Dual Boot XP/Vista - any known problems with Vista interfering with XP MBR?

[Geoff]

Dual Booting XP Pro (SP2)/Vista Ultimate with VistaBoot Pro. Know about the
problems relating to XP destroying restore points in Vista, but has anyone
experienced problems the other way around (i.e. Vista (or Vista BootPro)
messing with the XP MBR (or similar))?

Clean installed retail Vista a few days ago, and every day since I have had
to do a system restore before I could get XP to boot but no problems with
restarts during the day, just when I start up first thing. Have been using
RC1 & RC2 without any problems until now.

It's starting to become a PITA, but cannot avoid the dual boot as I have
essential legacy software that will not run under Vista or VPC2007

Anyone any suggestions?


Geoff

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Geoff I've been dual booting Win XP Pro and Vista Ultimate since January
2006 when Vista was in early beta and have never had any problems. When
Vista went RTM (release to manufacturer) I used VistaBootPro to remove the
Vista bootloader then uninstalled the RC2 and installed the retail version
of Vista Ultimate. As soon as that was done and everything was activated and
working correctly I imaged my drive and, when necessary, i have used that
backup image ever since. In fact, i re-imaged the drive on Sunday because
i'd installed Longhorn Server beta to create a triple boot and Server messed
up my anti virus by turning it off. Even triple booting with XP Vista and
Longhorn Server didn't cause any boot problems.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[Malcolm H]

Shouldn't it be up to the MVPs to do this?

I would suggest you file a bug complaint about the
dual boot - restore point eating bug to microsoft...

if perhaps every single person on this globe even the linux and mac users
complain about it, then perhaps, perhaps
microsoft will get its a** off its snobish little throne
and fix this problem.

Currently this bug has been reported to them again and again and again and
again and again and again and again and again and again and again and
again and again and again
but they just ignore it....

Heck you want microsft to be compatible with 3rd party
applications? It cant even be compatible with its own products!

 

[Tom Willett]

Why would you think so?

| Shouldn't it be up to the MVPs to do this?
|
|

 

[Geoff]

Thanks. This is exactly what I've done (apart from imaging the drive). It
may be a coincidental hardware problem but I don't like coincidences
especially as the problem only reared its head after installing RTM. I
started using RC1/RC2 in May 2006 and apart from early problems with the
modified NTFS and Acronis Disk Director, until now have had no problems with
Vista or XP, and apart from my legacy software not running, am more than
happy with Vista.

It might not be significant but one major difference between my various beta
instals and the RTM instal, that I had not thought about until now, is that
on previous instals, without exception, Vista always defaulted to being the
C: Drive, this instal has not; all drives have exactly the same mapping as
in XP (i.e. XP = C: Drive, Vista = D: Drive etc.) - could this indicate a
problem with the instal ?

Geoff

 

[Malcolm H]

I would gladly file a bug report myself but after trawling the MS web pages
it is not clear to me how to do it. In any case I am merely a frustrated
customer not a 'Most Valued Professional' !

Surely reports from people with specific credentials and experience in the
field should carry more weight with MS hopefully resulting in corrective
action?

Malcolm H

 

[Malcolm H]

I too have a similar dual boot setup and am experiencing XP removing restore
points in Vista.

Please can you elaborate on your solution. What is VistaBootPro and what is
RC2?

I have Vista Home Premium (OEM version)

Thanks

Malcolm H

 

[jim]

I would suggest you file a bug complaint about the
dual boot - restore point eating bug to microsoft...

if perhaps every single person on this globe even the linux and mac users
complain about it, then perhaps, perhaps
microsoft will get its a** off its snobish little throne
and fix this problem.

Currently this bug has been reported to them again and again and again and
again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again
and again and again
but they just ignore it....

Heck you want microsft to be compatible with 3rd party
applications? It cant even be compatible with its own products!

