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[Alieus_Tiger Profile]

hey all,

so im kinda new to dual booting...in saying that my problems could be easily fixed, i have searched multiple threads looking for similar problems but havn't found a real solution...meaning that some of the things i've tried have worked...and then just reverted to not working again...

now on to the problem...

ok, so i got 2 hard drives, one with XP and the other vista, i normally have to use bios to toggle between them, so i got vistabootpro, and then all my problems started. i ran diagnostic in vbp and it picked up both os's, what i didnt understand was how it set my boot path for vista to sumthin like C:windows... and it set my XP to {ntrld} or sumthin. having no idea what that means might be my problem, so anyway, when i reboot, i select xp...computer restarts and loops back to the boot select screen...infinite loop if i keep choosing xp, i end up reinstallin vista, and do the vista boot pro thing again, this time when i reboot, it comes up with boot select, i select xp and it comes up with the xp loading...then just restarts. i go back into vista(note i can boot into vista just fine) and do the 'uninstall boot thing' option(i'd already tried the reinstall-same results) ok so i figured this would let me boot to xp straight away...nope it just loops again, this time with no boot selection screen, i use bios to boot to vista hard drive and this time i cant boot to vista either...so i figure i gotta reinstall vista...again.

currently im running a repair on xp...which seems to keep freezing at 'installing devices...so im not gonna bother with that anymore...

and thats where im at...

sorry for the loooooooooooooong post, but im pretty desperate for help...HELP!

thanks

[Grav!ty Profile]

With dual booting, the first rule to follow is not to change the boot drive priority/order. Secondly, it's best practice to first install the older OS (in your case Windows XP, followed by the newer OS (Windows Vista).

However, it's not always practical to follow the second rule (the first rule one cannot detract from), especially where you already have a perfectly good installation of Windows Vista.

Ideally in your situation, set the Vista drive to be your boot drive and then follow this guide: Install Windows XP in a Dual Boot with Pre-installed Windows Vista

[Alieus_Tiger Profile]

is there a way where i can keep my XP installation. sorry for not understanding but i dont see how reinstalling XP is gonna help me, is there sumthin i can do about its boot record? again sorry if i dont understand.

EDIT: i forgot to mention when i load up vistabootloader after installing it, it says: i think you dont have windows vista installed or you have an irregualr drive configuration

[Alieus_Tiger Profile]

ok, so i did what you said, reinstalled xp, and folowed the guide:

"Open VistaBootPRO, ignore the prompt to backup your BCD. Go to the Bootloader tab and "Reinstall the Vista bootloader". Next, go to the Diagnostics item on the menu bar and select "Run Diagnostics". VistaBootPRO will default back to the Manage OS Entries page and you will see that you now have entries there for "Earlier versions of Windows" as well as "Microsoft Windows Vista". "

however in mine when i do diagnostics, it dosnt show any os's...

help?

thanks again grav!ty

[Grav!ty Profile]

Check in disk management which is the drive tagged System and then make sure that disk has all the boot system files for both XP and Vista on it. If not then copy and paste them there. For XP you need boot.ini, NTDETECT.COM and ntldr and for Vista you need the folder Boot (and contents) and bootmgr.

Once you've confirmed that those are all on the drive marked system, try running diagnostics again in VistaBootPRO and if that still doesn't help then try running "Startup Repair" by booting to your Vista DVD and select "Repair my computer" at the "Install Now" screen

[Alieus_Tiger Profile]

alrighty, where im at now:

i've installed xp on one harddrive, and then switched the other hard drive to main, and installed vista on that

i can currently boot into vista(system), i have put the boot files for xp onto the vista drive in root.

(ALL RUNNING IN VISTA-)i run vbp, reinstall bootloader, ran diagnositcs, picked up both os's...it however set the boot drive to D: for both of them...they ARE seperate harddrives though....does the bootloader look for the xp boot files on the vista drive when booting to xp or sumthin?

when i reboot and select xp, i get this error:

Windows could not start because the folowing file is missing or corrupt:
<Windows>\System32\ntoskrnl.exe
Please reinstall a copy of the above file.

what do you think grav!ty?

[kd1966 Profile YIM]

Note to move to Vista Support area

[Grav!ty Profile]

Gosh I'm really not sure what it means to get an ntoskernel.exe missing or corrupt error. Lets see what the others have to say.

I wonder what the effect of replacing it with a copy from the XP CD would be? Alternatively it could just be that it's looking for it on the wrong drive?

I think try booting to XP with the XP CD in the CD drive and see what happens. If it boots properly then, it would mean that a simple replacement of the file may do the trick.

Another thing to check is that your boot.ini is still pointing to the correct drive/partition. If XP is on your second drive on the first or only partition, then it should read rdisk(1)partition(1) in both places that is mentioned/required. Maybe check this out first come to think of it.

[JabbaPapa Profile]

Sounds like you may need to clean install XP, then repair your dual-boot capabilities.

---

That particular error usually means that your existing XP is toast, and irreperable

You should theoretically format the XP system drive BTW --- but if your data is present in that drive, then a more careful repair solution will be necessary

Providing you install the XP to the same partition, dual-boot capability should be reparable ...

[Alieus_Tiger Profile]

Thanks Grav!ty, its all solved now

btw, i had already reinstalled vista 12 times and xp 4 times, so i deinently knew my installs were fine. what it came down to was changing that boot.ini file...it was lookin in the wrong place:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

and i changed it to this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Home Edition" /fastdetect

now i get my dual boot option, and i can boot to either-no errors

thanks again for your help guys, i learned alot from this...i never even knew what a boot.ini file was before all this