Help Dual Booting XP & Vista

[RGSPro]

I have been trying to get Vista and XP to dual boot for the past few days, but I have only met problems.

I have a 200gb HDD, and have the first 40gb partitioned with NTFS for XP and the rest partitioned for Vista.

I installed XP on the 40gb primary active partition and got it running great. When I go to install vista on the 2nd partition, it will go through the install process until it needs to restart, and then right after the BIOS the system will have the little blink text _ thing and now load any OS.

To get XP to work again I have to load up the vista cd, choose repair and console, and do the Bootsect.exe -NT52 All command. Then XP will load after a repair install but it will be very buggy and get some BSODs. I have to then boot XP in safe mode, format the Vista partition and then XP will load up fine.

I am at wits end since I have done a dual boot before on another PC, and I don't know why I cant get this one to do it.

I am running SATA hard drives on an a8n32-sli deluxe motherboard with 2gb of corsair memory and a 7900gt SLi video card setup with a 530w Tagan SLi power supply.

Here is the BCD Store information:

Entry # 1

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Name: Microsoft Windows XP Professional x86

BCD ID: {ntldr}

Boot Drive: C:

Windows Drive:

System Bootloader: \ntldr

Windows Directory:

Entry # 2

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Name: Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate x64

BCD ID: {default}

Boot Drive: D:

Windows Drive: D:

System Bootloader: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Windows Directory: \Windows

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[OPaul]

See if there are updated drivers for the SATA controller that you can load with the Vista install program. There's a thread here about someone having an issue with SATA on an nForce 4 board.

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=538035

[RGSPro]

Well, its strange because XP works fine by itself, and if I format and put on Vista it will work fine by itself too. When they are together it just reeks havoc on my system...

[Cosmin]

a bit offtopic but sorry .. why you need both ?

[RGSPro]

Because I feel like my 7900GTs are a waste if I can't run them in SLi (at least until the end of march in Vista), and XP has great compatibility right now and there are still things that dont work in Vista like diskeeper. Gaming in Vista is crap even on one 7900GT since I can only run x2 AA, and a lot of games that Ive tried (older ones) dont work.

[morgs]

Because I feel like my 7900GTs are a waste if I can't run them in SLi (at least until the end of march in Vista), and XP has great compatibility right now and there are still things that dont work in Vista like diskeeper. Gaming in Vista is crap even on one 7900GT since I can only run x2 AA, and a lot of games that Ive tried (older ones) dont work.

FYI, Diskeeper is fully supported in Vista, I'm running it now :)

If you have installed XP and then Vista and you are getting no bootloader, you can try these steps:

To repair MBR and rebuild BCD, ok so boot into the Windows Recovery Environment on the Windows Vista Media, select command prompt and type:

Bootrec /FixMbr

Bootrec /FixBoot

Bootrec /ScanOs

Bootrec /RebuildBcd

Restart the computer.

In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click Command Prompt.

Type boot\bootsect.exe /60 ALL,

copy the Bootmgr from the Vista media (which is on the root of the DVD) to the root of the active partition. eg Type xcopy bootmgr c:\

Restart the computer.

I don't know if this is exactly what you are experiencing, but what I get from your description is that it seems that after you install Vista with XP already on a seperate partition, something is happening whth the Boot manager and the BCD store, giving you a blank screen when boot up. In this event, try these steps to restore the BCD /Bootmgr.

Good Luck!

[RGSPro]

Thanks so much for the help, im gunna give it a go again with a new WD Hdd and if it doesnt work im gunna swap my mobo out.

[morgs]

Thanks so much for the help, im gunna give it a go again with a new WD Hdd and if it doesnt work im gunna swap my mobo out.

No worries dude, if you have any more problems post back or PM me as I don't always follow threads after a few days of no activity