Hi Everyone,
I am a new 66 year old member and would appreciate help from someone who has greater computer knowledge than me!
My computer O/S was originally XP Pro, I then created a partition and loaded Vista on it. When it booted up it dual booted - marvellous! XP on C and Vista on D.
I later had a problem and some files on my XP which I use daily, got corrupted so I decided I would format the XP partition and reload it. Sadly, when it booted back up I have XP only. The Vista is there on the hard drive but no longer offers to dual boot and I cannot get Vista to boot up. I can open the files within Vista.
Using a partition manager program it tells me that C is a Primary partition with Vista on and D is a Logical partition with XP on. Their status is Vista "System" and XP "Boot"
My question is this:-
Is there a way to get both O/S to dual boot again without formatting the whole disc or is it possible to boot up the Vista O/S somehow without damaging the existing XP O/S capacity to boot?
Many thanks.

My computer details are:- Windows XP Pro SP3. Intel Pentium [R] D 950 Dual Core CPU 3.40GHz with 3.25GB of RAM. A Sony CD-RW drive and a Sony DVD-RW drive. Plus a Floppy Disc drive. Nvidia graphics BFG Geforce 8800GT OC2 512MB. 300 GB hard drive - Maxtor. Coolermaster Mystique case. Sound via Creative Labs X-Fi Xtreme Sound card with Inspire Speakers and sub woofer creating 7.1 surround sound.

Hi leicesterman,

You've found yourself in Microsoft's 'we are the one' world.

Vista is using a different "boot loader' than XP. Meaning that it puts things on your HDD which tell the system how to boot and what options to show.

By reinstalling XP you wiped out Vista's boot loader and now you cannot tell XP to boot Vista anymore. You could add entries to XP's bootup options, but Vista will not load since it needs it's own boot loader.

To get you back into a working dual boot (XP/Vista) scenario you have to boot off the Vista CD/DVD, and fix the boot loader. Google "xp vista dual boot" and you will find lots of references. Most might get complicated though, and it's fairly easy to mess your system up.

An easier method might be to get VistaBootPro [http://www.vistabootpro.org/] which you can install on XP and have it fix your boot problems. That program knows about XP and Vista, and should be able to get you running.

Good luck!

ronald.

Hi Ronald,
Many thanks for your extremely prompt reply and helpful suggestions. I will have a look at VistaBootPro and take it from there. Cheers!
Leicesterman

Just a thought Ronald, I have the Vista Home Premium disc and when I use "explore" I see the disc holds several files and folders within a folder named "boot". You said that I had wiped out the Vista boot loader when I had re-installed XP. Is it possible to replace the Vista boot loader that I wiped out by copying the files from this "Boot" folder and installing them somewhere on my "C" drive where Vista is? For instance, in the folder there is a file named "bcd", "boot.sdi", "bootsect", "memtest" and "etfsboot" also a .bin file named "bootfix" plus two folders named "en-us" and "fonts".
If this cannot be done, do you know what would happen if I re-installed Vista onto the existing primary partition where it currently is? Would it dual boot again? I do not want to risk wiping out my current XP installation nor make it unaccessable.
I look forward to your response.
bye for now,
Leicesterman

When you say you look at your disc - do you mean the DVD-ROM? Or the D: harddrive?
Either way, you cannot simply copy the content of that over.

The XP reinstall wiped out the bootloader which is kept on the C: drive. I'm willing to bet you will still see a C:\bcd or C:\boot directory. That's leftover from the Vista installation but now missing critical components.

Some of it is missing in C:\ (the top directory) and cannot be replaced by copying. In particular the bootsector needs to be updated with Vista's own.

Have you had a chance to try VistaBootPro? It should fix everything in an easy manner.

As to your last question, Yes if you were to reinstall Vista to the D: drive it would replace XP's bootloader and you should be back in business as well. Just make sure that if you boot from the DVD to install Vista that you select the proper disk (partition) to install to. If you have made no changes to Vista (e.g. you did not install anything or customized it) then reinstalling it would be an option. But I still think VistaBootPro should be able to help you out here.

ronald.

Hi Ronald,
Many thanks for your continued input.
In answer to your first question, I was looking at the Vista disc in my DVD drive. I right clicked and clicked explore. Thats when I saw the folder in question.
I have used search and looked manually and cannot find C:bcd nor C:boot directory.
I have loaded VistaBootPro and opened it up. It immediately asked me to backup my bcd registry which I did, to a new folder on my desktop. I then clicked on View Settings and it tells me that I have only one O/S and that it is Vista which is on my boot drive C! My computer currently boots up with XP which is on drive D! My two partitions are C=Primary Partition, Status - System and D=Logical Partition Status - Boot. Vista is on C and XP is on D.
This makes me very confused as VistaBootPro seems to say one thing yet my computer is doing something else. This makes me VERY hesitant to touch anything else in VistaBootPro.
Do you know of any guide or video relating to VistaBootPro which would explain the steps I need to take to bring my system back to dual booting in XP and Vista? Or can you explain to a layman how to carry out the necessary steps and in which order to do it?
bye for now,
Peter

I read up a bit on VistaBootPro and yeah there are some people in a similar situation.

I suggest you re-install Vista, making sure to select the proper drive/partition when you do. That way Vista will see the XP installation and add a proper startup option for it.

Make sure you backup any data you have on your Vista drive - the install will wipe it all out.

Trying to fix the bootloader is not a trivial task and it is very easy to mess one (or both) of the operating systems up.

ronald.

You might check this website, click the OS you have installed, and then click the section regarding Repair. They do appear to have instructions for doing a repair install of Vista, which shouldn't delete anything. You can also try doing a boot to a command prompt with from the installation disc and performing a System Restore. This is supposed to repair/replace system files to get it going again. I believe there's instructions on doing that at that site, also.

Thanks again for your advice Ronald. I hope the rain has stopped in Vancouver!!!!!!
bye,
leicesterman.

Hi jimholly,
Many thanks for the link and suggestions. I have been and had a look and it seems a very interesting site.
I am now undecided, should I do a complete install of Vista or a repair? I am leaning towards a repair but will read up a bit more before deciding.
Thanks to both of you for all your help.
bye for now,
leicesterman

Hi Ronald and Jimholly,
Thought you might like to know that I tried the repair but it didn't work. It repaired the Vista Boot Loader alright but it meant that I couldn't access my XP afterwards!
I decided to wipe evrything off and format the drive and re-install a partition and re-install both operating systems.
I am now dual booting once again and everything is fine.
Thanks for all your advice.
bye for now........

I sorry to hear you had to reinstall both Vista and XP, but I am glad to hear that you are back in business and that everything works fine.

ronald.