Dual booting XP and Windows 7 doesn't work after using XP

dismas · 11 Aug 2010

I have 3 drives, C:, D:, and E:. E: is just a storage drive. XP was originally installed on the D: drive. I installed Win7 on the C: drive following the instructions at Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP. After installing Win7, I didn't get an option to boot XP so I used EasyBCD to add an XP entry to the boot menu. That worked, but after I boot into XP, if I shutdown or restart I get an error message about the Windows Boot Manager that says

"Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause. To fix the problem
...
etc
...
File: \boot\bcd
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: an error occurred while attempting to read the boot configuration data."

Then I have to run startup repair from the Win7 disk. But then I just get stuck with Win7 and no boot menu entry for XP. If I try EasyBCD again, the same process results. How can I fix this?

gregrocker · 11 Aug 2010

Please post back a screenshot of your full Disk Management drive map and listings, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu.

Are you using EasyBCD 2.0? Use this version, select Edit Boot Menu to remove XP listing. Then Add it back, accept boot files, let autocomplete, Save, Restart.

If this fails, then on BCD Backup/Repair tab, Repair Boot files.

Night Hawk · 12 Aug 2010

The next step if that still sees continuing problems would be rebuilding the BCD store.

1)Boot from the 7 dvd and enter the repair tools section
2)Once the 7 installation is detected you click on that and the next button to move onto the next screen
3)Select the command prompt option
4)At the dos like prompt> type "bootrec.exe" and press enter
5Tne command to enter is "bcdedit /export C\BCD_Backup"
60The is followed by:

c
cd boot
attrib bcd-s-h-r
ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old
bootrec /Rebuild
Y
(Y is for yes when prompted)

7)Type exit and watch the system restart from there.

You can refer to Error message when you start Windows 7: "The Windows Boot Configuration Data file is missing required information"

gregrocker · 12 Aug 2010

EasyBCD BCD Backup/Repair utility automates rebuilding the BCD store.

Night Hawk · 13 Aug 2010

I'm well aware of the option to restore the original store. The situation however is that the original has ro be replaced in order to see a new backup made of the correction. This is why the manual method will likely see the need there.