dual boot, failed help needed

[jhyukkang]

i tried to make muti boot system with vista pre installed, because i needed xp to play games that doesnt work in vista, like company of heros opposing front. i divided up my partition (300GB into 50GB, and 20GB, 10GB for recovery) obviously, vista was installed in 250GB, i divided it by going into disk manager. i reboot it one time, and put the xp cd in. so i finished installing xp but when itself rebooted, it says HDD read err. so i reformay the whole thing, deleted partitions, except for the recovery. now installed xp first, and restart the pc, booting from vista cd. and i installed it. i turned it off, and turn it back on, and there is a menu asking me to choose recovery or vista to boot. there is no xp. what i think is that at first xp was installed in C 50GB but when i installed vista that partition was changed to H. anybody know the solution for this?

 

[LoneEagle]

If you want to avoid hassle of Boot Manager, get a second drive and use BIOS Boot Manager. It really much safer and more like two individual computer.

If interested:

You plug only one drive, install Windows on it and when all done and booting fine, unplug it and plug the other one and install the other Windows and repeat the procedure.

Once all installed, just plug them all and use the BIOS when booting for choice of booting.

I have 3 HDD where two are in RAID-0 and the other one is Server 2003. Work really great.

No one know the other exist, can reinstall one without possible BootManager corruption.

Please note there is possible a solution for your specific problem but I do prefer that solution.

Good luck.

 

[jhyukkang]

thanks for the tip.. but it would be way easier if any of you guys tell me how to help my pc to find xp. as i said, the xp was installed C at first but, it is changed to H, i think that is why the computer cant find it.
in vista, i can go into H drive, and there is all stuff for xp. program files, document.. folders..
am i suppose to change boot.ini. before installing vista?

 

[godless]

i had the similar issue when i installed windows xp on a comp that already had vista for a friend of mine. it seems that vista and xp boot.ini files get messed up. somewhere on the forums, i forgot where, i came by a solution. on the already preinstalled vista system, you need to create a partition for xp, then install vista on that partition. reboot the comp and you will boot into the xp, but you won't be able to boot into vista. to fix this simply put the vista installation disk into the drive ( this was done with the recovery disk in the Gateway system where i did this) and when it gives you some options whether to reintall vista or do some other recovery type crap, you need to select to fix the boot.ini in one of the options. then it will restore the vista boot.ini and next time you reboot, the dual boot will work. that's how i did it and it worked. i will try to find the links with some screenshots, but it's been a couple of months...

remember NOT to choose reformat and reinstall vista in that menu, cause that will not fix anything. you need to choose the fix boot.ini option.

hope this helps

 

[godless]

on second thought i think i forgot a step. let me find the link.

 

[godless]

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm

here is the link.

http://www.pronetworks.org/forum/about88231.html
and here is another link. i tried the first one and it worked for me.

 

[jhyukkang]

i got few questions,
1. if you had to format a OS (either one) in one HDD, in 2 partitions, dou you have to reset up the whole multi boot, meaning deleting all partitions, restart from the beginning?
2. if im using 2 HDD useing one for backup, and files, and otherone for 2 OS, when i format one of the OS, do i have to format the other HDD inorder to use it in the new OS?

 

[englandr753]

Umm, did you reformat and delete the partions on that drive when you tried to install the second OS? If so, theres your problem. You may be deleting the 1st OS and its not there to be seen.

Dont reformat or delete any partions when you go to install the second OS. This will keep the 1st OS in tact and it should be in your dual boot menu when you restart.

A second hard drive would be good for you to simplify the installation. In that case you would reformat and partion the drive each time you install the OS. It will give you a dual boot menu afterwards.

You could install one OS on one hard drive. Move your important files you want to save to it and then use the second hard drive for the 2nd OS.

Use microsofts free backup software, called synctoy. You can create relationships between the to folders on each hard drive and make a backup using both drives with an OS on each drive so you dont have to buy a 3rd hard drive to do this.

Hopefully Im understanding what you said you did correctly to give you a good answer...

 

[jhyukkang]

yes i did delete the partitions and format the whole HDD after making new partitions.

i successfully, installed xp after vista, now my pc boots directly into xp, and i cant install vistabootloader, because i cant install net flamework. im keep getting error when im installing net flamework.
it says
Error creating process <D:WDOUME~1WAMES~1WTempWIXP000.TMPWInstall.exe>. Reason: The system cannot find the path specified.
you guys are only my hope..please help

 

[englandr753]

Ok, what I was trying to ask was this:

After you reformatted and installed Vista, you installed XP. Did you try to delete and reformat the hard drive when you installed XP after you had already installed Vista?

