Help! I've screwed up my XP partition

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  1. Posts : 24
    XP (screwed up), 7
       #1

    Help! I've screwed up my XP partition


    Hey there!
    I tried to set up a dualboot of 7 and XP, so I made a new partition from XP (named S: ) and installed 7 there.
    It finished installing all right and booted to 7, but when I restarted no boot manager appeared and I could only run XP.
    So I decided to follow the steps from Method 2 here
    Dual Boot Installation with Windows 7 and XP
    but I must have screwed something up very badly 'cause I can only access 7 now.
    I went into the disk management tool and things have gone weird there: S: drive is now labeled C: (and I can't change it), and my XP drive (that was C: ) is now a logical drive (wtf?) labeled E:
    Any suggestions on how to fix this?
    Thanks in advance
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 159
    Windows Vista Business / Windows 7 Ultimate
       #2

    What happens when you try to boot into XP?

    7 is going to see its system drive as C.
      My Computer

  3.    #3

    How many partitions and HDD's are there and how are they configured?
    Can you use the Win7 snipping tool to make a screen shot of your Disk Management?

    If you have XP in the first partition and install Win7 second to the same or another HDD on a primary NTFS formatted partition, it should configure the boot properly.

    It may be as simple as marking the XP drive Active rewriting the boot sector to the XP partition if it is first on the HDD. But we need more info.
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 16,161
    7 X64
       #4

    Definitely need a screenshot of Disk Management window, as Greg says:

    https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...en-forums.html
      My Computers


  5. Posts : 24
    XP (screwed up), 7
    Thread Starter
       #5

    My apologies for the delay

    "What happens when you try to boot into XP?"
    I can't boot into XP, I get no OS selection screen, so I can only boot to 7.
    I noticed something funny, by the way - 7 will only boot if I have the DVD on the drive, otherwise it shows a message that it was unable to boot and requires the DVD for repairs.
    I don't have to access the DVD, but it needs to be there. Go figure...

    "How many partitions and HDD's are there and how are they configured?
    Can you use the Win7 snipping tool to make a screen shot of your Disk Management?"
    Definitely... See the attached file

    Drive 1: 320 GB
    E: (was C: in XP), 120 GB: system drive for XP
    C: (was S: ), 30 GB: I installed 7 there
    F: and D: (were G: and D: ), that's only data

    Drive 2: 320 GB, got a single partition (I: ) with only data as well

    "If you have XP in the first partition and install Win7 second to the same or another HDD on a primary NTFS formatted partition, it should configure the boot properly."
    Yah, that's how it should be in theory, but something went very wrong

    BTW I don't mind having to reinstall or format the partition with 7, I got nothing there, but I do want to save my XP install

    Thanks for replying
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Help! I've screwed up my XP partition-disk-management.jpg  
      My Computer


  6. aem
    Posts : 2,698
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64Bit
       #6

    It looks like your Xp OS was installed on a logical drive. Your W7 was installed on a primary partition which you have correctly created. Had the Xp been installed also on a primary parition, you would get the boot manager showing both OS and whichever OS you selected, the C: drive will then be your boot parition

    Here is mine.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Help! I've screwed up my XP partition-noname.jpg  
      My Computer


  7. Posts : 1,557
    XP, Seven, 2008R2
       #7

    You can probably fix this fairly easily using EasyBCD.

    XP doesn't need to be on a primary partition as long as the boot manager is on the active partition. The Windows 7 boot manager will call NTLDR which can load XP from a logical partition.

    In my case, I have boot, bootmgr, ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini all on the same active partition. I have XP32 on a primary partition and XP64 on a logical partition and am able to boot into either of them.
      My Computer


  8. Posts : 24
    XP (screwed up), 7
    Thread Starter
       #8

    Well, I'm sure I had XP in a primary partition before... anyway, as long as I can boot it, I could hardly care less about that.
    I have no idea how to use EasyBCD
      My Computer

  9.    #9

    Download EasyBCD and see what OS Entries it lists when it opens.

    Normally you would go to Add/Remove Entries tab and add the missing OS by name and letter, which will then rewrite the boot accordingly.

    However, involving a logical parition does make it iffy, so you can try the normal procedure, and/or report back with screenshot of the EasyBCD OS entries to troubleshoot further.
      My Computer


  10. Posts : 24
    XP (screwed up), 7
    Thread Starter
       #10

    Here:

    There is one entry in the Vista Bootloader.
    Bootloader Timeout: 5 seconds.
    Default OS: Windows 7

    Entry #1

    Name: Windows 7
    BCD ID: {current}
    Drive: C:\
    Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
    Windows Directory: \Windows

    Windows Boot Manager
    --------------------
    identifier {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
    device partition=I:
    description Windows Boot Manager
    locale en-US
    inherit {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
    default {84c6ec83-bd43-11de-a0eb-b71342ba7037}
    resumeobject {84c6ec82-bd43-11de-a0eb-b71342ba7037}
    displayorder {84c6ec83-bd43-11de-a0eb-b71342ba7037}
    toolsdisplayorder {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
    timeout 5

    Windows Boot Loader
    -------------------
    identifier {84c6ec83-bd43-11de-a0eb-b71342ba7037}
    device partition=C:
    path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
    description Windows 7
    locale en-US
    inherit {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
    recoverysequence {84c6ec84-bd43-11de-a0eb-b71342ba7037}
    recoveryenabled Yes
    osdevice partition=C:
    systemroot \Windows
    resumeobject {84c6ec82-bd43-11de-a0eb-b71342ba7037}
    nx OptIn
      My Computer


 
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