Dual boot, restoring issues

Hi geeks,

I would like to move my partitions to a new and larger hard disk but I would like to change a little bit the order of partition on the new HDD.
What I have now: Windows XP as the first partition and active, Windows 7 the second one because I had first XP installed and no system reserved partition.
I would like to have in the future: the system reserved as a first partition to keep the MBR and active, Windows 7 the second and XP the last.
I used macrium reflect for restoring images from backups and Mini Tool Partition Wizard for rearranging and creating a new small partition but if I boot the new HDD first I have no bootloader.
I tried to use Easy BCD offline (from the old HDD) but it doesn't work, the PC boots either the old HDD or has no bootloader even if I select the new HDD for booting.
Can you give me please a solution, thanks, I lost 3 days trying to solve it.

Please don't try to keep me away from XP, I have some old games there.

Best wishes,
intze

 

You only get a system reserved partition when creating a fresh install of Win 7 to an unpartitioned disk so it isn't possible to create one using backups of your previous setup. As to not booting, the key boot file is bootmgr and you will find it in your XP partition when you uncheck hide protected operating system files. You will also find a Boot folder, and both need to be moved or copied to the root of Win 7 - you may need to use a boot disk for this. If you then use Partition Wizard boot disk to set Win 7 Active it should boot OK, and you should then be able to use EasyBCD to get XP booting

 

thanks for looking into it.
I cannot copy the bootmgr and boot because I don't have the permission, I tried to take ownership but operation is still denied.
can you please tell me which boot disk to use, I burnt a Hiren's boot cd but the mini XP is showing only a RamDisk and no other drives.
thanks...

 

Did you get the MiniTool partition Wizard bootable CD (the download link is near the bottom)? That will help you set the Win 7 partition as active like Earthling said.

As far as copying the files you need, are you familiar with Linux and it's disk labels (SDA0, SDA1, etc)? You could use a small distribution like Puppy Linux (download the ISO and burn to CD and boot from it) to copy the files Earthling mentioned over to your hard drive,

 

thank you!
setting active was not a problem, as I was working offline on the HDD.
you are right about puppy, I remember I have already the CD as I was using it for a old laptop.
thanks again!

 

I did it, copied the folder and the file on the Win7 partition, managed to create another entry for WinXP.
Win7 is OK but WinXP doesn't boot , it is stuck at a blue blackground and WinXP message. ctrl-alt-del is not working and mouse cursor doesn't move.

 

From Windows 7, go to Start -> Computer and open the XP partition/drive and make sure ntldr is there. check for the boot.ini file as well and make sure it reads similar to the following:

I'm running XP Pro on a separate drive from my Vista Ultimate drive and using EasyBCD to switch between them. You may be running XP Home but, boot.ini should say so.

 

I'm sure if you install EasyBCD in Win7 that you will get XP to boot.

@mdonah - thanks for helping. Puppy is what I would have suggested too but been a bit tied up last two days.

 

not working yet... but i think I got the issue.
I have both ntldr and boot.ini, which is reading:

;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT

the only difference is for sure the partition order.
I put the system reserved first and win7 the second as I will use more frequently win7 and I would like it to be faster as being on the inner part of the disk.
as to keeping the system reserved partition, I did it for a future use. maybe I will buy Win10 / give up with XP and I will not need anymore to deal with the partitioning.

now, isn't it possible to run them this way? should I move the XP partition first?
I have both entries, Win7 is OK, XP is OK too until logging.
I tried all options, last know good configuration, safe mode etc and all of them end up with the Windows XP notice and a blue background.

 

Would you mind posting a screenshot of Win 7's disk management please? I'm completely confused by what you have just posted.

 

attached, thanks...

I have a disconnected drive which doesn't show up. it is a slower disk restored into C and D of disk 1 and I will not use it anymore. I had there XP the first partition and Win7 the second partition, in the order I installed them and there was no reserved partition like here.

 

Thank you, and are you using EasyBCD as boot manager or something else?

The most obvious thing I see is that boot.ini should have partition 2, not 3, though atm I'm not sure that is what is preventing XP from booting. But change it anyway as 3 is definitely wrong. I assume the two partitions named System Reserved have been created and named by you? If so they are pointless but harmless.

 

again I am not allowed to change it...
yes, I use Easy BCD for boot and I checked the option "automatically detect correct drive". do I have another option?

 

I'm a bit hampered with this because I only have a never used XP system in a VM, but it does look to me that boot.ini is probably misconfigured. Try disk(1), rdisk(1), partition(2) in both lines. Use Puppy to get around the permissions problem.

 

I tried it but with no luck...
I deleted the windows xp entry and recreated using easy bcd. still not working.
which is weird and I think I did something wrong, all partition have the boot folder, bootmgr, boot.ini and ntldr files.
are you sure both lines should be the same as my active partition is the system reserved but the boot is located on win7.

sorry for bothering you, the last solution is to delete the small partition and keep the normal order...

 

In boot.ini, try changing disk(0) to disk(1) in both lines and leave the partition at 3. From what I saw in Disk Management, Xp is on Disk 1 at Partiktion 3.

