Help with dual boot

marine1

marine1

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Guys need some help, I have Vista on my main drive in my laptop and XP on the other secondary drive. How do I select which drive to boot off?
In the bios it does not give that option but only if I want to boot off a hard drive, it does not give me an option to select which drive.

Thanks
 
assuming it boots off vista at the moment, can you not include XP in the Vista bootloader?
 
You need to add an entry to the Windows Boot Manger for Windows XP. This is done through Windows Vista. When you are in Vista, open an administrative level command prompt window and run these commands:

bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "Windows XP"
bcdedit /set {ntldr} device boot
bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr
bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast

Reboot your computer and test out the new boot menu.
 
RVFmal said:
You need to add an entry to the Windows Boot Manger for Windows XP. This is done through Windows Vista. When you are in Vista, open an administrative level command prompt window and run these commands:

bcdedit /create {ntldr} /d "Windows XP"
bcdedit /set {ntldr} device boot
bcdedit /set {ntldr} path \ntldr
bcdedit /displayorder {ntldr} /addlast

Reboot your computer and test out the new boot menu.
Click to expand...
I tried but it say "boot configuration could not be opened, access denied"
 
marine1 said:
I tried but it say "boot configuration could not be opened, access denied"
Click to expand...
Are you logged in as the admin?

f8 will only give you the options to choose which os to load if its already set up.

Not to sure about Vista, but in XP you can also change the bootloader by going to:
System properties (Windows key + Pause/break shortcut)
Advanced tab
Click on start up and recovery settings
Then click on edit manual startup options.

Vista "might" still be the same?
 
Never mind.. Just found this:

http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/bootini.htm

Down on the bottom it states:
Note about Windows Vista

It should be noted that Vista uses a different way of managing the boot process. There is no longer a text file called boot.ini. Boot information is stored in a Registry-like file called the Boot Configuration Data (BCD) store. Extensive information on the new boot process can be found at this Microsoft site. Vista comes with a command-line tool bcdedit.com for configuring BCD. However, the command-line tool is rather complicated to use and a free editor called EasyBCD has a graphical user interface that is simpler to use.
Click to expand...
 
marine1 said:
All it says there is "default operating system" and in the drop down box says vista and yes I am the admin.
Click to expand...
no you are not.

you may be AN admin, but you are never THE admin. (without some extensive changes being made...)

start/all programs/accessories
RIGHT CLICK Command Prompt and select "run as administrator"
bcdedit etc
THEN you wont get access denied.

remember this...you are only an admin...not THE admin. there is a difference in vista
 
OK tis is what the thing says but when i click on windows XP it says ntldr missing
There are a total of 2 entries listed in the Vista Bootloader.
Bootloader Timeout: 30 seconds.
Default OS: Microsoft Windows Vista

Entry #1

Name: Microsoft Windows Vista
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
Windows Directory: \Windows

Entry #2

Name: Microsoft Windows
BCD ID: {5f90d211-6a19-11dd-8916-001e684e39df}
Drive: H:\
Bootloader Path: \NTLDR
 
Jeez what a mission, I cannot find the BOOTMGR in Vista as it does not seem to exist there, the only one I can find is in XP and I cannot open it to see what it says there, in Notepad, it comes out in computer code.
I swap the drives (just copied BOOT folder) and still says ntldr missing.
Damn you Bill Gates
 
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