Vista Multiboot issues, Part II

[Jeff V. Pulver]

Dear All:

I just encountered a new wrinkle to my multiboot problem, so I started a new
thread, as the problem seemed to have changed.

I started with the following system, with Windows XP on the C: drive.

Drive 0: IDE, Partition 1, C:, Windows XP
Partition 2, F:, Storage
Drive 1: SATA, Partition 1, D:, Storage
Drive 2: SATA, Partition 1, E:, Storage

Following the guidelines, I booted from the Vista DVD and performed a clean
install of Vista in Drive 0, Partition 2. When I booted Vista, Drive 0
Partition 1 was the F: drive and Drive 0 Partition 2 was the C: drive. I
believe that is how it should work.

When I boot the system, Vista Boot Manager asks me which OS I want. If I
select the WXP system, it is supposed to make that drive the C: drive and
the Vista partition the F: drive. Instead, WXP does not boot as there is a
problem finding the ntldr file.

Now comes the strange part. I was troubleshooting a different hardware
problem and I disconnected both SATA drives (Drive 1 and 2).

When I booted the system, there was no Vista Boot Manager asking me which OS
to boot into. Instead, my WXP system started right up. I verified it
worked, and when I looked at the drives, the F: drive still contained the
Vista OS.

I then reconnected those drives and rebooted, and then Vista's Boot Manager
took control, and WXP does not start. Vista works fine..

So now I have two questions: 1) Why cannot I boot into WXP (which I just
demonstrated is still there)? and 2) Why did I lose Vista when the two
drives were disconnected?

Thank you.

Cheers,

Jeff V. Pulver

 

[CZ]

Now comes the strange part. I was troubleshooting a different hardware
problem and I disconnected both SATA drives (Drive 1 and 2).

When I booted the system, there was no Vista Boot Manager asking me which OS
to boot into. Instead, my WXP system started right up. I verified it
worked, and when I looked at the drives, the F: drive still contained the
Vista OS.

I then reconnected those drives and rebooted, and then Vista's Boot Manager
took control, and WXP does not start. Vista works fine.

Jeff:

Because your first SATA drive is the boot drive.

Did you do what my other post suggested?

My other post:

Jeff:

Copy the ntldr and boot.ini files to the root of D:
Also, do you see a "boot" folder in the root of D: ?


Theory:
The "ntldr is missing" error message tells us that boot process control has
been passed to a vol that knows to load the ntldr file (which it cannot
find).
If the above works, then you are booting from disk 01 which is your first
SATA drive and not disk 00 which is your IDE drive.


Your previous postrive 1: Partition 1, D:
Drive 2: Partition 1, E:
Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier {bootmgr}
device partition=D:
description Windows Boot Manager
locale en-US
inherit {globalsettings}
default {current}
displayorder {current}
{ntldr}
toolsdisplayorder {memdiag}
timeout 30

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 {610e6eb1-c128-11db-86bc-91f2d356bda0}
nx OptIn

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier {ntldr}
device partition=F:
path \ntldr
description Earlier Version of Windows


boot.ini
[boot loader]
timeout=3
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP
Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

 

[Jeff V. Pulver]

Dear CZ:

[ Sorry for the duplicate post; my system burped.]

The SATA drive is not the boot drive. The IDE drive is. That drive has two
partitions on it. Partition 1 has WXP and Partition has Vista.
Also, do you see a "boot" folder in the root of D: ? <<

I did not do that, as the D: drive has nothing to do with WXP. It contains
huge files which are used by Virtual Storage 2005 R2.

As proof, when I just booted successfully into WXP, the only drive connected
was the IDE drive. WXP worked fine and I saw the other partition which
contained Vista.

My current working hypothesis is:

1). For some reason, Vista Boot Manager is using one of the two SATA drives
2) There is something wrong in the BCD data store which is not letting WXP
boot.

If you look at the attachment on my post of 2/27/2007 2:00 AM, my disks may
make more sense. Disk 0 is the IDE disk and Disks 1 and 2 are the SATA.
Disk 0 has two partitions, called OS and Storage. Notice they are F: and
C:. Windows puts the first partition as C: then it goes to all of the disks
in order. It then starts with the second partition. The two partitions on
Disk 0 were reversed by the Vista Boot Manager. That image was taken when I
had booted from Vista (note the C: drive is listed as the Boot drive).

When I select WXP in the Vista Boot Manager, it should assign C: to the
first partition and F: to the second. However, I do not know if it is doing
that as I am unable to boot in WXP.

I hoipe this make it less confusing and not more.

Cheers,

Jeff V. Pulver

 

[Jane C]

Jeff, your Vista has put its boot files on the SATA drive, which is why it
is seen by Vista (per your earlier screenshot) as the System drive. Hence
by removing the SATA drives, you can boot straight into XP on the IDE drive.
That may also explain why the Vista bootloader is completely ignoring your
XP.

First of all, do make sure that in your BIOS, your IDE drive is selected as
the primary boot hard drive. (Not first boot device per se - that should
stay as DVD then HD then FDD if you have one).

If both Vista and XP are installed on that IDE drive, can you try
disconnecting the SATA drives, reboot with your Vista DVD in the DVD drive,
select 'Repair My Computer', choose Startup Repair. That *should* put the
Vista bootloader back into where it ought to be.

--
Jane, not plain 64 bit enabled
Batteries not included. Braincell on vacation ;-)

Dear CZ:

[ Sorry for the duplicate post; my system burped.]

The SATA drive is not the boot drive. The IDE drive is. That drive has
two partitions on it. Partition 1 has WXP and Partition has Vista.
Also, do you see a "boot" folder in the root of D: ? <<

I did not do that, as the D: drive has nothing to do with WXP. It
contains huge files which are used by Virtual Storage 2005 R2.

As proof, when I just booted successfully into WXP, the only drive
connected was the IDE drive. WXP worked fine and I saw the other
partition which contained Vista.

My current working hypothesis is:

1). For some reason, Vista Boot Manager is using one of the two SATA
drives
2) There is something wrong in the BCD data store which is not letting
WXP boot.

If you look at the attachment on my post of 2/27/2007 2:00 AM, my disks
may make more sense. Disk 0 is the IDE disk and Disks 1 and 2 are the
SATA. Disk 0 has two partitions, called OS and Storage. Notice they are
F: and C:. Windows puts the first partition as C: then it goes to all of
the disks in order. It then starts with the second partition. The two
partitions on Disk 0 were reversed by the Vista Boot Manager. That image
was taken when I had booted from Vista (note the C: drive is listed as the
Boot drive).

When I select WXP in the Vista Boot Manager, it should assign C: to the
first partition and F: to the second. However, I do not know if it is
doing that as I am unable to boot in WXP.

I hoipe this make it less confusing and not more.

Cheers,

Jeff V. Pulver

 

[CZ]

Jeff:

The following portion of you bcdedit info is telling you something:

C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit
Windows Boot Manager

 

[Guest]

--

Hi Jeff,

I think each is confusing each other. What you have at the moment is:
boot files for Xp on drive c: (drive 0, partition 1)
boot files for Vista on drive f: (drive 1, partition 1)

It sounds like you would like all of the boot files on the correct
partitions. So you should copy the ntldr and boot.ini files FROM the root of
drive d: TO the root of drive f:

By doing this you will have:
boot files for XP on drive 0, partition 1
boot files for Vista on drive 0, partition 2

So you can then unplug all of your sata drives and still choose to boot
either XP or Vista from the IDE drive. I didn't read part I of the saga so
I hope I haven't made it more confusing. I just read this post and thought I
saw some confusion.

Best Regards,
Mr Slartybartfast.