Vista - Dual boot system, XP won't boot

I have installed Vista on the second of my two SATA hard drives, XP is
installed on the first, and was working fine up until now.

Vista works fine, but now XP won't boot, it briefly shows the XP startup
screen then immediately reboots the system.

The boot order in BIOS has the XP drive first, then the Vista drive.

I intend to move over to Vista full-time, but I still need to be able to
access my old XP installation once in a while until it is all set up as I
want it.

Prior to installing Vista I had Ubuntu linux on the second drive, but I had
so many problems with that (video drivers) that I gave up and went for Vista
instead. It did cross my mind that maybe some part of GRUB has been left
behind on the primary disk, but how would I find it and eliminate it?

Thanks,

http://www.vistabootpro.org/
peter
"PB999" <philip.baker999@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:1D3A7ED8-DE33-4A27-95CE-3D7ED6F989ED@microsoft.com...
>I have installed Vista on the second of my two SATA hard drives, XP is
>installed on the first, and was working fine up until now.
>
> Vista works fine, but now XP won't boot, it briefly shows the XP startup
> screen then immediately reboots the system.
>
> The boot order in BIOS has the XP drive first, then the Vista drive.
>
> I intend to move over to Vista full-time, but I still need to be able to
> access my old XP installation once in a while until it is all set up as I
> want it.
>
> Prior to installing Vista I had Ubuntu linux on the second drive, but I
> had so many problems with that (video drivers) that I gave up and went for
> Vista instead. It did cross my mind that maybe some part of GRUB has been
> left behind on the primary disk, but how would I find it and eliminate it?
>
> Thanks,

I had the exact same problem, only with both my vista and xp after
linux. It appears it installs part the GRUB loader on your other two
installations, but the main files are on the linux part. once deleted,
the GRUB loaders on your partitions cant find the required GRUB loader
files on your now deleted or removed linux.

Stick in your XP recovery disk, or install disk, and it should say
after loading to press R to load the recovery console. once in, just
type
bootrec.exe /fixboot
followed by
bootrec.exe /fixMBR

then type exit, and reboot your system....you should be allowed back
into XP.


--
kenney001
Posted via http://www.vistaheads.com

Thats very true, but won't that process also kill the Vista bootloader?


"kenney001" <kenney001.2vxocs@no-mx.forums.vistaheads.com> wrote in message
news:kenney001.2vxocs@no-mx.forums.vistaheads.com...

No. I would just type the fixboot and fixmbr without the rest. This will
only write on the system disk, which is XP. Fixmbr shouldn't be necessary
as you are obviously reading the active partition from the mbr (unless you
are booting with the Vista disk in the DVD drive)

"PB999" <philip.baker999@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:EB0F5748-01A2-4BD9-80AB-A0EF6ACEAD33@xxxxxx

OK, well I tried that, and now XP boots fine, but as I wondered, I now don't
get the Vista boot menu, so I can't boot to Vista.

Can I just use Vistabootpro to re-install the Vista Bootloader?

Thanks,

"John Barnes" <jbarnes@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:up%23eBQK6HHA.4436@xxxxxx

Since you eventually want to boot Vista, I would first set the Vista drive
as first in boot priority. Then run the Vista startup repair from the
install DVD. Do you have a boot.ini file on your XP drive? Does your BIOS
give you the opportunity to access a drive priority boot menu from POST. If
so, and you don't expect to use XP often or for long, you can use that boot
menu to boot as you will then have two independently bootable drives. If
you want to have the Vista boot menu for both systems, then run the
VistaBootPro the way you are currently set up and reinstall the Vista
bootloader and if necessary add the XP system as a legacy drive entry.

"Philip Baker" <philip.baker999@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uD21ayM6HHA.4584@xxxxxx