# Dual Boot- XP/Vista



## SmartTart

So I've come across a bit of a problem here...
After having network problems with Vista (can't get a wireless signal), I decided to install XP SP2 to a seperate HDD.  Everything is going pretty well overall until I realized that when I boot XP, there is no boot menu- there's no way I can get back to Vista.  I have looked at the M$FT website, among others, and found that everyone recommends installing XP from Vista and using Vista's new-and-improved boot.ini (which isn't really a boot.ini at all) to manually add-in XP.  Well I did it the other way around and XP's boot.ini won't recognize Vista since it doesn't even have such an entry.  I've looked all over and can't seem to find any way that I can either a.) boot to Vista so I can set all this up from that end or b.) manually add-in Vista to the boot menu from the XP partition.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Frustrated and ,
Ben


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## mep916

Run a Startup Repair using the Vista installation disk. That should create a boot menu that will allow you to boot between the OSes.


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## luckyedboy66

download EasyBCD. its a dual booting program that lets you modify the boot registry. i used it when i was dual booting vista/xp, and it worked well.


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## mep916

luckyedboy66 said:


> download EasyBCD. its a dual booting program that lets you modify the boot registry. i used it when i was dual booting vista/xp, and it worked well.



That's another good solution.


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## SmartTart

luckyedboy66 said:


> download EasyBCD. its a dual booting program that lets you modify the boot registry. i used it when i was dual booting vista/xp, and it worked well.



I downloaded the program you recommended, but where do I go from there?
Thanks a lot you guys, you have no idea how much I appreciate this!


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## PC eye

I'm currently working with a beta tool for protecting the Vista system restore points when booting into XP with a dual boot configuration. That works with or without the EasyBCD tool mentioned with the 1.7.2 as the latest release.  http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

In order to see XP added into the Vista boot loader you first copy the XP boot files onto the root of the Vista primary itself. You need the boot.ini, NTDETECT.com, IO.sys, MSDOS.sys files present. If XP is installed last you then obviously have to boot up with the Vista dvd as mentioned before and look in the repair tools section with the link seen on the first splash screen.

The repair tool will instantly rewrite or restore the mbr and other boot information/files with a quick restart to see Vista load right up. You then follow the WiKi instructions for adding XP into the boot loader.  http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Bootloader+Management

The process is easy to follow where you select the add/remove entries option to proceed to select the drive, OS, and even renaming Windows XP to something like XP Home or Pro drive 1 etc. there. Hopefully soon the Beta #1 of the other tool will be readily available for those that want to try it out when a public download link is available. That protects the Vista restore points by actually hiding the Vista primary from XP when booting into that version.


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## tyttebøvs

io.sys and msdos.sys sounds like something from the old 9x and dos days


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## SmartTart

PC eye said:


> I'm currently working with a beta tool for protecting the Vista system restore points when booting into XP with a dual boot configuration. That works with or without the EasyBCD tool mentioned with the 1.7.2 as the latest release.  http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1
> 
> In order to see XP added into the Vista boot loader you first copy the XP boot files onto the root of the Vista primary itself. You need the boot.ini, NTDETECT.com, IO.sys, MSDOS.sys files present. If XP is installed last you then obviously have to boot up with the Vista dvd as mentioned before and look in the repair tools section with the link seen on the first splash screen.
> 
> The repair tool will instantly rewrite or restore the mbr and other boot information/files with a quick restart to see Vista load right up. You then follow the WiKi instructions for adding XP into the boot loader.  http://neosmart.net/wiki/display/EBCD/Bootloader+Management
> 
> The process is easy to follow where you select the add/remove entries option to proceed to select the drive, OS, and even renaming Windows XP to something like XP Home or Pro drive 1 etc. there. Hopefully soon the Beta #1 of the other tool will be readily available for those that want to try it out when a public download link is available. That protects the Vista restore points by actually hiding the Vista primary from XP when booting into that version.




Well the Vista DVD I have (which came with my Velocity Micro) doesn't even have the repair option! Is there an alternate route?


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## PC eye

tyttebøvs said:


> io.sys and msdos.sys sounds like something from the old 9x and dos days


 
Think that is surprising Vista now sees the return of the autoexec.bat file when you look at the root directory!  The primary thought for still seeing the old dos files is for being able to log onto older Fat based networks. XP has those also for installation on Fat 16/32 primaries.



