Perplexed, Win XP & Win 7 Dual Boot

Thanks for all your help, I'll go at it for another 20-30 minutes, if I can't get it done, back again tomorrow...

Going to repair XP now, hopefully that fixes the bootloader...

In control panel folder options unhide protected system files, and show hidden files.

make sure boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com are in the roots of both OS drives. (C: and D)

Copy if not.

Reboot

This is everything that can be done before repair installing XP, as it must have its boot scrambled.

Can you uninstall the XP recovery console you added? Where did you put it?

gregrocker said:

In control panel folder options unhide protected system files, and show hidden files.

make sure boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com are in the roots of both OS drives. (C: and D)

Copy if not.

Reboot

This is everything that can be done before repair installing XP, as it must have its boot scrambled.

Can you uninstall the XP recovery console you added? Where did you put it?

Something happened with 7, I'm gonna format the disk and fresh install it. Booting back into XP now... Going to check for ntldr, boot.ini and ntdetect.com in, I'm assuming, C:\Windows... I'll search for them regardless...

RE: The XP Recovery console... Have to look up how to uninstall that...

Removed XP Recovery console...

Boot.ini, ntldr, ntdetect.com are present in the root C:\ drive of XP...

THose three files need to be in the root of both OS drives.

Copy them to 7 if not there in the C root.

What happened to 7?

Where was the XP recovery console you removed? Any chance it had the MBR?

gregrocker said:

THose three files need to be in the root of both OS drives.

Copy them to 7 if not there in the C root.

What happened to 7?

No idea, it just wouldn't boot and after a couple times, I'm going to fresh install it...

Right now, XP is working normally, cleared the recovery console as per MS Support instructions (including manually removed the entry in the boot.ini which I assume gave me the dual boot to being with for XP or Recovery Console)...

Do you think I should now boot from the Win 7 DVD and install it... In the hope that it'll recognize XP and create the proper bootloader?

Were those three files in the root of Win7 drive also?

You can try the clean reinstall of Win7, maybe the removal of that boot.ini edit will allow it to reconfigure the dual Boot correctly this time.

Would be better if we could just get them to both boot now.

Copy the three files to Win7 and reboot.

Try Startup Repair from the booted Win7 DVD a few more times. It may be better able to fix boot.ini now.

gregrocker said:

Were those three files in the root of Win7 drive also?

You can try the clean reinstall of Win7, maybe the removal of that boot.ini edit will allow it to reconfigure the dual Boot correctly this time.

Would be better if we could just get them to both boot now.

Copy the three files to Win7 and reboot.

Try Startup Repair from the booted Win7 DVD a few more times. It may be better able to fix boot.ini now.

Booting from the Win 7 DVD now, we'll see what options it gives me... I'll try and repair first, fresh install second...

Ahhhh, rainy days in SoCal and Windows 7 problems on a Friday night... What could be better... Haha

Did you copy the three files into the root of the Windows 7 drive?

It will not dual boot XP without them being present in the root of both drives.

Startup repair will not do it without them.

gregrocker said:

Did you copy the three files into the root of the Windows 7 drive?

It will not dual boot XP without them being present in the root of both drives.

Startup repair will not do it without them.

I couldn't boot back into 7, I have no clue what happened, system kept hanging... Installing a fresh 7 right now, about 50% there...