Duel-Boot install mess

[Jack Ryan]

I have the following:

Primary drive (80Gb) divided into two equal partitions.
Partition 1 (C has XP pro installed and is my 'working' OS and drive
Partition 2 (D has XP pro installed that I use simply for testing
items like add-ins, software, toolbars, other utilities, etc.

boot.ini offers the choice of which.

Slave drive (80Gb) is not partitioned and is labeled as (E
This drive is used solely as storage for a mirror image (Norton Ghost)
of drive C:.

I have a Full Install version of Vista Home Premium that I attempted to
install on D:

Now, on boot, I have -not two as one would expect - boot choices but five
(5)
The first choice is the Vista boot file that lists "Earlier Version of
Windows", and two "Vista" choices.
It thinks the mirror image on E: is a working OS and lists it as a boot
choice. Choosing this boot option does not - obviously - result in a boot
but rather an error.
If I choose the first "Vista" boot on the list the system boots to the OS
installed on D: - as it should.
If I choose to boot to the "Earlier Version of Windows" (XP pro on C
another command window opens with boot.ini choices of 'Windows XP pro on C:'
or 'Windows XP pro on D:'. Choosing the latter only produces an error since
there is NO XP installed on D:.

Once I wade through this boot mess and get to Vista it thinks it's using the
"C:" drive, assigns itself to such, and reassigns letters to the other two
drives. As a result of this I have unplugged the power and data cables from
the "E:" drive because I'm not at all sure Vista won't try to mess it up
some way.

Question(s): How do I get rid of one of the duplicate 'Vista' entries in
it's boot handler?

How do I prevent the second boot window (the boot.ini one) from opening
when I choose the "Earlier Version . . ." from the Vista boot handler?

An aside - During the install I noted that all three drives were listed as
choices of where to install Vista with the C: and E: listed using there
respective sizes and used/available space but the D: drive size was listed
as the full size of the physical drive on with it resides.

 

[John Inzer]

I have the following:

Primary drive (80Gb) divided into two equal partitions.
Partition 1 (C has XP pro installed and is my 'working' OS and
drive Partition 2 (D has XP pro installed that I use simply for
testing items like add-ins, software, toolbars, other utilities, etc.

boot.ini offers the choice of which.

Slave drive (80Gb) is not partitioned and is labeled as (E
This drive is used solely as storage for a mirror image (Norton
Ghost) of drive C:.

I have a Full Install version of Vista Home Premium that I attempted
to install on D:

Now, on boot, I have -not two as one would expect - boot choices but
five (5)
The first choice is the Vista boot file that lists "Earlier Version of
Windows", and two "Vista" choices.
It thinks the mirror image on E: is a working OS and lists it as a
boot choice. Choosing this boot option does not - obviously - result
in a boot but rather an error.
If I choose the first "Vista" boot on the list the system boots to
the OS installed on D: - as it should.
If I choose to boot to the "Earlier Version of Windows" (XP pro on C
another command window opens with boot.ini choices of 'Windows XP pro
on C:' or 'Windows XP pro on D:'. Choosing the latter only produces
an error since there is NO XP installed on D:.

Once I wade through this boot mess and get to Vista it thinks it's
using the "C:" drive, assigns itself to such, and reassigns letters
to the other two drives. As a result of this I have unplugged the
power and data cables from the "E:" drive because I'm not at all sure
Vista won't try to mess it up some way.

Question(s): How do I get rid of one of the duplicate 'Vista'
entries in it's boot handler?

How do I prevent the second boot window (the boot.ini one) from
opening when I choose the "Earlier Version . . ." from the Vista
boot handler?
An aside - During the install I noted that all three drives were
listed as choices of where to install Vista with the C: and E: listed
using there respective sizes and used/available space but the D:
drive size was listed as the full size of the physical drive on with
it resides.

==================================
Maybe the following info will offer some
useful ideas:

My experience is that when booting from the DVD,
Vista installs best on unallocated space...then
it will format it's own partition and will install on
Drive C:...yes you will have yet another Drive C:
but it won't cause issues with your other partitions.
(at least it does not on my dual boot system.)

You may need to reduce the size of the current
partition on the disk you wish to install on to create
some unallocated space.

I used Acronis Disk Director Suite 10 to accomplish
this but there are other options such as the app.
mentioned in the following article.

