Solved Boot - help with neating up MBR mess

[monographix]

- First, i wanted to ask if there is some nice simple safe smooth way of fixing to working condition the boot (MBR and all) of XP, (eg like the Seven DVD offers for 7 )

- more specificaly, i have a dual boot installation with XP and 7 installed on different physical drives but the first MBR read, which controls both OS was created by 7 and is on the XP drive ... So, the XP drive with the 7 drive unpluged starts normally , presents the multi boot options and if you choose XP , loads XP normally (even its own different boot.ini is being loaded in next step) But if the XP drive is unpluged, the 7 won't boot (like os or mbr absent). I itend to fix the 7 with the Windows DVD, and i want to do the same with the XP too. (i will just multiboot from the bios OS selection menu F11/F12 style)

Thank you

 

[seavixen32]

This tutorial should help.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2676-bcdedit-how-use.html

 

[karlsnooks]

Monographix,

Let's make sure I understand.

You want to be able to boot from the drive with the Win 7 on it?

We are going to need the output of Disk Management.

Read carefully and follow precisely the procedure below.
When you do, pay particular attention to dragging the field separator lines so that all info is shown.

HOW TO POST A SNAPSHOT OF DISK MANAGEMENT DISPLAY
Run disk management:
WIN | type DISKMGMT.MSC | ENTER
WIN is the key with the wavy flag.

Maximize the output of Disk Management:
ALT-Spacebar key combo (this pops up a menu) followed by X key (selects Maximize) |
Drag the field separators (such as between Status and Capacity) to show entire field. This is very important, otherwise, needed info is not visible.

Make a snapshot:
WIN | type SNIPPING | ENTER | New
Drag the cursor around the area you want to snip.
File | Save as | select save location and name | Save

Post the snapshot:
Upload a File or Screenshot in Seven Forums

 

[mjf]

I think booting through Windows 7 first would be better
Method 2 in this tutorial
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html
Here bootmgr and the BCD is on the Windows 7 disk and ntldr would be on your XP disk. Then the Windows 7 boot fixes apply.

Edit
The other option of course is to separate the OS multi booting at the BIOS level (BIOS booting).

 

[monographix]

to hopefully simplify my description : my current windows XP & 7 setup was made with both physical drives pluged in and i installed windows 7 last and once discovered the XP installation on the other drive, i allowed the installer to create a multiboot option start menu (and now the 7 drive depends on the XP drive to start. Apparently the 7 dvd wrote the boot information on the XP drive)

What i want to do now is to make both installations / drives totally independent from eachother and i want to be able to choose OS only from the bios F11 (or F12 in some boards) key at boot time. I am more troubled if i can revert the XP MBR to a virgin XP single OS form.

 

[Bill2]

For the win7, unplug the XP physical drive, boot from the win7 install dvd or startup repair disk and run startup repair (upto 3 times may be required). That should make your win7 drive independent of the XP one.

For the XP, run this command in CMD and hit enter:

bootsect /nt52 c:

where c: is the XP drive (change drive letters as per your situation).

 

[monographix]

upto 3 times may be required

you mean it may automatically restart and process up to 3 times before finishes ? or that i will have to boot from the dvd and perform the same procedure up to 3 times ?

For the XP, run this command in CMD and hit enter:

bootsect /nt52 c:

where c: is the XP drive (change drive letters as per your situation).

From which of the two OS i am running this in CMD?

 

[Bill2]

1) Boot from dvd to perform the procedures.

2) Anywhere, as long as you choose the right drive letter for XP. You can even do it from the win7 dvd.

