Dual Boot Re-visited

G

gecko

I am having trouble creating a dual boot with Vista Ultimate as
primary boot and XP as secondary.
That is, I have Vista Ultimate on c drive and XP PRO SP2 on D drive.

I used VistaBoot Pro V3.2 (probably a demo) in Vista to create the
following:

There is currently 2 OS(s) installed on your system.
The current boot timeout is: 30

Default OS: VISTA

Entry 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: VISTA
BCD ID: {current}
Boot Drive: C:
Windows Drive: C:
System Bootloader: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: XP
BCD ID: {ntldr}
Boot Drive: D:
System Bootloader: \ntldr

When I boot up, I get a menu asking me to choose between 'VISTA' and
'XP', which I deem to be correct.
The default is Vista. If I choose the Vista option, or choose it by
default, Vista comes up fine, with the XP drive as d drive.
If I choose the XP option, I get an error saying:

Invalid boot.ini file
Booting from c:\windows

AND IT JUST HANGS AT THAT POINT WITH A BLACK SCREEN!


On d drive (in XP), I have the boot.ini (which I believe was created
when XP was installed in the first place):

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I am getting frustrated, trying to get this dual boot to work. I hope
I have explained things carefully and correctly.

Can anyone advise? I am hoping some minor correction of an oversight
will make things go. Yes, I have read many of the blogs on this
subject, both via Google and these news groups. I am ready to quit.

Thanks

-GECKO
 
I

Ian D

gecko said:
I am having trouble creating a dual boot with Vista Ultimate as
primary boot and XP as secondary.
That is, I have Vista Ultimate on c drive and XP PRO SP2 on D drive.

I used VistaBoot Pro V3.2 (probably a demo) in Vista to create the
following:

There is currently 2 OS(s) installed on your system.
The current boot timeout is: 30

Default OS: VISTA

Entry 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: VISTA
BCD ID: {current}
Boot Drive: C:
Windows Drive: C:
System Bootloader: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: XP
BCD ID: {ntldr}
Boot Drive: D:
System Bootloader: \ntldr

When I boot up, I get a menu asking me to choose between 'VISTA' and
'XP', which I deem to be correct.
The default is Vista. If I choose the Vista option, or choose it by
default, Vista comes up fine, with the XP drive as d drive.
If I choose the XP option, I get an error saying:

Invalid boot.ini file
Booting from c:\windows

AND IT JUST HANGS AT THAT POINT WITH A BLACK SCREEN!


On d drive (in XP), I have the boot.ini (which I believe was created
when XP was installed in the first place):

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I am getting frustrated, trying to get this dual boot to work. I hope
I have explained things carefully and correctly.

Can anyone advise? I am hoping some minor correction of an oversight
will make things go. Yes, I have read many of the blogs on this
subject, both via Google and these news groups. I am ready to quit.

Thanks

-GECKO
Click to expand...

Copies of the following XP files should also be in the root of your Vista
boot drive (C:): boot.ini, ntldr, ndetect.com. I assume C: and D: are two
partitions on the same hard drive. If they are separate HDs, rdisk should
be (1) and partition should be (0) in both lines of boot.ini.
 
E

Earle Horton

Ian D said:
gecko said:
I am having trouble creating a dual boot with Vista Ultimate as
primary boot and XP as secondary.
That is, I have Vista Ultimate on c drive and XP PRO SP2 on D drive.

I used VistaBoot Pro V3.2 (probably a demo) in Vista to create the
following:

There is currently 2 OS(s) installed on your system.
The current boot timeout is: 30

Default OS: VISTA

Entry 1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: VISTA
BCD ID: {current}
Boot Drive: C:
Windows Drive: C:
System Bootloader: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Name: XP
BCD ID: {ntldr}
Boot Drive: D:
System Bootloader: \ntldr

When I boot up, I get a menu asking me to choose between 'VISTA' and
'XP', which I deem to be correct.
The default is Vista. If I choose the Vista option, or choose it by
default, Vista comes up fine, with the XP drive as d drive.
If I choose the XP option, I get an error saying:

Invalid boot.ini file
Booting from c:\windows

AND IT JUST HANGS AT THAT POINT WITH A BLACK SCREEN!


