Problems with Dual Boot in RC1

[Guest]

I have been running an XP/Vista dual boot for sometime, and today I installed
the latest RC1 release.

Install went ok, but when I rebooted it went straight to Vista - no bootup
choices for XP. I have two physical drives - Drive 0 has two partitions for
XP and Vista. Drive 1 is just for data. Prior to the RC1 update when booting
to Vista, it correctly assigned letter C for the main drive, D for the
(logical) XP drive, and G for the data drive.

Now, however, it insists on assigning the data drive as drive D, and
apparently the dual boot manager only scans drives C and D to try and find
Window versions. Thus, it never looks at the XP partition and therefore boots
directly to Vista.

I have tried to change the drive letter in Vista under disk management, but
it won't let me reassign drive D as it calls it a "system" disk. If I
physically disconnect the data drive, everything works and I can get the dual
boot options as usual.

I have booted with the data drive disconnected, and then connected the drive
when I get to the boot choice screen. Vista then assigns that data drive as
drive G. But if I reboot, it's back to direct boot to Vista.

Other things I have tried

1. Reinstalling Vista with the data drive disconnected. It works, but once
the drive gets reconnected, same old problems.

2. Removing the bootmgr files from the data drive - doesn't work, I get an
error message saying that Bootmgr file is missing.

3. Using Vista "repair start" option from the install disc fails to even see
XP.

Any solutions to this? Vista has an application called bcdedit, but it won't
run from the command line. How do I get Vista to stop looking at the data
drive as a system drive, or otherwise get the boot manager to recognize the
presence of XP?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

It has nothing to do with drive letters. Download VistaBoot Pro and use it
to add your XP boot back in. It uses a graphical interface so it is not all
that painful.

 

[John Barnes]

You need to change the boot priority in the BIOS so that your drive 0 is the
first hard drive in boot priority.

 

[- Bobb -]

I WAS just about to start the upgrade from Beta2 to RC1 .
I have VBPro on there now- will I have to reinstall it?

Also ... do I have to install the
Vista upgrade to RC1 32 before doing Vista RC1 64 ?
( the 32 bit before 64 bit order - does it matter in this case ?)
Thanks
Bobb

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

I would download the latest version of VistaBoot Pro after you have upgraded
to RC1.

You cannot upgrade between x86 and x64 platforms.

If you are presently using Vista Beta 2 x86 and want to run Vista RC1 x64
instead, you must use custom install.

If you are running Vista Beta 2 x64 then you can upgrade to Vista RC1 x64.

If you want to dual boot Vista x86 and x64 then it will not matter which
version you install first.

If you are also multibooting with XP then XP does need to be installed
before any version of Vista.

 

[Guest]

John - yes, I discovered that myself. Seemed so simple, really, after a few
hours of trying many different things. Just had to switch boot drive
priority. Duh.

Oh well, spinning wheels on this one gave me knowledge on Vista bootups and
VB Pro, so all (most... some) is not lost. Best of all, it works now, and
Vista is awesoeme!

Thanks.


Dave