Dual booting Vista and XP

[Kjølen]

So, I realized that, until Vista gets the updates and fixes that I need, I'm going to be keeping XP in reserve, currently for KotOR. I've already gone through the hassle of installing both operating systems on separate drives, and configuring the Vista bootloader (with EasyBCD) to look to C: for Vista and E: for XP. The problem is that XP uses a different bootloader than Vista and cannot boot from the new Vista bootloader. The best I can do, apparently, is have the Vista bootloader point to an XP bootloader when I choose the Windows XP option.

As of right now, I'm getting a missing ntoskrnl.exe error whenever I select the XP option. I've tried pointing the XP choice to drive C:, where the bootloading options might have been and all the sort. Basically, I need to get XP booting again, by installing an XP bootloader under the Vista one or just fixing the boot files on the E: drive.

If it helps:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.6GHz @ 3.0GHz
6GB DDR2 SDRAM @ 960MHz
500GB SATA Hard Drive (C
120GB IDE Hard Drive (E
ASUS P5N-D nForce 750i SLI ATX Motherboard
Geforce 7950GX2 1GB GDDR3 PCI-Express Video card
Sound Blaster Audigy 4
750W Quad-rail power supply

 

[KSoD]

Since you are using EasyBCD why didnt you just ask for support in their forums?

You need to get the files NTDETECT, NTLDR and boot.ini files on to the boot drive. From there add a entry for XP.

Windows XP - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki
Troubleshooting Windows XP - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

All the info Available form NeoSmart the creators of EasyBCD. Should help you on the way.

 

[Kjølen]

Since you are using EasyBCD why didnt you just ask for support in their forums?

Because, Tech Forums is MY support forum. And EasyBCD is working, at least for what I used it for, but there doesn't seem to be a way to write the XP boot stuff on my E: drive with it. Also, none of the boot files or folders appear on either drive, even if I force Vista to show me hidden and system files. I'm going to try to repair the boot files from Windows XP's recovery console, and see if that helps. Thanks.

 

[KSoD]

EasyBCD does work. I know cause i do support on that forum as well.

When you unhide the files did you make sure the the system protected files were showing as well. Even though it goes against the recommended setting?

I bet you didnt. That is why you didnt see the boot files.

 

[Kjølen]

Yeah, I forgot about that particular hoop Windows makes you jump through. I had a feeling there was something like that somewhere. But oh well, for the record, I changed the rdisk(0) in the boot.ini file to rdisk(1), to look onthe second physical drive for XP, and it fixed everything. Thanks for the help all.