can't initialize to MBR!

[Alsenor]

You first have to verify which drive letter is assigned in the DM for the XP drive. If F you apparently used D when adding the new entry in offsetting things a bit but wouldn't be seeing the XP boot options menu!

I entered "F" and saved the settings, but in the View window it showed as "D"!

In the 7 DM first make sure the XP drive is set with the letter you want to use for the XP drive if not already seen in WE as F. The options found in the EasyBCD's Advanced Settings will allow you to reassociate the XP entry with the correct drive letter as well.(see attached image)

I did that as well, but it showed as D again!

Once you change and even rename the entry simply click on the "save" button to save the change made.

Did that.

The F8 boot menu shows that XP is loading but having a problem of some type where you will want to take notice of any error messages like those seen if a blue screen appears in order to trace the problem.

Knowing that XP made the attempt however is certainly good news for you. Now to get it running normally! You may end up needing another full install to replace the present following the guide or a repair install if the option is seen during the setup to correct initial installation problems.

I just reinstalled XP as well, because I had to use the CD for repair. Will have to try and see how it goes now.

 

[Alsenor]

Well, it offers the options on bootup, but when I select XP I get an error msg, saying I should insert the installation disc and do a "repair", as well as this:
FILE \NST\ntldr
The selected entry could not be located because the application is either missing or corrupted.

Last time this happened I reinstalled XP, then had to use the rescue CD to get into W7 again. This time I just rebooted and it did allow me to select W7 again.
Anyway, we only put a "ntldr" file in the root, not a NST\ntldr. No wonder it can't be found!

 

[Night Hawk]

After checking to see if F was set in the 7 DM did you go into the Advanced Settings in the EasyBCD program and try reassociating the entry to F from D? If that doesn't work you simply delete the present XP entry and add a new one pointing at F.

You're still making progress despite a few obstacles from where you were. The important will getting XP to run. Minor adjustments can be taken care of after.

As for a repair install of XP that wouldn't trash the 7 part of the mbr like a full clean install would since you are in a sense performing an upgrade repair install without using the upgrade option in Windows. Basically it does the same thing as far as replacing the main system files whille leaving the rest intact.

 

[Alsenor]

After checking to see if F was set in the 7 DM did you go into the Advanced Settings in the EasyBCD program and try reassociating the entry to F from D? If that doesn't work you simply delete the present XP entry and add a new one pointing at F.

Yes, I did exactly that, twice! Even though it showed correctly in "View" as "F" after correcting it in the "Advanced" mode I still could not boot into the XP option.
Did I edit the boot.ini file correctly?

 

[Night Hawk]

The boot.ini file looks good there. You have it pointing to the second as it should be.

Hopefully you remembered to choose the "all files" option when going to save it by overwriting the original and didn't end up seeing "txt" instead of "ini" for the 3 digit file extension.

The reassociation of drive letter trick doesn't work in all occassions unfortunately where you then have to remove the first entry once everything is set to add a totally new in with the correct drive letter. That's about the only minor annoyance ever run into with the program but easy to fix with the new entry pointing to F not D.

If the XP install itself was complete you should be able to boot right into XP with the new entry seeing the correct drive letter. Provided everything else is in working order you should see XP load up without problems. Otherwise there will be a few last minute items that would need to worked out.

 

[Alsenor]

The boot.ini file looks good there. You have it pointing to the second as it should be.

Hopefully you remembered to choose the "all files" option when going to save it by overwriting the original and didn't end up seeing "txt" instead of "ini" for the 3 digit file extension.

I made sure I did.

The reassociation of drive letter trick doesn't work in all occassions unfortunately where you then have to remove the first entry once everything is set to add a totally new in with the correct drive letter. That's about the only minor annoyance ever run into with the program but easy to fix with the new entry pointing to F not D.

I wonder why the automatic always associates with drive letter D, although the OS resides on F.

If the XP install itself was complete you should be able to boot right into XP with the new entry seeing the correct drive letter. Provided everything else is in working order you should see XP load up without problems. Otherwise there will be a few last minute items that would need to worked out.

Since Xp still doesn't load, what do we do now?

 

[Night Hawk]

The default letter would be D. But you simply bring the droplist down when going to select another drive letter when in the Advanced Settings or when adding a new entry since that assumes the next drive letter available following C would be D.

When going to restart what was seen when you selected the XP entry?

Hopefully you removed the first and saw the new corrected one added in for the F letter. You're much closer now to having everything running. We simply have to find the last holdup and see that fixed to the need for a full reinstall of XP plus another repair of the 7 mbr.

 

[Alsenor]

When going to restart what was seen when you selected the XP entry?

As I described earlier, when I select XP I get an error msg, saying I should insert the installation disc and do a "repair", and below that it had these lines:
FILE \NST\ntldr
The selected entry could not be located because the application is either missing or corrupted.

Hopefully you removed the first and saw the new corrected one added in for the F letter.

Sure, as I said before.

You're much closer now to having everything running. We simply have to find the last holdup and see that fixed to the need for a full reinstall of XP plus another repair of the 7 mbr.

Yes, what is the last holdup?

 

[Night Hawk]

Since XP didn't load it's likely you will need to reinstall or perform a repair install of XP if you are not able to fix the "FILE \NST\ntldr" error you are mentioning. That tends to suggest that the installation may have incomplete to start with.

