SEARCH

The How-To Geek Forums Have Migrated to Discourse



Join the Discussion at discuss.howtogeek.com

How-To Geek Forums / Windows Vista

(Solved) - Unable to boot after attempting dual-boot (Vista & XP)

(12 posts)
  • Started 5 years ago by Coffeegeek
  • Latest reply from Coffeegeek
  • Topic Viewed 4872 times

  • Remove Solved Status
Coffeegeek
Posts: 24

I had following the instructions from the post below - got all the way to installing XP off disc, all appears to be working. After loading all XP program, computer said it would restart and complete installation. Computer restarted, and came to a HALT basically. The message I get: a disk read error occurred - ctrl, alt, delete to restart. Wondering if it's not booting up to correct drive. I have attempted to install XP a few times and get same message. Appears to be when I looked at BIOS. I've read quite a bit that you need to install XP first and Vista last...(not the case, as I have new HP A6142N with OEM Vista Home Premium and just really wanted to see how XP worked on this machine without uninstalling Vista.
Now I can't boot computer up at all. I have recovery drive but unable to get to it. I have back-up with Acronis 10 on external Hard drive, but before I went back in time to my original configuration, I'd really just like to boot up and move on. I've done a lot to on machine since last back-up. I am sure there's a program out there, and some simple answer, but we are talking Vista here. At this point, I would be happy just to delete partition I created with XP and bring it back to Vista as it was. Eventually I may replace Vista with XP, but we'll give it a bit more time (and frustration). The below forum post was very helpful.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto.....-problems/

Posted 5 years ago #
Top
 
supermansghost
supermansghost
Posts: 350

Do you have any sort of boot cd to boot off? Usually you can just boot off the vista dvd and do a repair from that.

Posted 5 years ago #
Top
 
Coffeegeek
Posts: 24

I believe as with most new systems, CD's are not provided and I did not create as I 'assumed' it would be good enough to back-up with Acronis. I had read you could do that. I have not been successful attempting to just recover Vista off Acronis and do repair.

Posted 5 years ago #
Top
 
supermansghost
supermansghost
Posts: 350

You might be able to boot off another cd that has access to partition tools, and assign the recovery partition as the default boot partition?

Posted 5 years ago #
Top
 
Coffeegeek
Posts: 24

I will look more at what's on my back-up tomorrow and perhaps be able to get on CD. Once I can boot up Window's Vista, I hope to delete XP off machine until I have a bit more faith desire to have dual-boot.

Posted 5 years ago #
Top
 
supermansghost
supermansghost
Posts: 350

Yeah, would be helpful to get some type of bootable cd.

You are right, it's usually best to install XP first and then Vista... very tough to get it working the other way around.

Posted 5 years ago #
Top
 
Coffeegeek
Posts: 24

I thought I had fixed system but still unable to boot OS. I did get all the recovery disc created today once I was able to get onto computer. Each restart brings me to same error message. I've gone thru BIOS and set to default, restored to a previous set point, and now looking at reinstalling Vista which I'm not keen on doing. I've spent quite a bit of time getting it to my liking and assume (someone tell me if I'm wrong) the system will be as I received from factory, without all my email, programs I've installed, iTunes, etc.

Posted 5 years ago #
Top
 
supermansghost
supermansghost
Posts: 350

How were you able to get into the computer? Were you actually able to boot one of the operating systems?

If you completely wiped and reloaded, you'd lose the files, but you could back up your data before if you wanted.

Posted 5 years ago #
Top
 
Coffeegeek
Posts: 24

I wish I could elaborate, but basically get to error message, and then hit F11 - Recovery and then Windows Vista Recovery. Each time I'm unable to boot correctly.

Posted 5 years ago #
Top
 
Coffeegeek
Posts: 24

For what it's worth, I finally did enough jerking around on computer to figure out to delete volume I had created, as tech person I've spoke with said even though I deleted all of XP and partition still existed, there might be files floating around to cause it to be confused over boot sequence. I did just that and VIOLA I've been able to restart over and over again w/out any problems. Granted, I'm where I started with Vista being my primary and only OS which I'll live with for sometime unless I try again another route (uninstall VISTA and install XP and then Vista). I really feel Vista is so unstable I'll leave good enough alone for now unless I decide to toss and just install XP. I did download VistaBootPro which appears to be of some help (through PCmag).

Posted 5 years ago #
Top
 
supermansghost
supermansghost
Posts: 350

Glad to hear your computer is at least working now. Hopefully Vista will get enough updates to make it usable for you.

Posted 5 years ago #
Top
 
Coffeegeek
Posts: 24

Very good, and thanks for your input.

Posted 5 years ago #
Top
 



Topic Closed

This topic has been closed to new replies. Please create a new topic instead.


Create New Topic Return to Forum