Inactive XP Partition after Vista Install

[Paul Hadfield]

Hi,

In preparation of upgrading to Vista, I had two copies of XP on my home PC (Professional for work, re-installed Media Edition as qualifier for Vistia Upgrade) - both on different primary partitions on one hard disk. Using Partition / Boot Magic to switch the active partition so that each version of XP booted as drive C: (and the other was marked as inactive). All worked great - could boot between the two and everything was fantastic.

Unluckily for me a couple of sites I read, implied that bootmagic was fine with Vista (I've since found ones that say otherwise) - so I upgraded the media edition to Vista, which also all went well. But now I can only boot straight into Vista. If I use disk manager I can see the old XP partition, but it is marked as inactive. I don't have the option to make it active, nor can I assign a drive letter.

I've downloaded VistaBootPro briefly last night, changing the boot options, I managed to get XP to start booting, but then got stuck in a loop with ("Unable to find autochk.exe - Skipping autochk"), which after displaying the machine reboots. In the end I followed some instructions on booting from the Vista DVD and repairing the bootloader and now I'm back to my original state of booting straight into Vista and not being able to see the partition.

Ideally I'd like to get my dual boot configuration back again, but if that's not possible it would be good just to be able to make the partition active again before clearing it.

Any ideas?

Regards,

- Paul

 

[...winston]

Did you use VistaBoot Pro to install the Vista bootloader to provide a dual boot system ? Vista does not use XP's boot.ini(which you used in the past) and installs its own boot loader for both o/s.

...
Hi,

In preparation of upgrading to Vista, I had two copies of XP on my home PC (Professional for work, re-installed Media Edition as qualifier for Vistia Upgrade) - both on different primary partitions on one hard disk. Using Partition / Boot Magic to switch the active partition so that each version of XP booted as drive C: (and the other was marked as inactive). All worked great - could boot between the two and everything was fantastic.

Unluckily for me a couple of sites I read, implied that bootmagic was fine with Vista (I've since found ones that say otherwise) - so I upgraded the media edition to Vista, which also all went well. But now I can only boot straight into Vista. If I use disk manager I can see the old XP partition, but it is marked as inactive. I don't have the option to make it active, nor can I assign a drive letter.

I've downloaded VistaBootPro briefly last night, changing the boot options, I managed to get XP to start booting, but then got stuck in a loop with ("Unable to find autochk.exe - Skipping autochk"), which after displaying the machine reboots. In the end I followed some instructions on booting from the Vista DVD and repairing the bootloader and now I'm back to my original state of booting straight into Vista and not being able to see the partition.

Ideally I'd like to get my dual boot configuration back again, but if that's not possible it would be good just to be able to make the partition active again before clearing it.

Any ideas?

Regards,

- Paul

 

[Paul Hadfield]

I feel in a chicken and egg situation! I would like to keep both operating
systems in ignorance of each other (which boot magic seemed to do). Both
partitions are on the same physical disk - currently the Vista partition is
active and bootable - has the drive letter C: Within Vista, in disk
management i can see the bootable partition that WinXP is loaded on, and
it's not active - just like it used to be under WinXP dual boot.

Therefore I guess my problem is, how / or what utility to replace Boot
Magic. This would be so that when I reboot I get an option to select either
Vista or WinXP, making the relevant partition active and hiding the other.
That's my requirement, but I'm also stuck how to get there. Can I use
VistaBootPro to do that (or EasyBCD as that seems to have replaced it).

- Paul.

Did you use VistaBoot Pro to install the Vista bootloader to provide a dual
boot system ? Vista does not use XP's boot.ini(which you used in the past)
and installs its own boot loader for both o/s.

...
Hi,

In preparation of upgrading to Vista, I had two copies of XP on my home PC
(Professional for work, re-installed Media Edition as qualifier for Vistia
Upgrade) - both on different primary partitions on one hard disk. Using
Partition / Boot Magic to switch the active partition so that each version
of XP booted as drive C: (and the other was marked as inactive). All worked
great - could boot between the two and everything was fantastic.

Unluckily for me a couple of sites I read, implied that bootmagic was fine
with Vista (I've since found ones that say otherwise) - so I upgraded the
media edition to Vista, which also all went well. But now I can only boot
straight into Vista. If I use disk manager I can see the old XP partition,
but it is marked as inactive. I don't have the option to make it active,
nor can I assign a drive letter.

I've downloaded VistaBootPro briefly last night, changing the boot options,
I managed to get XP to start booting, but then got stuck in a loop with
("Unable to find autochk.exe - Skipping autochk"), which after displaying
the machine reboots. In the end I followed some instructions on booting
from the Vista DVD and repairing the bootloader and now I'm back to my
original state of booting straight into Vista and not being able to see the
partition.

Ideally I'd like to get my dual boot configuration back again, but if that's
not possible it would be good just to be able to make the partition active
again before clearing it.

Any ideas?

Regards,

- Paul

 

[Guest]

Paul,

I have used EasyBCD v1.6, the latest, it's great for multi-boot
configurations, so just relax and as long as you don't format those other
partiotions all is well. So download EasyBCD v1.6 install it under the Vista
OS and then begin reassigning and configuring the drives.

