Windows 7 Dual Boot XP problem

[hc806]

this has probably came up before, and ive done searches before but they seem to be different from my problem.. and this is urgent because my outlook is synced onto my windows 7... what happend was i had vista, and i dual booted windows 7.. my vista crashed.. and i replaced that partition with windows xp sp3 ... now when i turn on my computer it doenst allow me to boot to boot manager... ive tried easybcd but it wont work because its for vista... Please help... i need my emails =/

 

[Night Hawk]

Once you dumped the Vista installation and likely reformatted to see XP installed you lost the Vista BCD and boot files to see 7 load. If you had reinstalled Vista you could have used the EasyBCD to add 7 back in there.

At this point you would now need to boot from the 7 dvd and try creating a new BCD file from the command prompt option found in the repair tools there. The same commands for rebuilding the Vista BCD would apply. How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows Vista

If you are unable to see new mbr entries for 7 as well as the main boot files you would have to reinstall 7 which will add XP in automatically as the second OS. XP uses an entirely different boot loader there being the older version.

 

[juanpablo1313]

Microsoft REAAAALLY needs to do something when installing XP + 7 on the same computer. I've just installed 7057 and I have the same old problem: can't boot XP.

 

[hc806]

but does reinstalling 7 mean that i will lose everything?

 

[Barman58]

Microsoft REAAAALLY needs to do something when installing XP + 7 on the same computer. I've just installed 7057 and I have the same old problem: can't boot XP.

Microsoft does not support the loading of XP as a dual boot OS after installing a later OS (VIsta or Seven).

This is possible though ...

How to dual boot Vista and XP (with Vista installed first) -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots

Although for vista it should apply equally for Windows 7

 

[jimbo45]

Microsoft REAAAALLY needs to do something when installing XP + 7 on the same computer. I've just installed 7057 and I have the same old problem: can't boot XP.

This should work without you having to re-install either OS agin (SO LONG AS YOU HAVEN'T RE-FORMATTED THE PARTITION(S)).

First when installing multiple OS'es (apart from Linux) the OLDEST OS must be installed first so Windows XP should have been installed first.

To get back to Windows XP boot do the following

1) Insert your Windows XP boot disc and start the windows XP install. If your windows disc is on a SATA drive the windows XP boot disc needs to be slipstreamed with the SATA drivers or you'll get "No Hard Disc found". Use nLite to do this -- thete's info on the nLite site.

2) Now choose Repair system using the Recovery console. Enter the password your User has.

3) Simply type in FIXMBR.

Now the system will boot into XP. (You haven't lost Win 7 yet so long as you haven't re formatted the disk).

Save your data (outlook email or whatever).

Note if you use OUTLOOK (part of MS office -- corporate / full / enterprise version) there's a nice little outlook folders backup tool --download it from the Office site

it's called pfbackup.exe

After you've finished with XP boot the Windows 7 install disk and perform repair system.

It should fix the boot manager so you can still boot both XP and W7.


Cheers
jimbo

 

[Night Hawk]

Once you have the 7 BCD and mbr entries repaired you won't see XP load until added into the 7 BCD with the EasyBCD tool mentioned in the APG article Barman58 pointed to. The actual download page for the free tool is seen at Download EasyBCD 1.7.2 - NeoSmart Technologies

In order to see the 7 boot loader restored there's also another "Step Four: Nuclear Holocaust" section on how to see that done for either Vista or 7 at Recovering the Vista Bootloader from the DVD - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

These would be references looked over once XP was on and running. Once 7 is up and running again you can also look over the EasyBCD guides for adding new entries, configuring the boot loader, and setting the default OS as along with other settings at EasyBCD Documentation Home - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

 

[hc806]

nice ill try it, if it fixes ill let u know

 

[Night Hawk]

Those should help a lot there. But if you get stuck on something we're here to help.

 

[hc806]

thanks guys im back in windows 7 now !!! illjust see if i can get xp back ... which will be a lot easier i believe

 

[Night Hawk]

With 7 running again it's a simple process of unhiding all protected operating system files and files with known extensions in the tools>folder options>view tab in order to copy the ntldr, ntdetect.com, and boot.ini files to the root of the 7 primary.

The copy of the boot.ini file should be ok since the rdisk(0)partition(1) value seen in default and under the "operating systems" heading when viewed by simply double clicking with Note Pad applies.

EasyBCD will see the new entry added into 7's BCD there once you assign a drive letter to XP in 7's Disk Management since 7 will see it as the boot sector only. I ran into that one here setting up the XP/7 dual boot just to let you know on that one. D is the best letter to assign to XP while booted in 7 seeing itself as C.

