Help. Dual boot won't boot.

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello John.


Here you go, I have to go to work now my self.

Safe Mode - Vista Forums


You can figure out which HDD is which using the BIOS and the mobo manual to see which is SATA 1, 2 ect. (page 2.2)











Later Ted

 

[johnwillyums]

Hi Ted. Thanks for your suggestions.
I followed the tutorial but cannot seem to boot into safe mode. If I press F8 I just get a box with boot options in it (HDD, DVD Drive etc.)
If I choose the hard drive it just leaves me with the blinking cursor forever.
I checked out the Asus mobo manual (section 3.3.5) and had a closer look at my 2 Samsung Spinpoints. They both show up identically in this screen so I cannot differentiate between the storage drive and the drive with the 2 installs on it.

I'm beginning to think all is lost and that I'm going to have to take torrentg's advice and do a complete install of Vista on one of the drives.
That's a real pain as I'll lose a lot of programmes I'll struggle to replace and have to go through the whole setup again.
Also I'll have to create another partition for W7 once I've got Vista going.
As I said in a previous post if I boot from Easus Partition Manager I can see both drives and distiguish the partioned drive with the OSs on it.
If I simply disconnect one of the HDDs and then do this I should be able to see whether I've got the drive I want. It's a 50/50 chance I'll get the right one. If not I'll know it's the other.
If I then do a standard Vista install on that disk will it format the whole drive, remove any partitions (and W7), and enable me to boot?
I am reluctant to do this but there doesn't seem to be any other way. At least I'll then be able to reconnect the other drive with all my photos and music on and access it.

What do you think? Will this work?

Thanks for the help, John

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello John.


Yes it'll work, but during install I'd choose "Custom Install" option and create only one (100GB?) partition, it's up to you how big of a partition to put Vista on and then after the install you can create the rest of the partitions you may want to add, that way Vista won't try to hog up the whole HDD. After you select custom look for drive option (or something simular) on the right side of the window.

I'm sorry we couldn't get you running.












Later :shock: Ted

 

[SIW2]

Hi John,

Yes, it makes sense to find the drive with o/s 's installed.

You can choose which partition on that drive you wish to install Vista on - you don't need to format the other one.

Vista will create a compatible mbr and bootsector and install it's own bootmgr and Boot folder on the partition marked as Active - the rest of the Vista will be installed on whichever partition you clicked on when you got the partition screen during installation.

If you click directly on the partition you wish to install to - do not select Drive Options (advanced) - you will have the option to save the existing contents into a Windows. Old folder. You can fish anything you need out of there after.

If the first partition is Active, with your existing Vista installation on it (Easeus boot cd will tell you which is the Active partition) :

1. You could install Vista on the partition it is already on (I assume the first one).

OR

2. You could install Vista on the second partition , where (I assume 7 is now).

If you take the second option, you should find the hd is bootable - and you have your original Vista partition intact - you will have a second Vista installation as well , but that doesn't matter.

Set the first Vista partition as default in msconfig boot tab , then you can remove the second one, or install 7 over it.

 

[Dwarf]

Hi John,

This might sound obvious, but have you replaced the battery with a new one?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Thanks for the help SIW2.




















Later Ted

 

[johnwillyums]

Hi guys and thanks for your swift replies.
Dwarf. I only got the mobo a couple of months ago so I think the battery is ok . also I already removed it to reset my cmos and it took my clock back to 2002. when I put it back in it seemed ok.
Ted and SIW2. Isn't the custom install of Vista what I already did as mentioned in my original post.
I tried repair installs and they did not help so I did a custom Vista install to the partition Vista was already on. This all seemed to work ok but I still couldn't boot into Vista (orW7)
Why would it be any different if I do it again?
As you will know a custom install asks me where I want to put it so I just clicked the original Vista partition.
Doing that got rid of the disk read error message but left me with the eternal blinking cursor and still no boot.
Is this what you mean me to try?

Thanks a lot, John

 

[SIW2]

Just had a thought, John.

When you have only the HD with o/s on it attached - try running startup repair - you never know.

