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[Grav!ty Profile]

I take it from your questions that your hard drives are not SATA but IDE drives. If they ARE SATA drives then which is master and which is slave does not matter at all. If they are IDE drives then make the new one the Master and the one with the existing installation Slave. In your BIOS you should be able to set which drive to be your first boot HDD irrespective of whether it is Master or Slave.

Once you've done that simply install Vista on the new hard drive and then plug the current drive in as Slave if IDE, making sure your first boot HDD remains that of the new installation.

With the new installation in place we will be able to get a lot more information on your drive/partition structure, in particular where your boot system files are and I'm hoping we can then simply use DualBootPRO to get your first installation booting on it's own without having to mess with DOS.

[Robert Profile]

Thanks again Gravity,
I was thinking of an Ultra ATA drive because I have one on my XP computer, however, I do have a WD sata hard drive that I am now installing with the factory Vista OS. My bad hard drive is also a sata drive. Sorry for the confusion. So, what<s next?
Thanks,
Robert

[Grav!ty Profile]

Then you can just install the new HDD, unplug the current HDD (power and SATA cable), install Vista, shut down, plug in the old drive, make sure the new drive is set as first boot HDD in your BIOS, and then boot up. This will take you into the new Vista installation and from there you will need to set folder options to see hidden files and folders and not to hide protected and operating system files. With that done you can use windows explorer to locate the boot system files (bootmgr and the folder Boot) and check to see whether they exist on the old installation drive as well.

It will be useful too if you can then post a screenshot of your disk management so that we can see your partition/drive structure.

Also install DualBootPRO and go the Boot Information page, select All at the top of the page and when the data finishes loading right-click anywhere on the page of text, select all and copy and paste the entire contents of that page here.

I think let's leave it at that for now.

[Robert Profile]

Hi Gravity,
Thanks for your response.I have my new Hard Drive now working but w/o an internet connection. I was trying to save time by not having to download and install virus protection and all the windows updates. Can this be done w/o internet connection?
I have unhidden the files and folders plus I un-hide the operating system files.

My computer assigned the letter E as the bad hard drive. The E drive properties show 48.8GB as total capacity. The Hard Drive is a 500GB capacity. In properties, it also shows only 91.1MB being used out of 48.8GB File system is NTFS.
When expanded, E drive has a 129 byte Recycle Bin folder, with a ( S-1-5-18 ) folder that is empty.
It also has a folder ( System Volume Information ) with 0 Bytes in it. Also access is denied and system volume info is not accessible.
Lastly it has a Temp Folder with 2 files (SrtTrail 7KB and SrtTrail 3Kb)
This is all that shows under Computer > HP >(E)
There seems to be no boot folder or boot files.
There also is a text doc also under the E Drive that is labeled mbr_backup with 512 bytes and opens w/ notepad.

Regarding the DualBootPro install, I installed it ,got to Boot Information tab, copied it and tried to drop it into a desktop folder to bring over to this letter via a copy of it using a portable flash drive. I couldn't get it to copy to the folder. Need help on this.

I am now running all the diagnostic test on the computer again. Will report the results when finished.

I hope we are nearing a solution to this major problem and again thanks a million!

Robert

[Grav!ty Profile]

Download and install the free version of Avast Anit-Virus. It's an excellent Anti-Virus and you won't be risking anything for the short time you are online downloading it.

I really need a screenshot of Disk Management which you can access by right clicking Computer and then select Manage. The description you give above of your hard drive structure is meaningless.

You will need to simply paste the contents of Boot Information page here when you have copied it.

I aslo need to know whether the items bootmgr and the folder Boot are present on the old installation drive.

[Robert Profile]

Hi Gravity,
Just completed the anti-virus and installing all the updates.
I was unable the find the clipboard to do a screen shot of Disk Managrment. I was able to printscreen a copy to WordPad but was unable to copy the this forum screen. I need your help on this. Thanks.

I was able to copy the "boot information" here for your review.

Regarding the Bootmgr and Boot folder being in the old E drive, the expanded tree shows "none"

Again, please tell me how to get the disk management information copied to this forum page.