 

[...winston]

:I too have a similar dual boot setup and am experiencing XP removing restore
: points in Vista.
:
: Please can you elaborate on your solution. What is VistaBootPro and what is
: RC2?
:
: I have Vista Home Premium (OEM version)

----
System Restore Dual Boot XP/Vista
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/dualboot.html

VistaBootPro
http://www.vistabootpro.org/

RC2 was beta version Vista(Release Canidate 2)

 

[John Barnett MVP]

They haven't ignored it, Jim. They simple will not fix it because it
requires to much code alteration in Windows XP

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Now that is strange, because whichever operating system you use should
automatically default to C: "when in use". If you were booting to Vista then
it should be Vista C: and XP D:. If you booted to XP it should be XP C: and
Vista D:

Have you checked where the boot manager files are located? They are hidden
so you need to use the show hidden files and folder option and also show
system files. The boot manager folder and files should be on your XP
partition, not on the Vista partition.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

As far as the C: or D: driver assignment, it depends on how you install Vista.
If you install Vista by booting from the DVD, it will always grab "C:".
If you install Vista by opening the DVD from within XP, it will keep XP's
drive letter assignment.

Gary VanderMolen

 

[Lee]

Dual Booting XP Pro (SP2)/Vista Ultimate with VistaBoot Pro. Know about
the problems relating to XP destroying restore points in Vista, but has
anyone experienced problems the other way around (i.e. Vista (or Vista
BootPro) messing with the XP MBR (or similar))?

Clean installed retail Vista a few days ago, and every day since I have
had to do a system restore before I could get XP to boot but no problems
with restarts during the day, just when I start up first thing. Have been
using RC1 & RC2 without any problems until now.

It's starting to become a PITA, but cannot avoid the dual boot as I have
essential legacy software that will not run under Vista or VPC2007

Anyone any suggestions?

The answer is to hide Vista from XP and vice-versa. It *can* theoretically
be done with hardware and BIOS manipulations, but BootitNG is the slickest
way. See Bert K's response.

 

[Don]

Geoff wrote:
[...]

It might not be significant but one major difference between my various beta
instals and the RTM instal, that I had not thought about until now, is that
on previous instals, without exception, Vista always defaulted to being the
C: Drive, this instal has not; all drives have exactly the same mapping as
in XP (i.e. XP = C: Drive, Vista = D: Drive etc.) - could this indicate a
problem with the instal ?

It would make me suspicious, yes. Vista wants to be C: unless you make
special efforts to change it. If you made no such efforts then suspect
a problem somewhere.

 

[Geoff]

The boot manager files are on the XP Drive as they should be. Now I think
about it, what Gary says above does figure; all my beta instals were done by
booting with the installation DVD as I had problems with installing from
within XP (put it down to being Beta) but the RTM version was in fact
installed from within XP.

There's no event logs relating to boot failures and am beginning to think
that it is either a coincidental hardware or driver problem and will have do
some fault finding.

Thanks for your replies


Geoff

 

[Geoff]

Thanks Gary, that eliminates one possible cause - all my Beta instals were
done by booting from DVD and RTM was done from within XP. So it's back to
the drawing board and a few more diagnostics.

Geoff

 

[jim kirk]

IN XP???????????


I want Vista to change not XP!!!!

 

[John Barnett MVP]

I prefer clean installs from the DVD each and every time. I will not install
from another operating system.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[John Barnett MVP]

XP causes the problem, not Vista. If you have Vista Ultimate use bitlocker
encryption and you don't get the problem. Hiding the Vista partition from XP
doesn't solve the problem - well it didn't solve it when i tried it. As I am
using Vista ultimate i now use bitlocker to prevent any problems with the
restore points.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
Windows - Shell/User

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
kind, either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail/post. The Author shall not be liable for
any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the
use of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this
mail/post..

 

[Geoff]

Valid point John (as was your comment below about bitlocker) and I think a
reinstall (from DVD) is called for as I am still having the same problem and
am now fairly certain that it isn't a driver or hardware issue. I definitely
did a clean install, but I'm not even sure why I did the install from within
XP (must be age catching up with me or the 'excitement' of getting a freebie
(all wrapped up in a 'London Pride' DVD case) from Microsoft.

Something else I have noticed today is that although Drive C: (XP) and Drive
D: (Vista) have stayed as they were, the Vista installation from within XP
appears to have remapped some of my other harddrives/partitions (plus my two
DVD drives), not all of them but a couple that I still have on FAT32. I
wonder if this is the cause of my boot problems as these drives (and the
system restore point info) are not where they were prior to the Vista
installation. Hopefully a reinstall from DVD should clarify that. The
annoying thing is that I certainly did not have any of these problems with
any of the betas.

Again, thanks for you comments


Geoff