SmartTart said:


> Well the Vista DVD I have (which came with my Velocity Micro) doesn't even have the repair option! Is there an alternate route?


 
It's hard to say with a branded recovery disk since I still don't have anty time with Vista there. You would likely need to see Vista go on last rather then having the option adding XP into in unless using a manual edit with BCD editor in the event you don't get anywhere with the EasyBCD tool itself.

The other tool mentioned before will soon be one I can refer you to that uses the Grub4Dos boot loader set usually to 0 seconds for the display time when in use with EasyBCD. The latest builds were inquired on for seeing availability widened to generally anyone who will try it out and even provide some feedback on it.


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## tyttebøvs

It was actually a bit of a rhetorical question  Neither vista nor xp uses those files for anything. XP uses ntldr as its loader, though.


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## PC eye

Without them present regardless of XP's ntldr and Vista's new boot loader seen a working dual boot still requires those to be present at the Vista root. If even one is lacking you will see Windows stall when selecting XP with a missing system file error.

One thing to note on that is this for seeing XP added after Vista is already on. For simply seeing XP added in automatically Vista being the newer version will detect and add XP as the option for previous version. There's no worry that way on copying XP's files from primary to primary, drive to drive there.


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## tyttebøvs

It doesn't matter how much you want msdos and io.sys present, the fact is, they are not used by xp, sorry


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## SmartTart

PC eye said:


> Without them present regardless of XP's ntldr and Vista's new boot loader seen a working dual boot still requires those to be present at the Vista root. If even one is lacking you will see Windows stall when selecting XP with a missing system file error.
> 
> One thing to note on that is this for seeing XP added after Vista is already on. For simply seeing XP added in automatically Vista being the newer version will detect and add XP as the option for previous version. There's no worry that way on copying XP's files from primary to primary, drive to drive there.



Ahh!  Ok, well I managed to get hold of a Vista disk and while XP was running, I put in the disk and got the autorun menu which still doesn't have any "recovery" option available.  Do I need to run the Vista disk on startup to get to the menu you are referring to?
On another tangent, what do you mean exactly about copying files from one drive to the next and so forth?  I have a basic understanding of computers but this is getting a little over my head.


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## PC eye

It depends if both versions are installed on the same drive or you are setting up a dual boot with one version on a second. The Vista disk has to be booted from in order to see the initial splash screens come up with the link for the repair tools seen on the bottom half of where it show the install now button.

The MS page on this can be seen at  http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/5c59f8c1-b0d1-4f1a-af55-74f3922f3f351033.mspx#EX

When first booting with a regular full install disk you will see the option to first choose the language following the intial loading screen with the scrolling bar. Once you are the repair option screen and select the repair startup you select the installation shown. If more then one edition of Vista is installed you would simply choose the one having a problem.

The image here will show what files are seen copied over from the XP drive here along with the Vista boot files changed by a beta tool being worked with. You can plainly see the config.sys(not included earlier), IO.sys, msdos.sys, and ntldr files are present and actually required to be present What they do besides sit there? When selecting XP from the Vista boot options any missing will be pointed out.


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## tyttebøvs

A hint about those sys files: try and check their conents. And no, they are not used for anything. I don't have them on my system either.


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## PC eye

When you are dual booting the two versions especially between two separate drives the ntldr will expect to see those files present. Those are copied when XP is installed after Vista adding that in not when XP is already on and then detected by the Vista installer. When you select XP the ntldr is then initialized and looks for those along with the information in the modified boot.ini file.

I give the Mandriva installer more credit for seeing all OSs on a system and automatically adding them into it's own boot options. Here that saw C:\Windows, C:\Windows1, and C:\Windows2 with the last being XP. The first and then second were for Vista there while Mandriva made itself the default OS.


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## tyttebøvs

It doesn't become true because you keep saying it.


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## PC eye

I've only been dual booting XP along with Vista for almost a year and a half now with multiple drives along with the EasyBCD program and another about to see a general beta release to answer that one.

Having reinstalled both versions for varying custom installs I've run right into the "missing system error" a few times when simply forgetting to copy the config.sys or io.sys files over to the Vista root. The image above shows how the boot files will look once and if you actually use the new program when that is available seeing the modified Vista boot files as well as those for XP.


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## tyttebøvs

I've been using dos, win 3, 9x, nt, 2k, xp, 2k3, vista. And no, those sys-files is not part of booting neither xp nor vista.

