XP after Vista

Dániel Varga

Dániel Varga

Member
I installed XP after Vista. I tryed to recover Vista MBR but it doesn't work at all.
I have tryed everything, I even copyed the Vista boot files to the Windows XP partition (as it done in the EasyBCD without Vista howto).
This should start Vista (I even don't add the Windows XP boot option). However it run Windows XP...
Code: 
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device                  partition=C:
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default                 {e8709fb6-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
displayorder            {e8709fb6-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
toolsdisplayorder       {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout                 5

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {e8709fb6-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
device                  partition=V:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows Vista
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
osdevice                partition=V:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {e8709fb7-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e}
nx                      OptOut
I tyed to reinstall the Vista bootloader with EasyBCD with no change. It seems EasyBCD does not modify the MBR at all??? This is a laptop so there is only one hard driver, and bios don't have virus protection option (and Windows XP could overwrite the MBR).
 
Hi Daniel, welcome to NST
Your device and osdevice properties under Vista's entry say drive V: which I doubt could be the case seeing how your bootmgr is on C: and you installed Vista first.

So from Vista's recovery disc after you have selected your install to repair, choose command prompt from the options menu:

bcdedit /set {e8709fb6-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e} device partition=C:
bcdedit /set {e8709fb6-fa5f-11db-be4d-e219ece5282e} osdevice partition=C:
Click to expand...

Not sure about the nx property there (maybe someone else can explain?) and I see you don't even have an entry for XP there so if your booting XP at the moment it is through the use of ntldr. Have you tried a startup repair? If you get Vista booting again open EasyBCD and add an entry for XP.

If things don't work out, OSes are best installed from oldest to newest. Vista's installer when installed after XP will pick up on it and add it automatically for you so you can boot either OS when you start the computer.
 
Thank you for your answers. Yes I have read the sticky note and the Wiki. It simply not work as it is written in the wiki. It is a laptop with bundled vista. The vista installer can't repair i can only reinstall everything. I have reinstall vista and XP then I tried again setupping the EasyBCD. EasyBCD simply freezed and can't do anything.
After that I made a small ext2 partition and installed grub. I could set it up in 20 minutes to boot both Vista and XP.
All in all this application isn't easy nor stable, I have sucked many hours trying to set it up.
I won't recommend anyone who use both linux and windows vista to use EasyBCD.
 
I'm sorry you had problems using EasyBCD, but I can assure you, you must have done something wrong. Millions (literally) of people have used EasyBCD to set up their XP-Vista dual-boots without any problems, though the configuration of the XP boot files can be misleading in certain circumstances.

It's not recommended to use GRUB unless you have Linux somewhere in the mix - it's just overhead otherwise. But that's your call, and I'm sorry you couldn't get EasyBCD to work for you.
 
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