Dual boot problem

[Guest]

Ive got 2 hard drives, one with xp pro, the other with a new installation of
Vista Beta 2. The dual boot menu appears on startup but both options say
'Microsoft Windows' and both boot Vista. I can boot xp only by changing the
hard drive boot priority in the bios..

Ive read a little about BCDedit but I cant figure out how to add xp to the
boot menu.

any help appreciated!..

 

[milleron]

Ive got 2 hard drives, one with xp pro, the other with a new installation of
Vista Beta 2. The dual boot menu appears on startup but both options say
'Microsoft Windows' and both boot Vista. I can boot xp only by changing the
hard drive boot priority in the bios..

Ive read a little about BCDedit but I cant figure out how to add xp to the
boot menu.

any help appreciated!..

It looks as though you ended up with Vista's Boot Configuration Data
store on the Vista drive when you wanted it to be on the XP drive.
It's not going to be easy to fix. I can point you to this page
http://www.neowin.net/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t381536.html but
it's an arcane and daunting task.

You may simply want to go into XP, wipe out the Vista drive in the
Drive-Management console by reformatting that drive and assigning it a
drive letter, and then reinstall Vista. If you launch Vista Setup
from within XP and then choose the "custom" install so that you can
specify which drive Vista is supposed to be on, I think it will
install Vista on that drive but place its BCD store on your current C:
drive. Launching Setup from within XP assures that Vista Setup is
aware that Vista will be the second operating system so that it will
properly set up the dual boot.