Dual-boot XP on separate drive with Vista pre-installed on other drive (Resolved)
Forum rules
Please start your own topic for support with problems you experience. Even if it appears to be exactly the same as someone else's problem, system configurations differ significantly. Thank you.
It may take our support staff between 24-48 hours to respond to your problem. We are a small business and strive to answer your questions as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience.
Please start your own topic for support with problems you experience. Even if it appears to be exactly the same as someone else's problem, system configurations differ significantly. Thank you.
It may take our support staff between 24-48 hours to respond to your problem. We are a small business and strive to answer your questions as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience.
5 posts
• Page 1 of 1
Dual-boot XP on separate drive with Vista pre-installed on other drive (Resolved)
by jemyers77 » Tue Mar 20, 2007 9:13 pm
I have a new HP d4790y which came with Windows Vista pre-installed on a 320 GB SATA-II drive. No Vista disks were provided; the recovery files reside on a separate partition. When I found that legacy software I use won't run properly on Vista (help files disabled), I got another 320 GB SATA-II drive and installed Windows XP Professional. During the XP installation, I disconnected the Vista drive. Changing boot drive order in the BIOS, each OS boots properly. Each OS sees both hard drives. So far so good. Now I want to set up a dual boot arrangement so I don't have to mess with the BIOS each time I want to switch OS. I followed Gravity's instructions in a posting of Mon Jan 29, 2007. I deviated slightly because of dealing with two drives rather than one drive with two partitions. But I must have screwed up somewhere. When I select "Earlier Version of Windows" on the dual-boot menu, a screen opens headed Windows Boot Manager. It reads "Failed to start. Recent hardware or software change might be the cause." The screen suggests a fix that apparently requires the Vista install disk, which I don't have. The screen also refers to File \ntldr , Status 0xc000000f. Can you help me? Would be VERY much appreciated. (Incidentally, when booting my system under Vista, Vista is on C:, recover on D:, and XP is on E:.)
by NT50 » Tue Mar 20, 2007 10:06 pm
Leave the boot order as is when you posted this.
Turn hide system files and folders off
Find the the files ntldr, NTDETECT, boot.ini and make sure they are on both the C: and E: root directories.
Please provide what your boot.ini says
I need a snapshot of your disk manager under Vista to determine if you boot.ini is set correctly.
Please provide what VistaBootPro says when run under Vista. We need to make sure it points to the correct drive.
Dogs Have Owners; Cats Have Staff
- NT50
- PROfessional Member
-
- Posts: 8220
- Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2004 4:46 pm
- Location: Jackson, TN USA
- Real Name: Jeff Replogle
by jemyers77 » Wed Mar 21, 2007 9:36 pm
Thanks for the quick reply, Jeff. Your directions led me to the solution. My dual boot system now works perfectly! I had to do just two things:
1. Copy the files ntldr, NTDETECT, and boot.ini from the root directory of my XP drive (E:) to the root directory of my Vista drive (C:).
2. Edit the boot.ini to point to my XP drive. (On my system, with the HD boot order in the BIOS set for Vista drive first and XP drive second, the Vista drive is 0 and the XP is 1 .)
For the record, I am attempting to post the images you asked for, including my old and revised boot.ini files. I hope the images come through.
Once you know how to setup a dual boot using two physical hard drives, it is a very straightforward process, at least it is on my system. All the cautions about needing to install the older OS first don't apply.
Thanks again!!
John
1. Copy the files ntldr, NTDETECT, and boot.ini from the root directory of my XP drive (E:) to the root directory of my Vista drive (C:).
2. Edit the boot.ini to point to my XP drive. (On my system, with the HD boot order in the BIOS set for Vista drive first and XP drive second, the Vista drive is 0 and the XP is 1 .)
For the record, I am attempting to post the images you asked for, including my old and revised boot.ini files. I hope the images come through.
Once you know how to setup a dual boot using two physical hard drives, it is a very straightforward process, at least it is on my system. All the cautions about needing to install the older OS first don't apply.
Thanks again!!
John
5 posts
• Page 1 of 1
Return to Windows Boot Problems
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest
