XP/Vista

fallis

Member
Hello,

I know there are probably 3000 of these posts, but it is obviously alot of work to filter through them all. This is my issue for those who have time to help. I am usually pretty good with this stuff, but I am stumped.

I previously had Windows XP SP3 installed and decided to Dual Boot with Vista Ultimate 64-bit. I previously had Viste Home Premium 32-bit and had a sucessful dual boot, but formatted that logical partition.

When I boot into Vista Ultimate and use EasyBCD to add my XP SP3 to my boot loader, it will use this directory:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader Timeout: 30 seconds.
Default OS: Microsoft Windows Vista

Entry #1

Name: Microsoft Windows Vista
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry #2

Name: Microsoft Windows XP
BCD ID: {9690054e-aa99-11dd-b0d2-001e8c48988f}
Drive: D:\
Bootloader Path: \NTLDR


The bolded are is the problem. The drive (according to Vista) that XP is on is labeled E:\. And the directory \NTLDR is obviously non-existant. After trying very hard to get try and change it, I have had no luck.

For those of you who have time, if you could please give me some assistance to this, I would be very gracious of your time and help.

Sorry if this is a mutliple thread of this problem.

Thanks again!

Fallis
 
Hi Fallis, welcome to NST.
Check in disk management which partition on the 1st HDD in your BIOS boot sequence is marked "system" "active".
That is where all the boot files for both systems must be (in the partition root).
You are successfully booting Vista, so bootmgr and the boot folder must be there. Now you need to copy the XP files to the same root (NTLDR ntdetect.com and boot.ini) if they are not already there, and if that partition is not D:\ (as quoted in your BCD entry), you must change the drive letter in that BCD entry for XP to point to whichever partition is "system" "active".
Once all of the boot files are in the proper place, make sure that the copy of boot.ini in there, correctly identifies the XP partition .
 
Sorry for my lack of response. Where I live there has been several power outages over the last few days and I didn't want to turn on my computer in case of a surge (which may be unlikely, but with me, it would happen and get throught he surge protecter).

The NTLDR folder and everything is in the correct place on my Primary Drive (which XP is loaded onto, not a logical drive as it is the original OS). The issue is that I am unable to select a different drive when I select "Add New Entry" and select "Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3" it removes the option to select and goes to my second Primary Drive (which Vista is a partition of) that contains no OS.

If you wish to hook up via VOIP I have my own ventrilo server if you have a microphone/use the program

Thanks for your help Terry.

Fallis
 
The reason why EasyBCD "greys" that drive option is to stop you from changing it.
You're telling it where to find the boot files for XP, The boot files (boot.ini) not the BCD point to the XP OS.
The partition it should point to is where all the boot files for both systems reside, which is the one marked "system" "active" in disk management.
 
Back
Top