I am very slow at present as I am having to take turn and turn about on my wife's PC <ggg>. I have only just seen your last suggestions as I was getting ready to send the details I promised.
So anyway, here it is attached until I get time to copy your instructions to paper so I can try it all out. (In between times I am rebuilding an old (slow!) laptop so I have an email etc capability to keep me going.)
Tony
Let us know when you are ready to cooperate and we will resolve your problem as we do for tens of thousands of others. So far you've done absolutely nothing even after I took the time to write out detailed steps, and won't even provide a Disk Management screenshot.
Instead of writing an essay in response to very specific steps and requests for information, please reply to each step and request as they are given. When you cooperate interactively with us then you will get your problem solved. So you stand out as completely uncooperative.
Greg
I am very sorry to have upset you. I am unable to work any faster but AM trying to cooperate in the way you want. I WILL do my best to take the steps you have so very helpfully spent so much effort to give me as soon as I am able to.
Tony
I'm not the slightest bit upset, just waiting to help you the way which works best.
Greg¨
This is the partition info you asked for. If it is not clear enough, then I will have another try using different camera settings.
I am running the surface tests at the moment on both HDs - results later.
Tony
From what we can see the Win7 and XP (Acer) partitions are marked Active, but neither is also marked System (or Boot in Partition Wizard) signifying it is booting the Dual Boot system. So we have to assume you have no functional System partition.
To attempt to repair this, unplug the XP hard drive, boot into the Win7 installation media or System Repair Disk to run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times until Win7 starts and wears the System Active flags in Disk Mgmt. The Win7 disk is provided in Step 6 of Troubleshooting Windows 7 Failure to Start .
Then power down to plug back in the XP drive making sure the Win7 drive remains set as Primary Hard Drive set first to boot in BIOS setup, boot again into Win7 partition to install EasyBCD (click Download - no Name or Email required), add XP on the Add New Entry tab:
Greg
With different time zones I actually did some more work before I got your message #16. So I had done the surface tests on both discs. Both of them show zero errors.
I will get on with your instructions with only the Win7 HD connected. Just one question - in my working installation I had XP installed on Acer partition 2 on drive 2 named as C:. The later Win7 installation was to Win7 partition 3 on drive 1 named as W:.
Now with drive 2 disconnected the 3 x times repair procedure I think will rename what was W: as C: . What will EasyBCD do when confronted with the reconnected drive 2 where the XP installation was on drive named C: ? If it is a problem, then should I do anything to forestall it? (I see on your screenshot that a checkbox mentions 'correct drive')
Tony
If you incorrectly installed Win7 from XP and not by booting its installer, then it locked out the C drive letter for use so that Win7 will not boot as C as it always does when correctly installed from boot. You can keep it this way although most users don't want another drive letter and choose to Clean Reinstall Windows 7.
Startup Repairs will not be able to change the drive letter so that Win7 correctly boots as C if it does not already.
The Repairs are only to reestablish the boot files so that Win7 boots itself, then install EasyBCD to add XP to the Dual Boot.
You can first try running Startup Repair with both drives plugged in which can sometimes reestablish the Dual Boot. But if it won't then unplug the XP drive, confirm Win7 partition remains marked Active in Partition Wizard, highlight it's drive number, from the PW Disk tab select Rebuild MBR, OK, Apply. Since the Win7 partition likely never had its boot files to begin with (they were written to XP to establish the Dual Boot), it will then require running Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times until Win7 starts.
Once Win7 starts install EasyBCD to add XP. Make sure the Win7 drive remains the Primary HD set first to boot in BIOS setup when you plug back in the XP drive otherwise it will not boot.
Judging by the PW screenshot, XP also does not have its boot files intact so if adding it with EasyBCD doesn't give it the assist it needs to boot, you may need to unplug the Win7 drive to run Boot Repairs or an XP Repair Install. Then you can plug back in Win7, set it in BIOS setup as first HD to boot, select XP if needed to boot using the one-time BIOS Boot menu key. If this isn't to your liking install EasyBCD to Win7 to add XP.
Last edited by gregrocker; 16 Dec 2014 at 11:05.
Greg
Today I tried your suggested steps to repair startup as in message 18. I used the method that "might reestablish the Dual Boot", that is with both drives plugged in.
Just to confirm, PW shows both drives there with both OS partitions as Active.
I went through the Startup Repair sequence from the Win 7 Pro DVD. The first two attempts showed in the log reports of Missing/corrupt Boot Manager file and then of Boot Sector code corrupt. But Win 7 would still not boot from either drive.
I tried twice more and the log did not report any more errors - just that OS booted OK - but I guess that means just from the "Windows setup (EMS enabled)" boot from DVD.
When the log showed repair attempts = 5 and that "Startup could not detect a problem", I gave up for the day
So my next attempt will be with the XP drive disconnected as in your next suggestion.
Tony
PS I did make sure that my webcam, scanner and touchpad were all disconnected.
PPS I found that my wireless mouse will not work on PW so had to find a USB mouse that would - just a note, not a complaint!
PPPS The file refernced in "OS missing on boot" is file/ntldr so I guess that is wrong. By the way, I did not install Win7 through XP - I setup a new partition and chose there to install by choosing it from the the Win 7 DVD install menu.
In PW rightclick XP partition to Modify>Set to Inactive, OK, Apply.
Then run Startup Repair again.
If Win7 is going to provide the Dual Boot for both then only its partition should be marked Active.
If this fails then unplug the XP drive and try again.
Quote