Dual boot 7 and xp

nickmaza · 27 Jun 2009

I had vista(on C: ) and xp(on D: ) running on my PC. I easily setup a dual boot for vista and xp using bcdedit.

i installed 7 by formatting the drive (C: ) where vista was installed. I read on a blog that the setup will automatically detect the presence of xp and show it as "Earlier version of windows "in boot menu. but after installation there was no such option and windows 7 directly started.

I ran cmd as administrator and used the following command to add xp (as i did in vista) the commands were

bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "Microsoft Windows XP"
bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=c:
bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr
bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast

Now my boot manager looks like :

Now an option for windows xp appears but on selecting it i get an error missing ntldr

so i copied the ntldr, ntdetect.com from the xp installation disc to the root of D and created a boot.ini

but that didn't help now the system restarts when i select Windows xp

have i missed some step or what? can any one help?

(I have windows xp Sp3 installed)

i think these screen shots might help ya

Folder options:

(all hidden files are shown)

D: Xp is installed here (i have deleted the ntldr and ntdetect.com and the boot.ini files that i had copied )

(after 7's installation none of these files were present the drive was same as it is in the screen shot)

C: 7 is installed here

Thanx in advance

sup3rsprt · 27 Jun 2009

In my case I have all the boot manager stuff on the C: partition (the active partition). That includes bootmgr and ntldr, boot.ini, etc.

torrentg · 27 Jun 2009

Edit your boot.ini file for XP. Change the rdisk value to something new than what it is now. (If it's 1, make it 0. If it's 0, make it 1...you can go all the way up to how many physical disks you have minus 1, to try.)

Change the rdisk value in all instances of the boot.ini.

Keep trying and rebooting until it either works or you run out of numbers. When you chose XP now in the dual boot menu, it is just trying to access the wrong partition or drive, hence the system restart.

Note: You will have to take off read-only on the boot.ini file to edit it. When you're done, replace it. Also, it is a hidden system file so you will have to enable viewing those too.

kaik541 · 27 Jun 2009

Jebus, this is what I signed up for the forums for. I'm having this exact same issue. I tried using EasyBCD 2.0 beta 63 (which will autowrite the boot.ini and NTLDR if you don't have them)... but I checked out the boot.ini they gave me and its pointing to partition 4.

Here is my layout

|------XP----||-----Linux-----||-----7-----||swap|

So I think boot.ini should be pointing to partition 1, but its a read only file so I can't edit it =/

Edit: wow I feel dumb considering I knew that flag was easy to take off. Also just tried these settings and I get an error 0xc000007b whenever I try to boot it.

I then tried the command line commands (almost exactly what you did) and this is what I have:

Code:

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7 7229 x64
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Microsoft Windows XP
BCD ID: {ntldr}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \ntldr

Oh and Boot.ini

Code:

[boot loader]
timeout=20
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP on D:\" /fastdetect

sup3rsprt · 27 Jun 2009

you can clear the read-only flag by showing hidden system files and then right-clicking on boot.ini and go properties. Or use something like Notepad++ which lets you do it from the Edit menu.

kaik541 said:

Also just tried these settings and I get an error 0x000007bf whenever I try to boot it.

a blue screen of death? hmmm I don't think I've ever gotten a BSOD just from missing boot loader.

kaik541 · 27 Jun 2009

I think my problem is, I originally had the same layout, but a 32 bit version of 7 which I changed to 64 bit (with Linux installed last for the GRUB bootloader) so XP was "hidden" behind GRUB (which BCD can't handle natively)... so somewhere along the way I lost my XP boot information.

is it possible for me to pop in my xp disk, use the repair command to get the original ntldr boot, then use a program like EasyBCD or some such to get the BCD back on?

kaik541 · 27 Jun 2009

sup3rsprt said:

a blue screen of death? hmmm I don't think I've ever gotten a BSOD just from missing boot loader.

No, not a blue screen. its a simple error screen. (its black and white just like the bootloader) and all it says is there's something wrong and I need to insert my installation disc to repair the problem. and "hit enter to continue" (which takes me back to the loader) or "hit esc to cancel" (which restarts the PC)

sup3rsprt · 27 Jun 2009

Oh, yes I see what you mean about the error message. Sorry for the confusion.

I use a program called VistaBootPro to fix problems like this.

I never did spend much time on the command line options because that program makes it so easy. Others will know more about the commands than I do.

kaik541 · 27 Jun 2009

EasyBCD is essentially the same idea, I'll give it a look and see

oh and correction to above error code:
0xc000007b (which seems to be a general failure to initialize error)

sup3rsprt · 27 Jun 2009

You're right, EasyBCD is a lot alike. They each seem to have some unique features. VistaBootPro will let you pick the drive or partition to install the system boot loader on. And you can choose between legacy and Vista bootloader (the Vista bootloader is the same as Windows 7).