I know xp likes to create them, depending on your setup. But I gave you a hint about checking them out. They contain zero bytes, and are not used for anything. So deleting them won't make any difference.


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## StrangleHold

Hes been told this numerous times. He still claims/thinks the 8mbs of unallocated space left by the XP installer is a design flaw of the installer instead of by design to convert to dynamic disk. He will never relent even if hes wrong. I consider that a design flaw within itself.


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## mep916

SmartTart, use the link PC eye posted as instructions for the startup repair. You'll need to place the Windows disk into the optical drive, restart your computer and boot to the CD. 

Whether or not the files in question are needed to boot Windows is irrelevant. While I agree with tyttebøvs, I'd like everyone to stay on-topic and end it here. 

Thanks.


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## SmartTart

mep916 said:


> SmartTart, use the link PC eye posted as instructions for the startup repair. You'll need to place the Windows disk into the optical drive, restart your computer and boot to the CD.
> 
> Whether or not the files in question are needed to boot Windows is irrelevant. While I agree with tyttebøvs, I'd like everyone to stay on-topic and end it here.
> 
> Thanks.



ah crap!  haha, well I booted up the Vista DVD and once I went through the repair startup, etc. It restarted and I got to a DOS-like screen that asked which OS I wanted to boot from: Vista or XP (I used EasyBCD on XP to get this in).  I hit XP and got an error about it being corrupt or something along those lines.  Missing files, me thinks?  Anyway, going back a few posts, here's the setup:
(HDD1) C: used exclusively for Vista.  One, single, bootable primary partician
(HDD2) E: not sure if that's exactly the drive letter, but irrelevent- (potentially) bootable XP primary partician for HDD2
          F: Not bootable.  Personal files on there- just used for storage.

So as you may have guessed, I went from "out of the pan, into the fire" as they say.  I got out of XP and have the option to dual-boot now (technically), but the XP option doesn't work, so I'm stuck in Vista.  I'm using another computer to access the web, by the way.  Frusterated now.  Can someone help me connect the dots, please?

Also, what is "link PC eye", and what startup instructions?
I've used this link for a little help but after following the directions, it doesn't seem to help.
http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_...talled_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm?page=4

Help me!


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## mep916

In order to use the boot menu, you have to have the OSes installed on the same hard drive with two seperate partitions. Since you have each OS on a seperate hard drive, you need to enter the BIOS and select which hard drive you'd like to boot from. 

If I were you, I'd create an additional partition for XP on HDD1. Install XP on the newly created partition, and you'll be able to boot between the two OSes using the menu. 

Here's the link PC eye provided, although I think you no longer need it. 

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/5c59f8c1-b0d1-4f1a-af55-74f3922f3f351033.mspx#EX


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## SmartTart

mep916 said:


> In order to use the boot menu, you have to have the OSes installed on the same hard drive with two seperate partitions. Since you have each OS on a seperate hard drive, you need to enter the BIOS and select which hard drive you'd like to boot from.
> 
> If I were you, I'd create an additional partition for XP on HDD1. Install XP on the newly created partition, and you'll be able to boot between the two OSes using the menu.
> 
> Here's the link PC eye provided, although I think you no longer need it.
> 
> http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/5c59f8c1-b0d1-4f1a-af55-74f3922f3f351033.mspx#EX



So just to reiterate, there's no way that I can have a dual-boot on two seperate hard drives then (without changing the BIOS boot sequence every time I want to switch OS), correct?

If that's right, will I lose all the information I have if I install XP on another added partition on the C: drive and then delete the one on the F: drive?  I really don't want to lose the data I have now and I don't really have the time/patience/resources to move my 100's of Gb of data to empty HD and DVD's so that I can reformat and so forth.  I kinda understand what you're saying about creating another partition and making HDD2 just storage, but would that be practical at this point or would it be another 24-hour process to complete it?

Thanks for all the help again guys, REALLY appreciate it!


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## sg1

you may not have to go into BIOS to switch- Bring up the BOOT MENU during POST (usually F11) and select the HDD you want


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## SmartTart

But if I go with what he said earlier and devide HDD1 into the Vista and XP partitions, will there be data loss in either HDD?


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## mep916

SmartTart said:


> But if I go with what he said earlier and devide HDD1 into the Vista and XP partitions, will there be data loss in either HDD?



Create another partition on HD1. Install XP on that partition. As long as you partition the hard drive correctly, you shouldn't lose any data. How much hard drive space do you have on HD1?


