Trying to Reverse Dual Boot--Hmmm? Installing and Upgrading Vista Discuss Trying to Reverse Dual Boot--Hmmm? in the Windows Vista forums; Hi Friends: Sandi and I had a discussion about some dual boot issues. What would happen if one did this, that, or the other. So, to get some answers, I ...

[Znod]

Hi Friends:

Sandi and I had a discussion about some dual boot issues. What would happen if one did this, that, or the other. So, to get some answers, I decided to experiment on my desktop. I'll make a long story as short as I can.

I installed Vista on my 0 drive. All was well. Then, I tried installing XP Pro on my 1 drive. That went fine too. But, afterwards, I could no longer boot to Vista. So, I thought well, OK, I'll reinstall Vista on my 0 drive.

When I did so, the book menu looked good. When I started up, I apparently had the choice of booting to either Vista or XP Pro ("an earlier version of Windows"). I tried booting to Vista first--which went fine. Then, I tried booting to "an earlier version of Windows." At first, it looked like I was booting to XP, but despite a promising start, I ended up with the BSOD.

From that point, I never appeared to have the option of booting to one or the other again. I could boot only to Vista--which is an OK outcome for now.

Then, I examined the files on what had been the XP drive. Strangely, there were no XP files. All I could see were files from the Vista installation that had been on the 1 drive before I installed XP cleanly. Go figure.

So, I formatted the 1 drive just to clean everything up. I am wondering if I am going to be successful in dual booting Vista (drive 0) and XP Pro (drive 1). I don't much care as I am ready to move on to Vista for good. Still, I'd like to try.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Would using a boot manager such as "Vista Boot Pro" help? Similarly, how would I move from this point to dual booting with Linux--with Linux on the 1 drive" I want Vista on the 0 drive (I think ).

Maybe what is missing from the equation is a Vista-ready BIOS upgrade--which is not yet available for my desktop. I was able to get one for my laptop, but no differences are apparent from the upgrade.

Lots, to digest above. But, does anyone have any thoughts on anything I have said? You don't need to try to address all of my issues/questions at once. Thanks for whatever you come up with.

[Znod]

It looks like EasyBCD (http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1) may be a better idea that Vista Boot Pro. The former is "Vista ready," while I have my doubts about the latter despite its name.

[crabby]

Znod, Vista alters the XP boot.ini, but if XP is installed second the boot.ini is restored (hence Vista cannot boot). Therefore you must install XP before you install Vista. If you simply format EVERYTHING, then install XP then install Vista it will work Also, it would be worth mentioning that if you install them (as I said elsewhere) with only 1 hard drive connected at a time, it would work flawlessly by selecting which hard drive to use at POST (as there would be 2 perfectly stable boot.ini files - 1 for each hard drive).

crabby

[Sandi]

Originally Posted by crabby

Znod, Vista alters the XP boot.ini, but if XP is installed second the boot.ini is restored (hence Vista cannot boot). Therefore you must install XP before you install Vista. If you simply format EVERYTHING, then install XP then install Vista it will work Also, it would be worth mentioning that if you install them (as I said elsewhere) with only 1 hard drive connected at a time, it would work flawlessly by selecting which hard drive to use at POST (as there would be 2 perfectly stable boot.ini files - 1 for each hard drive).

crabby

Thanks, but we are aware that Vista alters the XP boot.ini, and we know that XP is normally (as well as most properly) installed first. Our quest is to find a work-around by using a boot manager, or getting a Vista upgrade re-install, to rewrite the boot options on the XP drive no matter which it is installed on.

This is a project only for two drives, not partitions on a single. Unfortunately I am still waiting for my spare drive, therefore my past conversations with Znod have been theoretical on my part. It was me who initially theorized that it should be possible to not only install XP last, but on either the default HDD-0 or HDD-1.

I hope to have my drive back soon and can join in on the experimental fun. I may very well be proven wrong, and it certainly won't be the first time.

