Dual boot problems.

281 Views 6 Replies 4 Participants Last post by GeforceGTS, Nov 15, 2008

SmasherBasher

Discussion Starter · Nov 15, 2008

I am trying to dual boot vista x64 and xp pro x86. I installed vista first. it's been up and running for 2 days now after a fresh wipe. I then partitioned the drive and insdtalled XP. Now I can only boot into XP unless I load EasyBCD and manually change the bootloader to fix the vista bootloader and it deletes the xp loader until I am in vista and want to go to XP I have to reverse the process. How can I make them both play nice so I don't have to do this every time? It's already getting annoying and XP has only been installed 2 hours.

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godto

· #2 · Nov 15, 2008

do XP first then Vista ... but since you already did ...
this what you do .... boot to XP ... then exit .... when you boot again .. put in your window vista disk ... and choose option repair ... this is where vista will load a bood driver and fix your problem..
and when you go into vista.. you will have an option to choose which one as default ... you can set your timming of how long to wait before they go into the default operate system .... and anytime you want to change anything .. have to do inside Vista .....

also easyBCD you load in vista if you want to change the name the display in boot screen...

good luck

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SmasherBasher

Discussion Starter · #3 · Nov 15, 2008

thx. I was actually trying to do it from vista and I did the install vista disc and fix the vista bootloader, but when i do that, I get the NTLDR MISSING error when i choose to boot to XP

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godto

· #4 · Nov 15, 2008

that why i said .... boot into XP ... ... and when reboot ... put vista in ... that way XP still there ... because if boot into vista then fix .. then they will point to the wrong drive .... i remember that how i did that.. was a while a go

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SmasherBasher

Discussion Starter · #5 · Nov 15, 2008

On my end what it does, is when I load the xp MBR, it erases the vista one and vice versa so right now I can only load one OS at a time. I still have to wipe/write the bootloader every time.

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SpcCdr

· #6 · Nov 15, 2008

Independent boot is my personal favorite!
Just unplug your Vista HDD and do a clean reinstall of your XP- (You stated that you've only had it on for ~2hrs)
Then plug Vista back in

Now whenever you want to boot to either OS- just go into BIOS and switch HD boot device order!
Great thing is that neither OS is relying on the other's boot-loader so if one goes south you haven't lost access to both!
You still get full access to files on both drives!

^^ Yeah, may seem like a huge PITA to have to go into BIOS every time- but, isn't the aditional "safety" worth it?!
and anyway; don't you have a "preferred OS" and would only boot to the other for occasional use!?
besides, do it a few times and it takes just seconds to swap boot order and exit back out of BIOS.
Normally, the only other negative- is you have to remember which drive you're on for saving files-as this method will swap your drive letters!

But, when you have one set up as XP and one as Vista- It's pretty straight forward to know which drive you're on /OS you're under!

Vista files go on the Vista drive; XP files go on the Xp..........

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GeforceGTS

· #7 · Nov 15, 2008

Quote:

Originally Posted by SmasherBasher

thx. I was actually trying to do it from vista and I did the install vista disc and fix the vista bootloader, but when i do that, I get the NTLDR MISSING error when i choose to boot to XP

I was having the same problem after reparing the vista bootloader from the disk, I used something like spotmau powersuite to restore NTLDR and it's fine now, theres lots of progs to restore it.. I just can't remember them ;]

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