no boot option screen

gregrocker · 21 Jan 2010

What is on DISK0, as it is System drive holding the MBR? D:XP is marked active, while C:Win7 isn't.

This means your MBR was originally derailed to DISK0, and needs to be corrected as it is blocking your dual boot.

Burn to CD and boot free Partition Wizard, select 1 for screen res, then rightclick DISK0 to Modify>Set Inactive, OK.

Now rightclick D: partition XP, Modify>Set Inactive, OK.

Now rightclick C: Win7 to Modify>Set Active. Apply all steps.

Now boot into Win7 DVD to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots to write the System MBR to Win7.

Then check Disk Mgmt and make sure Win7 is System Active Boot partition, and none others are marked Active.

Now install EasyBCD 2.0 beta after quick registration to use beta. Add XP on Add/Remove tab: Accept when it offers to install boot files, click Add OS, then highlight XP in list above and Save.

Post back EasyBCD screenshot if any problems persist.

Saltgrass · 21 Jan 2010

Well, you have the Maxtor drive as primary drive and is where the boot files are located.

The Win 7 files are on disk 1, partition 1.

You have 2, 1 TB drives, but you need to set the Win 7 partition active and then set that drive as primary in the bios.

You then need to add the boot files to the Win 7 partition, which running Startup repair twice will do. There are command line functions that will do this, but I am not that familiar with them. The boot files necessary are hidden system files and are "bootmgr" and a "boot" folder.

Once you get Win 7 booting normally, then you can use EasyBCD to set up the dual boot. What it will do is modify the BCD store to add the listing for XP and copy the ntldr, boot.ini (modified), and ntdetect to the root directory of the Win 7 partition (if you are using EasyBCD 2.00).

I am sorry I did not see gregrocker's response, but it took me some time to submit mine.

graveller39 · 22 Jan 2010

thanks for the quick responses gregrocker and Saltgrass...

I'll have to wait 'til Sun or Mon to get back to this -- I'll let you know how I made out though.

As far as DISK0 goes (the Maxtor drive), it's a PATA drive with music files only.
Anytime I've done an XP install, this causes drive letter problems -- I have to disconnect the drive during the install, otherwise XP will see it as the C: drive and install the OS on the D: or some other drive. I thought Windows 7 wouldn't have this problem, but it seems it still messes things up.

I noticed this drive doesn't show up in Windows Explorer -- is this to be expected with the present configuration? Once things are repaired I'll see it then?

And how do I know how many times to run Startup Repair? or should I just run it 3 times to be sure?

gregrocker · 22 Jan 2010

Run Startup Repair until Win7 starts.

The installer looks for first active partition to place or refresh the MBR, so having the data drive marked Active and in DISK0 slot caused the MBR to be placed there.

I don't know why you can't see the drive in explorer. How are you able to access its files?

graveller39 · 22 Jan 2010

gregrocker said:

I don't know why you can't see the drive in explorer. How are you able to access its files?

I can only access the files in XP; if and when I can boot there.

graveller39 · 25 Jan 2010

so, I set all drives to Inactive, except the Windows 7 partition -- I set it to Active.

I tried the Repair and booted into Windows 7 -- the C: drive was Active, but so was the Maxtor...

I've forgotten exactly what all happened next -- I know I ran across some unexpected screens. Most times I went to Repair, no OS could be found -- at one point it checked online for a fix -- with no success (it took over 20 minutes that time).

I finally disconnected the Maxtor and ran the Repair four times -- no luck. so, I re-installed Windows 7 with the Maxtor still disconnected. Now when I boot up, I get the option screen -- only one problem... when I select Windows 7, the machine just reboots. When I select previous version, XP boots up fine.

Any idea whats up now...?

gregrocker · 25 Jan 2010

You need to boot the Win7 DVD, select Repair my Computer on second screen, click through to recovery tools list and run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots to start Win7.

If this doesn't work, then Win7 needs to be marked active. Do you have a bootable disk manager like Partition Wizard? If not, I can give you Diskpart commands to run from the booted Win7 installer Repair console.

graveller39 · 25 Jan 2010

gregrocker said:

You need to boot the Win7 DVD, select Repair my Computer on second screen, click through to recovery tools list and run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots to start Win7.

That's exactly what I did before -- then I re-installed Windows 7. Why would I need to repair immediately after I installed it?

gregrocker said:

If this doesn't work, then Win7 needs to be marked active.

Win7 is Active.

gregrocker said:

Do you have a bootable disk manager like Partition Wizard?

Yes, I burned the disk for the previous repair attempt.

gregrocker · 25 Jan 2010

graveller39 said:

That's exactly what I did before -- then I re-installed Windows 7. Why would I need to repair immediately after I installed it?

Because your Win7 won't start up now?

graveller39 · 26 Jan 2010

ok, I booted with the Win7 DVD and ran Startup Repair -- it did not find any errors.

I tried booting into Win7 again, but the same thing happened -- it got to the "Starting Windows" screen and then shutdown (rebooted).

I booted with the Win7 DVD and ran Startup Repair again -- this time Startup Repair couldn't automatically fix the errors. Startup Repair tried connecting to microsoft to automatically fix the errors, with no success.

I can only boot into XP now and according to PartitionWizard, my C: drive (XP) is "Active & Boot & System" and my E: drive (Win7) is "Active". I do not know how E: became active again -- it was "Inactive" before I tried the Startup Repair.

Should I try another install and hope it takes this time? or is the Win7 install somehow getting messed up with the two hard drives?

(any idea why this page is translating "Win" as "Windows" -- ie. when I type "Win" on this post, "Windows" is displayed. Actually, it only does this when I type "7" afterwards -- kind of odd don't you think?)