It's interesting that one of the messages you got said to use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options

 

I think I forgot something as well. I believe rdisk(0) needs to be changed to rdisk(1) in both lines as well leaving the partition at 3..

Also change the XP partition to Active since it, too, has boot information and change the System Reserved Partition to none because it doesn't have boot information.

 

No need for apologies, without questions the geeks here are redundant

First, as mdonah has pointed out, I was wrong about the partition number and it should be partition(3), not (2). I used to know all this stuff about XP but the years go by .... :-o

What is throwing me is the presence of a System Reserved partition. You must have created this yourself as the images you used to create this setup didn't have such a partition. This partition and its contents are crucial to the boot process and as we have no idea what the partition contains it's not easy to advise. Unless created during first Windows install such a partition is useless and my advice would be to remove it entirely. You would then need to ensure Win 7 partition has bootmgr and the Boot folder and that XP has ntldr and boot.ini. You can delete the entries not required as they are generating error messages. Once that has been done you can set Win 7 Active and set boot.ini as disk(1), rdisk(1), partition(2) and boot into 7. Recreate the EasyBCD entry for XP and it should go.

Good luck!

BTW, the fastest part of a disk is the outer edge, not the inner, but that's OK as Windows knows that when installing.

 

So, sectors 0 — 63 are at the outer edge of the disk and not the inner edge? And doesn't the head park near the spindle? confused

 

It's simple geometry. Disks spin at a constant rpm but just like a car wheel the outermost part is travelling past the head fastest.

Have a read HERE.

 

Guys!

 

Yes?

 

It works!!! thank you very very much!
that's incredible, I thought it was impossible in the given conditions.

I re-installed easy bcd, deleted all entries, I renamed the system reserved partition as new volume and went offline. I played a little bit with the partitions, I aligned the partitions using mini tool partition, I created a Win7 entry, I disconnected all disks except the current one. I created the WinXP entry being in Win7, I set the Windows XP partition active just like in the past and here we are!!

thanks again for your time! it was really nice to see such a helping attitude!

regarding the fastest part of the disk... I remember seeing in ultimate defrag the boot files and most of files on the inner part of the disk... but you should be right, it is more logical what you said.

 

I'm thinking of the old saying 'a constant drip will wear away a stone'. There was never any reason it wouldn't work, but in the end EasyBCD did the hard part for us.

Well done :major

Afterthought - can you post your current disk management, just out of interest?

 

sure, please find attached: a print screen from Win7, having more detailed attributes and a print screen from WinXP which I am very happy to upload!
I know it looks like the previous partition table, but I stole a few MB for XP.

thanks again!!! and good luck with other newbies! :major

 

Now I'm really intrigued. The Win 7 partition carries the Boot flag, which means that is the system we are currently booted to. However for that to be the partition that boots it also has to have the Active flag, but that flag is on the XP partition!

Have you thoroughly tested this setup, i.e. by shutting down and selecting first XP, then rebooting and selecting Win 7, and all is OK?

 

It's OK, I can answer my own question. It seems EasyBCD does not switch the Active flag when rebooting to an alternative system. It's the same on this Win 7/Win 8.1 dual boot laptop I'm using, the Active flag is always on Win 7 whichever I boot to.

 

yes, I tested both systems...
now I am intrigued...

I have a pretty serious problem in Win7, starting with event 55, NTFS, "The file system structure on the disk is corrupt and unusable. Please run the chkdsk utility on the volume Windows 7."

Then I receive a 130 warning: "The file system structure on volume C: has now been repaired."

The problem is... and repeating with every restart: event 5, "{Registry Hive Recovered} Registry hive (file): '\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE' was corrupted and it has been recovered. Some data might have been lost."

I know about this error, I had it in the past and only solution was to reinstall Windows.
Do you have any idea what caused this? a different partitioning? can I solve it?

 

If chkdsk /r doesn't fix it I doubt I can help with that one. Does 7 then run after these errors? It has not been caused by what we have been doing - more an error present in the restored image I would think. Did you validate the image before restoring it?

 

As this is unconnected to this thread I would suggest it might be better to start a new one.

 

image was OK, as I have also the previous errors in the logs. nothing serious or that can't be solved.
therefore I thought the validation wasn't necessary.
windows runs but since I'm a maniac I can't live with it. I will try the chkdsk /r, thanks...

 

I'll stop for now as I have a different situation compared to the moment I created the image (a different motherboard supporting AHCI, needed for my SSD).
chkdsk /r found tons of errors, orphan files, invalid entries etc. and made the drive clean but the critical event remains.

I reverted to the the backup registry (Windows\System32\Config\Regback) using WinXP, and first boot in Win7 is OK, lacking the error.
however after windows installs the new drivers the registry becomes corrupt again.
image was made on a Intel G41 chipset without AHCI but now it is reverted on a Intel H81 chipset which supports AHCI.
Win XP is OK as I switch to IDE in Bios. I know I can install AHCI drivers in WinXP so that I don't need to switch but I don't bother since I will use it rarely.
It seems the problems occur when Windows installs the AHCI driver...

thank you very much Earthling and mdonah, you already helped a lot and I couldn't think I would arrive here.
intze