{"id":201,"date":"2013-08-21T06:12:54","date_gmt":"2013-08-21T06:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/neosmart.net\/kb\/?p=201"},"modified":"2022-01-30T17:17:53","modified_gmt":"2022-01-30T23:17:53","slug":"xp-boot-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/wiki\/xp-boot-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Troubleshooting Windows XP Boot Problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

This page deals with common boot-up problems with Windows XP. These troubleshooting instructions are also applicable for problems encountered setting up a dual-boot or multi-boot with newer versions of Windows.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

General Troubleshooting Guidelines<\/h2>\n

Unfortunately, as a result of the\u00a0convoluted process<\/a>\u00a0used to load Windows NT through XP\/2003 up and running, there is plenty of room for confusion and error.<\/p>\n

Make sure EasyBCD’s Windows XP entry points to the\u00a0“system” drive<\/strong>\u00a0and that it has NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, BOOT.INI in the root directory. You can grab those files\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/li>\n
Quadruple-check your BOOT.INI\u00a0[operating systems]<\/code>\u00a0list. Make sure the\u00a0default<\/code>\u00a0entry matches one of the entries in the\u00a0[operating systems]<\/code>\u00a0list. Make sure\u00a0rdisk(x)partition(y)<\/code>\u00a0points to the right partition that Windows XP is installed to.<\/li>\n
Make sure you only have one copy of NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM, and BOOT.INI on your system. Having multiple copies leads to lots of confusion as to which files you should edit and check.<\/li>\n

Make sure you selected “Windows XP” from the drop-down menu in EasyBCD’s Add\/Remove Entries section when you added XP to the Vista bootloader. If you kept it at the default option (“Windows Vista\/Longhorn Server”), Windows XP will never boot.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nSpecific Error Messages<\/h2>\nNTLDR is missing or corrupt (or one of its variants)<\/h3>\nWindows Boot Manager has experienced a problem.\r\nFile: \\ntldr\r\nStatus: 0xc000000f\r\nInfo: The selected entry couldn't be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt.<\/pre>\nAs this error message says, NTLDR could not be located. Make sure the Windows XP entry in EasyBCD points to the system drive and keep in mind that this is\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0necessarily the same as the drive that Windows XP is installed to.<\/p>\nIf the drive is correct, make sure NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM exist in the root partition. If they don’t or if they’re corrupted, you can\u00a0download them here<\/a>.<\/p>\n After choosing to boot into Windows, I get a black, blank screen.<\/h3>\nThis means that NTLDR was found, but NTDETECT.COM wasn’t. Grab it\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n winload.exe is missing or corrupt<\/h3>\nWindows Boot Manager has experienced a problem.\r\nFile: \\windows\\system32\\winload.exe\r\nStatus: 0xc000000f\r\nInfo: The selected entry couldn't be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt.<\/pre>\nYou added a Windows XP entry without setting the “Type” drop-down box in EasyBCD to Windows XP. Delete this entry, go back to the Add\/Remove Entries section, and re-create it. This time, make sure to set its type to Windows XP before doing so.<\/p>\nntoskrnl.exe is missing or corrupt<\/h3>\n\"Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:\r\n\r\n\\system32\\ntoskrnl.exe.\r\n\r\nPlease re-install a copy of the above file\"<\/pre>\nThis means the ARC paths in the\u00a0[operating systems]<\/code>\u00a0section or the\u00a0default<\/code>\u00a0entry in BOOT.INI is incorrect. Double-check that\u00a0multi()<\/code>\u00a0and\u00a0disk()<\/code>\u00a0are both set to 0, and verify that\u00a0rdisk(x)partition(y)<\/code>\u00a0points to the correct partition where Windows XP is installed. Instructions on the correct configuration of boot.ini can be found\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Hal.dll is missing or corrupt<\/h3>\nWindows\\System32\\Hal.dll missing or corrupt:\r\n\r\nPlease re-install a copy of the above file.<\/pre>\nThis means the ARC paths in the\u00a0[operating systems]<\/code>\u00a0section or the\u00a0default<\/code>\u00a0entry in BOOT.INI is incorrect. Double-check that\u00a0multi()<\/code>\u00a0and\u00a0disk()<\/code>\u00a0are both set to 0, and verify that\u00a0rdisk(x)partition(y)<\/code>\u00a0points to the correct partition where Windows XP is installed. Instructions on the correct configuration of boot.ini can be found\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Windows could not start because of a computer disk hardware configuration problem. Could not read from the selected boot disk.\r\n\r\nCheck boot path and disk hardware. Please check the Windows documentation about hardware disk configuration and your hardware reference manuals for additional information.<\/pre>\nThis means the ARC paths in the\u00a0[operating systems]<\/code>\u00a0section or the\u00a0default<\/code>\u00a0entry in BOOT.INI is incorrect. Double-check that\u00a0multi()<\/code>\u00a0and\u00a0disk()<\/code>\u00a0are both set to 0, and verify that\u00a0rdisk(x)partition(y)<\/code>\u00a0points to the correct partition where Windows XP is installed.<\/p>\nGenerally speaking, this particular error message means that the partition referenced in the ARC paths in boot.ini does not exist, so check the\u00a0partition()<\/code>\u00a0number first. If you’re sure the\u00a0partition()<\/code>\u00a0value is correct then try different\u00a0rdisk()<\/code>\u00a0values until you get a working configuration. Further instructions on the correct configuration of boot.ini can be found\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n I get a BSOD when I boot into Windows XP<\/h3>\nCongratulations! As hard as it may be to believe, this means your dual-boot is working just fine. Unfortunately,\u00a0after<\/em>\u00a0EasyBCD successfully starts to load Windows XP, it crashes. This can be caused by using an imaged copy of a Windows XP installation from another PC, a hardware mis-configuration, or one of the zillion other BSOD-causing problems. Your best bet is to perform an\u00a0in-place upgrade\/repair install<\/a>\u00a0of Windows XP and\/or ask for help in\u00a0our friendly forums<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This page deals with common boot-up problems with Windows XP. These troubleshooting instructions are also applicable for problems encountered setting up a dual-boot or multi-boot with newer versions of Windows. General Troubleshooting Guidelines Unfortunately, as a result of the\u00a0convoluted process\u00a0used to load Windows NT through XP\/2003 up and running, there is plenty of room for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":505,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3SlTq-3f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/505"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5598,"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201\/revisions\/5598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neosmart.net\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}