Guide for dummies Vista & XP 2 drives ?

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bj33813

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I was running a dual boot Vista and XP on the same partitioned HD,and it worked fine once I got it to boot both partitions ok (which took me some time LOL). Then a friend who is vastly more knowledgable than I about computers warned me it would cause me grief in the long run, and suggested I put XP on a new HD and remove XP from the original HD.

I removed XP from that original HD and then pulled the Vista HD from pc, and put the new HD in the SATA0 slot and did my install of XP. It works fine, no trouble.

Now however, with the original Vista HD in that SATA0 slot, and the XP HD in the SATA1 slot, all I can do is boot Vista, tho at startup, I DO have the option to boot XP, but it never boots, just various error messages.
Can I get a step by step for dummies on what I need to do to get XP to boot also ? I have Vista Boot Pro 3.3, but I think w/o instruction I may just screw everything up.
 

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bj33813 said:
I was running a dual boot Vista and XP on the same partitioned HD,and it worked fine once I got it to boot both partitions ok (which took me some time LOL). Then a friend who is vastly more knowledgable than I about computers warned me it would cause me grief in the long run, and suggested I put XP on a new HD and remove XP from the original HD.

I removed XP from that original HD and then pulled the Vista HD from pc, and put the new HD in the SATA0 slot and did my install of XP. It works fine, no trouble.

Now however, with the original Vista HD in that SATA0 slot, and the XP HD in the SATA1 slot, all I can do is boot Vista, tho at startup, I DO have the option to boot XP, but it never boots, just various error messages.
Can I get a step by step for dummies on what I need to do to get XP to boot also ? I have Vista Boot Pro 3.3, but I think w/o instruction I may just screw everything up.
Click to expand...

Hey bj
I would personaly remove one hdd and install Vista, then remove the vista drive and install XP on the other.
Place both drives back in the computer Go into Bios and set up the default drive.
When this is done the default drive will automatically boot on start up, if you want to start the other drive this can be done by pressing for example F8, when the start up screen is being shown, this will give you a drop down menu so that you can choose the boot medium. you just have to check in your mobo manual which key you need to press for this menu.

Hope this helps

Pooch
 

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While I didn't reload Vista and XP, as both were done independently of the other with no other drive being in the pc while they were installed, and each boots fine on its own, Vista is set as the default drive. I tried using each of the F keys, and 2 worked only for additional options in loading Vista, but with XP highlighted at start-up so IT would be the default drive, none of those F keys did a thing, sad to say.
Guess I can always just leave the side cover off and swap the SATA cables for the drive I want to use.
Thanks
 

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Hey bj :(
It was worth a try

Pooch
 

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Thanks, I will ck that out. Was thinking (always bad thing to do), that maybe I should try setting the XP drive as default, and then use the Vista start repair to get the Vista drive going...maybe I've been going at this backwards.
Busy tonight, but will try tomorrow and post back if I am lucky :)
 

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Couldn't wait to try this, but my pc sure doesn't like XP being the default drive and me trying to use Vista start repair. :(
Easy bcd says my Vista BCD etc is fine as is .
back to square 1 LOL
 

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Hi BJ,

the basic problem that you'll have is that XP doesn't recognise vista, (vista didn't exist when the XP code was written), you have to use a boot loader that recognises both operating systems. With XP and Vista the easiest is the vista loader, and EasyBCD just lets you control it better than the built in tools.
 

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Check your motherboard manual (assuming a self/custom built, and not off-the-shelf computer) and see if there is F key (usually F8) that is used to bring up the boot menu. You need to hit it while the computer is on the bios loading screen. If there is using that will allow you to boot to either drive.
 

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Hi.
Hope this helps. On my other computer I have two different OS, on two separate drives.
F11 brings up the boot menu. You do have to be quick with it.
I don't think swapping cables over all the time is a good idea.
Brian
 

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barman58 said:
Hi BJ,

the basic problem that you'll have is that XP doesn't recognise vista, (vista didn't exist when the XP code was written), you have to use a boot loader that recognises both operating systems. With XP and Vista the easiest is the vista loader, and EasyBCD just lets you control it better than the built in tools.
Click to expand...