I currently run an AMD Opteron185 system with two installs of Windows Server
2008 Beta and Vista Ultimate 32bit & 64bit, and yes it was easy. I since have
weaned myself off of Windows XP. : )

Keep us posted! : )

Glenn

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think EasyBCD will hide the
Vista partition from being seen within XP. It is necessary to hide
the Vista partition or else XP will delete Vista's system restoration
files. See http://bertk.mvps.org/html/dualboot.html
and note the BootIt NG workaround.

Gary VanderMolen

 

[John Barnes]

Vista does use the XP boot files for booting older systems (98 and XP)

Did you use VistaBoot Pro to install the Vista bootloader to provide a dual
boot system ? Vista does not use XP's boot.ini(which you used in the past)
and installs its own boot loader for both o/s.

...
Hi,

In preparation of upgrading to Vista, I had two copies of XP on my home PC
(Professional for work, re-installed Media Edition as qualifier for Vistia
Upgrade) - both on different primary partitions on one hard disk. Using
Partition / Boot Magic to switch the active partition so that each version
of XP booted as drive C: (and the other was marked as inactive). All worked
great - could boot between the two and everything was fantastic.

Unluckily for me a couple of sites I read, implied that bootmagic was fine
with Vista (I've since found ones that say otherwise) - so I upgraded the
media edition to Vista, which also all went well. But now I can only boot
straight into Vista. If I use disk manager I can see the old XP partition,
but it is marked as inactive. I don't have the option to make it active,
nor can I assign a drive letter.

I've downloaded VistaBootPro briefly last night, changing the boot options,
I managed to get XP to start booting, but then got stuck in a loop with
("Unable to find autochk.exe - Skipping autochk"), which after displaying
the machine reboots. In the end I followed some instructions on booting
from the Vista DVD and repairing the bootloader and now I'm back to my
original state of booting straight into Vista and not being able to see the
partition.

Ideally I'd like to get my dual boot configuration back again, but if that's
not possible it would be good just to be able to make the partition active
again before clearing it.

Any ideas?

Regards,

- Paul

 

[John Barnes]

You aren't wrong and BootItNG is a very good way to safely dual boot XP and
Vista without losing the restore points, etc.

 

[...winston]

John,
Yes, you are correct , I knew that too(especially since this dual boot
machine does just that since I get two boot menus due to the recovery
console installed on XP prior to adding Vista<g>). Though, correct me if I
am wrong, the 'earlier o/s' files are only come into play after the Vista
bootloader passes control to the earlier files.

In the op's case he wishes to be able to hide the o/s from the get go like
in Boot Magic. Vista Boot Pro does not provide that option since it is a
simple, limited option tool to set up a dual boot system thus requiring an
alternate method in XP and Vista to hide the other o/s drive.

You and Gary have also confirmed that EasyBCd will not provide that task
either
- the op's primary objective was to hide both operating systems from
each other.

In hindsight, since the op now only wishes to dual boot but hide the
non-booted o/s partition(XP or Vista)... will BootItNg provide the other
original request ---switch one o/s to active and the other inactive..afaik,
it can hide them does it actually toggle one active and the other inactive.

The op should have been able to dual boot with Vista Boot Pro or EasyBCD but
not hide the opposite o/s.

And finally is there any real value(compatibility wise) in hiding the XP
partition from Vista.

...winston

 

[John Barnes]

Yes, you are correct , I knew that too(especially since this dual boot
machine does just that since I get two boot menus due to the recovery
console installed on XP prior to adding Vista<g>). Though, correct me if
I am wrong, the 'earlier o/s' files are only come into play after the
Vista bootloader passes control to the earlier files.
True


In hindsight, since the op now only wishes to dual boot but hide the
non-booted o/s partition(XP or Vista)... will BootItNg provide the other
original request ---switch one o/s to active and the other
inactive..afaik, it can hide them does it actually toggle one active and
the other inactive.
Yes


The op should have been able to dual boot with Vista Boot Pro or EasyBCD
but not hide the opposite o/s.

And finally is there any real value(compatibility wise) in hiding the XP
partition from Vista.

No

 

[...winston]

<snip>

 

[Computer Guru]

John,
Yes, you are correct , I knew that too(especially since this dual boot
machine does just that since I get two boot menus due to the recovery
console installed on XP prior to adding Vista<g>). Though, correct me if I
am wrong, the 'earlier o/s' files are only come into play after the Vista
bootloader passes control to the earlier files.

In the op's case he wishes to be able to hide the o/s from the get go like
in Boot Magic. Vista Boot Pro does not provide that option since it is a
simple, limited option tool to set up a dual boot system thus requiring an
alternate method in XP and Vista to hide the other o/s drive.

You and Gary have also confirmed thatEasyBCdwill not provide that task
either
- the op's primary objective was to hide both operating systems from
each other.

In hindsight, since the op now only wishes to dual boot but hide the
non-booted o/s partition(XP or Vista)... will BootItNg provide the other
original request ---switch one o/s to active and the other inactive..afaik,
it can hide them does it actually toggle one active and the other inactive.

