Having trouble triple booting WinXP & Win7. Please help.

"but you only listed 2 OS" you say. I know :)

I know this can be done as i've ran it for years. In the past 3 years i've had to format 2-3 times & each time i've had problems doing this, but managed to stumble through. I can't seem to do it any more.

Basically, i want 1x WinXP installed & 2x Win7 installed (please let's not get into why 2 lots of Win7 as it's not important).

I installed WinXP first, then Win7, then Win7 again.
Ran EasyBCD on the final Win7 install, arranged the boot order - didn't work. Wrote to MBR - didn't work.

Both Win 7 partitions boot but not WinXP.
When I select to boot to WinXP it tells me:
Windows failed to start.
File: \NST\ntldr
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: the selected entry could not be loaded because the application is missing or corrupt.

I don't know how key this is but this morning i noticed a difference:
last time, WinXP & one Win7 install were on the same physical HDD - just split into 2 partitions. The other Win7 install was on a separate physical SSD.
This time however, each install is on it's own separate physical disk - both Win7s on their own SSD & WinXP on it's own HDD.

So this morning i re-install WinXP. This means i can only boot to WinXP - the bootmenu is not "seeing" either Win7 install. However when i try to start up EasyBCD in WinXP - it's a no go. Nothing "lights up".

I also wondered this morning what order in BIOS the physical drives should be in. Right now in order it's pointing to:
Win7 install 1 SSD
WinXP install HDD
Win7 install 2 SSD.

If i point it to 1) WinXP 2) Win7 #1 3) Win7 #2 then it doesn't like it & nothing boots.


If i have to start all over again then so be it, but i just want this fixed. I know it can be done, but not sure how.



EDIT: I have looked here: Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP & can't see much different to what i did, except instead of installing 1x Win7 i installed 1x Win7 on 1 separate drive & then went on to do the same again on another separate drive.

As said, after it didn't work going WinXP>Win7>Win7 i then tried deleting the WinXP partition & re-installing it.
The link for NET framework 2.0 in that link isn't working & via MS Updates i think it was 3.5 i ended up downloading (either 3.0 or 3.5, can't remember, sorry).
I fired up EasyBCD from within WinXP & got an error message & nothing 'lit up'.

Getting very frustrated

Can you boot to each OS HD drive from the BIOS boot menu?

I just went into BIOS & altered the order that the HDDs/SSDs boot in & here's the results...

1) WinXP
2) Win7 #1
3) Win7 #2
Result: Boots straight into WinXP. Don't even get a Win7 option

1) Win7 #1
2) WinXP
3) Win7 #2
Result: Triple boot menu but only access to both Win7 options. WinXP provides the error mentioned in post #1

1) Win7 #2
2) Win7 #1
3) WinXP
Result: Reboot & select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected boot device & press a key.



I really don't think i'm doing anything differently to last time (although i guess i must be). The only difference is there are now 3 physical drives in the equation instead of 2.


As EasyBCD will only work in Win7 #1, here's a screenshot:




EDIT: Instead of installing WinXP, Win7, Win7 & then trying the EasyBCD, should i have...

disconnected final Win7 SSD
installed WinXP
installed Win7
Ran EasyBCD from within Win7
re-connected final Win7 SSD
Install Win7 to final Win7 SSD

& hopefully have it working? Or would this make no difference?

If installed as below, no need for EasyBCD

1) Install Windows XP.
2) Install Windows 7.
3) Install Windows 8.

I'm confused...

1) i don't want to install Windows 8 at all. I had a play with Win8 in town yesterday actually & i think it's horrendous, but that's by-the-by
2) In those screenshots, all those OS are installed on the same physical drive. In my case the 3 OS are installed on 3 separate drives (though i'm not sure if this will make any difference).


I've always installed:
WinXP
Win7
Win7

& every time i've needed EasyBCD to allow WinXP to boot. This time it's just not happening.

Kaktussoft said:

Boot into win7 #1 or #2 and post output of disk management

Sorry but you'll have to hold my hand a bit here, i'm not that good. How do i do what you're asking me to do?

My god this is getting frustrating!!! I figured it out before you replied, but it's taken me 20 minutes to do that as my PC keeps freezing. I don't know why it keeps doing it but it keeps hanging. Some web pages don't load properly either & need many refreshes. I'm trying firefox now in case it's an IE issue. But let's deal with 1 problem at a time...






This is from within the Win7 #2 install.

C = Win7 #2
D = storage drive
E = WinXP
F = another storage drive
G = another storage drive
H = Win7 #1


before all this mess, it used to be:

C=non existent as i only bought that drive yesterday
D=same
H=Win7 #2 (i'm 99% sure when i last did this i disconnected that drive while installing the others & then re-connected to install Win7 on it)
E=Win7 #1
F=WinXP
G=same
(although E & F were different sizes before this mess)