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Unable to MultiBoot


Eager_Beever

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I have an assembled Desktop with Intel Core2Duo 1.87 GHz, 2 GB DDR2 RAM, Asus Motherboard with i945 Chipset and 3 Harddisks (Seagate SATA II 360 GB, Seagate SATA II 160 GB and Seagate PATA 80 GB). I have partioned the 360 GB Harddisk as 25 + 25 + 25 + 25 + 75 + 160 GBs. All partitions are NTFS. I had installed WinXP 32-bit, Vista 32-bit and Win2008 Server Trial in the first 3 partitions and was successfully multibooting and never experienced any problem. ALL OSs are installed in the same Harddisk (different partitions). Last June the Seagate SATA II 160 GB Harddisk developed bad sectors and I replaced it with a new Seagate SATA II 320 GB one. Then I decided to format all OS partitions and replace Win2008 Server Trial with Win7 RC1. I installed WinXP 32-bit in C Drive and loaded everything as needed. Then I installed Vista in D Drive. The installation went without any error but when it restarted the final time my boot loader got corrupted and I could not boot into either WinXP or Vista. Then I formatted both C and D partitions again and installed WinXP again on C Drive. Then I installed Vista on D Drive. But this time too the boot loader got corrupted and I could not boot into either WinXP or Vista. Then I used WinXP CD to repair the installation and used "Fixboot C:" command. Still I could not boot into WinXP. Then I used a WinXP Live CD and executed the command "Chkdsk C: /F". This time I was able to boot into WinXP.

The same thing is happening with a friend's Laptop too. The Laptop came installed with WinXP 32-bit. I tried to dual-boot with Win7 RC1 32-bit with the same result (loss of boot loader).

But in the past I had multibooted my desktop with 3 OSs. Why is it not working this time. The only change has been replacing a harddisk, which I donot think should make any difference.

I request members to help me in solving this weird problem.

Thank you.

Eager_Beever

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There are many possible causes here.

First XP and Vista bootstrap differently, XP used NTLDR with boot.ini, Vista uses BOOTMGR with BCD. Windows 7 goes further and creates a seperate active system partition for the boot files.

MBR based disks can only have 4 Primary partitions which are bootable, the rest must be in an extended partition.

There are pirated versions of Vista that have 'corrupted' boot files.

I know if you install XP on a clean disk followed by Vista or 7 on another partition you will be able to dual boot without any extra work.

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There are many possible causes here.

First XP and Vista bootstrap differently, XP used NTLDR with boot.ini, Vista uses BOOTMGR with BCD. Windows 7 goes further and creates a seperate active system partition for the boot files.

MBR based disks can only have 4 Primary partitions which are bootable, the rest must be in an extended partition.

There are pirated versions of Vista that have 'corrupted' boot files.

I know if you install XP on a clean disk followed by Vista or 7 on another partition you will be able to dual boot without any extra work.

From the beginning the 360 GB SATA II Harddisk has 1 Primary partition (25 GB) while rest are in Logical Drives in Extended Partition. Same is the case for the Laptop.

The WinXP CD and Vista DVD I am using are both Legal Retail copies. And the Win2008 Server DVD was sent to me by Microsoft. Anyway lasttime I had activated both OSs Online. Anyway there should not have any problem with Win7 RC which I downloaded from Microsoft directly. I am facing the same booting problem with WinXP and Win7.

Also, please remember that I was multibooting WinXP, Vista and Win2008 Server successfully under the same configuration. And I had done the same for many of my friends and customers. I never have faced a similar problem earlier.

Eager_Beever

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