[Grav!ty]

Reformatted and Reinstalled XP: Lost Boot to Vista


So you’ve reformatted your Windows XP drive/partition and reinstalled Windows XP and now you can’t boot into Windows Vista? The reason is the files that Windows Vista needs to be able to boot have been removed in the process.

No Vista boot system files


Both Windows XP and Windows Vista place these files on the System drive of the computer they are installed on. For Windows Vista they are:

A. The folder Boot which contains the BCD (Boot Configuration Data) store and fulfills the same function as the boot.ini file does for Windows XP. On startup, it points the system to:

B. The file bootmgr which in Windows Vista, replaces the Windows XP file, ntldr.


To recover the ability to boot into Windows Vista, you need to:

1. Insert your Vista DVD and boot to DVD, as if you are going to run Vista setup.

2. After selecting your Language, Time and currency settings, click Next and at the “Install now” screen select “Repair your computer”.

Setup Screen 1: Language, Time and currency............Setup Screen 2: Repair your computer
........................................

3. System Recovery Options will appear and start searching for Windows Vista installations. Then a dialog box will come up telling you that problems with the startup options were found. Select “Repair and restart”

Searching for Windows installations..............Found problems
............................

4. All that startup repair has done so far is to place the folder Boot on the system drive and you will boot back into Windows XP. Now you need to let Startup Repair rebuild the BCD store.

The folder Boot has been restored


5. Boot to the Vista DVD again and repeat the process as in Point 2 above. System Recovery Options will again appear and start searching. This time your Vista installation/s will be shown. Select your Vista installation (or the first listed installation if you have more than one Vista installation on your system) and click Next. At the next dialog box select “Startup Repair” and when that is done, select “Finish” at the next screen to restart your system.

a. Searching for Windows - again................b. Select the OS to Repair
...........................

c. Select "Startup Repair".......................d. Finish to complete the repairs
..........................

6. You will now boot directly into Windows Vista and the option to boot into Windows XP will now temporarily have been lost. If you only had one Vista installation on your system you will not see the Vista boot menu at this stage. Startup repair will now have copied the file bootmgr to your system drive and rebuilt your BCD.

Boot into Windows Vista..................bootmgr restored
..................

7. Download and install VistaBootPRO if you don’t already have it installed on your Vista installation. Do not at this stage backup your BCD as it is not yet complete.

Open VistaBootPRO and go to the View Settings tab and select “Detailed”. Note the drive letter on which the file bootmgr was placed. It will be shown in the very first entry listed, with the identifier {bootmgr}.

Now go to the Manage OS Entries tab in VistaBootPRO and select “Add new operating system entry” and select “Windows Legacy”, give the entry a name such as Windows XP and select the drive letter you noted from the drop down menu and press Apply.

If the new entry you created comes up with black text you know for sure your drive selection was correct and you are home and dry.

You can select the Windows XP entry and make it the default entry if you choose to, and move it to the top of the Vista boot menu.

Detailed view............................Add new OS entry.....................New XP entry added
...........................

8. Reboot and select the Windows XP entry which you created to boot into Windows XP. You can use VistaBootPRO to rename the boot menu items as you choose and to get rid of the (recovered) tag.

Boot to Windows XP

[bharkins]

Very nice detail document Gravity, I printed it for my Vista file for future emergency. One question, how did you install the multiple versions of Vista - Home Premium, Business, etc? Or is that only the province of the official beta testers?

[Grav!ty]

Thank you bharkins In the last few builds of Vista it's not necessary to insert the product key during installation, so one can install all the versions that show up if one does not insert the product key, all from the same DVD.

This still gives one 30 days to play with the version you want to try. I've never tried the two versions marked with an N at the end of the name so have no idea what those are.

[bharkins]

I'll give it a try. I'd like to compare Premium to Ultimate as that is what I would probably buy when it hits the shelves.

[The Phoenix]

I may be wrong but I believe the ones with a N at the end are the European Versions, i.e when the %@#*& at the EU forced Microsoft to offer XP without Media Player Built In and a few other bits. Least I think I read thats what it is

[Logicalx]

ah been looking for something like this lol i had to re-install xp but lost the boot for vista aint been on it for like 3 weeks but now im waiting for later builds of vista before i try anymore for now but deffo going to try this cheers :D

[Michaels]

Thank you bharkins In the last few builds of Vista it's not necessary to insert the product key during installation, so one can install all the versions that show up if one does not insert the product key, all from the same DVD.

This still gives one 30 days to play with the version you want to try. I've never tried the two versions marked with an N at the end of the name so have no idea what those are.

ooh my gosh, gravity, you must be kidding. i have just gone through reinstalling everything for the millionth times, because i reinstalled winxp

however, this option of {trying} installing other edition if one does not insert key is not avaliable in the last {5744} version? -right?

that is a piece of information there, very very useful

good job

[Grav!ty]

Thank you Michaels. It's available in Build 5744. I took that screenshot from the X86 version but the same applies to X64

[bharkins]

I have just had to go through this exact problem after some "crash and burn" impulses to no avail of course, before looking up your procedure again. It worked perfectly, the combo of boot file copying into XP and Vista root, the rebuild from the Vista DVD and setup of VistaBootPro is the way to go.

Thanks again Gravity and the Pro-Networks team!

[billdownunder]

excellent tutorial gravity thanks !!
been looking for it due to recent purchase of DELL with pre-installed Vista by default.

some question.
on yr screen shot you had x4 different Vista OS installed and x1 WinXP OS installed, this makes total of x5 OS installed.

how is this possible as reading other forums i understand the max primary partitions on x1 disk = 4 primary partitions or (x3 primary + x1 extended partition)

would luv to learn a way around this as , DELL already uses up x3 primary partitions with:
1: DELL Util (Primary)
2: RECOVERY(Primary)
3: VISTA OS(Primary,Active)
4: Hidden( Extended)

as ideally wanted to also add additional 1) Win XP Os and 2) Win2K3 OS to above, but not enough primary partitions on single HDD Laptop.

any ideas? sugestions? would be apprciated. thanks