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Multi-boot boot XP / Vista partitioned drive XP won't run via Vista boot mgr

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Multi-boot boot XP / Vista partitioned drive XP won't run via Vista boot mgr

Postby PhilT » Mon Feb 12, 2007 12:25 pm

I have a single partitioned hard drive with Vista added after XP and Freespire added after Vista. Using Grub I can boot to any one of Freespire, Vista, XP and they all work OK.

If I boot to Vista from Grub I get the choice of Vista and XP from the Vista boot manager however the XP option seems to just cycle back to the Vista boot manager. Previously it said XP was broken but I managed to fix that.

Before installing Freespire and using Grub I had the same problem - I could run either XP or Vista by toggling the Active disk partition setting but the boot manager menu to XP recycled back to itself. I would like to understand / fix the problem for future dual boot setups that won't have the benefit of Grub.

Running in XP as C: the Vista partition appears as F:
The boot.ini on C: is below.

Thanks,

Phil
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Postby The Phoenix » Mon Feb 12, 2007 1:05 pm

Welcome to PROnetworks.

Try booting into your XPCD's Recovery Console and running the cmd FIXMBR, this should then allow you to boot XP successfully and at that point you can use our app VistaBootPro to reinstall the Vista Bootloader and add XP's entry to it. This may or may not wipe out your BRUB Loader, I have not used GRUB and have little experience with Linux based systems so I cannot confirm or deny that.
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Postby PhilT » Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:27 pm

that sounds a bit of a nuclear option TBH. As I know all three OS work I'm kinda hesitant to have something mess it up.

What would you expect the problem to be if the XP option on the Vista boot manager simply recycles me to the same boot manager menu - sounds like the boot manager thinks XP is in the partition that Vista and the boot manager is actually in !

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Postby JabbaPapa » Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:46 pm

GRUB/BCD/boot.ini intercompatibility problems are pretty hairy, especially where GRUB is working, but Vista and XP are not talking to each other ...

I am NOT a GRUB expert, but BCD and boot.ini can refuse to be on speaking terms for various simple, complex, or exotic reasons.

We can help you with these, but honestly, you may need to handle the GRUB side of the affair independently, and some of our advice might tend towards nuking your GRUB :(
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Postby PhilT » Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:59 pm

I'll wind myself up to considering the nuclear option. On the current machine I can remove the XP option from vista boot manager and just use Grub to manage the two Microsoft options plus Linux, however I want to be able to dual boot just XP and Vista on other machines so need to get on top of it.

For my education, what bits of Vista need to get put into the XP partition and vice versa (if any) for the dual booting off one drive scenario to work - is there a FAQ or similar site that explains it concisely. ?

Where is Vista boot manager told the location of the XP partition so I can check that's correct ?

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Resolved

Postby PhilT » Wed Feb 14, 2007 7:36 am

After reading extensively here I learned the key fact that ntldr etc have to be on the active partition. Posting by gravity...

"You need to have boot.ini, NTDETECT.COM and ntldr all on the root of the system drive to be able to boot into XP.

You can check which is your system drive in Disk Management of any of the Windows OS's you can boot into."

so by moving these three files to my Vista partition, which was the second partition on the drive and variously called E: or F: when in XP, it all works.

I tested that I can remove them from the XP partition ie they only need be in one place providing its the right one.

Thanks,

Phil
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Postby JabbaPapa » Wed Feb 14, 2007 9:34 am

Does that mean everything is working smoothly ?

Cool ^*^
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Postby PhilT » Wed Feb 14, 2007 3:21 pm

yes, it's working fine thanks.

I tried hiding the three files in the XP partition so there were only on the Vista partition and Vista boot manager would still boot XP or Vista OK.

Grub wouldn't boot XP because it was looking specifically at that partition so I put them back.

The key fact appeared to be having them 3 XP boot files on the active partition. I guess /BOOT from Vista also needs to be on the active partition so in effect they all have to be in the same place - worthy of a sticky given the number of multiboot threads.
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