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

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

Postby Grav!ty » Sun Oct 22, 2006 10:02 am

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

Image....................Image


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

Image


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

Image


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

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Postby kd1966 » Sun Oct 22, 2006 2:27 pm

Thanks Grav!ty! I'm sure we'll find a use for this one.............
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Postby validebag » Sat Dec 02, 2006 10:48 am

thanks gravitiy! That's what I have been looking for three days. I'd like to ask sth about that. After all this steps applied, Which HDD should be selected as first boot device, the HDD on which XP installed or the one on which Vista installed ?
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Postby ginogsm » Fri Jan 19, 2007 11:07 am

Excellent info Grav!ty. Thanks for this How-To.
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Postby Ixolite » Tue Jan 30, 2007 1:41 pm

Great, I was looking for a solution like that, but now I have a few questions:

1. When I "Reinstall Vista Bootloader" on the XP system drive, does it affect the XP original bootloader? I mean is there a safe way to revert to XP bootloader?
2. If I understand it correctly, unplugging the Vista drive should not affect the ability to boot XP?
3. If I swap the drive boot order in my BIOS, so that the Vista drive gets booted first, I assume that it bypasess the bootloader located on XP drive just as if the drive was unplugged?

I just want to make sure that I can boot both drives independantly.
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Postby Grav!ty » Tue Jan 30, 2007 1:57 pm

Hi and welcome to PROnetworks Ixolite.
Ixolite wrote:I just want to make sure that I can boot both drives independantly.


You will need to copy and paste the folder Boot and the file bootmgr to your Vista installation drive.

After setting your Windows Vista installation drive as your first boot hard drive, you will then have to boot to your Windows Vista DVD and at the "Install now" setup screen, select "Repair my computer" at the bottom left and run "Startup repair" from the menu you are presented with, if "Startup repair" does not auto run.

Your Windows XP installation should continue to boot just fine when you set it as your first boot hard drive.

Let us know how you get on :yesnod:
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Postby Ixolite » Tue Jan 30, 2007 2:07 pm

Thanks for fast reply, but I'm not sure if I understood you correctly.

What I want to achieve is being able to dual boot via bootloader as described in your first post in this topic. But in the same time I want to be able to unplug Vista or XP drives without loosing the ability to boot to the remaining system.

So what will running "Startup repair" for Vista drive do exactly?

Right now I have, let's call it "Drive1" with XP installed and xp bootloader on it, and "Drive2" with Vista installed and vista bootloader on it.

Sorry if my questions are silly but I want to be extra careful because I don't want to ruin my XP installation :)
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Postby Grav!ty » Tue Jan 30, 2007 2:20 pm

Well if you copy and paste the two files that Vista needs, and run the Startup repair on the independant Vista drive, you will be able to boot to it when you unplug your XP drive. If you don't it wont boot and you will receive an error message.

You will also still be able to boot to your XP drive when your Vista drive is unplugged.

As a bonus for ya, you will also be able to still select which Windows installation to boot to when both drives are connected :lol:

You can however remove the ability to boot to either with both drives plugged in if you want to, by uninstalling the Vista bootloader from the Bootloader tab of VistaBootPRO in Windows XP
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Postby Ixolite » Tue Jan 30, 2007 2:40 pm

OK, final conclusions (I hope). Correct me if I'm wrong.

1. I follow the instructions from the first post and then I get dual boot started from XP drive. If I unplug XP drive I won't be able to boot Vista drive.
2. I copy the Boot folder and bootmgr file from the XP drive (where it was first copied from Vista drive and then altered with VistaBootPRO), run the "Startup repair" and then I am able to get the dual boot menu (so that I can choose system to boot) while booting from XP drive and boot directly into Vista when booting from Vista drive.
3. If I uninstall Vista Bootloader in the Windows XP I can again boot XP by having XP drive set first in BIOS and boot Vista when Vista drive is set first in BIOS.

Ability to boot Vista is still a little fuzzy to me, does "Reinstalling Vista bootloader" copied to XP drive affect the bootloader located on the Vista drive?

<I know I'm getting annoying :P >

EDIT: One more thing, when I follow the steps from the first post in this topic, what happens to the bootloader located on the Vista drive? I mean if I don't touch it (justy copy it over to XP drive and alter it with VistaBootPRO there) how is it cooperating with the bootloader on the XP drive?
EDIT2: Umm... come to think of that, if I use a bootloader located on the boot drive (first in BIOS booting order) then the bootloader on other drive is just ignored, like it wasn't there, when located on that drive OS is loaded, right?
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Postby Ixolite » Wed Jan 31, 2007 5:45 pm

OK, so I followed the first post instructions and it worked like a charm, thanks.

I didn't yet find time to fiddle around and see if I can boot XP or Vista with the other drive unplugged.
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