XP - Vista Dual Boot Issue

[goodguy8705]

Let me start by saying I read all the tutorials first as to not mess this up but I'll go over what i did anyways so that maybe you can spot the problem.

I have a 250GB sata drive. I had XP installed at the front of the drive in the C: directory like normal. I knew I wanted to dual boot XP and Vista and I read that the only way for it to work was if the partition Vista will be going on is directly behind the XP partition. I used partition magic 8.0 to create C: and D: right after each other. Both are primary partitions and were formatted in NTFS obviously. I had 3 other partitions, E:, F: and G: after C: and D:. These three partitions were all logical partitions for storing data and games and what not. I put in the Vista disc and install to the clean NTFS formatted D: drive with no problem. Vista boots fine with no problem whatsoever. I used EasyBCD to change the name "Previous version of windows" to "Windows XP" like all the tutorials said and made it the default since I would probably be spending more time in XP. Upon restarting and selecting XP, I get a blue screen that looks much like a memory dump but the system restarts so soon afterwards that I can't actually read it. I'm pretty positive its not a memory dump and I'm not sure how to fix it.

As of now, the only two things I can think of is to use EasyBCD to reinstall the vista bootloader and if that doesnt work, to completely uninstall it and rewrite the XP MBR.

I'd like to keep both installs and any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Please... I can't take anymore computer problems (catastrophic data loss including all of my music and original art)

 

[randomstring]

I guess the problem happens when you used EasyBCD to edit the boot config. I am not sure what you have done. After you boot to Vista, could you maually check the boot.ini file to make sure all configs are ok? especially and the partition number for XP, it should be parition one I think. In addition, you may run bcdedit to check all boot configs under Vista to see if there is anything wrong. good luck.

 

[Navid]

If you select Vista, does it boot properly to Vista?
If it does, will you be able to access the files on XP?
If yes to both, I would boot to Vista and backup all the important data you have, on XP, before doing anything else.

 

[goodguy8705]

Yes I can get to the Win XP files without a problem. Vista boots properly from the OS select as well.

BOOT.INI

;
;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

I tried setting it to partition one before I posted but that didn't work either.

EasyBCD

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader TimeOut: 10 seconds.
Default OS: Windows XP

Entry #1

Name: Windows XP
BCD ID: {ntldr}
Drive: D:
Bootloader Path: \ntldr
Windows Directory:

Entry #2

Name: Microsoft Windows Vista
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

EasyBCD Debug Mode

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=D:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {ntldr}
displayorder {ntldr}
{current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 10

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {ntldr}
device partition=D:
path \ntldr
description Windows XP

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
bootdebug No
nointegritychecks No
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {481809c3-f899-11db-b777-abb2ebfd30ab}
nx OptIn
pae ForceDisable
sos No
debug No

 

[goodguy8705]

OK guys I figured it out but the problem is odd. I'll tell you what I think I discovered.

XP is on partition 1. I knew that and the first thing I tried before posting was modifying the boot.ini file to correct this. Originally it didnt work. So I changed it back. At this point I had already set XP to be the default OS choice.

I then changed the default back to Vista and set the boot.ini partition to 1 again. I figured trying many combinations was the way to go. Well, it worked with Vista as the default but not XP. I'm not 100% sure this was the issue but it's the only thing I modified. I'm gonna go test some more. Thanks for the help.

 

[goodguy8705]

Well... I changed the default back to XP and its working fine. I have no idea what the issue was the first time I had partition 1 set.

 

[randomstring]

congradulations! glad to hear you figure it out, actuall found one similar question on MS forum, you may want to read it: http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=878120&SiteID=17, and one user added comments, not sure if it is similar symptom to yours

"I fixed the problem by manually editing the boot.ini file on the windows xp install to change the partition number from 1 to 2. What follows is what happened as far as I understand it.

Gateway has a restoration partition on the drive. They renumbered the partitions so Windows XP was partition 1, despite coming after the system restoration partition. When I either resized my existing partition or installed windows vista (I believe the latter) the special numbering was lost, and Windows XP became partition 2. "