In EasyBCD 2.02 on Edit Boot Menu tab, delete the XP entry which is showing the wrong drive (C).
Then on Add New Entry tab, add XP by name, type and D drive, accept any offered boot files. Save and restart.
Was the 100mb Win7 System Reserved partition already deleted with boot files recovered into Win7 before you installed XP?
Last edited by gregrocker; 04 Apr 2011 at 23:01.
When this screenshot was taken (latest try) Windows XP was installed first to partition D. After booted into WinXP, I installed Win7 to partition C. Rebooted and it went straight into Win7 without the boot options. Then I picked up from I think Step 8 of Method 2 per the directions and did exactly as was stated. Rebooted and received error. Tried to repair boot files, etc. Rebooted, still get the error. Then I took the screenshot. Would the 100MB section for Win7 be listed in this case or would it not?
Also, I have tried selecting D for the WinXP entry, but then the bootloader path is \NST\easyldr1 and I get the error easyldr1 is missing or corrupt.
Are ntldr, ntdetect.com and boot .ini on C and what are the boot.ini entries ?
This totally saved my butt. Thank you 100 Million times over and Seven Forums....add a "Buy me a beer" button!
Then please tell me why this NEVER happens no matter which one I load first the 100MB SYSTEM Partition is ALWAYS C!!!! Its driving me crazy because there has to be a way to make that thing go away!!!!
And Sure I knwo there is a tutorial to make that go away. This has me wanting to throw the PC out the window.
In the section.... Starting with XP loaded first you say to boot into the Command Prompt using the Windows 7 disc. HOW?? When you already have XP loaded hitting f8 LOADS THE XP COMMAND PROMPT!! So what does the disc being in the drive have to do with anything?
Brink,
I finally got the hard drive issue sorted.
Did a clean install of XP onto a blank standalone drive in the same system (unplugged all other drives), followed the instructions on the tutorial and loaded EasyBCD. However when I opened EasyBCD all of the fields were greyed out and I couldn't do anything.
Then I reconfigured the cabling such that Windows 7 was the Master and the hard drive with XP as secondary. Installed EasyBCD into the windows 7 partition and started it - the machine didn't offer alternative boots (as expected) but came up as it should have in Windows 7.
At this point your tutorial says follow the steps from point 8. However, points 8/9 assume that you are starting from Windows XP and tell you to add Windows XP which is fine (i couldn't do anything from XP remember)
Then in step 10 the instructions say to add Windows7/Vista to the bootloader. That struck me as wrong since I was already booted in Windows 7 and Windows 7 showed up in the existing operating systems screen. I think the tutorial needs a tweak to tell folk that in step 10, if they are working in windows 7 that they need to add XP to the bootloader not Windows 7. It's common sense but it made me stop and check myself, not everyone will.
Anyway, once I clicked the radio button (dot) for XP and "Write MBR" everything came up perfectly.
Thanks for writing the tutorial, it gave me the confidence to do this. Great job.
Adrian
PS: The tutorial for protecting restore points is good, but relatively unhelpful unless you are able to move massive amounts of files around between partitions (and thereby have sub optimal disk space usage) so that they can be accessed by XP after you shut off the 7/vista drive. That means messing with the already confusing 7/vista directory(folder) tree in order to put all of the documents into the library. That also doesn't resolve the issue of Application data files such as outlooks that are stored in restricted areas of Windows 7 (I know one can move them but what a pain) not being available to say outlook in XP.
The preamble was for this question, is there any way to tell Windows to put the shadow copies anywhere else other than on the same drive. (It strikes me as odd that if I have two physical drives, I cannot direct the system restore points to the alternative drive, so that if one drive dies, I have a valid restore point saved off-line for the dead drive.)
Anyway, thanks again for all of the hard work you do on this site.
Adrian
abeeftec: You must boot to the Command Prompt of the DVD: System Recovery Options
Are you runnning the Win7 DVD from XP or booting it? This could be why SysReserved is taking C.
Please post back a screenshot of your maxmimized full Disk Mgmt Drive map with listings, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu.
NotSoYoung: If you unplugged all other HD's during XP install, then you don't need EasyBCD as you can boot directly from the BIOS.
After install, plug back in other OS HD, set preferred one to boot first in BIOS setup, use one-time BIOS Boot Menu key to boot the other.
This is a cleaner method that leaves the HD's independent to come and go as you please, whereas the Windows-managed Dual Boot interlocks them requiring surgery to later remove XP>
Thanks a bunch for answering. This is something I have just never had to do before. Work on Pcs and never booted into the command prompt. I figured it out though last night.
The problem was that I wasnt getting C drive for main drive in either XP or Win7. It was changing it in 7 once XP was installed. So it made the System reserved Drive C. And when you are doing this for someone else you want to make sure when they go to install a program they can just install it as normal.
When the OS drive shows as G programs would have to be redirected to G because they automatically are aimed at C drive.
All i had to do was install XP first and then 7 and it Dual boots fine. I made the Partition as I installed XP and just installed 7 afterward but before installing any drivers. It all worked perfectly.
Thanks
Would need to see a Disk Mgmt screenshot to advise you with certainty, but normally to remove XP from a separate-HD Dual Boot you would mark Win7 HD partition Active in Disk Mgmt, power down to unplug the XP HD, then boot the Win7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times to write the System Boot files to the Win7 partition.
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