How to add an XP entry to the Vista boot loader?

[Michael Matthews]

I have the following disk partitions on one physical drive:

[ XP ] [ Vista ]

Windows XP sees partition 1 as C: and partition 2 as D:.

Windows Vista RC1 sees partition 1 as D: and partition 2 as C:.

Now, if I use the Disk Management tool to set partition 1 as Active, XP will
boot with no boot menu. Conversely, if i set partition 2 as active, Vista
will boot with no boot menu. What I want to do is to leave Vista's partition
active and add an entry to its boot manager to allow me to select either XP
or Vista when my computer starts, but when I do this using BCDEdit, the
{ntldr} entry just restarts the computer instead of loading XP.

Here is the result of BCDEdit:


Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {ntldr}
displayorder {ntldr}
{current}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 10

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {ntldr}
device partition=D:
path \ntldr
description Earlier Version of Windows
custom:47000005 301989892
6

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Microsoft Windows Vista
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {0e46b25f-3ec0-11db-96cf-a79b5887936b}
nx OptIn
custom:47000005 301989892
3


Any help with this would be much appreciated.

 

[Tom Ziegmann]

Try using VistaBootPRO. It seems to work to configure the BCD to boot XP.

 

[Guest]

here's one of mine, if it is helpful for comparison (3-boot box):


Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=C:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {ntldr}
resumeobject {50c73d4d-e6b3-11da-bc73-d30cdb1ce216}
displayorder {ntldr}
{b21811c0-38cb-11db-90a9-c12a1308ed70}
{50c73d4c-e6b3-11da-bc73-d30cdb1ce216}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 8

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {ntldr}
device partition=C:
path \ntldr
description Windows XP

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {b21811c0-38cb-11db-90a9-c12a1308ed70}
device partition=H:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Vista Pre-RC1
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice partition=H:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {b21811c1-38cb-11db-90a9-c12a1308ed70}
nx OptIn

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier {50c73d4c-e6b3-11da-bc73-d30cdb1ce216}
device partition=F:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows Vista Beta 2
locale en-US
inherit {bootloadersettings}
osdevice partition=F:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {50c73d4d-e6b3-11da-bc73-d30cdb1ce216}
nx OptIn


have you taken a stab at it using EasyBCD?

 

[Andre Da Costa [ActiveWin]]

I would go with Toms suggestion.

 

[Michael Matthews]

Actually, I am already using VistaBootPRO. The problem is that I have no
idea why the Windows Legacy OS Loader entry I posted does not work.
According to Windows Explorer, it is pointing to the correct drive letter
for that partition. All the other information was there by default and
matches tmike's working dual-boot configuration. NTLDR is properly installed
on the XP partition because I can boot directly from it, just not through
the Vista boot loader's {ntldr} entry.


Try using VistaBootPRO. It seems to work to configure the BCD to boot XP.