Dual boot issue, need to reinstall XP on C: can I still access Vista on D:?

Hi guys,

This is currently my setup:

C: Windows XP
D: Windows Vista

WinXp was installed first about a year back in C:, then Vista was installed in D: last fall. Now, I hosed my WinXP and need to reinstall it. The problem is that Vista put in a new boot manager in C: that overwrote the existing XP boot manager. So I'm guessing that if I reinstall XP onC:, then I will have no way to boot into Vista since Vista's boot manager would have been wiped out.

So my question is... how can I go about reinstalling XP on C: and still have the option to load Vista from D:? Is there a way I can copy the Vista boot manager files (i.e. sort of like copying the boot.ini file from WinXP) than I can simply recopy back to C: once I've finished installing WinXP? I dont know much about the Vista boot manager to do this.

Appreciate any help you guys can offer.

Thx,
HMR.

 

HMR,



I've been down the same road. Re-install XP. After the re-install the Vista Bootloader will be gone. Put the Vista DVD in the drive and reboot. Let the files load, be patient, and pay attention. There will be a choice to repair your Vista installation under the (defaut) Install Vista. Click this link and let Vista search for the proper installation. Install SATA drivers if nec. then click on the proper install. There will be about 5 choices of repairs, the top one is startup. Select this. This should re-write the BCD file as it was before.



On my last re-install I think I had to run this tool three times before it finally worked. the first time though, it worked on the first try. - Beta ya know.



I have installed "Vista Boot Pro", and recommend it for editing dual boot machines.





Chris

 

Hi! I have a similar problem. Lets say I have two disks; SATA and IDE1.



My WinXP was installed on IDE1. I didn't want to have problems with WinXP (yes, my mistake, when i was testing VISTA i was always installing like this) so i set in bios that boot drive is SATA and installed VISTA there...



VISTA installation went fine, everything is OK, off course there is no dual boot. If I change boot drive to IDE1 in BIOS it can boot normally to WinXP.



So, my question is... i want to have my BIOS boot drive set to SATA. How can I enable dual boot both VISTA and WinXP? I installed WinbootPRO (http://www.vistabootpro.org/), enabled there dual boot, added there WinXP and it doesn't work (I selected that WinXP is installed on drive D:, as shown in VISTA - i guess i have to manually edit here something, but what??). It shows dual boot menu, just after selecting WinXp it starts restarting...



Anybody knows how to enable dual boot in this case? If possible, i want to keep an option to select boot drive in bios and then boot directly to XP... (without VISTA boot loader) Similar case is when you add a new disk with WinXP installed and want to add dual boot to VISTA...



Thnx for help...

 

Hi,

I agree with Chris...

 

Yeah, well that's great - -but did you notice the original post was over two years ago??



Please don't bump two-year old posts.

 

yeah Chris is right...install xp and then you can recover your windows vista through the CD. Select startup option from 5 choices given for repairing after booting and hardware inspection...

 

OSL2000 is the best boot manager for your situation.