Kitz Forum
Computer Software => Windows Vista => Topic started by: oldfogy on February 24, 2008, 03:37:44 PM
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I
have had a dual boot with Vista and XP.
But since doing a Ghost restore on XP I have lost the MBR, so it now only boots into XP and does not recognise Vista.
(Obviously the MBR was on the previous copy of C: XP which was lost during the Ghost restore)
With Vista being installed on D:
I tried "EasyBCD" but I probably wrecked/over-wrote the original MBR backup on the Vista drive at some time, (if there was one) so that is not recoverable.
If I reboot with the Vista disc, it seems to only want to do a complete reinstall without saving any of the current settings, although thats no great problem if needs be, but I'm hoping to be able to do a repair if possible.
Obviously any help would be most appreciated.
Thanks
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You can boot from the Vista disc and repair the MBR which rebuilds it with Vista as the single boot option.
With the MBR fixed, you can boot Vista and use EasyBCD to add XP again.
*EDIT*
This web page has the exact process with screen shots. Scroll down to "Restoring Vista and dual booting".
http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp (http://apcmag.com/5485/dualbooting_vista_and_xp)
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You can boot from the Vista disc and repair the MBR which rebuilds it with Vista as the single boot option.
With the MBR fixed, you can boot Vista and use EasyBCD to add XP again.
The first time I rebooted from the Vista disc, I'm pretty sure that the repair panel was empty.
However, on the second attempt it did list the Vista installation.
After trying most all of the "bootrec /fixmbr, /rebuildboot, /scanos options, the last one I tried (which also happened to be the second on the list in the windows help section) was the "bootrec /fixboot" option, this was successful except the PC then only booted into Vista, with no sign of XP. (as you point out above)
Well, me being me, "in for a penny, in for a pound" I tried the EasyBCD option and after adding XP into the "Add/Remove Entries" option the system is now back up and working as it should be.
But I have to admit most of this was just trial and error, but it worked.
Many thanks for your input, as it also confirms that what I did was correct, just went the looong way round to get there (as usual).
"Now to backup (Ghost) the C: drive so as not to lose the MBR file again".
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Rather than messing about like this, why not spend a few quid on a decent boot manager and partitioning tool and save all the hassle and angst. This http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm is brilliant and the support from the author himself (ie not some script droid) is top-hole.
Cheers
DrT