corrupt xp boot ini after 7 install

Hi Guys, I'm really hoping someone can help me out here as I'm at my wits end.

Background:
I was originally dual booting XP and Ubuntu on my main 240gb drive. I decided to give 7 a shot and in doing so wiped my ubuntu install, formatted a nice 50gb ntfs partition for 7 and installed it fine. However now when trying to boot into my "Previous Windows Installation" I'm getting a blank screen. I've tried using the XP recovery console from the disk to restore the bootmgr however chkdsk fails. I think somehow the partition table got rearranged during my install, and 7 didn't fix it for me. I have no idea what to do anymore since 7 won't allow me to change the partition value in my boot.ini file. I have a feeling that's all i need to do. I'm getting "Access is denied" on bootmgr and boot.ini in my XP home folder when accessing from win7..

Please someone give me some advice.

I've included what I think is all the relevant screenshots of my issue.. Please let me know if you need anymore. Thanks!












edit: Here's the Easy BCD settings:

crank2211 said:

Hi Guys, I'm really hoping someone can help me out here as I'm at my wits end.

Background:
I was originally dual booting XP and Ubuntu on my main 240gb drive. I decided to give 7 a shot and in doing so wiped my ubuntu install, formatted a nice 50gb ntfs partition for 7 and installed it fine. However now when trying to boot into my "Previous Windows Installation" I'm getting a blank screen. I've tried using the XP recovery console from the disk to restore the bootmgr however chkdsk fails. I think somehow the partition table got rearranged during my install, and 7 didn't fix it for me. I have no idea what to do anymore since 7 won't allow me to change the partition value in my boot.ini file. I have a feeling that's all i need to do. I'm getting "Access is denied" on bootmgr and boot.ini in my XP home folder when accessing from win7..

Please someone give me some advice.

I've included what I think is all the relevant screenshots of my issue.. Please let me know if you need anymore. Thanks!












edit: Here's the Easy BCD settings:

Welcome again

I think I know what happened. If you look in xp boot.ini its looking for boot files on disk 0 part 1. thats where win 7 is. Xp is now in disk 0 part 3 (i think). Did either the deletion of ubuntu, or win 7 install change the disk drive letters?
You may be able to repair it in BCD but Im gonna wait for someone who is more familiar with it than I am.

Hope this points you in the right direction and BTW great first post

Ken

Hi,

Boot.ini is inside a folder?

You really need ntldr, ntdetect.com and Boot.ini directly on the root of the Active partition ( F: ) - not in a folder.

In 7, go to Folder Options and make sure Hidden files and Protected o/s files are showing.

If those 3 files are not on the root of F:

extract from here and copy/move the 3 files ( not the folder) to the root of F:

XPBOOTFILESZIP.zip

EDIT : Just saw Easybcd - you appear to have 2 ntldr entries - remove them.

Then try adding ntldr to Vista bcd like this:

Open an elevated cmd prompt, type: ( press Enter after each line - just copy and paste them into cmd window if you like)

bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "Windows XP"

bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=F:

bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr

bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast

Hi Ken thanks for your reply

I believe what you said is my exact problem. During the Linux uninstall I don't anything was changed, however when reformatting a smaller 50gb partition for 7 and the addition of a smaller 30gb unallocated partition might be my root cause. I noticed after installing 7 the new installation took the drive letter C for itself which used to belong to my 2nd 1tb drive "fatass". It also renamed my xp "f" drive to "g" but I didn't think that mattered too much as I thought the drive letter designation only mattered for the windows instance you were in. I.e. I expected my drive letters to be fine next time I logged into xp. I think right now I need to figure out how to change the partition # in my boot ini within vista as the xp repair console isn't working for me for whatever reason..?

Boot ini and bootmgr are in root F. I'm just not able to modify ini directly thru notepad in vista.. Access denied.. The second entry u see in easy bcd is from using the bcdedit cmds u listed. I think it's pointing correctly just bad ini

Try renaming it to BOOTOLD.INI.

Then get the one I posted earlier and copy and paste directly onto the F: partition.

Yup that did it!

I used the ini you provided in the zip, changed it to partition=3 and copied it right into F and voilà..

Seems strange that you can't modify the file directly but can overwrite it via copy/paste, but it works.

Thanks for your help SIW, it's much appreciated :)

You're welcome - glad it's working for you.

crank2211 said:

Hi Ken thanks for your reply

I believe what you said is my exact problem. During the Linux uninstall I don't anything was changed, however when reformatting a smaller 50gb partition for 7 and the addition of a smaller 30gb unallocated partition might be my root cause. I noticed after installing 7 the new installation took the drive letter C for itself which used to belong to my 2nd 1tb drive "fatass". It also renamed my xp "f" drive to "g" but I didn't think that mattered too much as I thought the drive letter designation only mattered for the windows instance you were in. I.e. I expected my drive letters to be fine next time I logged into xp. I think right now I need to figure out how to change the partition # in my boot ini within vista as the xp repair console isn't working for me for whatever reason..?

hey
You should think about what SIW2 said as well. his solution is preferable and you have bcd. the thing about your approach is while you can change the letters and partitions its still gonna be messy. Do you have the XP data backed up? Is the win 7 a new clean install?

Tell me what you would like to do and I'll see if its do'able

hope this helped

Ken

Just wanted to update real quick.. I double checked the ini and you were right from the beginning SIW, it was "partition=2" not 3.. 3 failed for me