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## SmartTart

mep916 said:


> Create another partition on HD1. Install XP on that partition. As long as you partition the hard drive correctly, you shouldn't lose any data. How much hard drive space do you have on HD1?



HDD1 is 400GB drive, something like 135 free.


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## mep916

Option 1: 

In your current XP install, use something like the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to backup your personal settings. Create an additional partition for XP on HD1. Install XP on that partition. After the install, you'll need to run the Startup Repair with the Vista DVD. That will create the dual-boot menu, allowing you to boot between the OSes. You'll need to reinstall all your XP applications from the previous install, and use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to restore your personal settings. 

Option 2:

Install Vista on HD2. You'll need to create another partition with at least 15 GB of space available. If you can, I'd make that partition the same size you have on HD1. If you do this, you can delete the Vista partition on HD1 and use that hard drive for storage. 

What much space is available on HD2?


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## PC eye

SmartTart said:


> So just to reiterate, there's no way that I can have a dual-boot on two seperate hard drives then (without changing the BIOS boot sequence every time I want to switch OS), correct?
> 
> If that's right, will I lose all the information I have if I install XP on another added partition on the C: drive and then delete the one on the F: drive? I really don't want to lose the data I have now and I don't really have the time/patience/resources to move my 100's of Gb of data to empty HD and DVD's so that I can reformat and so forth. I kinda understand what you're saying about creating another partition and making HDD2 just storage, but would that be practical at this point or would it be another 24-hour process to complete it?
> 
> Thanks for all the help again guys, REALLY appreciate it!


 
The method I outlined before is for adding XP installed on a separate drive into the Vista boot loader with the Vista drive set as the default boot device. I run XP on a second sata drive here. For a dual boot setup one drive is also set as the default with all boot files and mbr entries found there.

With XP now seen as a stand alone OS on one drive with Vista on the other the reason the XP option hasn't worked is the obvious lack of boot information and of course boot files needed on the Vista drive for XP. Once you have the needed files copied over you boot up with the XP cd first to the recovery console for the Fixboot and Fixmbr commands there with the Vista set as the default boot device.

Vista will then need a startup repair following the revision of the mbr there. When that is done you will then see the boot.ini and other changes in boot instructions modified where the EasyBCD program will be far easier to work with. 

The need to shrink the current Vista primary to create a second one for XP simply isn't there. You don't have to make any drive changes other then following the guide there along with seeing those files copied over before seeing the mbr entries made for each version.

Soon you will likely have the option to use the beta program in development once the Beta #1 release is ready and download page is posted. This protects the Vista restore points in a dual boot setup when booting up in XP.


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## mep916

So, PC eye, you're suggesting that a simple fix of the XP MBR will solve the issue? If so, here's an article that outlines the steps you need to take to fix the MBR: 

http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/483/xp_repair_fix_master_boot_record_recovery_console

After that, PC eye suggests that you run the Vista Startup Repair and use EasyBCD to modify the boot menu. 

Is that right, PC eye?


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## PC eye

One thing done here was to first see each version installed separately on each drive by itself with the other or others unplugged. The last build here saw XP Home on the first ide, Vista on the second, and XP Pro moved to the first sata. The "host" or boot drive was the first ide seeing XP Home there at the time.

RC1 was the game for a dual boot until the Jan. 31 release and additional drives went in. At first Vista went on last even with the first 1.5.2 release found for EasyBCD when it was learned that VistaBOOTPro was a "ripoff" of the EasyBCD program. 

With a dual boot on the same all eseentials are there to start with while stand alones on separate drives see the boot files isolated. You then have to manually copy the XP boot files over and see the mbr rewritten at first with the recovey consolde for XP making that the version that will load. 

After you then correct the Vista mbr using the startup repair to see Vista boot up again you proceed to add XP into the Vista loader using EasyBCD. For the most part you would generally assume the hidden from view ntldr and boot.ini files would be all that was needed until and when you get into the other beta program that works along with EasyBCD for protecting restore points by hiding the Vista primary not other partitions from XP.

The program soon to be more generally available will be set seeing Vista as the default OS while you can select XP or another as default with the second boot menu that you will see. The NeoGrub loader is usually set to 0 seconds display time where you don't even see the Grub4Dos menu only having Vista as the single entry there.

