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[Tec1 Profile]

My system prior to installing Windows 7 consisted of the following OS on a partitioned disk. HP Recovery partition, XP and Windows Vista Home Premium and they worked without any problem. After having problems installing Win7 I read that Vista would only support 3 boot partitions and as I would not use the recovery partition I deleted it and Win 7 loaded and ran without any problem as did Vista. As the recovery partition was at the front of the drive next to XP I extended its partition to takein the free space. Now on starting up I have the options Earlier version of Windows, Vista, Windows 7 and Recovery console. On trying to boot to XP I get the error message that " File: \ntldr 0xc0000225" is missing. On looking at VistaBootPro 3.3 the entry for XP is in red and shows the following. Name: Earlier Version of Windows
BCD ID: {ntldr}
Boot Drive: unknown
System Bootloader: \ntldr
I am reluctant at this stage to force bootloader as I do not know if it will effect the 2 OS working ok and the Vista one is my default and main system. Any help would be very much appreciated.

[Nativedude Profile WebsiteICQ]

Try this, in Windows Vista, go to the Manage OS Entries of VistaBootPRO
Delete the XP entry that is there and add a new one, Name being whatever you want, type being Windows Legacy, and drive being the letter to your windows XP drive from within Vista, hit apply updates and reboot

[Tec1 Profile]

Thanks for taking the trouble to reply much appreciated. I did as you suggested and now when I boot and select the new entry the screen changes to Windows Media Centre boot screen as it always did but then the screen goes black and hangs at that. The VistaBootPro details are as below.

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

Default OS: Microsoft Windows Vista

Entry 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Windows 7
BCD ID: {3c105041-e0fe-11dd-84f2-f6d5278da5be}
Boot Drive: E:
Windows Drive: E:
System Bootloader: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Windows Recovery Environment
BCD ID: {3c105042-e0fe-11dd-84f2-f6d5278da5be}
Boot Drive: :]\Recovery\3c105042-e0fe-11dd-84f2-f6d5278da5be\Winre.wim,{3c105043-e0fe-11dd-84f2-f6d5278da5be}
Windows Drive: :]\Recovery\3c105042-e0fe-11dd-84f2-f6d5278da5be\Winre.wim,{3c105043-e0fe-11dd-84f2-f6d5278da5be}
System Bootloader: \windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \windows

Entry 3
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Microsoft Windows Vista
BCD ID: {current}
Boot Drive: C:
Windows Drive: C:
System Bootloader: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry 4
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: Windows XP
BCD ID: {ntldr}
Boot Drive: D:
System Bootloader: \ntldr

Thanks again

[NT50 Profile]

Have you looked at the guide below?

Dual Boot Trouble Shooting Guide / Vista Running

[Tec1 Profile]

Yes I did read it but was concerned that it would disable my Vista partition which is my main system. In disk management the XP partition is shown as " Healthy ( System, Active, Primary Partition )

[Nativedude Profile WebsiteICQ]

You shouldn't have any problems if you follow that guide
The worse is that you still won't be able to boot into XP, but it shouldn't hurt your vista any

[Tec1 Profile]

Carried out instructions with bootloader and Vista and Windows 7 are fine but XP is no different. I don't know if its relevant but if I look at Advanced BCD IN VistaBootPro the drop down selection box for OS only shows Vista and Windows 7. Thanks again for your continuing help.

[NT50 Profile]

If the XP partition is the System, Active partition then you wil have to have all the necessary files on that partition in order for any of the operating systems to boot.

XP requires: ntldr, NTDETECT, boot.ini
Vista requires bootmgr, and folder called Boot
Win 7 is utilizing the same boormgr as Vista as far as I know.

Once all those files and folder are on the same drive/partition then you will be able to accomplish the dual boot.

[Tec1 Profile]

I have checked the XP drive from My Computer in Vista and those files are present. I opened the Boot.Ini file and it reads as follows:

;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /NOEXECUTE=ALWAYSOFFMULTI(0)DISK(0)RDISK(0)PARTITION(2)\WINDOWS="WINDOWS XP MEDIA CENTER EDITION" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT
c:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /CMDCONS

Thanks again for your help.

[NT50 Profile]

Is the folder "Boot" and the file "bootmgr" present?
If not then those are required for Vista to boot.