Win7/XP Dual Boot problem!

Kethridge

Kethridge

Kethridge

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Joined
14 Apr 2010
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322
Asus M4A78T-E
SATA HD Win 7(HE)
IDE HD WinXp(Pro)

Plugged my old IDE HD in to the new computer to transfer some files and also to boot from to test a compatibility theory out (Catalyst Control Centre).

All went fine until I unplugged my IDE. Windows wouldn't boot, just a black screen with "Bé_$|Bé_$|" (or something v similar) in the top left corner. When I loaded the Win7 cd it wouldn't find the operating system. Tried a few things through DOS to no avail.

Soon as I plugged my IDE Hd back in everything is fine again. I have just completed an antivirus scan of both drives which came back negative.

Has my system simply started a gay love affair with my old HD and refuses to let go?

Or is there a more technical reason why this is happening?

Cheers guys :).
 
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At the moment BIOS is detecting both HD's. Boot device priority is set to my old HD (SATA does not show on this list). However I can choose the SATA in the F8 boot menu (but once again all I get is |Bé_$|Bé_$) note the underscore is a very thick almost square underscore.

The thing that is really throwing me is that fact that I am booting off my old HD(WinXP) yet I get to choose which operating system I load up on.

I choose Win7 and everything loads fine just as if I'm loading from the SATA HD.
 
Sounds like the boot files are all on the IDE. Let me guess, it was still plugged in when you installed Windows 7?
 
When Windows sees another HDD with a Windows OS, it will tend to put the boot files there assuming you will always be booting from that first disk.

To confirm this, type compmgmt.msc into a run dialog or the Windows 7 search bar. Once open, go to Storage then Disk Management.

You should see a diagram of your two HDDs. If the problem is as I suspect, it should have System listed on the IDE HDD. You want that System to be listed on the Windows 7 HDD.

To do this follow this guide: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/SwitchingMyWindows7BootDiskFromDToCWithBCDBootRatherThanBCDEdit.aspx

Hope that helps :)
 
hd.jpg


Thats how it looks, although the SATA says boot on it. But not system?

I will take a look at the website, thanks for your help so far!
 
Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Users\Keth>bcdboot c:\windows /s c:
Boot files successfully created.

This is the advice given on the website, went back to disk management and nothing had changed. Tried to reboot on the SATA HD again, same problem.

Came back to windows and noticed that I didnt have the C: drive partition marked as active, so I have now marked it as active and redone all above, still nothing's changed.

Tried some other commands too:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.


C:\Users\Keth>bcdboot d:\windows /s c:
Failure when attempting to copy boot files.

C:\Users\Keth>bcdboot d:\windows\system32 /s c:
Failure when attempting to copy boot files.

C:\Users\Keth>bcdboot d:\windows\system32\dllcache /s c:
Failure when attempting to copy boot files.

As you can see, not a lot happened.

I think the command may have to be different seens as D: is WinXP and C: is Win7?

EDIT: Not sure if this applies but can someone take a look and see? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529
 
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