On d drive (in XP), I have the boot.ini (which I believe was created
when XP was installed in the first place):

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP"
/noexecute=optin /fastdetect

I am getting frustrated, trying to get this dual boot to work. I hope
I have explained things carefully and correctly.

Can anyone advise? I am hoping some minor correction of an oversight
will make things go. Yes, I have read many of the blogs on this
subject, both via Google and these news groups. I am ready to quit.

Thanks

-GECKO
Click to expand...

Copies of the following XP files should also be in the root of your Vista
boot drive (C:): boot.ini, ntldr, ndetect.com. I assume C: and D: are two
partitions on the same hard drive. If they are separate HDs, rdisk should
be (1) and partition should be (0) in both lines of boot.ini.
Click to expand...
---
This is true. The documentation (for bcdedit) is vague and makes it look as
if d:\ntldr will work, but it doesn't. You have to have c:\ntldr and files
it depends on, on the boot drive/partition. XP boot.ini does not depend on
drive letters, but rather rdisk and partition values.

Other ways that I have seen suggested are (1) change the active partition in
DOS fdisk or a similar utility, boot XP, change it back, boot Vista, etc.
and (2) change the boot drive in BIOS setup. Both have the advantage of
keeping system drives separate, no need for XP files on Vista partition and
vice versa, but they don't give you a boot time menu.

This is from bcdedit, but gecko's entry for XP should look something like
this instead of what he has now.

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {ntldr}
device partition=C:
path \ntldr
description Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 3

Saludos,

Earle
 
G

gecko

Hi,

Then your boot.ini needs to have the rdisk value set to (1) and the
partition set to (0) in order to be valid.
Click to expand...

Exactly right! Works fine now.

Thanks all.

The key was to put a copy of xp's boot.ini into Vista drive's boot
directory. If that was said anywhere, I missed it. Oh well.

-GECKO
 
T

Timothy Daniels

gecko said:
Exactly right! Works fine now.

Thanks all.

The key was to put a copy of xp's boot.ini into Vista drive's boot
directory. If that was said anywhere, I missed it. Oh well.

-GECKO
Click to expand...

I haven't been following this thread, but Microsoft does not number
partitions starting with "0", and "partition (0)" in the boot.ini file is an
error. As for rdisk, "rdisk(1)" refers to the 2nd hard drive in the Hard
Drive Boot Order - not the boot drive. And the boot.ini file only has
meaning to ntldr, not to Vista's boot manager, and boot.ini should be in
the same file hierarchy at the same level as ntldr. If things have worked
out for you, I suspect that it was only by chance.

*TimDaniels*
 
G

gecko

I haven't been following this thread, but Microsoft does not number
partitions starting with "0", and "partition (0)" in the boot.ini file is an
error. As for rdisk, "rdisk(1)" refers to the 2nd hard drive in the Hard
Drive Boot Order - not the boot drive. And the boot.ini file only has
meaning to ntldr, not to Vista's boot manager, and boot.ini should be in
the same file hierarchy at the same level as ntldr. If things have worked
out for you, I suspect that it was only by chance.

*TimDaniels*
Click to expand...

Yes Tim - partition(0) does not work. partition(1) does.
rdisk numbering does start 0-up, which makes the XP drive rdisk(1).
You are correct again.

My setup did not work until I copied boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com
from XP drive to Vista drive (boot directory).

Yes my dual boot is still working fine. :>)

-GECKO
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads

XP/VISTA Dual Boot Question 21
Boot Manager always dispalys with only Vista OS loaded 5
Boot Manager always displaying on boot-up and only have Vista Prem 1
Vista won't load after XP re-install on dual boot system 5
Boot Configuration Data 2
boot error Vista 64 and XP 64 4
SOS just installed XP; Cannot access my Vista 4
Dual Boot Reversal? 13

Top