need help with xp and vista

[artur11220]

I have 2 hard drives each with a different system one with vista ultimate and the other with xp pro i cant get the bios to offer me which system i want to use. also when i try to boot xp it tells me there is a ntdlr missing
please help thanks

[jlreich]

In what order did you install them? Xp should be first then vista. Xp doesn't know what to do with vista boot files.

If you installed XP last then you need to boot from the vista CD and use the recovery option. Do that and it will fix it and you will be presented with a boot menu so you can choose which OS to run.

If this doesn't help we need to know which OS is on which drive and which partition, and what order you installed them.

Hmm, unless you stuck a hard drive with XP on it from another system??? If that is the case you will have problems with the XP install since it doesn't like to be in another system it doesn't have drivers for and such.

If something else please elaborate.

[Paul Komski]

i cant get the bios to offer me which system i want to useUnusual these days if you cant choose between two hard drives in the BIOS setup - - even if one is a PATA and the other a SATA - - or are you choosing the XP choice by some different method. As jlreich asked - - please elaborate with as much info as possible including the type and number of partitions on each drive and a copy of the text in your boot.ini file.

[artur11220]

well there are 2 hard drives both sata a maxtor at 60gb with one partition and a 160gb western digital also with one partition. Vista was installed first then Xp and i had tried to go to repair from the vista cd after it repairs it windows xp wont start it says it has an ntldr missing. It never gives me a choice to a system
Thanks for the help so far.

[Paul Komski]

You could repair or reinstall WinXP and then from WinXP download and install VistaBootPro (http://www.vistabootpro.org/) to setup your dual boot menu.

http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/about88231.html explains it for two partitions on one drive but it should be the same for two different physical drives.

[rond36]

Paul, thank you for the link to that program it will come in handy.

[Paul Komski]

It was pure serendipity to come across it. I just hope it works as it states. If so its going to get quite a lot of use.

[rond36]

It works great, and it's going to get quite a lot of use :D