but will get it done.
However, worse case scenario, will transfer all pertinent data of drive to win7 or win8.
Will keep all advised on progress.
 
Just tried without success. Point I'm making here is when it worked (for years), after selecting XP from list, windows pro log screen show up I would log on. Now it just goes rebooting back to selection screen.
 
Sounds like, as it did work for a while and XP won' t even boot alone, that it's not related to the BCD, but simply a broken XP.
Do you still have the installation CD ?
If so, connect just the XP drive, boot the CD and do a "repair install" of XP.
It should get it working again without losing any of your files or settings.
(A feature of XP, sadly deleted from Vista onwards)
When XP is running again, you might need to do as specified in my previous post to get the multi-boot back on track.
 
You're right it may not be BCD related but XP definitely an issue. That is, my initial response as seen above I tried "repairing" with cd without success. Response back it could not find an installed windows system. Even though all files are on the disc. Did check hard disc for errors, etc.
Because of age of OS and lack of support, I'll probably copy essential file to new hard drive, nuke the XP installation and use as storage.
Unless there's another option, let me know.
 
Is the XP partition marked "active" in Disk Management ?
If not, that might cause the installation CD to look in the wrong place and not find XP.
 
Checking the drive in question, active and healthy. Like the old expression, been there and done that regarding problem. Changed boot.ini (XP drive) resulting in same restart.
The only event "before" this situation is in order for the new SSD to take advantage of controller drivers for the OS, my 3 hard drives were set to IDE.
I change firstly in XP the controller from IDE to AHCI mode (using driver updating controller). Afterwards went on to Win 7 and lastly to Win 8 able to boot to all 3 drives.
I went to check again for certainty booting to all 3 drives when XP kept restarting. Win 7 and Win 8.1 working well so far.
Just in case, I change in bios to IDE (if it may have been part of the problem) but remain the same. Tried it as well for AHCI w/o success.
 
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