bookie32 Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Hi guys Well, I am back with another situation that I would like to solve...LOLI have decided to test Windows 7 beta and have that installed on my Disk0 C partition as shown. The other partitions on that drive are taken up by Dreamlinux one of my Linux favourites.On Disk1 I have D as XP and E just for storage.I have downloade and installed EasyBCD and set it up as far as I can tell to boot Windows 7 - Dreamlinux and Windows XP. I can boot into both Windows 7 and Dreamlinux but not Windows XP. Windows XP comes up with missing NTLDR. I tried to follow the instructions on EasyBCD for this partiicular problem but got no where.Can someone take a look and try and give me some pointers on what I need to do or try?bookie32 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 (edited) On which drive/partition you have NTLDR, NTDETECT.COM and BOOT.INI?Check this site:http://www.multibooters.co.uk/http://www.multibooters.co.uk/multiboot.htmljaclaz Edited April 16, 2009 by jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bookie32 Posted April 16, 2009 Author Share Posted April 16, 2009 Hi jaclaz God! now I feel stupid... The links are great and I need to try and digest your info. I don't know where those files are now. I had XP on the C drive and replaced it with Windows 7 and my Dreamlinux and other XP haven't been changed.bookie32 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bookie32 Posted April 16, 2009 Author Share Posted April 16, 2009 Hi jaclaz Well, I found the files where I sort of expected to find them and that is on the D drive.Now that I have found them - what do I do with them...LOLbookie56 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 Hi jaclaz Well, I found the files where I sort of expected to find them and that is on the D drive.Now that I have found them - what do I do with them...LOLbookie56I would try to copying them to C:\ drive. (it is possible that you have a wrong entry in the Windows 7 BCD pointing to NTLDR on first drive).Or otherwise, double check your BCD.What you should have right now is:BIOS->MBR->PBR->BOOTMGR->BCD->WINLOAD.EXE->windows 7BIOS->MBR->PBR->BOOTMGR->BCD->NTLDR->BOOT.INI->NTDETECT.COM->XPbut for windows XP you are having:BIOS->MBR->PBR->BOOTMGR->BCD->A suffusion of yellow....Which should mean that the BCD looks for NTLDR where it is not.A possible workaround is to forget about using BOOTMGR as your primary loader for all the OS's and use grub4dos:http://www.boot-land.net/forums/index.php?showforum=66http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/Grub4dos.htmAdding it to an existing BCD it's easy:http://diddy.boot-land.net/grub4dos/files/...ll.htm#method07and from it you can directly chainload either NTLDR or the linux kernel of your distro. jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bookie32 Posted April 16, 2009 Author Share Posted April 16, 2009 Hi jaclaz God! you don't do things by halves do you..LOLThanks for all the info...lots to read... ...LOLI have been trying different things to see how things work...I seem to work better with the solution and work backwards from that to learn... I will update you on that as soon as I can....regarding all the info on other threads ..bootsplashes etc...I haven't had the time to test stuff yet....trying to do my studies and keep students happy....not easy.Thanks again!bookie32 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bookie32 Posted April 16, 2009 Author Share Posted April 16, 2009 Hi jaclaz just wanted to run something by you before I test some of your stuff,Like I mentioned - I had been messing with my settings and had actually copied the BOOT.INI and ntldr to the C drive. I checked the BOOT.INI for right info and left it as follows:[boot loader]timeout=30default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS[operating systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetectNow as you can see when I boot now it gives me the three choices as before but under Microsoft Windows XP I have the above choice and when I click on that it reboots?I have checked the XP install and my BOOT.INI is the same as in Windows 7. Now the strange thing is if I disable Windows 7 and Linux hard drive in bios it brings up the above choices Windows Standard and Microsoft Windows XP. If I click on that it boots directly into Windows Xp?When I enable the first drive again - it gives me the same thing "reboot"?Am I missing something? Shouldn't the above info tell the Windows 7 bootloader to look on the next drive and boot from it.If you can't think of anything I can try with this - then I will continue with your info.bookie32 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted April 16, 2009 Share Posted April 16, 2009 [boot loader]timeout=30default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS[operating systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetectI would try having BOTH as rdisk(1)jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bookie32 Posted April 17, 2009 Author Share Posted April 17, 2009 Hi jaclaz You notice I keep blushing a lot...LOLSorry, I had given you the copy I hadn't changed the 0 for a 1 on. Both BOOT.INI files reflect how you suggest it...so that isn't the problem.Please feel free to take another stab at it before I try other things. Just can't understand why when the files are there it reboots?bookie32 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bookie32 Posted April 17, 2009 Author Share Posted April 17, 2009 Hi jaclaz Look I know this is a shot in the dark...but could it be that the Windows 7 verision is a beta and I have only English to choose from for my install. XP is a Swedish install.Just a thought.bookie32 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jaclaz Posted April 17, 2009 Share Posted April 17, 2009 NO english vs. Swedish issues, rest assured. If you keep having one single entry in BOOT.INI, you will never be able to understand whether BOOT.INI is loaded at all.Try making an "open minded" BOOT.INI:http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=25365As mentioned somewhere else I don't find however random approaches the best way, it looks to me like the:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theoremtends to produce results in a remarkably long period of time, expecially if the number of monkeys is finite. jaclaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bookie32 Posted April 17, 2009 Author Share Posted April 17, 2009 Hi jaclaz I understand that the BOOT.INI is responsible for the information about which distro should boot and in what order.I don't unstand why I would list other distros - when there is only one on that hard drive I want to chain boot?I am trying to understand ARC paths etc but find it a bit much.OK! I would like to thank you for your time and I will come back one day when I have had time to understand what it is I am missing. I can see that:Bios>IPL>bootmgr>bcd>bootmgr>ntldr>boot.ini> and then into Windows XP. According to the link you gave me it goes into Windows system32. I can't see where it goes into ntldr and boot.ini on the windows xp partition...or is that what I am missing?Sorry, I will leave you in peace bookie32 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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