If you are forced into one of those two one guide explaining how to go about a repair install is seen at How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install

 

[Alsenor]

I already did a repair install, which didn't change anything except that I couldn't boot into either OS after, and had to use the rescue CD to get W7 working again.
So all I can think of is doing a new clean install of XP, and see if that works. Where is that damn "NST/ntldr" supposed to come from, if it didn't get installed the first time around?

 

[Night Hawk]

Did you delete the entry for XP and then see a new one replace it in EasyBCD? When setting up dual boots here and having any problems loading any second even third installation the firrst set of entries would be wiped seeing a fresh entry even for the host OS.

Since you verfied all necessary boot files were present the refresh on them can sometime be all it takes to get a stubborn OS moving. For XP boot problems of all types there's a roubdup of all types with various other solutions. Boot Dual Missing Ntldr Vista Xp

(Note 7 still uses same type boot loader as Vista)

 

[Alsenor]

Yes, I entered both drives new in EasyBCD.
I also just found out in the NeoSmart forum that I have to let EasyBCD add the drive "automatically", otherwise it will not work right! See "NST/ntldr" - The NeoSmart Forums, where I am advised to: Read the last two lines of my previous post, and stop changing the disk assignment.
That's why it's auto configure, to stop people pointing it to the wrong place.
I made a new clean install of XP tonight, and it booted fine, but W7 did not boot until I changed the BIOS back to default (RAID).
Then XP doesn't boot, neither in "normal" nor in "last good config".

 

[Night Hawk]

I saw the thread you started over there while looking for some additional references and the reply as well about not all of the older wikis catching with the latest changes seen in the 2.0.2 release. "typical"!

As far as the drive mode that's been the main obstacle for XP all along and why I suggested finding someone running the 32bit flavor to see if the game would run on that. The 32bit 7 has quite a bit more backward compatibility to more then seen with the previous version it has been found.

In fact I slapped a fast install lately on an old XP clunker where every XP driver worked on 7! onboard sound, old video card, main chipset drivers, the works! But since that was to donated for student use the drive was wiped and I spent a good night downloading and installing the 100+ updates found for XP with SP3 already installed!
(Try 5am closing time for that one! sssslowww with repeat trips to the Windows update site)

If it runs on the 32bit the problem with drive modes would be solved for you rather then fussing with constant trips into the bios since XP isn't actually supported on that model to begin with. It would save all the headaches you've been running into.

At least you now know why the entry in the latest version of EasyBCD wasn't working for you. But the best idea is still considering a try of the game on the 32bit 7 especially since MS plans to repeat their reduced prices for the Home Premium edition this fall a year after 7's release.

 

[Alsenor]

It's not just for the game I want to get XP working on the second drive. Now that I have an actual dual boot screen popping up it seems a shame we can't overcome the last hurdle of XP actually booting up! It booted fine as long as I had the BIOS set to IDE, but that didn't work for W7, so I had to reset it to default.

 

[Night Hawk]

Have you gone to the Windows update site since you got XP running again? You might just run into some optional hardware updates for the sata/Raid controllers there as well as anything else not seen at the HP support site. You'll need them!

 

[Alsenor]

Have you gone to the Windows update site since you got XP running again? You might just run into some optional hardware updates for the sata/Raid controllers there as well as anything else not seen at the HP support site. You'll need them!

I tried while I was in XP, but couldn't get the Internet connection going. The TCP setting is not found.

 

[Night Hawk]

That's always fun! What type of connection are you running there?

I know when swapping cases back and forth while working on a new build that will be seeing the 64bit Home Premium and reconnecting the main case later I had some fun getting back on with cable here.

The modem was turned off, unplugged, replugged, powered up again due to the other build grabbing it's own cofiguration. Looking under network adapters in the device manager is the first place to see is listed there. If you see more then one item the default you use is left enabled while anything else has to be disabled if not uninstalled.

 

[Alsenor]

That's always fun! What type of connection are you running there?

I have a cable modem going to a wireless router. Using a cable connector from router to PC.

 

[Night Hawk]

At first you may have to follow similar footsteps by looking over the ISP's own FFAQs. Adding a router in at first was a pain here for sure! That was solved however with a fast trip through the ISP's support pages.

I can't say this method would work well for you however depending on if you plugging into the router by usb or by a nic card installed in a pci slot to be hardwired out to the router. This would be a quick set of steps to take.
1) Review support for router as well as installation of software/drivers on XP
2) Review the Device Manager>network adapter sub section to if the adapter item is working properly with a right click for the properties screen and not seeing any yellow or red marked item(s).

Now depending on your ISP if you have an assigned user name/password you would then set up a new account in Outlook Express using that information to get mail going while if nothing is yellow marked in the network adapter sub.

3) Look at the "Network Connections" in the CP being XP there. It wouldn't be any good showing screens from the XP Mode for sure since that uses NAT virtual networking.

Your interest would be looking at the Local Area Connection Status to see if XP is all set as far as the router is concerned. Most likely XP is already synced with the router but may still need to get past that.

Have you connected with the same connection with XP previously with the router inline? If you start recycling power on both router and modem and synce the modem with the ISP while everything is shutdown you could lose the connection for 7.

The methods can be different at times between the two versions. Here while the router was inline it was still hardwired by the RJ-45 cables for both pc and modem.

 

[Alsenor]

I have a cable connection that is "always on", and usually gets picked up by any system without entering user/pass, which I don't have anyway.