The op should have been able to dual boot with Vista Boot Pro orEasyBCDbut
not hide the opposite o/s.

And finally is there any real value(compatibility wise) in hiding the XP
partition from Vista.

...winston

Actually, it IS possible to hide the Vista drive from XP during a dual-
boot by means of the "NeoGrub" bootloader that ships with EasyBCD.
After installing NeoGrub from the Add/Remove Entries section, it is
possible to -hide- the Vista partition when you choose to boot into
XP. If there is enough interest, I will write a guide on this matter.

 

[...winston]

: > You and Gary have also confirmed that EasyBCd will not provide that task
: > either
: > - the op's primary objective was to hide both operating systems from
: > each other.

: Actually, it IS possible to hide the Vista drive from XP during a dual-
: boot by means of the "NeoGrub" bootloader that ships with EasyBCD.
: After installing NeoGrub from the Add/Remove Entries section, it is
: possible to -hide- the Vista partition when you choose to boot into
: XP. If there is enough interest, I will write a guide on this matter.

-----------
Thanks CG...for updating us on EasyBCD's hide capability. Guides or links are always helpful for EasyBCD Users and reference material for future questions.

For discussion purposes only
- without starting a Boot Pro vs. BCD discussion in this forum.
Can one switch to EasyBCD from BootPro without impacting anything on a dual boot system ? If so, is a link available explaining such ?


..winston

 

[Paul Hadfield]

Thanks everyone for all the assistance. In the end, I'd broken the XP installation, so had to rebuild that! Just went with the simple option of Vista handling the boot switching - can't remember when I last used a system restore (point).

Thanks once again,

- Paul
Hi,

In preparation of upgrading to Vista, I had two copies of XP on my home PC (Professional for work, re-installed Media Edition as qualifier for Vistia Upgrade) - both on different primary partitions on one hard disk. Using Partition / Boot Magic to switch the active partition so that each version of XP booted as drive C: (and the other was marked as inactive). All worked great - could boot between the two and everything was fantastic.

Unluckily for me a couple of sites I read, implied that bootmagic was fine with Vista (I've since found ones that say otherwise) - so I upgraded the media edition to Vista, which also all went well. But now I can only boot straight into Vista. If I use disk manager I can see the old XP partition, but it is marked as inactive. I don't have the option to make it active, nor can I assign a drive letter.

I've downloaded VistaBootPro briefly last night, changing the boot options, I managed to get XP to start booting, but then got stuck in a loop with ("Unable to find autochk.exe - Skipping autochk"), which after displaying the machine reboots. In the end I followed some instructions on booting from the Vista DVD and repairing the bootloader and now I'm back to my original state of booting straight into Vista and not being able to see the partition.

Ideally I'd like to get my dual boot configuration back again, but if that's not possible it would be good just to be able to make the partition active again before clearing it.

Any ideas?

Regards,

- Paul

 

[John Barnes]

Shadow copies are also lost, so previous versions of files are also lost in case you accidentally save a bad file and need the old version back.
Thanks everyone for all the assistance. In the end, I'd broken the XP installation, so had to rebuild that! Just went with the simple option of Vista handling the boot switching - can't remember when I last used a system restore (point).

Thanks once again,

- Paul
Hi,

In preparation of upgrading to Vista, I had two copies of XP on my home PC (Professional for work, re-installed Media Edition as qualifier for Vistia Upgrade) - both on different primary partitions on one hard disk. Using Partition / Boot Magic to switch the active partition so that each version of XP booted as drive C: (and the other was marked as inactive). All worked great - could boot between the two and everything was fantastic.

Unluckily for me a couple of sites I read, implied that bootmagic was fine with Vista (I've since found ones that say otherwise) - so I upgraded the media edition to Vista, which also all went well. But now I can only boot straight into Vista. If I use disk manager I can see the old XP partition, but it is marked as inactive. I don't have the option to make it active, nor can I assign a drive letter.

I've downloaded VistaBootPro briefly last night, changing the boot options, I managed to get XP to start booting, but then got stuck in a loop with ("Unable to find autochk.exe - Skipping autochk"), which after displaying the machine reboots. In the end I followed some instructions on booting from the Vista DVD and repairing the bootloader and now I'm back to my original state of booting straight into Vista and not being able to see the partition.

Ideally I'd like to get my dual boot configuration back again, but if that's not possible it would be good just to be able to make the partition active again before clearing it.

Any ideas?

Regards,

- Paul

 

[Computer Guru]

Thanks CG...for updating us on EasyBCD's hide capability. Guides or links are always helpful for EasyBCD Users and reference material for future questions.

For discussion purposes only
- without starting a Boot Pro vs. BCD discussion in this forum.
Can one switch to EasyBCD from BootPro without impacting anything on a dual boot system ? If so, is a link available explaining such ?

..winston

Hey Winston, sorry for the late reply.

Yes you can - no steps needed. Just run EasyBCD and it'll pick up
where VistaBootPRO left off.