Dual Boot Windows XP x64 and Vista 32-bit Problem

[Guest]

I installed Windows XP x64 on one partition of my drive. Then I installed
Vista on a second partition on the same hard drive. Now I cannot access my XP
partition and I have no idea how to fix the boot.ini so that I may select
between the two installs.

 

[Dale White V64]

We're one of these upgrade versions ? Technically, if you bought an Upgrade,
then your XP install is suppose to be disabled, per your license agreement.

Outside of that, you can go to http://www.vistabootpro.org/ and grab that
program. Even lets you rename the entries and turn on stuff like /SOS

 

[Guest]

I did a clean install of Vista, but wanted my older OS for some applications
that didn't work. I tired using the vistabootpro, but it gives me an error.
File: \ntldr status 0x000000f.

 

[Guest]

I tried running bcdedit with no luck. Still can't boot to my XP installation
and I've already formatted the drive twice today in attempt to resolve this
issue. Has anyone been able to resolve this?

 

[Michael Jennings]

Computer Management > Disk Management.
What does Disk Management indicate?

 

[Guest]

(c:\) healthy (system, boot, page file, active, crash dump, primary)
(d:\) healthy (logical drive)

 

[Michael Jennings]

You have Vista (64 bit?) in C:, and XP 64 bit in D: - is that correct?
What XP needs in order to boot up is the boot.ini and ntldr files.
Are you able to see if they are in the root of the XP partition,
or is Vista not letting you examine anything in that partition?

 

[Guest]

I have vista on c and xp on d.

I cannot locate any of the aforementioned files in either root directory.

 

[Michael Jennings]

Normally XP is in C: and Vista is in D: because XP came first.
If you want to do a big swap, that will probably work. If you want
to try to keep XP in your D: partition, repair it with the XP CD.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/doug92.mspx
That will set D: as the active and boot partition if it works. Vista
will see C: as its system partition. I don't know if VistaBootPro
works in 64 bit WinXP with the .net 2.0 framework, but if it does,
you can run it to whomp up a dual boot according to this:
http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=88231
The part that you are interested in is down in Installing XP.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Those files typically have the 'hidden' and 'system' attributes.
One of the first tweaks I do when setting up a new system is to show
hidden files (in Folder Options). Is your system configured to show
hidden files?

Gary VanderMolen

 

[Guest]

As far as I can tell, yes, it was set to show hidden and protected files.

 

[Guest]

My main reason for still having an XP partition was so that I could run
iTunes and a few other programs that are not entirely Vista compatible yet
(sound issues prevent me from even listening to music well in Vista), but
after hearing it rumored that XP will erase some backup information for
Vista, I've decided to rethink my decision. That, and all this hassle to get
XP to boot is not worth the frustration.

 

[andy]

Did you format the C: partition when installing Vista?

 

[Michael Jennings]

Bert Kinney explains ways to handle the dual boot volsnap.sys issue:
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/dualboot.html

Although anything is possible, it is very unlikely that WinXP automount
will be rewritten so that it doesn't delete Vista's restore points.

 

[marty]

You may wish to buy a boot/partition/image program called BootIt Next
Generation for teralbyteunlimited.com. Free to try. I you installed
Windows XP x64 and Vista as you say you should not have a problem. You
won't see the Vista Bootloader (yeah). Make sure that both installs
reference their root parition as C:. You should also make each Windows
partition invisible to the other using Windows Disk Manager under
Administarive Contro Program. If you have got a true bootloader situtation
(Vista bootloader appears) then eventually even vistabootpro won't prevent
data corruption. Best to backup your data and reinstall XP x64 to the
first parition and Vista to the second as you have done. Do NOT do an
upgrade.