EasyBCD told me that my Vista boot was set properly, so I have no idea of how to pursue anything further in that proggie without really mucking things up, and of course, it only works on Vista, not XP in case that is faulty somehow :(

stormy13 said:
Check your motherboard manual (assuming a self/custom built, and not off-the-shelf computer) and see if there is F key (usually F8) that is used to bring up the boot menu. You need to hit it while the computer is on the bios loading screen. If there is using that will allow you to boot to either drive.
Click to expand...
Pooch gave me the same advice in an earlier post here. PC is a Dell Vostro 200, new in July this year. With Vista highlighted in boot option screen at bootup, I tried every F key 1-12, and 2 of them gave me additional options for booting Vista, ie safe mode etc. If I highlighted XP at the boot choice screen (since Vista is the default drive), none of those F keys would do anything at all :(
added ps: I did retry this while still on BIOS screen, still nada


skylab2000 said:
Hi.
Hope this helps. On my other computer I have two different OS, on two separate drives.
F11 brings up the boot menu. You do have to be quick with it.
I don't think swapping cables over all the time is a good idea.
Brian
Click to expand...
same answer as above, and I agree about the cables, besides, that would be a cop-out fix :cry:

When I select XP at the boot option screen, I get
"windows could not start because file is missing or corrupt:
windows root> \system32\hal.dll
please reinstall a copy of the above file"

Did some searching for that problem, and tried 2 things:
1. a boot ini repair in XP recovery mode, but nothing changed when I retried booting XP from the boot choice screen, same error message.:confused:
2. Then tried repairing/reloading the hal.dll file in XP recovery, and after repeated attempts, best response was unable to find file/directory.:sa:

Maybe I just need to get a bigger desk and park my old pc there too :sarc:
 
Last edited:

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OK< reviewed the how-to above, and I've done those procedures. I went back to EasyBCD1.7.2, and when i started it, I got this:

Unfortunately, EasyBCD could not automatically detect the drive letter of your boot device. This can be caused by a non-standard MBR, use of a 3rd-party bootloader, or a failed Windows Vista install.
To proceed, please enter the letter of your boot drive below. The boot drive is identified by the presence of special files and folders like boot.ini, ntldr, and bootmgr. If you continue to see this error message, please run "Reset BCD storage" from the Diagnostics section.

Went to View settings, and it shows both Vista and XP as both being in C drive..which is wrong, as XP is on D drive.
Went to the change setting screen and highlighted XP and corrected the drive setting to D, then did a "Reset BCD storage" from the Diagnostics section.
Now, View settings only shows Vista, no XP at all. ???

Did a reboot of pc, and now it starts up with Vista and i do not get the boot option screen at all.
 

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I ran across this doing a google for dual boot on 2 drives:

You can run the commands in the following procedure by using the command prompt. If you run these commands in Windows Vista, run them at a command prompt that has elevated user rights. To do this, click Start, click Accessories, right-click the command-prompt shortcut, and then click Run as Administrator.
1. Use Bootsect.exe to restore the Windows Vista MBR and the boot code that transfers control to the Windows Boot Manager program. To do this, type the following command at a command prompt:
G:\boot\Bootsect.exe /NT60 All
(In this command, G is the drive where the Windows Vista installation media is located)
Use Bcdedit.exe to manually create an entry in the BCD Boot.ini file for the earlier version of the Windows operating system. To do this, type the following commands at a command prompt.
2. C:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "Windows XP Home Edition"
3. C:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=C:
4. C:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr
5. C:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast
Restart the computer.

Did this, and now EasyBCD1.7.2 shows:
there are a total of 2 entries listed in the Vista bootloader.
Bootloader timeout 10 seconds
default OS: Windows Vista
Entry #1
Name: Windows Vista
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows directory: \windows
Entry #2
Name: earlier version of windows
BCD ID: {ntldr}
Drive: D:\
Bootloader path: \ntldr

So I again have the boot selection screen upon restarting the pc, but still get that missing or corrupted hal.dll message when I select XP

Maybe this will point out my errors to someone ??:rolleyes:
 

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Hi BJ,

This error is Possibly caused by an incorrect entry in the Boot.INI file on the XP install caused by the setting / resetting of the boot drive, rather than the file actually being corrupt or missing. can you copy the contents of this file and post it (it's a small text file so should not be a problem)

There should be a line something like this...
Code: 
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional"  /fastdetect

you may have to adjust the Disk(x) entry to get it to work (basically if it errors with a 0 set it to 1 or vice-versa
 

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Hi Nigel:

this is the XP boot.ini:

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Appreciate the help too ! :)
 

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Hi BJ,

You may want to edit it to look like this [RED highlights] ...

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

and see if that helps

It may also need the items I've marked in blue changed to 1s also but try the red bits first :D
 

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ok BJ

lets try this one ...
set the default to the Vista Drive as first boot drive

set boot .ini to ...

[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

see if that does it

By the way EasyBCD does work on XP so it may be possible to use that to fix the bootloader if you can get XP to run by using BIOS or physical cable switching

Just for your info the full details of what you are trying to do is here ...

Windows XP - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

what you have is so close to being right that hopefully this will be the variation we need
 

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    Six Sensor Auto / Manual Digital cooling (Fan) control with Touch control Panel
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