Thanks,

Robert


Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
resumeobject {ee6527ea-9d1f-11e0-aa10-ace744c51ceb}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {572bcd55-ffa7-11d9-aae0-0007e994107d}
device ramdisk=[D:]\sources\boot.wim,{ad6c7bc8-fa0f-11da-8ddf-0013200354d8}
path \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe
description HP Recovery Manager
osdevice ramdisk=[D:]\sources\boot.wim,{ad6c7bc8-fa0f-11da-8ddf-0013200354d8}
systemroot \windows
nx OptIn
detecthal Yes
winpe Yes

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {572bcd55-ffa7-11d9-aae2-0007e994107d}
device ramdisk=[D:]\sources\boot.wim,{ramdiskoptions}
path \windows\system32\boot\winload.exe
description HP Recovery Manager
osdevice ramdisk=[D:]\sources\boot.wim,{ramdiskoptions}
systemroot \windows
nx OptIn
detecthal Yes
winpe Yes

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
recoverysequence {572bcd55-ffa7-11d9-aae2-0007e994107d}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {ee6527ea-9d1f-11e0-aa10-ace744c51ceb}
nx OptIn

Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier {ee6527ea-9d1f-11e0-aa10-ace744c51ceb}
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=C:
path \ntldr
description Earlier Version of Windows

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}

Device options
--------------
identifier {ad6c7bc8-fa0f-11da-8ddf-0013200354d8}
description Ramdisk Device Options
ramdisksdidevice partition=D:
ramdisksdipath \boot\boot.sdi

Setup Ramdisk Options
---------------------
identifier {ramdiskoptions}
description RAM Disk Settings
ramdisksdidevice partition=D:
ramdisksdipath \boot\boot.sdi

[Grav!ty Profile]

For the screenshot, press the Print Scree button on your keyboard, open Paint and paste it there, then save it as a .jpg or .png image to your Pictures folder.

Using the "Upload attachment tab" at the bottom of the page where you post here at PROnetworks, browse to your Pictures folder and select the image you created and then click "Add the file". The image will be displayed here.

Looking at that BCD information that you posted, I'm wondering why there is a reference to ntldr there which is an XP or earlier boot loader. Was the old Vista installation at some point dual booting with XP perhaps on a different system?

Irrespective of that, please try the following: Go to the Operating Systems page of DualBootPRO and see what entries are there. If there is an entry in red or an old XP entry, delete the entry by selecting it and then clicking the red cross on the right. Next, select "Add New OS Entry">Name it something like "Vista Old" for now so that you can differentiate between the two installations, then select Windows Vista for OS Type and select the drive letter that is showing up in disk management for drive on which the old Vista installation is on and click Apply Updates.

After that go to the System Bootloader page of DualBootPRO and select Windows Vista>All drives and Install bootloader. Reboot and test the BCD menu entry you created and let us know the result and any error you get if you cannot boot to the old Vista installation yet.

[Robert Profile]

Hi Gravity,
Well, I uploaded the JPG. picture of the disk management display. It did not show up here, hope you got it.
The old hard drive (Hitichi)has always been in the HP computer with Vista only (never removed). I used a "Spotmau boot recovery program" to attempt to fix the Bootmgr problem. It was labeled for both XP and Vista OS's. Maybe it reinstalled the wrong boot files?
I am going to send this note to you now and then follow up on your instructions that you last sent.

Thanks,

Robert

[Robert Profile]

Hi Gravity,
Well I just rebooted and got a choice boot screen. Got Boot Manager Screen. The standard windows vista boot program booted fine. Then I tried booting the new boot install option ( vista old)and got a windows boot manager screen. It said that windows failed to start. A recent software change might be the cause. To fix the problem:
10 Insert windoes install disc and restart.
2) Choose langusge.........next
3)click repair your computer.

File: \Windows\System32\winload.exe

Status: 0xc000000f

info: the selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt.

That's it on booting.

Thanks,

Robert

[Grav!ty Profile]

We didn't get your image...if you can't see it, we can't...you need to also submit it as you would a normal post. Please try again or instead of the upload feature here, use http://imageshack.us and then copy the url for a forum thumbnail and paste it here.

Are the items bootmgr and the folder Boot also present on your old Vista installation? You will be able to see them from your new installation if they are.