Windows 7 - How to recover lost Xp boot partition ?

Hi!

I had both Xp and in7 on my comp. Unfortunately something got messed up, and suddenly both could not boot, it said that there was something wrong with the BCD and i had to insert the Windows 7 installer DVD. I did so, and it repaired the error, but due to a side effect i lost my Xp entry in the MBR ( i think the whole boot configuration was rewritten by Windows 7 ), so my Xp does not boot now. How could i make it boot again?

Hi VinoBob!

Take a look at Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP.
Hope it can helps.

The referenced tutorial shows how to do many things, but to make it easier, if you loaded XP last, then the boot files were in the Win 7 partition along with the XP boot files.

You need to add the XP entry back into the BCD store so it shows up in the boot menu. You can do this in two ways I know of.

The first and easiest is to use EasyBCD. This is referenced in the tutorial and you need to join their forum to get the beta 2.0 version.

Or you could use bcdedit.exe, which is a utility built into Win 7 you can run from an administrative command prompt. If you enter the commands below, one at a time and followed by enter, it should add the entry to the BCD Store. I got this from a microsoft website so you can check there also if you wish.

Boot Configuration Data Editor Frequently Asked Questions

Read this pdf file,and use the command lines:DUALLBOOT XP_7.pdf

Use EasyBCD to Add XP back to dual boot: EasyBCD 2.0 Beta Builds - The NeoSmart Forums

no use guys. I have done the BCD thingybut no use...i created the entry of the Xp and so it appeared again in the boo menu, but after i want to let it boot, it said it could not find the ntldr :/. So i inserted the Xp CD, and tried to fix it from the command line, tried FIXMBR, FIXBOOT, CHCKDSK, neither helped ... i had to insert the Windows 7 DVD again, and repair the strartup, cause the XP repair deleted the Windows 7 entry from the MBR. So currently the NT loader is missing or it cant be found when i launch the boot sequence of Xp. What should i do ?

Try looking for hidden, system files ntldr, ntdetect, and boot.ini. They should now be in the Win 7 partition. If not, they need to be added and EasyBCD will do that for you. Or you may be able to just copy them from the XP partition to the System partition.

Since it appears the install was not as I had guessed, possibly now post a snipping tool picture of your disk management window.

i did not find the required files, tho i searched among the hidden ones too. How to add these with Easy BCD ?

Use the Easy BCD build which I linked you to yesterday.

On the Add/Remove tab, Add XP by Name and type (XP). It will ask you if you want the boot files added. Agree and it will autocomplete the drive letter.

When you restart there should be a Dual Boot menu. If not, or if either OS does not start then post back a screenshot of your full Disk Mgmt drive map using Snipping Tools in Start Menu, attach file using paper clip in Reply Box.

I did what you said but did not work, still did not find ntldr. It created a new drive and put the missing files of Xp on the drive G ( my Xp drive is D Windows 7 is C ) :/. Then i edited the entries and assigned the Xp to D and put the missing files ( ntldr, boot.ini etc. ) there. Then after trying to boot on Xp the computer just simply restarted, without any error messages. So i copied the files to every hard drive now, and it says that my hal.dll is issing or damaged. I guess now it tries to use the Windows 7-s hal.dll. Here iare my settings:

There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: Windows 7 Ultimate (recovered)
Timeout: 30 seconds.
Boot Drive: F:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7 Ultimate (recovered)
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Microsoft Windows XP
BCD ID: {56ec5813-37d4-11df-8e58-d9b6b97f8c41}
Device: boot
Bootloader Path: \NTLDR

And here is the disk management window: