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Cannot find former dual boot options

Cannot find former dual boot options

Postby Lennart » Sun Apr 26, 2009 11:08 am

Hi, hope someone can help me with the following. I have the following configuration. One hd i boot from with four partitions, one pci card with two hd's connected for extra space. On the bootdrive I installed one os on each partition: win xp, win server 2003, win vista, win 7 in that order. After I installed win 7 i downloaded and installed vista boot pro and thought I would automatically find all four os'es as boot options. Wrong. i find only the latter two (vista+7). What do I do in order to get all os'es loaded in the bootloader?

Thanx in advance for all/any help.
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Re: Cannot find former dual boot options

Postby Grav!ty » Sun Apr 26, 2009 2:19 pm

Are the XP and Server 2003 boot system files (ntldr, boot.ini and NTDETECT.COM) still on the drive/partition tagged (System) as per disk management?
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Re: Cannot find former dual boot options

Postby Lennart » Sun Apr 26, 2009 2:40 pm

Hi Gravity, thanx for responding. No, i cannot find any of the files on any of the drives/partitions.
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Re: Cannot find former dual boot options

Postby Grav!ty » Sun Apr 26, 2009 3:01 pm

Lennart wrote:Hi Gravity, thanx for responding. No, i cannot find any of the files on any of the drives/partitions.


Do you have Folder Options set to "Show Hidden Files and Folders" and not to "Hide Protected Operating System files"?

If so, and you still can't find the files you can copy ntldr and NTDETECT.COM from your XP CD and paste them to the root of the drive tagged (System) as per disk management. We can help you create a new boot.ini file if post a screenshot of Disk Management here...you'll find a guide to posting a screenshot here if your not familiar with that process.
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Re: Cannot find former dual boot options

Postby Lennart » Sun Apr 26, 2009 3:19 pm

Done that (phew!)
diskmanagement.png
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Re: Cannot find former dual boot options

Postby Grav!ty » Sun Apr 26, 2009 4:24 pm

So you managed to get ntldr and NTDETECT.COM onto the root of the drive/partition tagged (System), which appears to be the Vista drive D?

Here's a boot.ini based on your disk management screenshot:

[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="Windows XP" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Server 2003" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT


You can just copy and paste that into notepad, and then save it as boot.ini to the same location you placed the files ntldr and NTDETECT.COM

Once you've done that, run VistaBootPRO and from the System Bootloader page, select Windows Vista Bootloader>All drives>Install Bootloader.

Let us know if that works once you've tested the XP and Server entries.

If that doesn't work we'll take it from there and you may have to manually Add New OS Entry>Earlier Versions>Windows Legacy>Drive. If that is necessary, please post the contents VistaBootPRO>View Settings>Overview by right click the text>select all>Copy and then paste it here.
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Re: Cannot find former dual boot options

Postby Lennart » Sun Apr 26, 2009 4:57 pm

Sorry, but it didn't work. I copied the three files to the system drive as per dm (D:Vista). I followed your instructions with VBP but after the restart I still had only two entries: win 7 and Vista. The good news is that both work! ^*^

The settings tab in VBP shows the following:


There is currently 2 OS(s) installed on your system.
The current boot timeout is: 30

Default OS: Windows 7

Entry 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Boot Drive: C:
Windows Drive: C:
System Bootloader: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Microsoft Windows Vista
BCD ID: {fcdcfd1f-31ea-11de-95bd-886fdb4842b4}
Boot Drive: D:
Windows Drive: D:
System Bootloader: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows
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Re: Cannot find former dual boot options

Postby Grav!ty » Sun Apr 26, 2009 5:12 pm

Yeah I didn't think it would work first time round but it was worth a try. So now you need to add an entry like I suggested above and call it Earlier Versions of Windows...it should lead you to a boot screen where you have the menu items for XP and Server 03.

First give the entry the drive letter D which is where the XP and Server 03 boot system files are. If that doesn't work, then copy and paste the XP boot system files to the root of the XP drive and change the drive letter in VistaBootPRO to E:

*It may be worth running Diagnostics from the menu item in VistaBootPRO and then check in Manage OS Entries if there is an entry for Earlier versions, before you do all that.
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Re: Cannot find former dual boot options

Postby Lennart » Sun Apr 26, 2009 5:32 pm

Wow! At least some partial success there! The last suggestion worked! Bad news is that only the windows xp entry works but not the server 2003 entry. The VBP overview now looks like this:

There is currently 4 OS(s) installed on your system.
The current boot timeout is: 30

Default OS: Windows 7

Entry 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {current}
Boot Drive: C:
Windows Drive: C:
System Bootloader: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Microsoft Windows Vista
BCD ID: {fcdcfd1f-31ea-11de-95bd-886fdb4842b4}
Boot Drive: D:
Windows Drive: D:
System Bootloader: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry 3
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Earlier Version of Windows
BCD ID: {ntldr}
Boot Drive: D:
System Bootloader: \ntldr

Entry 4
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Windows Recovery Environment
BCD ID: {a8e80914-3297-11de-b8e4-8f94cd991fb5}
Boot Drive: :]\Recovery\a8e80914-3297-11de-b8e4-8f94cd991fb5\Winre.wim,{a8e80915-3297-11de-b8e4-8f94cd991fb5}
Windows Drive: :]\Recovery\a8e80914-3297-11de-b8e4-8f94cd991fb5\Winre.wim,{a8e80915-3297-11de-b8e4-8f94cd991fb5}
System Bootloader: \windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \windows
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Re: Cannot find former dual boot options

Postby Lennart » Mon Apr 27, 2009 2:58 pm

Need some more help pleeeeeeeeease! :bashhead
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