Hello and thanks for reading,
I created this problem, and even know how I created it, but if a guru could help me fix it, I'd be grateful!!
Some months back I installed Vista 32-bit Home Premium in C:\ partition. When W7 came out, I installed W7 Ultimate 64-bit in D:\ as a dual boot. Now I want to keep Vista, but use W7 as the main OS I am going to build on from here on out, so I want it at the front of the hard disk in C:\ (where it will run faster) and my secondary or experimental OS in D:\ (Vista).
So I backed up Vista to an external drive, booted from a CD (DriveImage XML BartPE) and restored the Vista image to D:\ ... then reinstalled W7 in C:\.
When I booted after re-installing W7, the multi-boot menu listed Windows 7 twice, instead of Windows 7 and Vista, which I kind of expected, because W7 *had* been in D:\ and now it was in C:\ "too." I used Easy BCDEdit to correct the text.
Now the machine boots into W7 fine, but when I try to boot to Vista, I get the usual logo, then the Welcome screen, which lasts a bit longer than it would if nothing was hooey... then I get a cursor (responsive) and a black (empty) desktop.
I used Ctl Atl Del to access Task Mgr, and tried clicking the New Task button and entering explorer.exe, but it is looking at my C:\ drive for explorer, rather than where it SHOULD be looking in D:\, because a funky, unstable, nonfunctional W7 desktop finally came up INSIDE VISTA!! (mind you, W7 is 64-bit!)
I shut down and tried booting into safe mode.... Got the same result of a black screen, and tried entering D:\windows\explorer.exe but got the same error message:
"...ieframe.dll is either not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error..."
..and again the W7 desktop "tried" to come up.
I suspect it's looking in W7's folder (C:\) because the backup image I made of Vista probably contains the original MBR, which mapped Vista to C:\. I was hoping when I re-installed W7 to C:\ with the restored VISTA image already in D:\ that W7 would create a correct MBR... and it did, I think, but it left the old MBR at the beginning of the D:\drive TOO... so when I boot to D:\, the MBR record [ON D:\] is telling VISTA it is in C:\!! Hence Vista goes pokin around in my W7 (C:|) directory.
I downloaded the bootable Vista Recovery CD but it didn't find any problems, and I believe that's because VISTA isn't the problem... the MBR on D:\ is!
I don't want to have to rebuild the Vista OS... just need to remove the incorrect (old) MBR from the beginning of the D:\ drive... Can I do that?? Can I test this theory by somehow reading the first sector of that drive?
THANKS SO MUCH FOR ANY HELP!
I created this problem, and even know how I created it, but if a guru could help me fix it, I'd be grateful!!
Some months back I installed Vista 32-bit Home Premium in C:\ partition. When W7 came out, I installed W7 Ultimate 64-bit in D:\ as a dual boot. Now I want to keep Vista, but use W7 as the main OS I am going to build on from here on out, so I want it at the front of the hard disk in C:\ (where it will run faster) and my secondary or experimental OS in D:\ (Vista).
So I backed up Vista to an external drive, booted from a CD (DriveImage XML BartPE) and restored the Vista image to D:\ ... then reinstalled W7 in C:\.
When I booted after re-installing W7, the multi-boot menu listed Windows 7 twice, instead of Windows 7 and Vista, which I kind of expected, because W7 *had* been in D:\ and now it was in C:\ "too." I used Easy BCDEdit to correct the text.
Now the machine boots into W7 fine, but when I try to boot to Vista, I get the usual logo, then the Welcome screen, which lasts a bit longer than it would if nothing was hooey... then I get a cursor (responsive) and a black (empty) desktop.
I used Ctl Atl Del to access Task Mgr, and tried clicking the New Task button and entering explorer.exe, but it is looking at my C:\ drive for explorer, rather than where it SHOULD be looking in D:\, because a funky, unstable, nonfunctional W7 desktop finally came up INSIDE VISTA!! (mind you, W7 is 64-bit!)
I shut down and tried booting into safe mode.... Got the same result of a black screen, and tried entering D:\windows\explorer.exe but got the same error message:
"...ieframe.dll is either not designed to run on Windows or it contains an error..."
..and again the W7 desktop "tried" to come up.
I suspect it's looking in W7's folder (C:\) because the backup image I made of Vista probably contains the original MBR, which mapped Vista to C:\. I was hoping when I re-installed W7 to C:\ with the restored VISTA image already in D:\ that W7 would create a correct MBR... and it did, I think, but it left the old MBR at the beginning of the D:\drive TOO... so when I boot to D:\, the MBR record [ON D:\] is telling VISTA it is in C:\!! Hence Vista goes pokin around in my W7 (C:|) directory.
I downloaded the bootable Vista Recovery CD but it didn't find any problems, and I believe that's because VISTA isn't the problem... the MBR on D:\ is!
I don't want to have to rebuild the Vista OS... just need to remove the incorrect (old) MBR from the beginning of the D:\ drive... Can I do that?? Can I test this theory by somehow reading the first sector of that drive?
THANKS SO MUCH FOR ANY HELP!