Tom's Hardware > Forum > Windows Vista > Vista General Discussion > Hard disk boot problem
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naujoks   05-02-2008 at 10:21:57 AM

Until earlier today on my AB9 I've been running Vista 32bit on one harddisk.
Then I added a second hard disk (all SATA), which also has an old (but working) Windows XP installation on it.
Since then, when I start the computer it always boots into the XP installation, but not Vista, as want.
As the XP wasnt installed with Vista present, Vista's boot manager doesn't list XP.
I've tried swapping hard disk connectors around - no difference.
The "Hard disk boot order" in BIOS shows the disks, but grayed out, so I can't change anything.
When I boot Vista from the DVD and chose "Repair Windows installation" it detects the Vista installation and reports that no problem could be detected. Upon a restart however, this is the only time when it boots into Vista.

Any suggestions what I could try other than move the data on the XP drive (which would take ages - 400GB) and format it?

------------------------------ Intel Core Duo 2 E6850
PoV GeForce 8000 GTX
2GB Corsair 800MHz
Abit AB9
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boonality   05-02-2008 at 10:31:24 AM
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Change the boot order in BIOS to list the drive that Vista is on before the drive that XP is on?

------------------------------ Exchange Engineer - Why is it that when DNS goes down everyone thinks it's my exchange server?

Oh ya, email is the heart of work.
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naujoks   05-02-2008 at 10:33:30 AM
- 0 +

Not possible. As mentioned, the boot disk order is grayed out, I can't change it.
When I physically change the disks round it's even worse: it boots into XP, but the repair function from the Vista DVD doesn't do anything.

------------------------------ Intel Core Duo 2 E6850
PoV GeForce 8000 GTX
2GB Corsair 800MHz
Abit AB9
Reply to naujoks
boonality   05-02-2008 at 10:44:00 AM
- 0 +

It's greyed out? Then how do you change boot order to boot from CD?

------------------------------ Exchange Engineer - Why is it that when DNS goes down everyone thinks it's my exchange server?

Oh ya, email is the heart of work.
 Reply to boonality
naujoks   05-02-2008 at 10:45:30 AM
- 0 +

There are two separate options in my BIOS:
One to swap the general boot order of devices (hard disk, DVD, floppy etc), and another one called "hard disk boot order". The latter lists both drives but doesn't give me the option to swap things around.

------------------------------ Intel Core Duo 2 E6850
PoV GeForce 8000 GTX
2GB Corsair 800MHz
Abit AB9
Reply to naujoks
boonality   05-02-2008 at 10:58:40 AM
- 0 +

In the general boot order it doesn't have HDD0 and HDD1? That sounds like a crap BIOS. At any rate you may have to set jumpers on the drives. Or eventually reformat the second drive.

------------------------------ Exchange Engineer - Why is it that when DNS goes down everyone thinks it's my exchange server?

Oh ya, email is the heart of work.
 Reply to boonality
naujoks   05-02-2008 at 11:00:03 AM
- 0 +

Crap BIOS it might be. Not a cheap board though (Abit AB9).
No jumpers: SATA drives.
Reformatting is what I'm desperately trying to avoid. I'm sure there must be a way.

------------------------------ Intel Core Duo 2 E6850
PoV GeForce 8000 GTX
2GB Corsair 800MHz
Abit AB9
Reply to naujoks
ThepiliGrim   05-02-2008 at 11:17:00 AM
- 0 +

Try to force the thing with an "OS selector". I personally use Acronis' Disk Director and it's bootable image.Since it hasan OS selector, for me there isn't a better alternative. Search around the net. Good luck! /BTW if you are feeling lucky just delete the windows XP folder :D and the boot. ini


Message edited by ThepiliGrim on 05-02-2008 at 08:45:58 PM
Reply to ThepiliGrim
notherdude   05-02-2008 at 01:14:30 PM
- 0 +



Alternately see if your Abit board has a 'pop-up' boot menu you activate with a function key at startup.

------------------------------ tehhardpro wrote :


notherdude u have an old hand. Having an old hand doesnt make sence. Cuz its old. get a new one.. seems like ur hand doesnt understand what it is writing. So placve it in ur rig instead of vista human orgnoids will amke more sense
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pat mcgroin   05-04-2008 at 02:41:49 PM
- 0 +

Unless the XP install originally was installed for that computer it probably wont work very well if at all anyway as it will have all of the wrong system drivers installed

Reply to pat mcgroin
naujoks   05-04-2008 at 02:52:21 PM
- 0 +

The other disk was installed for that computer.
For some reason, without me doing anything other than I did before, which was chosing th repair function from the Vista install DVD, it now always boots in the correct disk.
Strange.
But thanks for the help anyway!

------------------------------ Intel Core Duo 2 E6850
PoV GeForce 8000 GTX
2GB Corsair 800MHz
Abit AB9
Reply to naujoks
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