XP RAID with non RAID Windows7

R

rich21044

Member
I have been trying for the last week or so to get the boot configuration sorted out but have run out of ideas.

My PC has 3 physical drives. 2 are configured as a RAID 0 drive (via the NVIDIA chipset built in to Motherboard) and appears under Windows7 as D: XP is installed on this drive which contains all my photos etc.
The 3rd drive is a standalone drive which has Windows 7 on it and appears as C:. It is partitioned and also contians E: drive which is purely used for data.

I've tried EasyBCD 2.0 build 78 but cannot boot to XP - it constantly reports that NTLDR is missing or corrupt (0xc00000ba). Boot.ini, NTLDR and NTDETECT are present in the roots of both C: and D: .

If I physically disconnect the Windows 7 drive, Win XP boots normally. I am reluctant to delete the Boot.ini, NTLDR and NTDETECT from the XP drive incase I can't boot to it ever again.

Easy BCD 2.0 has set up the following using default values - nothing has been changed.

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.
Default: Windows 7
Timeout: 20 seconds.
Boot Drive: C:\
Entry #1
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Entry #2
Name: Microsoft Windows XP
BCD ID: {4be614d8-100c-11df-bea1-00248cca998b}
Device: boot
Bootloader Path: \NTLDR

What am I doing wrong here?
 
Don't delete anything from XP.
That's the big advantage of a dual-boot using separate HDDs, you can always revert to booting XP with a BIOS override or change.
The dual boot from W7 is achieved by copying XP files (not moving them).
I suspect that it's the RAID drive(s) that's throwing a spanner in the works, since you appear to have done everything by the book.
Can you paste the contents of C:\boot.ini (and verify that it's the same as the version you see with EasyBCD/tools/edit legacy entries), and post a screenshot of Disk Management (as detailed at the end of the sticky)
 
Thanks for the prompt reply

Disk Management Snip is attachedDiskMgt.JPG

The boot.ini from drive C: looks nothing like the EasyBCD version:
;
;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\Windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP (RAID)"

But neither does the boot.ini from D:
;
;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP SP2" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT /USEPMTIMER

What I actually see when I boot to XP with Win7 unplugged is something that offers

Windows XP
Windows 7 (recovered)

Which doesn't look anything like either of the Boot.ini's or the Easy BCD version. I suppose this is what comes of trying unsuccessfully for a week already!

regards

Richard
 
That D:\boot.ini looks correct for a straight NTLDR XP boot, but as you can see there's only one option, so you shouldn't see a boot menu, certainly not one that mentions W7 (NTLDR can't boot longhorn OSs).
It sounds like, at some time, you've managed to create a set of W7 boot files on the XP disk and reset the MBR. Can you see bootmgr and a folder called boot on the D: disk ?
The C:\boot.ini looks right too (copy of D: with rdisk altered from 0 to 1), but neither of them is created by EasyBCD2 (it uses a different name format).
Can you post the contents of the boot.ini listed by EasyBCD legacy entries, and do a search of your HDDs for boot.ini to find where it's lurking.
 
Here is the EasyBCD legacy entry- it looks exactly the same as the C: version of Boot.ini

;
;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\Windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP (RAID)"

I searched the entire computer for other boot.ini's the only one are shown hereBootsearch.JPG

Boot.ini.saved in C: I have seen recently (after using EasyBCD 1.7.2 I think - neither option worked) and I don't get this version anymore.

Content of BOOT.INI.SAVED is..
;
;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\Windows
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(1)\Windows="Microsoft Windows NT Unknown version (on Volume 1)"
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(2)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition (on Volume 2)"

Boot.ini.backup on D:/windows/pss is the same as the root version in D:

Shall I do a similar search for NTLDR and NTDETECT once again to see how many I have of those?
 
Earlier, you said the EasyBCD boot.ini wasn't the same ! (that's why I asked you to search), but if it is C: then that's correct.
Guru has put up a new build with some XP auto-config fixes.
Have you tried that. ?
 
Yes, I have tried it . It doesnt make any difference in my set up.

Is there a tracer programme out there that can log the boot sequence so I can work out where the bootmgr thinks NTLDR should be?
 
NTLDR, ntdetect.com and boot.ini should all have copies in the "system" partition (C: in your case).
EasyBCD2 auto-configure copies the first 2 and creates the 3rd.
If it did so, there should be a boot.ini that looks like this

[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on D:\" /fastdetect

with values calculated to be correct for your system.
SInce there isn't one looking quite like that, auto-configure must have failed.
You could help CG debug why it doesn't work for you by following the instructions here.
Meanwhile, to get your dual-boot working.
Make sure you have copies of the above 3 files in C:\
Then go back to the old pre-Easy2 trial and error method.
Change the partition number (both places it occurs in C:\boot.ini) till you've tried all values from 1 to 8, and try booting XP with each change. (Don't worry you won't break anything. It will just fail to boot until you hit on the correct number)
If none of them boot, try them all again this time with rdisk(2) in both lines)
 
Last edited:
Problem Solved!:tongueout:

I noticed that when I physically disconnected the drive with Windows 7 on it and then booted I was presented with yet another boot choice screen which I hadnt seen before. This one had "Earlier version of Windows" and "Windows 7 Ultimate (recovered)" listed. If I selected "Windows 7" the boot failed with an error saying device not present (of course!). The "Earlier version of windows" option successfully booted to XP.

So I got to think that the drives where booting in the wrong order and if I could make the RAID array the primary boot device in the Mobo BIOS (ASUS M2N68Plus) everything might be OK. It worked - prior to the change the BIOS reported the boot order as 1. Removeable Device, 2. CD ROM, 3. HDD Samsung 500Gb, however in another sub menu I was able to swap HDD device 1 with Array01. After the swap the boot order is 1. Removeable Device, 2. CD ROM, 3. Array01.

I booted into Win7 and ran EasyBCD which showed the boot choices I had seen at start up so everything now works as it shoud. The only question I have is where was the newly discovered boot.ini hiding or should I have been looking for the BCD files that Win 7 and Vista use?

Thanks for all your help Terry60 - hopefully this thread will prove useful to others who might find themsleves in a similar position.
 
back in post#4, I asked if you had W7 boot files on the XP HDD, but you didn't say, so I assumed not.
I should have persisted on that route !
We said at that time that D:\boot.ini was correct for booting directly from that HDD, so no surprise that a BIOS switch sorted everything.
Glad it's all OK now.
Happy dual-booting.
 
Back
Top