How do I recover Bootmgr when I can't start Win-XP?

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Roger-Ohio

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Jan 5, 2014
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Built a new machine and am running Win-7. This PC only has SATA drives. I have a need to occasionally boot to Win-XP to run some old software that will not run under W-7.
I have an IDE HD loaded with W-XP that worked in the past. Placed it in external case and connected to new PC via USB.
When I select the USB connection at boot-up I get "BOOTMGR missing" error message.
If I continue and boot to W-7 the PC recognizes the external drive and its contents.

How can I fix the Bootmgr file so I can boot from the external HD through USB?
 
Solution
dgingeri
I would advise not using the machine to boot XP. It probably doesn't work with XP anyway. XP doesn't support UEFI boot, so if your new machine is using UEFI, abandon the idea of using it to boot XP at all.

You're better off putting the drive back in the old machine, if possible, and then converting it to a VM.

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

You can then run the VM using VMWare Player: http://www.vmware.com/products/player/

you can run your old software without having to reboot your machine this way.
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dgingeri

dgingeri

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Dec 4, 2009
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I would advise not using the machine to boot XP. It probably doesn't work with XP anyway. XP doesn't support UEFI boot, so if your new machine is using UEFI, abandon the idea of using it to boot XP at all.

You're better off putting the drive back in the old machine, if possible, and then converting it to a VM.

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

You can then run the VM using VMWare Player: http://www.vmware.com/products/player/

you can run your old software without having to reboot your machine this way.
 
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Solution
R

Roger-Ohio

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Jan 5, 2014
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dgingeri Yes it was different machine "in the past". At that time I had the XP HD on a removable tray. When starting I would enter BIOS and change boot sequesnce. Can't use old machine as the MOBO died.

EonW Thanks for link but I already tried to select the USB external HD as 1st boot. My BIOS recognizes the external drive so the problem seems to be something else. Probably the .ini file siince the HD is now in different "location"

dgingeri I guess I will have to try the VM route. New machine has ASUS M5A97 LE R2.0 MOBO which has the UEFI.

Will read up on VMware
 
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dgingeri

dgingeri

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Ah, I have that same motherboard in my VM server I'm using to train up for the 2012 MCSE tests. It's a good board. I wish you luck on the VM building. VMs are the way of the future. I suspect that the future will probably hold software distributed as a full VM for compatibility, rather than the old software installer process.
 
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