Dual boot problems by installing XP on a PC with Vista already installed!

[malice19]

Hi all.

I have had dual boot before my HDD went down a few months ago and it was working great.

But now that i have Vista already installed on my PC i was wanting to install XP again on my system to have it as a dual boot setup again.

I have separate HDD for each OS.

Last time i installed XP first then installed Vista and had to run the Vista repair tool to get vista to boot again but then all was well, letting me select which OS i wanted to boot.

But this time i have Vista already installed on one HDD and then installed XP on the other HDD.

The problem is that after XP had finished installing it self and restarted the PC it then stopped Vista from booting..... just displays Failed to load operating system.

In the end i had to do a "bootrec.exe /fixmbr" to get Vista to boot again but cant even get the XP to boot at all?

Can any one recommend how i can get XP running again on my PC with Vista.


Cheers

[cheesemp]

I think this software might help - Easy BCD.

I've not had much experience with it but it allows you to add entries to BCD - Thats the Vista boot loader. It 'should' be able to help you add XP. Hopefully someone else can provide better instructions if you get stuck.

[malice19]

I think this software might help - Easy BCD.

I've not had much experience with it but it allows you to add entries to BCD - Thats the Vista boot loader. It 'should' be able to help you add XP. Hopefully someone else can provide better instructions if you get stuck.

Cheers will look into it, have herd VistaBootPro... is another one that sites recommend...

[malice19]

I think this software might help - Easy BCD.

I've not had much experience with it but it allows you to add entries to BCD - Thats the Vista boot loader. It 'should' be able to help you add XP. Hopefully someone else can provide better instructions if you get stuck.

Cheers mate that software did the trick... now have both running again
Nice one

[mehmeh]

Cheers will look into it, have herd VistaBootPro... is another one that sites recommend...

Bit late it seems, but might help someone, have done several XP/Vista dual boots on laptops for people with pre-installed Vista (Started with my Dads and his big mouth ). Swear by VistaBootPRO, but prefer the command line approach.

Once XP boots and kills Vista, open a Command prompt and bang in...

bcdedit -set {ntldr} device partition=X: (X being drive Vista is on)
bcdedit -set {ntldr} path \ntldr
bcdedit -displayorder {ntldr} -addlast
bcdedit -set {ntldr} description “Windows XP” (or whatever you want it to say)

Should get a command is ok message after each line - Job done!

Saves messing around with third party software etc and makes you look clever