How-To Geek Forums / Windows Vista
Installing Windows XP w/ pre-existing Vista on HP Laptop
(102 posts)Hey,
It still didn't work. I copied the two files over to the xp harddrive and the same error popped up, so I thought Id check up on the boot.ini. It seems that I can't find it. Its not in vista, the setup cd or even in xp. What should I do? Also, do the ntldr and ntdetect have to be in the root folder of vista as well or are they fine in whatever folder they reside in?
Thanks
Hey,
I did it! Finally, after 4 days (now I see why macs are better..lol). I found the boot.ini file in vista and then copied it to the xp drive, but that didn't work. Then I dld vistabootpro on my vista and went under manage entries and clicked on xp and then changed its drive (because some ppl said that the files where there, but in the wrong drive), and that did it! Thanks for the help, now I must update XP.
Thanks ALL of you guys! Was tearing my head 3 hrs back.. but now I have successfully moved from Vista to XP with minimal hitches. My problems were same as Skysurfer64.
For the record, mine is a Dell Inspiron laptop... Just to suggest that perhaps the make of the laptop may not be the issue causing the ntldr problem.
Help...
Thank you for this great support...
As expected I follow your guide and perfect until boot time, when given option at restart I click Xp and is telling me I’m missing this file….( \ntldr)
I have located this files in my windows CD however I’m not so sure where exactly in my xp partition they need to go, XP is in my (F:)drive so I copy them here, and now I have Three folders Documents and settings + Program Files + Windows and ntdetect.com and ntldr after booting up with Win xp same error..
Question: Do they go here or in windows folder ? About system 32.
Thank you all in advanced..
skysurfer64:
Glad you finally got it working! My Vista and XP change the drive letters around too. I think you can just set them to whatever you want in either operating system. Drive letters are set up by the OS and shouldn't affect the actual hard disc location. Vista stays as the C drive because it's the system drive. Then XP just dumps the rest in order after that since it can't read Vista's drive setup.
imdprogamer:
If you can't find the drivers on Sony's support site, try the manufacturer directly, such as Intel.
savishypv:
Thanks for the information about Dell! It seemed odd that HP was the only one doing it. I still have no idea why the ntldr keeps getting lost though.
mike32:
The files need to go in your XP root drive, ie F:\ntldr, F:\ntdetect.com, F:\boot.ini
Mine are also in my Vista (system) root, C. (I'm not sure if that's necessary or not). Make sure you have a boot.ini file. If not, read skysurfer64's comment about using VistaBootPro to create a manual boot entry which points to the F: drive.
Ok I'm a bit frustrated here. I've been trying to set this up for a day now. I'm all the way to the step of moving ntldr and ntdetect.com to the root. I 'think' i've done that, but I keep getting the same error from bootloader. it can't see the file.
can someone please explain exactly how to move the file? I'm in Vista, I open the folder /i386/ on my dvd drive(e:) I find the two files. I click copy. I open my xp drive (d:) and click paste. I reboot. and the same thing happens.
what am I missing here?
thanks in advance.
DD
It is going to be a semi-relevant question but how did you manage to partition the hard drive. I tried to follow the instructions in this article:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto.....partition/
but it is not as smooth of a ride as it has been for the author of this article. I ran into problems. Posted a new thread here:
http://www.howtogeek.com/forum.....ng-gparted
but I am not getting any traction from others. Am I the only one with this problem ?
Cheers
I used Vista to partition its own hard drive. You have to tell it to shrink itself before you can create a new partition.
Right click on Computer and select Manage. Then right click on your C: (system) drive and select Shrink Volume. In the amount of space to shrink put in the size you want your new partition to be. You should then get a section that says unallocated free space. Then right click and select New Simple Volume. Format it to NTFS for XP. If you want to put Linux on, I'm not sure if it has an option for EXT3. You can always use GParted to format the unallocated space now that Vista has given it up.
I got my instructions on how to do all of this here:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto.....-computer/
The only methods I've seen involve Vista's own Shrink Volume feature and GParted. You could also look into something else like QtParted, which I've never used. As far as I know, it's best to just let Vista do its own shrinking and then you should be able to use any other utility for the formatting.
There's also this article that describes how to deal with some of the problems when using Shrink Volume:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto.....-problems/
I just wanted to say that I figured out my one problem. I installed bootloader on the Vista drive. Ran it, then changed the drive letter to the correct one for the XP partition drive. Rebooted and the correct screen came up! yeah.
Now the only problem is, XP is not recognizing the Nvidia driver for my network adapter. Hopefully not because it's a Dell and Vista came pre installed? Nor my audio drivers. Those two things are now my new problem.
any help with that issue would be stellar.
I finally realized why everyone is still having problems even after they copy the files to the correct folder. You need to make a manual entry that points to the XP boot files in Vista's bootloader. Which I had done first with VistaBootPro from XP. Apparently the steps can be done out of order, but they both need to occur in order to fix the ntldr file. The files need to exist in the right folder and Vista needs to know which drive to look at. For those who don't want to have to download VistaBootPro and the .NET framework, you can use the bcdedit command in the command prompt to accomplish the same thing. (But then again, I like command line fixes over programs I download and use only once.)
daredevil:
You need to get the Nvidia XP drivers since Vista has it's own drivers that XP won't understand. You should be able to get that from Nvidia's website or Dell's support site. Same goes for the audio drivers.
Gahh I need help!
I posted this in a post but maybe you can help me here....
I know I will need to do another installation involving nlite and drivers.... but for now I just want xp and vista to dual-boot properly.... When I followed the guide exactly and tried to boot up XP I get this error: "d:/XP/WINDOWS/system32/boot/winboot.exe - File is either corrupt of missing" How in the heck do I fix this? Considering I'm very computer illiterate... Can anyone help me with a short step by step guide in "nooby terms"
never mind I fixed my problem, my solution was just logging onto vista, uninstalling vistaboot and using easyBCD1.7 instead.... works just fine... My new problem.... It appears my wireless card built in my computer doesn't have drivers that are windows xp compatible..... Is it still possible to find the driver .inf files and implement them into a bootable cd? and it will work? im so confused... or am I screwed?
Furyy
You need to get the drivers from either your computer manufacturer or wireless card manufacturer (Intel, etc). You should be able to download the drivers and install them directly in XP. It's not necessary to incorporate them into a custom boot cd unless you want to have them in case you need to reinstall XP at a later date. The only drivers that might have to be done in the boot cd are the S-ATA drivers on a laptop.
nrv1013
"For those who don't want to have to download VistaBootPro and the .NET framework, you can use the bcdedit command in the command prompt to accomplish the same thing. (But then again, I like command line fixes over programs I download and use only once.)"
Are you referring to the method proposed in http://support.microsoft.com/kb/919529?
Topic Closed
This topic has been closed to new replies. Please create a new topic instead.
