Vista/XP dual-boot fiasco

[soydios]

I've been using Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit OEM for six months now, but I discovered the other day that the video capture functionality on ATi graphics cards is only available under Windows XP. So, I dropped an old 30GB IDE hard drive into my system, and began installing Windows XP Professional 32-bit. It copied all the files over and restarted to begin installation, but after POST it displayed "Error loading operating system."

Hmph, Windows XP had replaced Vista's BCD with its own MBR. Now, here's the problem: the Vista Startup Recovery from the installation DVD says that the BCD is *FINE*.

Cliffs:
- installed Windows XP on third hard drive (IDE) in system, alongside 2 SATA hard drives (Vista, personal files)
- Windows XP MBR overwrites Vista BCD
- remove IDE hard drive
- Windows Vista Recovery says that the BCD is fine
- still get the message: "Error loading operating system" after POST
- all drives are LBA-enabled, showing up in the BIOS and the Vista Install/Recovery Manager, and the boot priority was never changed in the BIOS
...
- help me please? are there any tools to modify the Vista BCD?

I have backups of my critical files, but it would be rather inconvenient for me to have to reinstall Vista, all my applications, recreate my iTunes library, etc.

 

[Cutthroat]

I'm really suprised the Vista disk didn't detect it and fix it. A couple of things to try...

First try using EasyBCD from XP to try to fix the Vista bootloader.

If that doesn't work or work well enough you can use the command line utility BCDedit to completely rebuild it from scratch (I actually did this once for different reasons) but is is kinda difficult.

Finally, perhaps if you completely mess up (or delete) the BCD with either utility the Vista DVD will recognize it as messed up and fix it for you.

 

[AllGamer]

from from Vista CD, and go into repair mode
the make Vista recreate the boot inis

 

[AllGamer]

Next time use BIOS booting, rather than OS dual booting.

now all new PC lets you pick from Which HDD to boot from

no more need to mess around with Boot.ini stuff

 

[soydios]

*UPDATE*

I discovered that I can run bcdedit.exe from the Vista Repair Options. I tried everything I could think of, from rearranging the boot order to deleting the whole shebang. Every time I delete the BCD, Vista Startup Recovery/Repair rebuilds it "successfully", but I still get the "Error loading operating system" message after POST.

 

[Cutthroat]

Well the next option is to completely rebuild your BCD from scratch. I spent quite a bit of time doing research on how to do it when I needed to, so the info is out there. It'll be a bit frustrating but you'll get it.

Here's mine for some reference, this is the rebuilt one.


Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
displayorder {current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
loadoptions DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
inherit {bootloadersettings}
bootdebug No
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {f47a2ba5-240d-11dc-8ef4-86367f96d4ea}
nx OptIn
pae ForceEnable
vga No
quietboot No
sos No
debug No

Resume from Hibernate
---------------------
identifier {f47a2ba5-240d-11dc-8ef4-86367f96d4ea}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winresume.exe
description Windows Resume Application
locale en-US
inherit {resumeloadersettings}
filepath \hiberfil.sys
debugoptionenabled No

Windows Memory Tester
---------------------
identifier {memdiag}
device partition=C:
path \boot\memtest.exe
description Windows Memory Diagnostic
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
badmemoryaccess Yes

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {ntldr}
device partition=C:
path \ntldr
description Earlier Version of Windows

EMS Settings
------------
identifier {emssettings}
bootems Yes

Debugger Settings
-----------------
identifier {dbgsettings}
debugtype Serial
debugport 1
baudrate 115200

RAM Defects
-----------
identifier {badmemory}

Global Settings
---------------
identifier {globalsettings}
inherit {dbgsettings}
{emssettings}
{badmemory}

Boot Loader Settings
--------------------
identifier {bootloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}

Resume Loader Settings
----------------------
identifier {resumeloadersettings}
inherit {globalsettings}

 

[soydios]

*RESOLUTION*

Whew, boy am I glad that I got this fixed, and all my backups updated.

To fix this mess, I installed a second copy of Vista (from the same DVD, I just didn't activate it) onto the third hard drive in my system, but I left the primary hard drive as is, so when it installed, it created an entirely new BCD on the primary hard drive with my original Vista installation in the menu, so I was able to go from there and restore everything.

Thanks for all your help anyway, guys.

 

[Cutthroat]

Nice thinking

 

[Arkaign]

Good job! Next time, if you're adding an OS on a seperate drive, disconnect the current drive/os, and install clean & separate on the new drive. Then use the Bios to select which drive you boot from. Keeps the OSes utterly separate, which is terrific.