Bought a dell vostro 1510 laptop pre-installed with Vista Home basic and want to be able to dual boot with XP.

I have partitioned and installed XP and installed vistabootpro as instructed.

When my laptop starts up - i get to menu where i can select vista or xp.
Unfortunately XP gives an error message about NTLDR.

I have copied the 3 files onto the root of both partitions but i think my boot.ini needs changing.

Please can you suggest the appropriate text.
There is only 1 hdd i have created a partition D:\ but there is included a recovery partition and an unlabelled partition.

many thanks in advance.

Hi dave111. If you copy and paste your current boot.ini here and tell us which partition XP is on ( for instance 2nd from the left or 3rd from the left) according to Disk Management (right click Computer>Manage) we should be able to help with the text.

In the instance below rdisk(0) means the first hard drive and partition(1) means the first partition. It's important to have the same in both the line starting with default= and the line starting with multi(0).


[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" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

You should be able to use this text above and just change the partition number to suit your configuration.

still not working.
also tried partition as 3.
any more ideas???
see pic

snurl . c o m / 2ykdm

current boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(4)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

Here's the image url for you: http://img148.imageshack.us/img148/5193/vostropu6.jpg

Looks like it should be rdisk(0)partition(3). There must be some other problem preventing the boot. I think try running diagnostics from the menu item of VistaBootPRO and see what the result is. Then try reinstalling the Vista bootloader>All Drives from the System Bootloader page.

Made the changes and unfortunately still cant get xp working.

can you garner anything from here??

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {6b3abe05-d2b0-11dc-938e-e6adcbdf5059}
displayorder {572bcd55-ffa7-11d9-aae0-0007e994107d}
{current}
{ntldr}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {572bcd55-ffa7-11d9-aae0-0007e994107d}
device partition=E:
path \Windows\System32\boot\winload.exe
description Windows Recovery Environment
osdevice partition=E:
systemroot \Windows
nx OptIn
detecthal Yes
winpe Yes

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {572bcd55-ffa7-11d9-aae0-0007e994107d}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {6b3abe05-d2b0-11dc-938e-e6adcbdf5059}
nx OptIn

Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier {6b3abe05-d2b0-11dc-938e-e6adcbdf5059}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winresume.exe
description Windows Resume Application
locale en-US
inherit {resumeloadersettings}
filedevice partition=C:
filepath \hiberfil.sys
pae Yes
debugoptionenabled No

Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier {memdiag}
device partition=C:
path \boot\memtest.exe
description Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
badmemoryaccess Yes

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {ntldr}
device unknown
path \ntldr
description Windows XP

EMS Settings
------------
identifier {emssettings}
bootems Yes

Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier {dbgsettings}
debugtype Serial
debugport 1
baudrate 115200

RAM Defects
-----------
identifier {badmemory}

Global Settings
---------------
identifier {globalsettings}
inherit {dbgsettings}
{emssettings}
{badmemory}

Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier {bootloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}

Resume Loader Settings
----------------------
identifier {resumeloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}

Went to 'manage entries' and deleted the xp entry
then tried to add it via ' add new os entry'
now when i select xp on startup at bootmanager - i do not get the error message -- but i get a black screen....


here are the details from the settings menu.


Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {6b3abe05-d2b0-11dc-938e-e6adcbdf5059}
displayorder {572bcd55-ffa7-11d9-aae0-0007e994107d}
{current}
{ntldr}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {572bcd55-ffa7-11d9-aae0-0007e994107d}
device partition=E:
path \Windows\System32\boot\winload.exe
description Windows Recovery Environment
osdevice partition=E:
systemroot \Windows
nx OptIn
detecthal Yes
winpe Yes

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {572bcd55-ffa7-11d9-aae0-0007e994107d}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {6b3abe05-d2b0-11dc-938e-e6adcbdf5059}
nx OptIn

Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier {6b3abe05-d2b0-11dc-938e-e6adcbdf5059}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winresume.exe
description Windows Resume Application
locale en-US
inherit {resumeloadersettings}
filedevice partition=C:
filepath \hiberfil.sys
pae Yes
debugoptionenabled No

Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier {memdiag}
device partition=C:
path \boot\memtest.exe
description Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
badmemoryaccess Yes

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {ntldr}
device partition=D:
path \ntldr
description Windows XP

EMS Settings
------------
identifier {emssettings}
bootems Yes

Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier {dbgsettings}
debugtype Serial
debugport 1
baudrate 115200

RAM Defects
-----------
identifier {badmemory}

Global Settings
---------------
identifier {globalsettings}
inherit {dbgsettings}
{emssettings}
{badmemory}

Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier {bootloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}

Resume Loader Settings
----------------------
identifier {resumeloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}

Some PCs are sold with a hidden partition at the root, and the boot files and folders that Vista uses will then be present in this hidden partition.

My experience with new factory-built PCs suggests that the simplest and best option is to just wipe the hard drive, then clean install XP, then clean install Vista on a second partition.

This way, you can avoid problems created by manufacturers not having designed the database for dual-boot purposes...