Need some help with the boot loader

[Mudfrog]

Well for about 2 months I've been dual booting XP and 7. This past weekend I was trying to get a peak score in 3DMark06 with my PC and due to the high overclock I received a BSOD in XP, upon restarting my boot loader seemed to be corrupt. I was able to boot into 7 but not XP. This was a problem as my game saves were on XP and 7 was just general use.

I used BCDEDIT to fix the XP boot record. I tried booting to XP again and the system would just power off after I selected that option. Then I booted into repair mode on the Win7 DVD and used "bootrec /fixmbr" andd "bootrec /fixboot". This did not work either.

Finally as a last resort I deleted the win7 partition and the smaller partition that goes along with win7. I figured a fresh install would pick up on XP again. I was kind of right and kind of wrong.

When the Win7 DVD is in my drive it will boot to Win7, if I remove the Win7 DVD from the drive then my system boots to XP. I no longer have the option to choose an OS. This is temporarily ok as I can still get to both OS's but how on earth do I fix this?

 

[7echno7im]

Have you tried booting from the Windows 7 DVD and trying a startup repair? This may restore the Bootloader for Windows7. Once you get booted in to Windows 7, then run msconfig>Boot tab and see if your entries are listed there. If they are not you can manually create one that points to the XP installation. I have used EasyBCD in the past for fixing dual boots of Linux and windows. http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

 

[Mudfrog]

I did try that before I reinstalled Win7. Also EasyBCD did not work correctly for me either.

I will look at the boot tab under msconfig when I get home from work.

 

[7echno7im]

Just out of curiosity, you say your saved games were on the XP partition....

can you still see that partition from Windows 7? If you go in to disk management, is it listed? If anything, you can just pull the files you need from the other partition over to the Windows 7 partition and then back them up.

 

[7echno7im]

Here is a nice walkthru by SF

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/668-system-recovery-options.html

Did you actually choose startup repair though after booting from the DVD?

 

[SIW2]

Hi mudfrog,

It would help if you post screenshots of Disk Management, like this :



and bcdedit ( type cmd in start seacrh box - when it pops up, rt click and run as admin- type bcdedit- press enter ):



http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-how-post-screenshot-seven-forums.html

 

[Mudfrog]

SIW2, I'll post screens when I get home.

7echno7im, Yes I did choose the repair option. I tried the automatic "repair startup" option as well as using the command prompt.

I can see the the XP partition from within win7, I can copy the files over as a last resort.

 

[7echno7im]

that is good to hear. I think we can repair the Windows XP startup then. I would try running BCDEdit again or EasyBCD and recreating a link to yiour XP installation. This will be a good place to start.

 

[Snufffed]

Seems to me what he is saying> He lost the bootmgr for XP. Since he can boot to XP with the Win7 DVD in.
Not sure but I think he only has to move the MBR files from Win7 to the XP disk. Another easier way to do this would be
insert the XP Disk, when ask do a CLEAN install, all the old XP files should then be in windows.old which he can then move.

Treat XP just like a brand new install or you can also install XP again with the UPGRADE option. Upgrade if you feel better than the clean install.
Hope you can understand sometime us old guys (66) talk differently than the younger.

 

[Mudfrog]

Seems to me what he is saying> He lost the bootmgr for XP. Since he can boot to XP with the Win7 DVD in.
Not sure but I think he only has to move the MBR files from Win7 to the XP disk. Another easier way to do this would be
insert the XP Disk, when ask do a CLEAN install, all the old XP files should then be in windows.old which he can then move.

Treat XP just like a brand new install or you can also install XP again with the UPGRADE option. Upgrade if you feel better than the clean install.
Hope you can understand sometime us old guys (66) talk differently than the younger.

Well at the moment I'm not sure which one I lost. If I do not put any discs in the drive then it will automatically boot to XP. But with the Windows 7 disc in it will boot to Windows 7 only.

If I run bootrec /fixmbr & /fixboot it will display both OS's but only boot to Windows 7 properly.

When I run EasyBCD it will only boot to XP and does not show the option for Win7 (Even if I verify the Win7 info is there).

 

[Lordbob75]

Hey Mudfrog. Go into Seven, and open EasyBCD.
Go to Add/Remove Entries.
Is XP listed, or just Seven?

If just seven is listed, then do this:
1) Find the drive letter of your XP installation
2) Open EasyBCD and go to Add/Remove Entries
3) Add your XP install at the bottom by typing the name of the install (whatever you want) and then pointing it to your drive.
4) Try rebooting, and see if it is listed. If not, you can install iReboot, and use that to boot into XP.
(see attached Screen shot)
Hope that works for you!

~Lordbob

 

[SIW2]

All will be revealed when we see the hard drives and bcdedit in the screenshots.

 

[Mudfrog]

Hey Mudfrog. Go into Seven, and open EasyBCD.
Go to Add/Remove Entries.
Is XP listed, or just Seven?

If just seven is listed, then do this:
1) Find the drive letter of your XP installation
2) Open EasyBCD and go to Add/Remove Entries
3) Add your XP install at the bottom by typing the name of the install (whatever you want) and then pointing it to your drive.
4) Try rebooting, and see if it is listed. If not, you can install iReboot, and use that to boot into XP.
(see attached Screen shot)
Hope that works for you!

~Lordbob

Thanks for the reply!

This is exactly what I had done, I even went as far as deleting the XP entry and adding it again. Immediately after saving when I reboot it goes straight to XP, even with Win7 listed in BCDEDIT.

Now I will say this.. I dunno why but since day one XP and Win7 has seen my XP install as a different drive letter. In XP it's drive F:, in Win7 it's drive D:. I have tried using both drive letters and neither worked. Keep in mind it was like that from day one and it "used" to work.

 

[Mudfrog]

Ok, here is my screen pic.. this is after I tried EasyBCD again.



If that doesn't work, isn't working for me for some reason..

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v624/mudfrog/PC/bcdedit.jpg

 

[Lordbob75]

Mudfrog, did you try using iReboot to boot into XP?

~Lordbob

 

[Mudfrog]

Mudfrog, did you try using iReboot to boot into XP?

~Lordbob

No I have not.. I have not even heard of it. I will look it up.

 

[Luckystar]

Rebuild the boot manager

Hi,

I am not sure if this will help, but try re-building the boot manager.

Scroll to the bottom post, and that should help you out.


Boot manager is missing, will not boot without the windows 7 install disk in the drive

tip me scales if this did help

regards
Luckystar

 

[SIW2]

Reproduced your pics here :





Where is Disk 0 in that shot ? The system partition is on that.

Which HD do you have set first in the HD boot order in BIOS?

 

[Lordbob75]

No I have not.. I have not even heard of it. I will look it up.

Download it from somewhere, or use EasyBCD to get it, in the bottom tab.

This might fix it. Also try rebuilding the mbr, as suggested before.

~Lordbob

 

[Mudfrog]

Reproduced your pics here :

View attachment 19267

View attachment 19268

Where is Disk 0 in that shot ? The system partition is on that.

Which HD do you have set first in the HD boot order in BIOS?

I'll have to double check but it should be my WD 750g which has 3 paritions (XP install, 7 install and Games drive).