Now for the catcher?! What was found was that you can add XP to that for simply seeing an XP/Vista dual boot while protecting Vista's restore points and not even having the optional EasyBCD installed. For seeing orher OSs like a Linux distro added into the mix you will then still need EasyBCD for the options seen there. 

Plus the main gui is far easier to work with over the command prompt type menu seen with NeoGrub. Why the other boot files for a simplified dual boot there? Grub4Dos is the dos type boot loader that uses those while EasyBCD by itself utilizes the ntldr and boot.ini files only. 

If you want the Vista restore points protected especially with no repair install option available as seen with XP oops! you will want to see all files copied over. The Grub4Dos configuration saves one extra step for booting two versions while protection is there for Vista. Simply seeing all files copied over now may not seem to make sense while those will already be there when the other tool is available very soon by the looks of things so far. (pant... pant... pant out of breath)


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## porterjw

Wow, just...wow. Vista and XP can share the same Hard Drive on separate partitions, yes. However...they will not be very amicable towards each other. It's best if they live of separate Drives altogether.

Ok, to the OP, my advice (and the advice of several others on these Forums) will be to completely ignore everything PC has told you so far. He's turning a super-simple procedure into screenshots galore, Beta test RCI this, and as seen here that. If you want a few good chuckles, just click the second link in my sig - very good stuff!

You installed Vista first, XP second, correct? Now that XP is loaded, you can't boot into Vista - ok, gotcha There are two ways to fix this. The first (and simplest if command lines make you nervous (and they do to a lot of folks, so no worries if they do!) is to install EasyBCD, as mentioned a few times before. Follow the on-screen instructions, and you're most-like done. Just like Staples...that was easy; and it only took two sentences to get out, as opposed to several multi-paragraph Posts. But, if BCD is being funny, or if you want to play with a command line...

...here's how ya do it. First a recap, Vista was installed first, XP second - assuming the XP Install is finished and you boot right into it upon startup, put in your Vista DVD and restart. Get to the Installation screen (but don't click Install!); instead click "Repair" then "Next" (Vista will be the only thing you see here - don't worry, XP is still there). Choose the option to open a Command Line and, once it's opened, type *Bootrec.exe /fixMBR* and press Enter, then *Bootrec.exe /fixBoot* and press Enter. Exit from that area and restart your system. It will auto-boot into Vista this time, but once again, all is good. Once in Vista, open another Command Line, this time as Admin (right-click, run as Admin) and type *bcdedit.exe* and type the following bold commands below (***where "X" in the first line is whatever partition XP is installed on as per Vista's say-so - if you didn't partition the Drive you have Vista on, and you only have the two Drives, this will most-likely be D) (***if X will in fact be D, feel free to copy and paste this exactly, one line at a time, and press Enter after each one is pasted into the Command Terminal)

*bcdedit –set {ntldr} device partition=D:*
*bcdedit –set {ntldr} path \ntldr*
*bcdedit –displayorder {ntldr} –addlast*
*bcdedit -set {ntldr} description "Microsoft Windows XP"*

Once that's done, you can exit out of it and Restart. Grab a piece of cake and eat it because you're done!


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## luckyedboy66

SmartTart said:


> I downloaded the program you recommended, but where do I go from there?
> Thanks a lot you guys, you have no idea how much I appreciate this!



sorry, i sorta left you hanging, but it looks like the rest of the guys pointed you in the right direction.


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## PC eye

First when booting up with the VIsta install dvd there is no command prompt but the option for language seen. Following that the installer loads to the install now or repair tools splash screen. The startup repair tool is an automatic process where you simply select the installation and restart the system with practically a pen stroke.

Simply editing in lines with the BCD editor that comes with Vista won't see XP added either without first seeing the boot files copied over from a separate drive with XP installed there. In case something does go wrong or you later decide to remove XP here's a tip that a few people are simply unaware of. 

The EasyBCD program will run on 98 as well as any other older versions where the  Vista mbr can be restored there if needed. The entire process itself is easily reversed as well.


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## porterjw

> First when booting up with the VIsta install dvd there is no command prompt but the option for language seen. Following that the installer loads to the install now or repair tools splash screen.



Le sigh... Did I say there was a Command Prompt immediately upon booting the DVD, or did I say... "*Get to the Installation screen (but don't click Install!); instead click "Repair" then "Next" (Vista will be the only thing you see here - don't worry, XP is still there). Choose the option to open a Command Line*".



> The startup repair tool is an automatic process where you simply select the installation and restart the system with practically a pen stroke.



