Multiple Vista boot options

[Ed Sowell]

As I was stumbling around installing Vista Ultimate 32 I made some mistakes
causing me to start over. The second installation went fine and the machine
is runnin great. The only problem, really just an iritation, is when it
boots up there is a multi-boot screen offering me two Vistas to choose from.
Fortunately, the first one seems to be the good one so it will go ahead and
boot without intervention. However, I'd like to get rid of the second boot
option, and also delete the windows.old.000 directory.

From some investigation I've done on multiboot I know that Vista has a new
boot sequence and there is an editor called BCDEdit that can be used. Can I
use this tool to get rid of the 2nd Vista?

TIA

Ed

 

[John Barnett MVP]

You can do but BCDedit isn't very user friendly. Instead download
VistaBootPro (free) and install it to your machine. Run VistaBootPro and
click on the Manage OS tab. You can then remove the second versions entry
from there. VistaBootPro certainly beats having to use command lines to edit
BCDedit.

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--
John Barnett MVP
Windows XP Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org
Web: http://www.silversurfer-guide.com

The information in this mail/post is supplied "as is". No warranty of any
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mail/post..

 

[Ed Sowell]

Thanks, John. That worked.

Can VistaBootPro also be used to fix the problem that arises when XP Pro is
added as a second boot option on a machine that already has Vista Ultimate
installed? I've been thinking about doing that, and have read
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529, but it seems like an unnecessarily
awkward procedure.

Ed

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Ed there is an option to add the Vista bootloader in VistaBootPro. If you
want to install XP then this link from my website will help:
http://vistasupport.mvps.org/install_windows_xp_on_machine_running_vista.htm


--

--
John Barnett MVP
Windows XP Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org
Web: http://www.silversurfer-guide.com

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..

 

[Ed Sowell]

Great! That's really neat. Since I have a second HD D: with more free space
can I install Xp on it instead of on C:?

Ed

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Yes, Ed. Just make sure you point the installation to your second hard
drive. As I rarely use XP nowadays I have actually installed mine using
virtual machine software (I use VMware Workstation which is quite expensive,
but Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 is free) This actually allows me to run both
operating systems at the same time. Obviously you need 2GB or more of memory
to run both. Again, for more information, see this link from my website:

http://vistasupport.mvps.org/creating_a_virtual_machine_with_vmware.htm

The link refers to VMware Workstation but most VM's are basically the same.
I use VMware because it supports USB; Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 doesn't,
although there are a couple of free VMs that do support USB.


--

--
John Barnett MVP
Windows XP Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org
Web: http://www.silversurfer-guide.com

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..

 

[Ed Sowell]

John,

Ran into a problem. My goal was to install XP Pro on Drive 1 rather than
Drive 0. Since Drive 1 was already formattted as D: with some data on it I
used the Vista Disk manager to shrink D: by 40Gb and create a new simple
partition, unformatted. I then booted from the Xp Pro installation CD and
installed XP into that partition, allowing the installer to format it. When
it got to the point where it needed to reboot, I removed the CD. However, it
would not boot from the HD. Apparently, it could not find the XP MBR.

The only thing I can think of that I may have done wrong was to remove the
XP installation CD when it wanted to reboot after copying all the files etc.
However, if I leave it in I assume it would want to go through the
installation process again from the beginning.

To recover I booted from the Vista Ultimate installation DVD and did a
Startup repair. There was no damage to anything. However, when I run
VistaBootPro it shows only Vista... no XP.


Any ideas on where to go from here?

Ed

 

[John Barnett MVP]

When you install an operating system and the system needs to reboot a
message comes up on screen saying 'press any key to boot from CD (or DVD).'
You only do this once, that is when you first start the installation. The
second time around you ignore the 'press any key' and let windows continue.
If you press any key on the second reboot then, yes, the operating system,
will start installing all over again. If you ignore the 'press any key' then
the installation continues. The only time you take the CD out of the drive
is when installation has completely finished; at which time you should see
the XP desktop on your screen.

