XP and W7 Dualboot gone totally wrong!

S

Spider-Abu

Member
Hello forum, I am just going to say right now that I am very sorry if I rush things out in my post right now as atm I am really nervous of what to do and stuff because I am afraid to turn off my computer atm.
Ok let me try to explain this thoroughly.
At the beginning I had Windows 7 Home Premium x64 installed but I also installed a backup Windows 7 on a separate partition. I have 1 HDD and it's 500GB. At that time I had 3 partitions as one was for HEALTHy partition or something, another for Original Windows 7 installation, and a third one for my backup. Ok so I did some things which messed up my original W7 isntall so I had to move to my backup. I used to backup fine and just left the other corrupted install by itself untouched. The problem was that everything got screwed and my admin account turned to Guest and I tried doing everything I could, I couldn't fix anything. So I just stayed working on my backup W7 and it worked GREAT! But then I got a new monitor and I connected it to this laptop. It was working fine except that I noticed that the Horizontal Span function was not available on W7. So I looked around my room and I found my old Windows XP Professional 64bit CD. So I just did the simplest thing and created another partition for my XP and installed the XP on that. After it was fully installed, I noticed that it wouldn't open the boot menu it originally did for the other 2 W7 installs, it would just boot directly to Windows XP. I also started having problems with the drivers as I couldn't find any proper audio driver for XP64bit. My horizontal Span mode was working perfectly but with no sound, there was no use for this.
I tried booting up my Windows 7 boot partitions but there wasn't any option.
Then I found the wonderful program called EasyBCD which is supposed to fix things like this. When I opened it, even though I was running Windows XP on the boot list it only listed the two Windows 7 installs but it was weird since I can't see that list on startup. I tried adding Windows XP but it would just give me this error: Valid NT Install Not Found! - Easy BCD failed to detect a valid installation of Windows NT-2003 on all mounted drives and was unable to continue. And all I could press was OK.
Then I did a quick search and I found this forum for EasyBCD problems. I saw the first topic called FAQs - PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING WITH A PROBLEM. And I found my problem listed which was:
4) If you've just added XP to your Vista or Windows 7 PC and now you can only boot XP,
So I followed the link which it gave me and it was: Recovering the Vista Bootloader with EasyBCD - EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki
(It's supposed to work the same for Windows Seven as mentioned). I did the first step which was: Reinstalling the Vista Bootloader to the MBR and Bootsector. The steps it mentioned weren't the same for the newer version of EasyBCD which I have, but I found the options in the end. I did what it told me and when I restarted my comp. The first time it started, it didn't show my any boot options but it showed the Windows 7 Bootscreen and then a quick BSOD and it restarted. The second time it started it showed me the boot screen, but only the 2 W7 installs were shown, not the XP. So I chose the backup one and it gave me the option to Turn Computer on normally or do a repair because my comp failed to start last time. I took the chance and Started Windows Normally. The Windows 7 boot screen loading came, with those colourful circles circling each other, but right after that it gave me BSOD and restarted. The third time, I chose repair, It took about 5-10 minutes, but it did not find the problem and did not fix anything. From there, I could choose to do System Restore but there was none listed. Then I chose MSDOS and the only command I knew was CHKDSK but it would say no problems found and that it was unable to write log or soemthing. Since I was stuck with currupted Windows 7s now I popped in my Windows XP CD and repar-installed XP Pro again. Thankfully it loaded my windows XP with no boot menue again. On here, I tried Step 2 which was: Type 2: Resetting the Vista Bootloader Configuration. The step told me to:
Boot into a working copy of Windows (be it XP or Vista), and run EasyBCD. Go to the "Diagnostics Center" page:

Select "Reset BCD Storage" then "Rescue My System" to begin recovery.

But again it was different from my version so the the buttons it told me weren't there. So what I did was instead of Diagnostics Center(because it was nowhere to be found) I chose BCD Backup/Repair. On there, I chose Reset BCD configuration because it was closest to what the step said. The dialogue box didn't give me anything like the one it was on the steps and instead it just erased everything on the bootlist, which was only the two windows 7s. The step told me to when choose that option it should give you a option where you choose what drive you want to keep so at least one boot entry would be listed, but since I didn't recieve anything like that all my entries have been erased. The program told me to add at least one entry before restarting the computer or else I wouldn't be able to boot. And the step also said that you should: [add whatever operating systems] you need to before you reboot. So I went to the Add New Entry Page but I keep on getting errors when trying to add any new entry!
When I choose to add any Windows 7 boot entry from any of my two partitions, it gives me this error:
BCD Execution Error!
An error occured while attempting the specified create operation. Insufficient sustem resources exist to complete the requested service.

When I choose to add any Windows XP entry, it gives me this error:
Valid NT Install Not Found!
EasyBCD failed to detect a valid installation of Windows NT-2003 on all mounted drives and was unable to continue.