Not once did I mention picking the Startup Repair option, which won't address the XP aspect of the Repair "with practically a pen stroke" since they ARE TWO DIFFERENT TYPES OF BOOTLOADERS.

Just like always PC...you fail miserably...


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## PC eye

Why would you open a command line anyways where the process for seeing XP added as a new entry is already simplified with the options seen in EasyBCD? You are sidetracking for a manual edit not even required. Now have a look at the fast and effective method for even a novice!


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## porterjw

Umm, pardon? Did you ever read Post #33? Let me refresh...



> Ok, to the OP, my advice (and the advice of several others on these Forums) will be to completely ignore everything PC has told you so far. He's turning a super-simple procedure into screenshots galore, Beta test RCI this, and as seen here that. If you want a few good chuckles, just click the second link in my sig - very good stuff!



Oh! Sorry, wrong paragraph... 



> You installed Vista first, XP second, correct? Now that XP is loaded, you can't boot into Vista - ok, gotcha *There are two ways to fix this.* *The first (and simplest if command lines make you nervous (and they do to a lot of folks, so no worries if they do!) is to install EasyBCD, as mentioned a few times before. Follow the on-screen instructions, and you're most-like done. Just like Staples...that was easy; and it only took two sentences to get out, as opposed to several multi-paragraph Posts.* *But, if BCD is being funny, or if you want to play with a command line...*



...yadayadayada.

So, I Owned you in Post 33, you tried to backtrack and trip me up in Post 35, I proved you wrong again in Post 36, and you're still trying to trip me up again in Post 37...do I have that right? Thought so.

((I can't wait to see what Post 39 will bring!))


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## SmartTart

mep916 said:


> Option 1:
> 
> In your current XP install, use something like the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to backup your personal settings. Create an additional partition for XP on HD1. Install XP on that partition. After the install, you'll need to run the Startup Repair with the Vista DVD. That will create the dual-boot menu, allowing you to boot between the OSes. You'll need to reinstall all your XP applications from the previous install, and use the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard to restore your personal settings.
> 
> Option 2:
> 
> Install Vista on HD2. You'll need to create another partition with at least 15 GB of space available. If you can, I'd make that partition the same size you have on HD1. If you do this, you can delete the Vista partition on HD1 and use that hard drive for storage.
> 
> What much space is available on HD2?




I really like the sound of option 1, although I'm still not jumping for joy about reinstalling all the programs I have accumulated on XP.
HDD2- 700Gb, about 500 free between the XP and storage partitions


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## SmartTart

imsati said:


> Wow, just...wow. Vista and XP can share the same Hard Drive on separate partitions, yes. However...they will not be very amicable towards each other. It's best if they live of separate Drives altogether.
> 
> Ok, to the OP, my advice (and the advice of several others on these Forums) will be to completely ignore everything PC has told you so far. He's turning a super-simple procedure into screenshots galore, Beta test RCI this, and as seen here that. If you want a few good chuckles, just click the second link in my sig - very good stuff!
> 
> You installed Vista first, XP second, correct? Now that XP is loaded, you can't boot into Vista - ok, gotcha There are two ways to fix this. The first (and simplest if command lines make you nervous (and they do to a lot of folks, so no worries if they do!) is to install EasyBCD, as mentioned a few times before. Follow the on-screen instructions, and you're most-like done. Just like Staples...that was easy; and it only took two sentences to get out, as opposed to several multi-paragraph Posts. But, if BCD is being funny, or if you want to play with a command line...
> 
> ...here's how ya do it. First a recap, Vista was installed first, XP second - assuming the XP Install is finished and you boot right into it upon startup, put in your Vista DVD and restart. Get to the Installation screen (but don't click Install!); instead click "Repair" then "Next" (Vista will be the only thing you see here - don't worry, XP is still there). Choose the option to open a Command Line and, once it's opened, type *Bootrec.exe /fixMBR* and press Enter, then *Bootrec.exe /fixBoot* and press Enter. Exit from that area and restart your system. It will auto-boot into Vista this time, but once again, all is good. Once in Vista, open another Command Line, this time as Admin (right-click, run as Admin) and type *bcdedit.exe* and type the following bold commands below (***where "X" in the first line is whatever partition XP is installed on as per Vista's say-so - if you didn't partition the Drive you have Vista on, and you only have the two Drives, this will most-likely be D) (***if X will in fact be D, feel free to copy and paste this exactly, one line at a time, and press Enter after each one is pasted into the Command Terminal)
> 
> *bcdedit –set {ntldr} device partition=D:*
> *bcdedit –set {ntldr} path \ntldr*
> *bcdedit –displayorder {ntldr} –addlast*
> *bcdedit -set {ntldr} description "Microsoft Windows XP"*
> 
> Once that's done, you can exit out of it and Restart. Grab a piece of cake and eat it because you're done!



