Dual Boot Error (Win7 and Win XP)

inwell · 10 Jun 2013

Hello,

I have two HDDs one with Win7(250GB) and other with WinXP(120GB). As my PC does not allow me to select boot drive by pressing F8 or any key, i tried to make it dual boot using EasyBCD.

I installed EasyBCD on Win7 and as per the tutorial added entry to Win Xp and then follwed the steps to Install WinXP bootloader to MBR and then write MBR.

When i rebooted PC with Win7 disk as my primary boot drive it ended up in error invalid Boot.ini file ,booting from C:\Windows

as i have Win XP installed on another drive i can boot in XP without any problem. (before adding EasyBCD to my Win7,it was working fine too )(but each time i had to change the HDD order in boot order of my BIOS)

what is the resolve ?

thank you

Kaktussoft · 10 Jun 2013

Do you see the win7 bootmenu? Options win7 works? option winxp is in menu ?

Post boot.ini

Kaktussoft · 10 Jun 2013

Post disk management screenshot as well

inwell · 10 Jun 2013

@Kaktussoft

no options,no boot menu is seen when booting from Win7 installation HDD. (Selecting XP HDD as boot device takes directly in to Win XP without any error )

boot.ini from win XP installation
[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect

from Win7 Installation

; This boot.ini was automatically generated by NeoSmart Technologies' BootGrabber.exe
; Use EasyBCD from EasyBCD - NeoSmart Technologies to manage your bootloader

[boot loader]
timeout=15
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on G:\" /fastdetect

Kaktussoft · 10 Jun 2013

In win7 elevated command prompt: Elevated Command Prompt

Code:

bcdedit/enum all >c:\bcdlog.txt

Post c:\bcdlog.txt. You may delete that file afterwards

inwell · 10 Jun 2013

@Kaktussoft

I cannot boot in to windows 7...

windows seven disk halts @ the error invalid Boot.ini

DavidE · 10 Jun 2013

Do you boot in UEFI mode or Legacy BIOS mode?
I found this KB article that may help?
M5A97 R2.0 - Motherboards - ASUS

In your specs it also shows you have Win 8 Ent...

inwell · 10 Jun 2013

@ David

I do not boot in UEFI mode.. I m using OLD/Legacy BIOS

Windows 8 Ent. is not a part of this setup

btw, this might be useful to help (i forgot to mention in first post).. both OS (7 and XP) are installed separately on their respective HDD (only 1 HDD present at installation time)

DavidE · 10 Jun 2013

You can try using a Win 7 Startup Repair to see if it fixes the boot issue.
Startup Repair

DavidE · 10 Jun 2013

If F8 doesn't work for the Boot Time selection window, that sounds like a BIOS issue to me.
Have you checked if there is a new version of BIOS available?
I see there was a fix in BIOS version 1503 for F8: "Fixed F8 function is abnormal under fastboot"
M5A97 R2.0 - Motherboards - ASUS