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XP and Vista Dual boot issues.

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XP and Vista Dual boot issues.

Postby Zarathrustra » Sat Feb 03, 2007 4:44 am

Hey guys.

Small but annoying problem. :)

Right, so I had an existing install of XP on a 30Gb partition on a 160Gb Hdd. I re-partitioned the reaming space 40/80ish, and proceeded to install Vista32 on the new 40Gb partition. First time, the system crashed during install, but XP still booted up fine. So, I again tryed to install vista. OK, well all seems well, but if I set the bios to boot directly from the Hdd, I get no 'dual-boot' options, and XP just loads up. But if I leave the Vista DVD in the drive, and have the bios set to boot from CD/DVD, and not actually boot from the DVD, but let it boot from the Hdd, then I get the dual-boot option, and Vista automatically loads. But, if I try to select XP, it wont let me.

So yeah, basically without the DVD in there, I can only use XP, and with the DVD in there, all I can use is Vista.

I have a feeling maybe I screwed up the MBR somehow?

Any advice would be much appreciated.
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Postby NT50 » Sat Feb 03, 2007 6:00 am

You can insert the Vista DVD and boot to it and do a Repair
This will repair the boot manager files.
The boot manager files will be install on your system drive which still should be your XP drive/partition.
Use VistaBootPRO to see what your boot configuration is pointing to also.
You can also use VistaBootPRO to do some repair on your system
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Postby jbullard » Sat Feb 03, 2007 6:00 am

Zarathrustra,

Welcome to PROnetworks and when you get a chance stop by our Introduction Area and tell us a little about yourself.

Vista installations have been known to be very tricky especially when dealing with multi-boot systems. It sounds to me that the Vista Bootloader did not install correctly and there are a couple of steps that you will need to take in order to get this situation corrected.

1. Boot to the Vista DVD and when give the option to "Install" look down on the bottom right and you will see a "Repair" option. Click on this.

2. Next you will be taken to a screen with multiple repair options. Click on the one that says "Repair System Bootloader".

After it has finished reparing the system bootloader you will need to remove the DVD from the drive and then reboot. Now, you will notice your XP entry in the boot menu has been changed to Earlier Version of Windows and Vista will be labeled as your current Vista Edition. You should now be able to boot to either one without any problems. If you still experience problems, which some users have, please let us know and we will continue to work on these.

HTH,
Jason
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Postby NT50 » Sat Feb 03, 2007 6:03 am

Ok Jason and I were posting at the same time.

He actually went into more detail and he is totally correct.
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