 

[hc806]

i duno i used easybcd to get xp back.. then i used it to rename my winodws 7 since it was called vista... and now everything works but the boot screen to 7 says windows 7 recovered... and then has a boot screen for the vista loading bar.. although loading into 7.. kinda weird.. but still works

 

[SIW2]

Hi hc806,

That is normal after doing startup repair. It is possible to change Logon screen -

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/5382-log-screen-change.html

If anyone wants to change the name that is displayed, there are a couple of ways to do this .

First boot into the o/s whose name you wish to change - in this case Windows 7 Ultimate (recovered)

1. Using bcdedit.

Open an elevated cmd prompt ( type cmd in start search - when it pops up, rt click and Run as Admin. ) and backup your existing settings like this:

at the prompt, type:

bcdedit /export C:\BCDBACKUP {enter}

Then type:

bcdedit /set {current} description "Win 7" {enter}

Whatever you typed between the "" will be the new name or description.

N.B. ( if you ever want to restore that backup, type :

bcdedit /import C:\BCDBACKUP {enter} )

2. Alternatively , you can use the free Easybcd (Link for others reading this who don't already have it )

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/5042-recovered.html#post46179

Hope it helps

 

[Night Hawk]

You can see the boot entries renamed at any time by simply creating a new one to replace the existing one by simply typing the new name on the OS line pointed at in the image here by the cursor.



You can see how the multiple entries were named here simply typing the name you want displayed right when first going to add a new one in. Just make you have everything correct and delete the first later.

 

[Novim]

2) Now choose Repair system using the Recovery console. Enter the password your User has.

3) Simply type in FIXMBR.

Now the system will boot into XP. (You haven't lost Win 7 yet so long as you haven't re formatted the disk).

Well, it happens - for various reasons - that this "fixmbr & fixboot" business does not go always easy.

I spent 2 hours yesterday reading posts on the Net on how to get rid of Windows 7 while keeping XP, and at the end found that this would be the simplest way:

1. Boot into XP.
2. Format Win 7 partition to delete it completely.
3. Download (free) EasyBCD (http://neosmart.net/downloads/software/EasyBCD/EasyBCD 1.7.2.exe) and install it in XP.
4. Run the program and in "Manage Bootloader" option chech "Uninstall the Vista bootloader (use to restore XP)", then click on "Write MBR" icon. Reboot into XP. (And if you need to put the dualboot back, run EasyBCD again and restore it.) Dualboot is gone.

(I had to remove Win7 completely because there were not enough space on its partition to do upgrade from 7000 to 7057, so I had to make a clean install of the later.)

 

[Night Hawk]

Well, it happens - for various reasons - that this "fixmbr & fixboot" business does not go always easy.

I spent 2 hours yesterday reading posts on the Net on how to get rid of Windows 7 while keeping XP, and at the end found that this would be the simplest way:

1. Boot into XP.
2. Format Win 7 partition to delete it completely.
3. Download (free) EasyBCD (http://neosmart.net/downloads/software/EasyBCD/EasyBCD 1.7.2.exe) and install it in XP.
4. Run the program and in "Manage Bootloader" option chech "Uninstall the Vista bootloader (use to restore XP)", then click on "Write MBR" icon. Reboot into XP. (And if you need to put the dualboot back, run EasyBCD again and restore it.) Dualboot is gone.

(I had to remove Win7 completely because there were not enough space on its partition to do upgrade from 7000 to 7057, so I had to make a clean install of the later.)

hc806 was looking to see 7 up and running again not wipe it entirely following the replacement of Vista with XP on the first primary. The EasyBCD tool sees the option for restoring the Vista not XP mbr since it was written for Vista and works with 7.

It simply installs on XP as well as older Legacy versions in order to restore the Vista boot if something goes wrong. That can bail you out when the startup repair won't work for some reason.

 

[Novim]

^
Well, EasyBCD (within XP) did for me just what I said: it restored old (XP) MBR, in order to get rid of Vista’s (or Windows 7’s) dualboot screen. It performed the task while the XP’s Recovery disk ("fixmbr"), or Windows 7’s disk ("e:\boot\bootsect.exe /nt52 ALL /force") did not.

Of course, it was not the case that hc806 discribed, on the contrary.

 

[Night Hawk]

I wonder if that would work for a 7/3.1 dual boot setup?

 

[SIW2]

the boot screen to 7 says windows 7 recovered... and then has a boot screen for the vista loading bar.. although loading into 7.. kinda weird.. but still works

To get the Win 7 boot screen back to normal after a startup repair, reset the locale entry in bcd.



Open an elevated cmd prompt ( type cmd into start search box - when it pops up, rt click and Run as Admin )

Then type:

bcdedit /set {current} locale en-US {enter}



Use the locale that is correct for you, e.g. ru-RU, etc.



Hope it helps

 

[Night Hawk]

Since 7's BCD is identical to what is seen in Vista and Server 2008 you may want to review the full information seen on it at Boot Configuration Data Editor Frequently Asked Questions