You might also make sure the first partition is marked as Active - if not, you can use Easeus to mark it active - probably need to rt click the first partition and select mark Active, or similar, from the Easeus context menu.

EDIT: Just seen your last post - the blinking cursor would seem to indicate nothing bootable can be found.

 

[johnwillyums]

Ah. I see what you mean SIW2. Let me confirm this with you.
I do a custom install of Vista on my second partition (which now has W7 on it) and that should enable me to boot into that new install of Vista?
I'm not clear on the msconfig boot tab part. Also, if I get through that bit I'll then be booting into my original Vista install yes?
If I then install W7 over the new Vista install will I still get a dual boot?

Many thanks, John

 

[johnwillyums]

Just had a thought, John.

When you have only the HD with o/s on it attached - try running startup repair - you never know.

You might also make sure the first partition is marked as Active - if not, you can use Easeus to mark it active - probably need to rt click the first partition and select mark Active, or similar, from the Easeus context menu.

EDIT: Just seen your last post - the blinking cursor would seem to indicate nothing bootable can be found.

That seems to be the case. everything I try I get the blinking cursor. why would this be?

 

[SIW2]

You should get a boot menu offering two Vista installations.

The default will be the new installation.

The boot files you have just installed will be on the Active partition ( presumably the first partition - your existing Vista partition).

The MBR and bootsector will have been rewritten and should work.

Then all you need to do is make the Vista you want to keep the Default boot choice.

To do that, easiest way is to type msconfig in start search box, open it, click Boot tab, highlight the Vista you want to have as default( i.e. the one you wish to keep), Apply and OK.




No need to restart immediately , but do and check in Disk Management that you have booted into into the original Vista and the partition is shown as both System and Boot.


The new Vista installation will then just be a bunch of files - you don't need them - delete it, install 7 over it, whatever you like.

That seems to be the case. everything I try I get the blinking cursor. why would this be?

Last time I got that , the sata lead was detached. In your case, I think there is a problem early in the boot sequence.

Reinstall should fix it. You could do it from the command line, but as a reinstall omly takes 20 mins. - it may be easier for you to reinstall.

 

[johnwillyums]

Many thanks I'm going to try that now. Hopefully my next post will have some kind of smiley attached.
Best wishes, John

 

[dmdilks]

I just in installed win7 and I have a boot menu. If nothing works and it sounds bad I would start all over again. Format both drives and install vista and get that up and working. Change the bios back to boot from HHD. Reboot into vista a couple of times. Change the bois back to boot to CD and install Win7 and see what happens. I know it sound like a lot of work, but that is what you are doing right now working hard and not getting any where.

 

[torrentg]

I was just going through this thread and a thought jumped out at me:

If your bios has a setting for RAID as a possible choice and something else like IDE, did you mistakenly change it from RAID to IDE? I did that once while "playing" even when I wasn't running any raid array at the time and that generated the same error as your o.p.

 

[johnwillyums]

Well I'm afraid I couldn't get any of those suggestions to work. I tried the Vista install on my W7 partition but still no boot. Tried all sorts of things. Eventually i got so frustrated I deleted the partition and reformmatted the drive.
I then tried to do a fresh install of Vista but that wouldn't boot either.
In a fit of disconnection anxiety I took it to a local system builder and trader.
Embarrassingly he says he installed and booted and said no problem that he could find. He ran all sorts of diagnostics apparently so he charged me 45 pounds.

I think my problem is that my technical knowledge is very superficial. I know how to the things that I've learnt to do but I don't really understand why they work like that.
I probably missed something really obvious.
My screw ups are getting less frequent so I must be learning something.

Thanks for all your help and support, john

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello John.


Well at least you've got your system back up and running and there was nothing wrong with the hardware. Now take your time and methodically get everything back like it was and above all; have fun and learn as you go as I do; remember there's no rush.














Later Ted

 

[Snufffed]

have you verified via msconfig that your boot sequence is in the proper order.
you also might simply delete the reference to Win 7. leaving your original OS bootable via drive C: