Your Help Would Be Great Please!

Samual

Member
Hi

New to forum and would like some help.

I bought a HP PC that come with Visa Home installed on it.

I also need to have XP as their is things that XP can run that Vista wont.

I have 2 SATA drives on RAID 0

On Drive C: I have Vista home installed.

I made a 100 gig partion which was labeled as Drive J: to which I installed XP PRO.

I downloaded easyBCD but I am at a complete loss.

Sorry for being so dumb, but would be grateful for any help please.

Thanks in advance, Sam :smile:
 
Hi Sam, welcome to NeoSmart Technologies.

So at the moment you can boot into XP but not Vista? And you need to just get Vista working in as well and that's all?
 
Hi CG

Thanks for the warm welcome and also the fast reply!

Currently, I can boot into vista fine, (when the pc is first turned on, it does its posts then it asks which system I would like to boot into, either vista or xp.)

If I pick vista, it boots like a dream.

If i pick XP, the computer either restarts or comes back with a message about NTLDR missing or corrupt.

I am on my second pack of headache tablets and I have called out for backup LOL!

Thanks CG, Sam
 
Thanks CG

When you say grab and copy them files to all drives, do you mean drives C: and J: and if so, where in the drives to I put them files?

Sorry for being dumb, I know very little to next to nothing about computers.

Thanks for your help CG, Sam

Addendum:

Ok, I downloaded the files that you told me to CG and I placed both files in the root directory of each drive that holds vista (c:smile: and xp pro (j:smile:

When I restarted the computer, the computer boots to vista if selected from the boot list.

If i pick XP, I get the following message.

Invalid BOOT.INI file.
Booting from C:\windows\ NTDETECT Failed

I am at a complete loss :frowning:
 
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OK, so you need to make a boot.ini and stick it in the boot drive, the instructions are on the same page I linked to above. You're getting there :smile:
 
Im Getting their?... Im glad someone has faith in me because I dont have a clue what im doing!!!

I have done a search on drive j (that holds xp) and cant find a file called boot.ini

I have read the Invalid/Missing/Corrupt Boot.ini file section on the link you sent me and it has gone right over my head!!

I am so thick it is beyound belief!
 
Hi CG

Thanks for your help, you have been brilliant!

Sadly, all this is well beyound me, its completly above me.

I have read the link you give me and I just cant get my head around any of it, so rather try and risk doing something I know nothing about and possiblly stopping my computer from working, I am going to uninstall easyBCD and right off getting XP and Vista to boot on my machine. I really just dont have a clue about this stuff. Reading things is fine, but It may as well be a forgein language to me.

I really only know the basic of basics about computers but this stuff is for hardcore tech people.

Again, thanks for your help, you have been brilliant!

Thanks, Sam
 
I'm sorry you're finding it difficult, Sam.

The easiset and most trouble-free way of doing this is to start afresh, install Windows XP, then install Windows Vista. At that point, it should just work, no configuration needed.

Have a nice day.
 
Hi CG

Thanks for your help.

I did try and install xp 1st, the vista, but vista is a HP version and the only way to install vista is by doing a system recovery, the setup disk wont let me do a customize installation, so when i install xp then do the vista, vista (or HP) have set the install to make the system as it was when it was first turned on.

I hate computers :frowning:

You have been a star though CG! cant thank you enough for your help and time!
 
I did try and install xp 1st, the vista, but vista is a HP version and the only way to install vista is by doing a system recovery, the setup disk wont let me do a customize installation, so when i install xp then do the vista, vista (or HP) have set the install to make the system as it was when it was first turned on.

my vista came like yours preinstalled on my HP too

of course they dont give you the Install disk, how would they make money when it fails and only they can fix it lol

i also dont like that fact that a Pre-installed vista can not be ran on any other computer.

because it was installed with this hardware, or something it wont work on others.

idk CG knows more then i do...
 
^ actually i have two independent Hard Drives. one SATA 80Gb and a second IDE 160Gb lol

i purchased the bare HP desktop for 299.99 lol i only upgraded my memory from 512Mb to 1Gb

the final purchase cost $400 lol

Yes hello to you too Sam :smile:

i didnt have to dual boot, i guess seeing as they are on different hard drives, is that right CG?
 
Swop mine for yours Kahai? LOL

Mine has 2 320gig 3G SATA drives in RAID 0 and after a hell of a time getting XP going on the chipset I have, I thought I was home and dry.

Now, I can only get flipping vista to boot and its driving me mad. I just spent £100 on buying XP PRO oem and cant get it to load.

I am at a complete :O now :frowning:
 
Hey, you might want to check out virtualization instead of dual-booting, it'll perform great on that monster machine of yours!

Grab yourself a (free) copy of VMware Server and install Windows XP in there - save yourself a huge headache and a bunch of time.
 
i looked on to that site that first link CG provided and linked myself back to MS lol

Code:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows 2000 Professional" /fastdetect
would that work for a boot.ini for him?
chaning the type of windows they were of course
 
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It should work, but you'll have to change the numbers for partition().... and remove the second entry.
 
like so?:

Code:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
 
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