So now as you see, I am stuck with not being able to create any new boot entry and I am really afraid that if I restart/reboot my system, I wouldn't be able to boot anything at all! So at the moment, I am stuck leaving Windows XP running without turning anything off. HELP PLEASE! I know I have done very stupid things on here, such as not downloading an older version of EasyBCD to follow those steps or just asking over here for help before I deleted all my entries, but please, I need urgent help. I am also very sorry if I wrote too much or my writing confuses you all...but I am very frantic at the moment, and will follow any steps you professionals give me and I will answer anything you ask me.
PS: I can not follow any other step on that website as the buttons on my program keep telling me that I am using an Unsupported Operating System, I must be using Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008. :rage:
 
When you've overwritten the Vista/7 bootloader by installing XP, the step you need
"Install the Vista/7 bootloader to the MBR"
is now in EasyBCD 2.0 "Bootloader Setup", not Bootloader Management as in 1.7
That gets the MBR back looking for bootmgr instead of NTLDR (Vista/7 not XP).
Copy/paste the contents of the "view settings" display so we can see the current state of your BCD, before you go rebooting.
 
Hi Terry, thanks for the reply. I am very sorry about this but when I clicked Write MBR again for VISTA/7 I was able to add my 2 Windows 7s again. But I still couldn't add my XP. So then I said screw this 64bit XP as it caused so many problems and I installed my x32bit XP Pro Media Center Edition. I formatted my other XP's partition and installed this one. It booted up fine, and thankfully all the drivers were compatible with this 32bit version of XP. I chose the x64 bit version because I got 4GB DDR3 ram on my laptop and it shows as 2.99GB on x32. Anyway, I installed EasyBCD again and the .NET Frameworks 2.0 to get it to open. It opened and it showed only one entry, which is my Backup W7 on drive E:. My original W7 is on Drive C: and my XP is on Drive D:. So I went and added the original W7 entry just to see if it would work and it did! It did get added to the list. So then I tried adding my XP. The Automatically Detect Drive was checked and it said it has been successfully added. But then on the list of entries, I saw that it was listed on Drive C: where it should have been D:. I thought maybe the program got something messed up so I manually changed the drive to D:. I rebooted my Lapytop but no bootscreen appeared. So I went and did the Write MBR for Vista/7 again, and the boot screen came up on the next restart. There was 3 Windows 7s listed there, and when trying to run any of them, it quickly flashes a BSOD and restarts. But when I chose to boot Windows XP, it showed the Windows Boot Manager and it gave me an error saying sometihng about NTLDR/something might be missing from the drive or it's corrupted and that I should do a a computer repair. Fortunately I have the CDs so I just reinstalled Widnwos XP x32 again and it booted up without the boot screen and I am still stuck with this problem.
I am really sorry that I have made some changes without your notice, but I am still going to Copy/Paste the settings I currently have right now.

There are a total of 3 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: Microsoft Windows 7
Timeout: 20 seconds
EasyBCD Boot Device: C:\

Entry #1
Name: Microsoft Windows 7
BCD ID: {default}
Drive: E:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Microsoft Windows XP
BCD ID: {6edc2d95-a503-11df-9c93-0022fa5a33ac}
Drive: D:\
Bootloader Path: \NST\easyldr1

Entry #3
Name: Microsoft Windows 7
BCD ID: {6edc2d96-a503-11df-9c93-0022fa5a33ac}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

There, hope it helps or soemthing. Also, do you think it would help if I keep my Windows XP partition like this and just Format and Install a fresh Windwos 7 on my W7 Backup partition? Do you think it would work? I am not scared to format the E: Drive as I keep it only for my backup's OS files not important documents or other personal data.
 
Delete the XP entry and add it again.
Don't change the drive.
That's why it automatically configures, to stop people pointing to the wrong place.
the BCD doesn't point to XP, it points to the "system" partition, wher a copy of NTLDR and boot.ini point to XP
 
Ok, I added it, this is what it looks like now: There are a total of 3 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: Microsoft Windows 7
Timeout: 20 seconds
EasyBCD Boot Device: C:\

Entry #1
Name: Microsoft Windows 7
BCD ID: {default}
Drive: E:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Microsoft Windows 7
BCD ID: {6edc2d96-a503-11df-9c93-0022fa5a33ac}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #3
Name: Microsoft Windows XP
BCD ID: {6edc2d97-a503-11df-9c93-0022fa5a33ac}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \NST\ntldr


Do you think it's safe to restart or something?
 
Okay, I restarted my laptop, and it just booted Windows XP without any boot menu. I am just going to install Windows 7 over my Windows 7 Backup install which I had on Drive E:. I believe once I do that, it should automatically add windows XP into it's Boot Manager Menu as "Previous Version of Windows". If it doesn't, I will just use EasyBCD through W7 to add XP in it. I will report after I do all that stuff.

EDIT: Phew, after reinstalling Windows 7 everything works perfectly. Windows XP is listed on the boot menu as "Previous Windows Versions" or sometihng like that, and it actually boots OK. There is one tiny problem that another Windows XP is listed but I will just remove that with EasyBCD. Thanks a lot for this great program, and also thank you very much, Terry, for giving me suggestions and actually replying something. My problem is fixed, and this thread can be locked if needed.

Bye all!
 
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