Well If I understand you right, I think I did all that using that first program you mentioned and since the Vista and XP partitions are on seperate physical drives (HDD1 and HDD2 for variable purposes) I get a "corrupt files" error when I try booting to XP in Vista's "ntldr" menu.


EDIT: Also, did I read somewhere this could be fixed by copying files from one disk to another regarding boot sequences?  I've used the EasyBCD (or whatever that was) and got XP and Vista both on there and by creating and erasing the Vista ntldr file I can (painfully slowly) dual boot between the two over the course of about a 10-minute turnaround, but I have not yet manually messed with command prompt or added/copied files between the two drives.  Would that help somewhere...?


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## sg1

@ Imsati , You sound like you are having some kinda "i'm better than you" confrontation with PcEye?? 
At the end of the day we are here to help SmartTart(great name BTW ) to get her system running as she wants it to be .. agreed??

Let's all start working together before the Mods get involved.!!


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## godvind

PC eye said:


> After you then correct the Vista mbr using the startup repair to see Vista boot up again



The initial OS loader is stored in the PBR, not in the MBR. So just fixing the mbr won't get vista back.


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## porterjw

SmartTart said:


> Well If I understand you right, I think I did all that using that first program you mentioned and since the Vista and XP partitions are on seperate physical drives (HDD1 and HDD2 for variable purposes) I get a "corrupt files" error when I try booting to XP in Vista's "ntldr" menu.
> 
> 
> EDIT: Also, did I read somewhere this could be fixed by copying files from one disk to another regarding boot sequences?  I've used the EasyBCD (or whatever that was) and got XP and Vista both on there and by creating and erasing the Vista ntldr file I can (painfully slowly) dual boot between the two over the course of about a 10-minute turnaround, but I have not yet manually messed with command prompt or added/copied files between the two drives.  Would that help somewhere...?



Right, sometimes that happens with EasyBCD. That's why I posted the second part of my Post that deals with manually editing the bcdedit.exe file in Vista. When you go in and physically change the file (as opposed to having the program do it and miss a step) it's a lot more accurate.



> @ Imsati , You sound like you are having some kinda "i'm better than you" confrontation with PcEye??
> At the end of the day we are here to help SmartTart(great name BTW ) to get her system running as she wants it to be .. agreed??
> 
> Let's all start working together before the Mods get involved.!!



With all due respect, you're probably too new to realize what PC does. He's useless - plain and simple. He has zero knowledge - everything he Posts comes from Googling the info, screenshots that have nothing to do with the actual problem at hand, or back-tracking and saying 'I didn't Post that' or 'We obviously misread my post/don't know what I'm talking about' when someone points out the error (and there is ALWAYS one) in his Posts. He's bee doing this since he started - almost 19k Posts ago. He will try in vain to convince everyone he's correct, even after he's proved wrong by those on here who actually know what they're doing. Really, the only people he impresses are the newcomers who see his "18k+" Post count and think he's a Forum demigod for having that many, therefore, he MUST know his stuff... This is a Forum to HELP others, not muck up there system to the point of reinstalling software because ofgiving piss-poor advice. Do a search for other Threads he's "helped" in, specifically the second link in my sig, then tell me if he still holds credibility. And for the record, the way to help, SmartTart as you suggested we try to do, is to ignore everything PC's posted.

It's absolutely disgusting the Forum PTB's haven't banned him yet.


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## sg1

@Imsati, Rather than being "unproffesional" and slating others on the forum for everyone to see, would it not have been better to PM me instead.

AND just for the record, I'm not new to the forum, I was a GOLD member over two years ago but I couldn't remember my u/n and p/w or the addy I used to sign up with so I just started again!!

I've noticed , much has changed in the last two years, now their seems to be a lot more youngsters on here that are more concerned with going off on a tangent and not actually getting the issues resolved!!

I don't tend to add my two pennies worth unless I'm pretty sure what I'm saying is 100% true!! I tend to observe more and keep my BIG MOUTH SHUT!!

