Making a mess of things.

[Roger Flemming]

Hello. Ive never had much luck with hardware and this NOT turning out to be the exception. I have a brand new Dell Studio XPS with Windows 7. Need a dual boot to run Pro Tools on XP. I did manage at one point to get the Windows Boot Manager window to appear, with the option of logging into 7 and XP. This worked ok for XP, but when I tried to launch 7 I got a repair error that I couldnt get past. Last night I removed the 7 entry from EasyBCD, and added it back in, but now the Boot Screen doesnt appear and it goes directly into XP?

Screen Shots below:

 

[Jonathan_King]

Welcome!

Try running a Startup Repair for Windows 7. That should make sure both entries are in the Windows 7 boot loader.

If that does not work, see this tutorial: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html

Hope this helps,
~JK

 

[Roger Flemming]

Thanks Jon,

The XP Dual Boot post is what got me in this mess in the first place (easier to blame the tutorial then myself

I found the Windows 7 64 bit repair disc.iso. I will try running that later this evening. However, I dont see how the repair disc is going to give me the option to load Windows 7 on the "Windows Boot Manager" screen, when it previously was working (almost) using EasyBCD?

 

[Saltgrass]

The version of EasyBCD you are using is not the best for Win 7. You need to go and join the NeoSmart Technologies forum an download the latest version 2 beta.

But before that, the path for Win 7 should be J:, not U:... If J: doesn't work, maybe D: depending on your DVD drive.

 

[gregrocker]

For some reason the MBR has been derailed to the Recovery partition, which is why it cannot be configured for a dual boot.

First mark Win7 active in XP disk management, then boot the Win7 DVD Repair console, click through to Recovery Tools list to run Startup Repair at least 3 separate times with reboots to write the MBR to Win7.

Then in Win7 install EasyBCD 2.0 beta after doing the quick registration to use beta. Remove any XP listing first, then Add it back, accepting offered boot files and letting it autocomplete drive letter.

If this fails to present a working Dual Boot menu, post back screenshots again of Disk mgmt and Easy listings.

 

[Roger Flemming]

EasyBCD 2.0 (build 81) resolved the Windows Boot manager not showing both 7 and XP. In the old version of EasyBCD the drive would change to U:/ regrardless of what i selected. Now it recognizes J:/ . Problem one solved. Now....and I am not sure if I should open a new thread.. or if this is still related but....

When I attempt to launch 7 it wont load. I can see a blue screen flash for a second, but then it returns back to the Boot Manager screen. XP loads fine. I tried running a system diagnostic repair, but everytime it tells me it cant find any problems. I think the only solution is to reimage. How do I load from the Windows 7 64 bit repair disc.iso? Nothing I tried worked. If I do get this image, or reinsall, to load from disc, will it know what to do considering I have the dual boot setup?

 

[gregrocker]

Did you recover the System MBR which was incorrectly located in Recovery to Win7?

Although Recovery isn't marked Active, since it contains System MBR you may need to mark it Inactive in addition to marking Win7 Active.

Boot the Win7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD, click through to Recovery Tools list, open a Command Prompt to type:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (replace # with Win7 HD)
LIST PARTITION
SELECT PARTITION # (replace # with Recovery partition)
INACTIVE
SELECT PARTITION # (replace # with Win7 partition)
ACTIVE
EXIT

Now return to Recovery Tools list to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots to write the MBR into Win7, until it starts.

Then remove and Add XP back using EasyBCD 2.0.

 

[Roger Flemming]

Thank you

Thanks - I followed the above steps - and they seemed to help - although not completely fixing the problem. The repair disc at one pint was unable to find the bootmgr. I'm not sure what I did, but on the 5th try it eventually was located. Had to reinstall 7. Im happy at this point for now