missing bootmgr from dual boot xp-vista

[peter_ming]

Hi all,

this is quite urgent, my PC is running dual boot xp-vista on two separate HDs. It all ran allright for a couple of months, but suddenly this morning I could not boot my PC and it shows: 'bootmgr not found, pls click ctrl+alt+del to restart'. Last saturday it was still running okay and I shut it down completely in the end of the day.

I tried restoring it using my XP disc, but on repair console it asked for my admin pass which I always left blank, and leaving it blank on repair console didn't work.

So I then move to my Vista disc and restore the bootmgr from it.

But now I seem to only have Vista running on my PC, and I cannot access my XP. It's a big problem since XP is still my primary system, when Vista is just for novelty waiting for W7.

The big question:
Can I restore my XP without having a complete re-installation? I'd rather sacrifice my Vista than losing my XP. I have put all my datas and softwares separate from XP partition, so actually re-installation is not a problem, but time is something I'd rather not spend on re-installing which can take at least an hour.

Many thanks for any help you might have.

P

 

[KSoD]

Try using SuperGRUB Disk or UBCD (Ultimate Boot CD). One of those should be able to restore the XP Bootloader for you.

 

[peter_ming]

will try Mak, thanks for your help!

@ mak: since my xp and vista both runs on different HD, can I just unplug the cable from the Vista HD so that my XP HD will run solo? or is it too late already and I still hv to use restoration CD?

 

[KSoD]

You could remove the Vista drive but it might mess with your BIOS once you plug it back in as that may take boot priority. So you would have to switch that in your BIOS so that the XP Drive boots not the Vista one.