ANYWAY......... Back on topic please.


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## StrangleHold

sg1 said:


> @Imsati, Rather than being "unproffesional" and slating others on the forum for everyone to see, would it not have been better to PM me instead.
> 
> AND just for the record, I'm not new to the forum, I was a GOLD member over two years ago but I couldn't remember my u/n and p/w or the addy I used to sign up with so I just started again!!


 
AND, just for the record is your PM button not working. Doing the same thing your tell someone else not to do. HUM. Every post he made was helping SmartTart. And telling someone to ignore PC eye is a smart move 90% of the time.


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## sg1

StrangleHold said:


> AND, just for the record is your PM button not working.


my buttons working fine and I would send him PM if he accepted PM's from other members!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I see you're in his friends list.


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## sg1

@ SmartTart , 





mep916 said:


> Run a Startup Repair using the Vista installation disk. That should create a boot menu that will allow you to boot between the OSes.


Did you ever try this?


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## porterjw

>>Post #47

The only problem with that is (again this is being mentioned...try to keep pace) the bootloader for Vista and XP is different. XP's MBR cannot recognize Vista, but Vista's BCD *can* recognize XP, but only *after* it is edited - a simple 'reinstall BCD' won't work. Refer to my first Post in this Thread for explicit details on how to edit it.

I'm not going to turn this into a Flame war, and this will be the last Post in this Thread for me. I didn't come in to run my mouth or take the sunshine away from anyone just so I could stand in it. In fact, the only reason for my original Post was because a Moderator *specifically asked me to assist*. I'll not mention names, but if they want to pop in, it's up to them (no pressure to do so though). We can run our mouths back and forth until the Thread is locked, but honestly, it's not worth it at this point. If the OP chooses to blindly listen to PC, then I don't want to hear it when the fresh installations of both XP and Vista happen. However, if they have any questions or get hung-up somewhere, they can take the advice that Strangle or others that actually know what they're talking about gave so far, or the OP can post up their email address and I'll personally respond to them and only them.

Also, I accept PM's from everyone, you simply don't have the 100 Posts required to send one yet.

Peace.

--Jay, 100% done with this Thread (strongly considering going back to his assistance via PM only rule)


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## SmartTart

sg1 said:


> @ SmartTart , Did you ever try this?



umm, ok well getting back on track...  Yes, I did try that.  And way back there (seeing as how atleast 2 pages of this thread is unrelated) I actually mentioned that I hit the startup repair, got Vista back and technically got the boot menu available once I restarted.  Problem was, when I tried to open the XP option it wouldn't let me boot to it- "corrupted file" error or something.  So I went from being stuck in XP to being stuck in Vista.  
So after going back into EasyBCD (or whatever it's called) I erased the Vista ntldr file I think which basically undid the startup repair and got back the automatic XP boot.

SO- Since almost purely by democratic vote I've decided against "PC eye" 's suggestion, how do I change the Vista booter to find XP since the XP one can't find Vista (such as Jay said)?
Thanks you guys
PC- nothing personal about not taking your advice.  You could be right and I not know it, but since I am admittedly a newbie here I am going to go along with the majority on this one since I can't really vouch for anyone's personal record.


EDIT: imsati, will you email me at smarttart [at] ymail for personal help?
Thank you all!


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## PC eye

The basic reason XP failed to load when seeing it as an option in the Vista boot loader is you likely had the boot.ini file error typically seen. Vista doesn't have an ntldr file. The new version sees an entirely new boot loader.

Once you use the startup repair option on the Vista dvd to restore Vista you then proceed to add XP into the Vista boot loader with EasyBCD while in Windows. At first Vista has to be the default OS in order to see that done while you set XP as default with the program as well.

As for the startup repair tool seen on the Vista dvd that is strictly an automatic repair tool for seeing problems with Vista loading repaired. That has nothing to do with boot entries for an older version or other OS.


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## snarley25

If you have two SATA hard drives, (instead of IDE Drives), I would recommend using a physical switch to multi-boot.  Go to www.thesataswitch.com


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## PC eye

With multiple drives ide or sata you don't even need a switch but a boot device menu where you simply choose the drive to boot from. That also includes the option for optical and floppy drives as well. 

Of course someone I know of simply throws a few switches to load any OS including all versions of Windows. Quite a setup! But without all that the method is simple enough between the two versions without any additional wiring.


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