 

[jhyukkang]

you mean after installing OS?, no i didnt, why would i?. thats not my problem anymore, can you help me with installing net flamework 2.0 please, it is keep saying the path is missing

 

[bluekoala]

As a rule of thumb, you should always install the eldest version of windows first.
XP should be installed first and then vista.
It's how it's always been for the other windows.

In your case I would suggest giving GRUB a try.
It's a free software program.
It may be too complicated for windows people who consider themselves computer gurus, but it should work.

In any case, brace for the worst.
You may lose OS's when dealing with that kind of junk.

 

[bobbknight]

System Commander 9

 

[LoneEagle]

A second HDD is a lot easier...

 

[TheDraac]

In my humble opinion.... The correct and best way to install both XP and Vista... when starting out fresh... is:

1. Boot with XP disk.
2. Delete ALL partitions and then CREATE your XP partition specifying the size you want.
3. Install XP. Get that to work as completely as you need for now, that is install any needed drivers and updates. Tweak it later.
4: Boot with Vista disk and install Vista, update as you did XP....

When the computer starts now it will use Vista's BOOT MANAGER. This is different than the boot ini used in XP. And a little harder to make changes to... it's all command line to make changes.

I just did that last week and all is well, your boot manager options are Windows Vista or Older Version of Windows. It's a pain to change the menu so it says Windows XP. Unlike just changing the boot ini with notepad.

 

[jhyukkang]

hey TheDraac, that's how i did it the second time(im on the third try) after installing vista, when i was rebooting, there was no xp in the menu, only vista and recovery(i thought ill need it later to back up my files easliy) i just ignored it when installing OS.

also there is no right way, i know it is easier to install xp first, but both ways works, as many people said

 

[jhyukkang]

i just installed xp, and then vista, i came up to the EasyBCD and added xp to the boot menu. but when i restart the pc, i cannot boot to xp, it is saying i need to repair language thing by booting from the xp disk. what is this?

what is the step after installing vista, is it suppose to come up with vista and xp in the menu before booting? if yes, why my pc didnt, so that i had to use EasyBCD?

 

[croc]

LoneEagle gave you a simple solution that is also foolproof. I'd listen to him.

However, if you really want to persist in this foolish endeavor, I'd google bcdedit.exe and learn the hard way that LoneEagle was right...

There are a numbr of aftermarket bootmanagers, but you have to pay for them... I know how you feel about paying.

 

[jhyukkang]

this is my fourth time doing this, 4th installing vista, 4th installing xp......
why am i struggling so much?... i dont think other people do even at their first time multi booting.....
sucks for me...
when i installed vista for 3rd time, i could edit the BCD by EasyBCD, but i couldnt boot into xp, it says ntldr or something was missing so i inserted my xp disk reinstalled it. now i cannot boot to vista, same situation, it says something is missing so now im installing boot files with vista cd.

this is keep repeating...

 

[jhyukkang]

great, i just fixed boot files for the vista, and i cant boot to xp, same exact screen as i got for the last time..
come on somebody come up with the solution please.
theres my hardware spec for this pc if you need it. in my signiture

 

[croc]

I give no fish....

"Teach a man to fish, he can feed himself for life. Give a man a fish, he is only satisfied for one day"

Two drives, as LoneEagle suggested, is an easy option. Learning bcdedit.exe is a harder option.

Your choice.

(Yes, I could tell you all the command line options for bcdedit.exe, but then you wouldn't learn how to fish)

 

[engrpiman]

I had xp installed and then I installed vista. while I was using 2 drives I experienced zero problems.

are you using the upgrade method or the clean install method to install vista? I had an upgrade disk so I upgraded to an new drive, but it kept my files intact. you might want to try the same thing. to clarify c:\ is my xp drive and e:\ is my vista drive (d:\ was all ready taken as backup )

also in case it helps I have ubuntu 8.04 dual booted with vista on my notebook and it works great so I would give Grub a try if nothing else works.

1. install XP
2. tell vista to upgrade xp but set the install location to the other disk
3. test it out

 

[jhyukkang]

in installing OS, not upgrading.
can anybody tell me how to use GRUB?

i set up the boot manager with grub, but i dont know how to use it.
i used easybcd