Possible to dual boot across 2 HDs?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
  • Start date Start date
G

Guest

Here is my current situation:

I have two hard drives. They both had Windows XP Pro. When Vista came along
I formated one of them and installed Vista over it believing the Boot Manager
would allow me to dual boot once it was done... But when it was done I can no
longer access my XP drive.

The worst part is none of the normal fixes will allow me to boot back into
it. Using Bootsect /nt52 makes the error "NTLDR is Missing" appear when I
start up.

I am very sure the problem is not any corrupt files. I have used bootcfg,
bootrect, and bcdedit in hopes of being able to restore my old XP, but none
have been able to fix the issue. When I restart the computer I am never given
the choice of booting into another OS, it simply loads Vista.

Here is how BCDEDIT looks:

<i>Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {675e5ff5-caa2-11db-9f06-9233
nx OptIn

Windows Legacy OS Loader
 
Adam said:
Here is my current situation:

I have two hard drives. They both had Windows XP Pro. When Vista came
along I formated one of them and installed Vista over it believing
the Boot Manager would allow me to dual boot once it was done... But
when it was done I can no longer access my XP drive.

The worst part is none of the normal fixes will allow me to boot back
into it. Using Bootsect /nt52 makes the error "NTLDR is Missing"
appear when I start up.

I am very sure the problem is not any corrupt files. I have used
bootcfg, bootrect, and bcdedit in hopes of being able to restore my
old XP, but none have been able to fix the issue. When I restart the
computer I am never given the choice of booting into another OS, it
simply loads Vista.

Here is how BCDEDIT looks:

<i>Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {675e5ff5-caa2-11db-9f06-9233
nx OptIn

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {ntldr}
device partition=D:
path \ntldr
description Earlier Version of Windows</i>
Click to expand...
================================
I'm just thinking out loud and you may be
best served if you ignore me. Proceed
at your own risk...

When you did the Vista install...did you
see a screen that asked you "Where do
you want to install Windows"?

The following article shows screenshots:

How do I... Install Windows Vista
in a dual-boot configuration along
with Windows XP?
http://tinyurl.com/23osvg

There are so many possible scenarios
I get confused but I'm thinking the Vista
install should have been done from the
hard drive you wish to continue running
XP on.

Just a thought, but I wonder if the following
app would install the Vista Boot Loader
on your Vista drive and allow you to access
your XP drive?

VistaBootPRO
http://www.vistabootpro.org/index.php

Dual-Booting Vista and XP
http://www.windowstalk.org/dual_boot_vista.htm

Dual-Booting Vista and XP (Part 2)
http://www.windowstalk.org/dual_boot_part2.htm

Good luck and please share the solution
with this newsgroup once you discover it.

--
John Inzer
MS Picture It! -
Digital Image MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk
 
At this point I think I've pinpointed the problem. I used to have an old
Ubuntu (Linux) partition that I thought formating would remove... But there
appear to be traces of Grub left over on my other hard drive. Anyone who's
good with Linux know how to get rid of them?
 
Fantastic reply, thank you for your time. I did further troubleshooting and
in the end decided to write it all back in through BCDEDIT. I now get the
choice of which OS to boot into, but upon choosing XP it simply restarts the
computer.

Here are the relevant files I have in D: (My XP drive)

NDETECT.COM
BOOT.INI
NTLDR

In C: I have the following:

BOOT (Folder)
BOOTMGR
NDETECT.COM
NTLDR

I tried swiping NTLDR, NDETECT, and Boot.ini from my wife's laptop for
disatrous results, so I'm back at square one.
 
Adam said:
Fantastic reply, thank you for your time. I did further troubleshooting and
in the end decided to write it all back in through BCDEDIT. I now get the
choice of which OS to boot into, but upon choosing XP it simply restarts the
computer.

Here are the relevant files I have in D: (My XP drive)

NDETECT.COM
BOOT.INI
NTLDR <==== This is (most likely) doing nothing

In C: I have the following:

BOOT (Folder)
BOOTMGR
NDETECT.COM
NTLDR <==== This is the one doing the work
Click to expand...
<==== You need to move/copy boot.ini here so ntldr can find it.
 
----- Original Message -----
From: "Adam said:
...When I restart the computer I am never given
the choice of booting into another OS, it simply loads Vista.

Here is how BCDEDIT looks:

<i>Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
displayorder {current}
Click to expand...
{ntldr} <===== You need this
line!
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30
Click to expand...

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {ntldr}
device partition=D:
path \ntldr
description Earlier Version of Windows</i>
Click to expand...

I don't know why the 'Legacy' item was omitted from your boot menu, but
you need to add it back yourself. I think VistaBootPro is the easy way to
do this, but bcdedit will certainly do the job (if you can stand the pain).

Can you see your XP installation on D: as bcdedit claims? Is that where
ntldr actually is?

If I understand correctly, the Vista bootmgr is expecting to find ntldr
(and boot.ini) on the 'boot drive' i.e. the one your BIOS lists first.
That is also where you should find the \boot directory and \bootmgr
installed by Vista (not necessarily the same drive XP or Vista actually
live on).

In my case, my 'boot drive' is the one Vista calls D: (and XP calls C:)

You may need to move ntldr/boot.ini to wherever \bootmgr lives, and
then add the 'Legacy' item to your bootmenu as I said earlier.
 
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