In VistaBootPro on the 'manage OS entries' tab have you tried 'adding' the
operating system? Have you also checked the drive you installed XP to to see
if there is actually operating system files on it?

I've just installed the pre-beta release of Windows 7 on a separate
partition and that installed went without issue.


--

--
John Barnett MVP
Windows XP Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org
Web: http://www.silversurfer-guide.com

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 Barnes]

It is always messy when you install the older system second. If you have a
BIOS that lets you select which drive to boot from at POST time, you may
find it easiest to disconnect the Vista drive, install XP and then reconnect
Vista. You can then select the drive to boot from by hitting the key
designated on the bottom of your POST screen.

 

[Ed Sowell]

Thanks, John.

Adding the OS in VistaBootPro didn't work. To see what was actually in the
new partition I had to assigh it a drive letter. Once I did that I saw a
Windows directory structure with what looks like all the normal stuff.

I went through the process again, and allowed the XP installer to reformat
the new partition for a fresh start. After the formatting and copying of
files etc it said "the computer will now reboot. Please remove disk from A:"
Having no dirve A I did nothing. It did a bit more work, then put up the
message saying to hit any key to boot from CD. I did nothing, and after 4-5
dots had been displayed a few odd characters in different collors appeared
on the screen and then hung up. Once again I had to use the Vista
installation to repair the Vista boot record.

I should have mentioned this earlier but the installation disks I am using
(both XP and Vista) are not the retail versions. They are provided by my
university for installation on faculty home computers under the campus
license agreement with Microsoft. The worked just fine for installation on
bare machines, but maybe they have some feature that's different from retail
disks.

I think I'll try putting the XP partition on disk 0 just ot get closer to
the procedure you describe in your instructions.

Ed

 

[Ed Sowell]

Thanks, John.

Yes, I'm really feeling foolish for not having put XP on first. Since I
built the the machine from the ground up it would have been easier. It was
afterwards that I decided I wanted to get rid of my old box rather than
using it for XP work.

So with you plan there would be a boot sector on both drives?

Ed

 

[Ed Sowell]

It's working! Here's what I did.

You will recall that it would not boot up from the HD after time-out of the
"Press any key to boot from CD" message during installation of XP. To get
something on the screen again I booted from the Vista installation DVD and
selected Repair to Vista, selecting the Startup option therein. This
allowed Vista to boot off the HD. There was no 2nd boot option offered.

Once Vista booted I opened the Disk manager and changed the partion on which
I had installed XP to Active.

Then I ran VistaBootPro and did Diagnostics. That resulted in an "earlier
version of Windows" to appear on the Manage OS Entries dialog. I changed the
name to "XP Pro" and clicked Apply.

Then I rebooted, and got the boot menue offering Vista or XP Pro. I selected
Xp Pro. It then booted from the HD and asked me to put the XP installation
CD back in. It then went on to finish loading all the other stuff for XP and
the other initial setup stuff. It worked!

I really don't know if it was setting the partion Active, running
diagnostic, or both that did the trick.

Only problem now is the XP installation process didn't identify some of my
hardware, such as the onboard network interface. I'll have to work on that,
perhaps digging out some installation CDs or whatever. Then comes loading my
software that doesn't work well with Vista.... bigger job I expect.

Thanks for all the help.

Ed

 

[John Barnett MVP]

Hi Ed,

I'm glad you got it working. Actually setting the partition to 'active' did
the trick

--

--
John Barnett MVP
Windows XP Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience

Web: http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web: http://vistasupport.mvps.org
Web: http://www.silversurfer-guide.com

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 Barnes]

Yes. There would be a boot sector on both the XP and Vista drives.

 

[John Barnes]

The additional advantage of this method is you have two bootable drives and
systems. If the boot drive fails when installed with only only one bootable
drive, nothing works. This way you can boot into the other system to assist
with repairs. You can still use startup repair in Vista to give you the
Vista boot menu.