Multi-OS Booting Problem

[Psynaut]

I won't bore you with the details of why I needed to do this, but I did. I normally run Vista 64 bit. I made two new partitions and put Vista32 bit on one, and Xp 32 on the other.

With just Vista 32 and 64 installed, I could choose between the two operating systems at startup, no problem. As soon as I installed XP 32 bit, my computer could only see XP, and would boot right into it. So, I installed EasyBCD and Vista Boot Pro and told them to install the Bootloader ( I don't remember if I told it to do all drives or all partitions)and once again I could choose from all three operatiing systems at boot up.

Now here is my problem: After all three operating systems were installed, I then reinstalled Vista 64 bit (my original OS), and now the computer boots right into Vista 64, I get no options for the other OSs at startup. When I run the install Vista Bootloader from EasyBCD or Vista Boot Pro, it still doesnt see the Vista 32 or the XP 32 operating systems.

Do I need to completely reinstall them again now, or is there some way to make it see them.

Here are my 4 partitons and how they are shown in Disk Management:

C: Vista 64bit - Healthy (System, Boot, page File, Active, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)
D: Storage - Healthy (Logical Drive)
E: Vista 32bit - Healthy (Primary Partition)
F: XP 32bit - healthy (Primary Partition)

I am not sure why or how my storage partition became the Logical drive or if it matters. I am not really very knowledgeable about drives, so I don't actually know which drive should be logical or if it matters. Would making the C drive the logical drive allow my system to see all the other operating systems at bootup?

I feel like kind of a novice on this topic. Thanks for any help.

 

[Jeff7181]

Typically you need to install the oldest OS first because it doesn't know what to do when it sees an OS it doesn't recognize, so it ignores it.

 

[Psynaut]

If, bu oldest, you mean XP, both XP and Vista 32 were already installed, and both were being given to me as options until I reinstalled Vista 64, then after the reinstall, it doesn't see either of them anymore.

 

[thegorx]

after the XP install you should have ran

bootsect.exe /nt60 c:

then you would have been ok but I'm not sure what's going on right now but yes I'm 99% sure you can fix it and should fix it because it can happen again and unless you want to reinstall everything over everytime you run into this then I say it's time to learn.

do a search about the bootsect.exe that is more than likely going to be the biggest help and then I read up on EasyBCD there is so much you can do with that but from vista side.

 

[Psynaut]

Originally posted by: thegorx
after the XP install you should have ran

bootsect.exe /nt60 c:

then you would have been ok but I'm not sure what's going on right now but yes I'm 99% sure you can fix it and should fix it because it can happen again and unless you want to reinstall everything over everytime you run into this then I say it's time to learn.

do a search about the bootsect.exe that is more than likely going to be the biggest help and then I read up on EasyBCD there is so much you can do with that but from vista side.

Excellent, thank you.