[crabby]

Both XP and Vista use the boot.ini to create their boot menus, and boot to the required operating system. Therefore after installing both you can simply edit the boot.ini and it should be fine. I apologise for my waffly statement but I didn't realise how techincal you wanted to be Do you know how to edit a boot.ini?

crabby

[Znod]

Originally Posted by crabby

Znod, Vista alters the XP boot.ini, but if XP is installed second the boot.ini is restored (hence Vista cannot boot). Therefore you must install XP before you install Vista. If you simply format EVERYTHING, then install XP then install Vista it will work Also, it would be worth mentioning that if you install them (as I said elsewhere) with only 1 hard drive connected at a time, it would work flawlessly by selecting which hard drive to use at POST (as there would be 2 perfectly stable boot.ini files - 1 for each hard drive).

crabby

Thanks crabby. I remembered your advice about installing one at a time--with the other disconnected. Doing so may end up being my best option. But, note that installing XP first on the 1 drive did not work. So does XP always have to be installed on the 0 drive for the boot menu to work? Maybe it doesn't matter, but part of my goal is to have Vista on the 0 drive. Are there advantages to the system installed on the 0 drive?

Using your suggested procedure of disabling on drive, how would you select between the two boot menus??? Could I install Linux second on the 1 drive?

[Znod]

Originally Posted by Sandi

Thanks, but we are aware that Vista alters the XP boot.ini, and we know that XP is normally (as well as most properly) installed first. Our quest is to find a work-around by using a boot manager, or getting a Vista upgrade re-install, to rewrite the boot options on the XP drive no matter which it is installed on.

This is a project only for two drives, not partitions on a single. Unfortunately I am still waiting for my spare drive, therefore my past conversations with Znod have been theoretical on my part. It was me who initially theorized that it should be possible to not only install XP last, but on either the default HDD-0 or HDD-1.

I hope to have my drive back soon and can join in on the experimental fun. I may very well be proven wrong, and it certainly won't be the first time.

Sandi see my reply to crabby. Yes, I still trying to move in the direction we talked about. I am eager for you to get into the experiment.

[Znod]

Originally Posted by crabby

Both XP and Vista use the boot.ini to create their boot menus, and boot to the required operating system. Therefore after installing both you can simply edit the boot.ini and it should be fine. I apologise for my waffly statement but I didn't realise how techincal you wanted to be Do you know how to edit a boot.ini?

crabby

Thanks crabby. No I don't know how to do the editing. Are you saying that XP could be installed second on the 1 drive if one could edit the boot.ini? I am not sure what you are apologizing about unless it is related to what I just said.

[crabby]

I was apologising because I underestimated your experiment Altering core windows files is a biggy! If you google 'edit boot.ini' you will get quite a lot of useful information. Here is a useful guide from Microsoft:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022

However, Vista uses a different format to XP, so have a look at it yours and make sure you FULLY understand it If you want, post it here and I can have a look!

crabby

[felix8406]

This is part of an article from Microsoft:

When you install an earlier version of the Windows operating system on a Windows Vista-based computer, Setup overwrites everything from the MBR, the boot sector, and the boot files. Therefore, the earlier version the Windows operating system loses forward compatibility with Windows Vista.

RESOLUTION
To resolve these issues, follow these steps.

Note: You can run the commands in the following procedure by using the command prompt. If you run these commands in Windows Vista, run them at a command prompt that has elevated user rights. To do this, click Start, click Accessories, right-click the command-prompt shortcut, and then click Run as Administrator.

1. Use Bootsect.exe to restore the Windows Vista MBR and the boot code that transfers control to the Windows Boot Manager program. To do this, type the following command at a command prompt: Drive:\boot\ Bootsect.exe –NT60 All

In this command, Drive is the drive where the Windows Vista installation media is located.

2. Use Bcdedit.exe to manually create an entry in the BCD Boot.ini file for the earlier version of the Windows operating system. To do this, type the following commands at a command prompt.

• Drive:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit –create {ntldr} –d “Description for earlier Windows version”

Note: In this command, Description for earlier Windows version can be any text that you want. For example, Description for earlier Windows version can be "Windows XP” or “Windows Server 2003."

• Drive:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit –set {ntldr} device partition=x:

Note In this command, x: is the drive letter for the active partition.

• Drive:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit –set {ntldr} path \ntldr
• Drive:\Windows\system32\Bcdedit –displayorder {ntldr} –addlast

You can get more info at: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529