 

[monographix]

Thank you (everyone)

Heres also a bcd report just in case :

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device                  partition=W:
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {7ea2e1ac-2e61-4728-aaa3-896d9d0a9f0e}
default                 {91559557-072e-11df-ae7e-be8bb1c2011f}
resumeobject            {91559552-072e-11df-ae7e-be8bb1c2011f}
displayorder            {466f5a88-0af2-4f76-9038-095b170dc21c}
                        {91559553-072e-11df-ae7e-be8bb1c2011f}
                        {91559557-072e-11df-ae7e-be8bb1c2011f}
toolsdisplayorder       {b2721d73-1db4-4c62-bf78-c548a880142d}
timeout                 4

Windows Legacy OS Loader
------------------------
identifier              {466f5a88-0af2-4f76-9038-095b170dc21c}
device                  partition=W:
path                    \ntldr
description             Earlier Version of Windows

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {91559553-072e-11df-ae7e-be8bb1c2011f}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows 7
locale                  en-US
loadoptions             DDISABLE_INTEGRITY_CHECKS
inherit                 {6efb52bf-1766-41db-a6b3-0ee5eff72bd7}
recoverysequence        {91559554-072e-11df-ae7e-be8bb1c2011f}
recoveryenabled         Yes
bootdebug               No
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {91559552-072e-11df-ae7e-be8bb1c2011f}
nx                      OptIn
pae                     ForceDisable
sos                     No
debug                   No

Real-mode Boot Sector
---------------------
identifier              {91559557-072e-11df-ae7e-be8bb1c2011f}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \BOOT\boot.bin
description             ReadyDriver Plus

- Drive "W:" is the Drive where the XP is installed, as seen from the 7 (Seen from XP is "C:")
- ReadyDriverPlus is remainings of an uninstalled automation that was disabling from the 7 startup menu the drivers signature checking (in order for me to use some legacy drivers for legacy devices. it worked great btw)
- I see no C:\boot\ folder in my 7 system. Nor some small unassigned partition in the 7 physical drive (checked from windows disk management and acronis & paragon disk management software). I suspect 7 uses (and created) the C:\boot\ folder existing in the XP system/drive

 

[monographix]

copying maybe w:\bootmgr (XP) to c:\bootmgr (7) copying also over the W:\boot\ (XP) to c:\boot\ (7) and copying a copy of the bcd file to C:\boot\ altered from :

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device                  partition=[COLOR="Red"]W:[/COLOR]

to

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {9dea862c-5cdd-4e70-acc1-f32b344d4795}
device                  partition=[COLOR="red"]C:[/COLOR]

would do the trick for the 7 ?

 

[mjf]

to hopefully simplify my description : my current windows XP & 7 setup was made with both physical drives pluged in and i installed windows 7 last and once discovered the XP installation on the other drive, i allowed the installer to create a multiboot option start menu (and now the 7 drive depends on the XP drive to start. Apparently the 7 dvd wrote the boot information on the XP drive)

What i want to do now is to make both installations / drives totally independent from eachother and i want to be able to choose OS only from the bios F11 (or F12 in some boards) key at boot time. I am more troubled if i can revert the XP MBR to a virgin XP single OS form.

Your description was understood the first time and a recommendation to boot via Windows 7 given.
Now you have decided to BIOS boot and want instructions?

1) You have the help for XP using the "Bootsect" command.
2) For the Windows 7 disk (assuming no system reserved partition) it must be marked ACTIVE before running the repair function 3 times from the system repair disk. It must be the only disk connected.
If this doesn't work then, with the W7 marked active, from the System Repair disk command line you run

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /fixboot
bootrec /rebuildbcd

 

[monographix]

great info. Thanks (everyone). that i guess sums it up. it was important to notify me about the possibly three times necessity , otherwise i would be very stressed to see that it didn't work the first time not knowing more steps are involved. Good also to know the alternative command lines & system repair disk approach in case that it wont work. Good also to have the verification of the XP procedure.

Saving me lot of time and stress.

 

[seavixen32]

You're very welcome.

Keep us up-to-date with the outcome and don't hesitate to post back if you need further help.

 

[monographix]

finished with the 7 . all ok so far

 

[monographix]

XP ready now too. bootsect worked flawlessly on the XP drive. Only that there wasn't any bootsect.exe in my windows and i used one i found in the EasyBCD folder.