Problem (not) dual booting XP and Vista

[Jake]

I downloaded Vista (Enterprise edition) and installed it on my D: drive. I read the instructions carefully (or so I thought) and made sure not or overwrite my XP Pro (Corp) installation on my C: drive.

But to my surprise it's not dual booting. It just goes straight into Vista.

 

This is a problem because I need to get back into XP to save my emails and bunch of other stuff.

 

Is there anything I can do the make it dual boot or to load XP some other way?

 

Thanks.

[Pete]

Get yourself EasyBCD - "It just works."

 

http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

[Gamer]

F8 at the first boot up screen should bring up the drives then you can select which drive to boot from. At least it does on my machines...

[Jake]

Get yourself EasyBCD - "It just works."

 

http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

Thanks. Trying it now.

 

 

F8 at the first boot up screen should bring up the drives then you can select which drive to boot from. At least it does on my machines...

Doesn't seem to here.

[Jake]

Get yourself EasyBCD - "It just works."

http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

Hmmm, well I can't get it to 'just work'

 

It's rather confusing because all the HDD letters have been swapped around. The drive that Vista thinks is my C: is the one that was D: on my XP installation.

The drive that used to be my C: drive in XP is now the E: in Vista.

 

In EasyBCD I went to 'Add/Remove Enties' and 'Add An Entry', and added a Windows Version "Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3" for Drive C:\

Rebooted but it didn't work. I choose the new entry from the boot loader list but it just makes the PC reboot.

 

I've tried adding entries for C: D: and E: but none of them work - they all just reboot the PC.

 

Also, in the EasyBCD Advanced Options where is says Select an OS there is only Vista listed in the drop-down.

 

In the EasyBCD's View Setting the path to the XP Windows directory is blank but I can't see how I can change it.

 

There are a total of 4 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader TimeOut: 30 seconds.
Default OS: Microsoft Windows (XP on E:)

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 on E:)
BCD ID:  {default}
Drive:  E:\
Bootloader Path:  \ntldr
Windows Directory:  

Entry #3

Name:  Microsoft Windows (XP on C:)
BCD ID:  {4a236c4b-ca69-11db-b451-00138f9d93f3}
Drive:  C:\
Bootloader Path:  \ntldr
Windows Directory:  

Entry #4

Name:  Microsoft Windows (XP on D:)
BCD ID:  {4a236c4c-ca69-11db-b451-00138f9d93f3}
Drive:  D:\
Bootloader Path:  \ntldr
Windows Directory:  

[Pete]

Oh dear. Well, it worked v.well for my Vista / OS-X mixed drive setup.

Does XP still boot ok on it's own with the Vista drive unattached?

 

I can't reboot and load Vista to play with it at the moment as I'm rendering some video on OS-X.

[Jake]

Does XP still boot ok on it's own with the Vista drive unattached?

Yes. If I disconnect the HD that Vista is on the drive XP is on works OK. I guess that's because it reverts back to being the C: drive.

 

Anyway at least I can backup what I need to now.

 

Anyone got an activation workaround for Vista that actually works?

[Supragal]

Yes. If I disconnect the HD that Vista is on the drive XP is on works OK. I guess that's because it reverts back to being the C: drive.

 

Anyway at least I can backup what I need to now.

 

Anyone got an activation workaround for Vista that actually works?

 

maybe.... just testing it now. I've got Ultimate not sure if it works the same for other versions...

[Jake]

Well?

 

: drums fingers:

 

[Jake]

Well?

[Kopite]

Think she's fell asleep dude

[Supragal]

LOL sorry, I mean testing as in it takes a few days to see if it's worked. I'll pm you it anyway rather than posting here, if you follow....

[Pete]

This is how you do it.

 

http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=84455

 

Did it last night, works a treat.

[Thorin]

Jake, sounds like it's the boot order in your BIOS settings perhaps?

 

I think it sounds like you've got your vista drive first in the boot order and your XP drive second. If there was no operating system (well boot sector really) on the vista drive it would skip over it and boot XP. Now you've installed vista on the second drive it can boot from it.

[Jake]

This is how you do it.

 

http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=84455

 

Did it last night, works a treat.

Linky no worky

 

Jake, sounds like it's the boot order in your BIOS settings perhaps?

 

I think it sounds like you've got your vista drive first in the boot order and your XP drive second. If there was no operating system (well boot sector really) on the vista drive it would skip over it and boot XP. Now you've installed vista on the second drive it can boot from it.

Interesting theory. I'll reboot and check.

[JustGav]

Have you tried editting the boot.ini file, and just putting a 2nd entry for the vista drive?

[Jake]

What would I put?

 

This is what is in my boot.ini at the moment:

 

[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 Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

[JustGav]

What would I put?

 

This is what is in my boot.ini at the moment:

 

[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 Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

 

This is off the top of my head, and is just a guess....

 

[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 Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(1)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Vista" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

[Pete]

Linky no worky

 

Strange.. works fine here.

 

Unplugged XP Drive for Vista Setup: Can't Dual Boot to XP

 

 

So…you unplugged your Windows XP hard drive before Windows Vista setup, so that you didn’t fubar your XP installation. Both XP and Vista boot fine when you change the boot drive order in the BIOS, effectively changing the Windows system drive each time, but that gets a bit tiresome.

 

Windows XP needs the following files to be on the system drive for it to be able to boot;

 

boot.ini

NTDETECT.COM

ntldr

 

and Windows Vista needs these files to be on the system drive for it to be able to boot;

 

Boot (folder and contents, most importantly the BCD store)

bootmgr

 

To sort this out, follow the steps below:

 

1. Plug both drives in and set the Windows XP drive to be the boot drive in the BIOS. This will make it the system drive and although it doesn’t really matter whether the XP or Vista drive is the system drive, it tends to be easier to manage and control booting, from Windows XP.

 

2. Open Disk Management (right click My Computer>Manage) and go to Disk Management to check that your XP drive is your system drive, although the fact that you were able to boot to XP should already confirm that.

 

3. Open Windows Explorer and make sure you set Folder Options in Control Panel to be able to see hidden files and files and unhide protected operating system files. You’ll find folder options in the same place in Vista if you select Classic View for Control Panel.

 

4. Copy the folder Boot and the file bootmgr from your Vista installation drive and paste it to your XP installation drive.

 

Disk Management

Files to be copied…………………………...Files copied

 

....................

 

 

5. Download and install VistaBootPRO and then open it to the Bootloader tab. Select “Reinstall the Vista bootloader” and press Apply.

 

Reinstall the Vista booloader

 

 

 

 

6. Now go to the Manage OS Entries tab and select “Add new operating system entry”and make sure you select “Windows Legacy”, give the entry a name like “Windows XP”, select the drive letter you have ntldr on as the drive letter and press Apply (This drive letter must also be your system drive which is set to boot in the BIOS). You can now choose which entry you want to be the default to which the system will boot by default.

 

Add new XP entry

 

 

 

 

Reboot and choose which Operating System you want to boot to. QED