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NTLDR help
Name: Scoilt (by scoilt) Date: March 2, 2007 at 18:44:06 Pacific OS: Windows XP Pro x64 CPU/Ram: Dual AMD Opteron 275 2.2 Product: Alienware MJ-12 7550a
Comment:
I recently installed Windows XP (x64) onto a clean partition on my current Vista machine. Afteer the install, my computer will only see XP - that was expected. I've used VistaBootPRO to enable booting into Vista again. This works fine on the Vista end, but when trying to boot to XP I get: "Windows failed to start. A recent hardware or software change might be the cause... File: \NTLDR Status: 0XC000000F Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because it is missing or corrupt." This error advises me to boot from my XP installation disk and select REPAIR. When I boot from my XP install disk, it searches for previous versions of Windows and doesn't seem to find them I am only given the option to install XP. I've gone this route and, always after fixing the Vista boot section (also tried Microsoft's convoluted manual fix method and got the same result) I get the NTLDR error. I've tried copying NTLDR and the loader from the XP disk in Vista, but that seems to do nothing. I obviously don't want to wipe Vista and start XP then Vista installs from scratch (I know that this will fix it). I know it can be done... Where have I gone wrong?
Name: ekime Date: March 2, 2007 at 19:49:20 Pacific
Reply:
I had just about the same problem when I installed Vista on "C" and had a pre-existing WinXP Pro on "D" which I wanted to keep and then "dual boot" Vista & XP. After installing Vista, I never got a boot menu to choose between Vista or XP. I installed VistaBootPro v3.1 and added the Win XP to the boot menu (as a "Windows Legacy" OS), but got pretty much the same response as you while trying to boot XP. I then went to the Online Support forum for VistaBootPRO and read some of the threads on dual booting. I can't tell you exactly how I got mine to work, but after much trial-and-error and reinstalling the Vista bootloader (a couple of times) I finally got it to work. I'm sorry if this sounds vague, but I am NOT an IT pro. Maybe someone else here can give you exact step by step instructions. Good Luck!
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Response Number 2
Name: Scoilt (by scoilt) Date: March 2, 2007 at 20:15:13 Pacific
Reply:
Sounds like I have more or less the same set up as you. I'll take a look at the VistaBootPro froums. Thanks for a point in the right direction.
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Response Number 3
Name: Scoilt (by scoilt) Date: March 2, 2007 at 21:07:22 Pacific
Reply:
Seems that boot.ini NTLDR ntdetect.com have to be on the XP drive even if that drive is not the C drive or boot drive... I'll try it out when I get home.
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Response Number 4
Name: ekime Date: March 3, 2007 at 05:57:46 Pacific
Reply:
Yes, that's what I had to do. But Vista deleted my boot.ini, NTLDR and ntdetect.com and I had to get them from another computer and then tweak the boot.ini and reinstall the Vista bootloader. I am sure you are on the right path.
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Response Number 5
Name: Alex2002 Date: March 4, 2007 at 05:07:09 Pacific
Reply:
Unbelievably, I've just made a similar mistake. However, I did make backups of my root from C - would I just need to copy the aforementioned 3 files to the root?
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Response Number 6
Name: Scoilt (by scoilt) Date: March 6, 2007 at 01:24:55 Pacific
Reply:
The three files need to be on the root of the drive that has XP installed. If you have XP installed on you D drive, copy these files to the root of the D drive.
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Response Number 7
Name: tommy_g003 Date: March 19, 2007 at 08:51:15 Pacific
Reply:
I'd disagree (albeit without 100% confidence) with Scoilt's comment above. I fixed this problem (missing NTLDR, 0xc000000F etc.) ultimately by ensuring that NTLDR, NTDETECT and BOOT.INI were on the Vista partition, not the XP one.
I installed Vista on C with an existing XP install on D and lost the ability to boot into XP. After adding XP as an entry in Vista's boot loader (using EasyBCD, VistaBootPRO etc) I got the above NTLDR related problem. I managed to rebuild XP's boot.ini on the C: using an XP boot disc > recovery console (D:) > "bootcfg /rebuild". I also copied across the NTDETECT.COM and NTLDR files from another machine, onto the C:. After this, both boot options worked.
Apparently, Vista's boot loader on C is controlling the boot process, but if I select the XP option it hands over control to NTLDR, NTDETECT and BOOT.INI which proceed to start the the XP partition on D. However, since the machine is technically booting off the Vista partition, these three XP-related files must be on the Vista partition, and not on the XP one.
This is just my interpretation, and it may be wrong. Hopefully it will help somebody though!
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Response Number 8
Name: Scoilt (by scoilt) Date: March 19, 2007 at 08:53:39 Pacific
Reply:
Perhaps it has something to do with the order of OS installation. I had Vista installed first, and then installed XP. ?
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