Dual-boot vista XP ntldr missing, wich solution is best?

[leandrodafontoura]

Hey guys, heres what Im trying to do....dual-boot Vista and XP. But I encountered some problems

I installed both OSs on the same drive, in diferente partitions. It doesnt matter in wich order I install the OSs, whenever I install the second, the first one goes missing. If I install XP after Vista, Vista boot record goes missing I assume, and if I install Vista after XP, apparently I get a dual-boot menu, but when I try to laucnh XP, I get NTLDR missing.

I alread tried repairing NTLDR and repairnng Vista. It doesn work on my hardware, some sort of unique incompatibility. My guess is that the mbr gets corrupted for some reason. Remeber, its on the same drive. So Im wandering if installing them on diferent drives may resolve the issue. I would like your advice on what would be best, AKA, less chance of boot crash:

1)I install XP and Vista, each on a separate drive. First XP, then Vista. Hopefully I will get a dual-boot menu working properly this way.

2)Install XP and Vista, each on a separate drive, but before installing Vista, I will disconect the XP drive. This way each drive has its onw boot, unware of the other OS, and I plan to use BIOS to set wich drive boots each time. I dunno if booting up like this will crash.

3)Install XP and Vista, each on a separate drive, but before installing Vista, I will disconect the XP drive. Then, I will leave only 1 of the 2 drives connected. If I change OS, I disconect the other drive first.

I believe option 3 will 99% work, but manually doing the change will be hassle. Hopefully 2 works. I would like to know your opinions.

 

[Chicano]

You need to edit the Vista boot loader to include Windows XP option at the boot selection screen. The problem is that editing the bootloader manually in dos, becomes rather complicated, so it's better to use a boot menu manager to edit the Vista bootloader in a much simpler way.

How to Use the BCDEDIT Command Line Tool
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2676-bcdedit-how-use.html

Boot Configuration Data Editor FAQs
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc721886(WS.10).aspx


Check-out these third party free applications to edit the Vista bootloader.
EasyBCD 2.0
http://neosmart.net/blog/2010/welcome-to-easybcd-2/
Vista Boot Menu Manager – Manage your Vista Bootloader
http://www.lancelhoff.com/vista-boot-menu-manager/