How to dual-boot Vista with XP -
step-by-step guide with screenshots
http://tinyurl.com/ysh8hy

Gnome Partition Editor
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

Once you have the unallocated space
available...you may need to enter your
BIOS and change the boot order so
you can boot from the Vista disk. From
that point just follow the onscreen
instructions.

The following links may be useful also:

Dual-Booting Vista and XP
http://www.windowstalk.org/dual_boot_vista.htm

Dual-Booting Vista and XP (Part 2)
http://www.windowstalk.org/dual_boot_part2.htm

VistaBootPRO
http://www.vistabootpro.org/index.php

--
John Inzer
MS Picture It! -
Digital Image MVP

Digital Image
Highlights and FAQs
http://tinyurl.com/aczzp

Notice
This is not tech support
I am a volunteer

Solutions that work for
me may not work for you

Proceed at your own risk

 

[...winston]

Each drive on the master was 40GB prior to Vista ?
Each drive on the master had a separate XP Pro installed in each 40GB partition.
Did you install Vista to unallocated space on the primary drive ?
Did you resize the D drive to create available space for the Vista install ?
Are the Ghost files on E: *.Gho or *.Ghs images ?

It is normal for Vista to be the C: drive and reassign all the letters.

Most would recommend that Vista should have 35-40GB unallocated free space or a unique and dedicated unformatted partition for itself to use during the install.

It almost sounds like Vista installed the bootloader on both XP machines..which would result in Vista 2x and XP Pro. Selection of XP Pro is then looking at the original boot.ini file which probably has been edited by Vista with a few remarks at the beginning of the file and two entries for XP.

Its good the XP Recovery Console wasn't installed..you;d have one more on each.

I've seen the second menu before on a dual boot system when the recovery console is installed on XP prior to installing Vista and letting Vista create the dual boot bootloader.(i.e. the second menu appears since a second xp choice was present, thus once XP is selected in a dual boot Vista, if the second was present prior to dual boot, you are still offered the second option that you had in XP before).

Proceed with caution and at your own risk.
In the case of a prior xp and recovery console system and later Vista setup dual boot....If one edits the modified boot.ini file on the XP source drive via Notepad in Vista and removes the non default option... the second menu will disappear. Attempting to edit the boot.ini file on the XP source drive will raise a few bells and whistles(read only, no permissions, etc before one can attempt to do so)

Note: There may be easier and more acceptable ways to accomplish this since after testing it, I returned the boot.ini file to its original untampered Vista created content.

You may wish to seek more confirmation before attempting editing a protected file on another o/s drive.

..winston

:I have the following:
:
: Primary drive (80Gb) divided into two equal partitions.
: Partition 1 (C has XP pro installed and is my 'working' OS and drive
: Partition 2 (D has XP pro installed that I use simply for testing
: items like add-ins, software, toolbars, other utilities, etc.
:
: boot.ini offers the choice of which.
:
: Slave drive (80Gb) is not partitioned and is labeled as (E
: This drive is used solely as storage for a mirror image (Norton Ghost)
: of drive C:.
:
: I have a Full Install version of Vista Home Premium that I attempted to
: install on D:
:
: Now, on boot, I have -not two as one would expect - boot choices but five
: (5)
: The first choice is the Vista boot file that lists "Earlier Version of
: Windows", and two "Vista" choices.
: It thinks the mirror image on E: is a working OS and lists it as a boot
: choice. Choosing this boot option does not - obviously - result in a boot
: but rather an error.
: If I choose the first "Vista" boot on the list the system boots to the OS
: installed on D: - as it should.
: If I choose to boot to the "Earlier Version of Windows" (XP pro on C
: another command window opens with boot.ini choices of 'Windows XP pro on C:'
: or 'Windows XP pro on D:'. Choosing the latter only produces an error since
: there is NO XP installed on D:.
:
: Once I wade through this boot mess and get to Vista it thinks it's using the
: "C:" drive, assigns itself to such, and reassigns letters to the other two
: drives. As a result of this I have unplugged the power and data cables from
: the "E:" drive because I'm not at all sure Vista won't try to mess it up
: some way.
:
: Question(s): How do I get rid of one of the duplicate 'Vista' entries in
: it's boot handler?
:
: How do I prevent the second boot window (the boot.ini one) from opening
: when I choose the "Earlier Version . . ." from the Vista boot handler?
:
: An aside - During the install I noted that all three drives were listed as
: choices of where to install Vista with the C: and E: listed using there
: respective sizes and used/available space but the D: drive size was listed
: as the full size of the physical drive on with it resides.
: