A problem when booting to Windows XP x64.

Since you guys were a great help in the past, I am trying once again to get some help for a problem which I encoutered.

Last night I went to bed and run JKdefrag for x64 systems in my Windows XP x64.

When I woke up this morning, my PC was rebooted and welcomed me with a very "nice" message: Invalid Partition Table and press CTRL-ALT-DEL.

Anyways, after spending almost 6 hours on this mess, I managed to get at least Vista x64 working again. Windows XP x64 still gave the following message: \NTLDR 0xc000000e error.

In Vista x64 I discovered one partition was missing (H. So I restored that partition without problems. And re-assigned the correct drive-letters with Disk Director, since it was all messed up. E.g. my music directory was called H: (instead of F and F: was called H:... Anyways in Vista everything looks normal once again.

Now I am able to boot into Windows XP x64, except it doesn't allow me to get to the Desktop. It's quite similar to the problem which I had here: https://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=203621

And I quote:

There is one (big) difference in contrary to what I quoted. It does not "hang", but it reloads the same thing every time. Clearly explained: Windows XP x64 boots up, you get the loading bar and stuff. So far, it works great. Then you get the logon screen (which automaticly logs on as Administrator, like normally) then it (or at least looks like it) tries to load the Desktop but it goes back to the login screen and starts over again. I waited several minutes, but it keeps doing the same.

I loaded the XP x64 hive, but I couldn't find anything out of the ordinary. But I am guessing the problems are in here...

Screenshots:
Windows Vista x64 mounted devices: Vista x64

Windows XP x64 mounted devices: XP x64

I rather would have seen Vista not functioning properly than XP, cause I use XP for my work, which is very important which you can probably understand.

Please advice... Almost 6 hours gone and I still cannot manage to boot into Windows XP...

Thanks in advance for your time.


//EDIT

In the meantime I will create a Windows XP x64 disc with nLite in combination with working RAID drivers, so I can run SFC /scannow or something... :S

 

Both registries have the same entries for C:, D:, and E:, so getting XP64 to boot correctly will probably just require that you switch a couple of the entries in the XP64 registry.

1. When you are booted into Vista64, can you view the XP64 partition? Which drive letter is assigned to XP64?
2. When XP64 was previously working correctly, which drive letter was assigned to its system partition? Was it C:?

 

First thanks for taking the time to answer... I really want a new system (with one OS) soon... Sigh...

Yes I can see the partition in Vista x64. The partition where Windows XP x64 is located is on partition letter: L
(this was before all these problems started as well)

Now that's a tricky question. If I understand you correctly you mean when I still could boot into Windows XP x64, on which partition letter was XP located (shown in Windows XP x64), right?

If that's the case, it was also on L.

When I redid the system months ago (which worked until this morning) I "mirrored" everything to look the same in Vista and XP. So I wouldn't need to search everytime I booted into a different OS.

Hopefully I answered your questions correctly...


//EDIT

If I copied the stuff behind \DosDevices\L: from Windows Vista x64 registry to \DosDevices\L: in the Windows XP x64 registry. Would that work? Cause apparently they look completely different?

//EDIT 2

I am going to swap F and L in the XP registry. Maybe that will do the trick...

 

YES!
That did fix it!

...though a few other partitions have wrong partition letters, but I can change them probably without problems, right?

 

Have you considered just running Vista and installing Virtual PC 2007? Install XP as a guest OS in Virtual PC. Unless you are gaming in XP64 you probably won't be able to tell the difference between the OS installed natively and the OS running in a VM.

That will probably do it.

 

Yes; use Windows Disk Management console.

 

Well the XP x64 are old working stuff. When I order a new PC (within one month or so), I will be using Vista Ultimate x64 only.

That would remove a lot of annoyances....

Anyways thanks for your time.

 

Okay after looking in my event viewer, it seems the Maxtor 250 GB (non-raid) has a Bad block. I confirmed this by running a low-level disk checker.

Anyways I ordered a 1 TB external harddisk with eSATA; Seagate Freegate Extreme.

I am planning to transfer the contents of the Maxtor 250 GB harddisk (3 partition including Windows XP x64) to this new harddisk.

What's the best and easiest way to do this, without booting problems? I am quite new to this.

 

Do you have a copy of True Image? If so, the easiest way to transfer contents is to create a backup image of the drive and then restore to the new drive. If you choose one partition to restore at a time then you will be able to choose a different size while restoring, which will get around the issue of the bad blocks file being transferred to the new disk.

However, if your new disk is an external, can your motherboard boot from an external eSATA drive? If not, you may need to remove the drive from the external case and install it as an internal drive. Don't attempt to use it as an external USB drive because Windows will not boot from a USB device. I don't know whether Windows can boot from an external eSATA device or not; maybe someone else can answer that question.

 

I didn't purchase True Image yet, cause I am still looking into all my options, which one will work best for my situation. Though Acronis has been good to me. So chances are I will order a copy.

Anyways regarding the eSATA; I will be using a SATA connector from my motherboard, which goes to a eSATA bracket on the rear end of my PC. From there it will connect to the external HD. Meaning it will see it as a normal harddisk. Right? My motherboard (old) didn't came with an eSATA (like the newer boards which are out now).

Back to True Image; is it easy to work with? Even backing up and restoring 3 partitions (one partition contains Windows XP x64 and possibly the boot loader for Vista x64).

And in what order should I work? For example:
1. Make a backup of the partitions.
2. Disconnect the old drive.
3. Connect the new drive.
4. Restore the partitions to the new drive.

Or is this idea to simple and will it be much harder in real-life?

I am just making sure, before I ruin something.

On a different note; I checked the prices for True Image and it does not seem to expensive for a single license.

 

That's pretty much the right idea with the following comments:

1. Back up the entire disk. You will need someplace to store your backup image like an external USB hard disk or a partition on one of your internal disks with enough room for the backup file.
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. Start with a blank (unformatted) new drive. You can use TI to prepare (blank) the drive. Do this first before doing step 1. Restore the backup one partition at a time in the order that you want them to appear on the new disk. If you do it this way then TI will let you choose a new size for each restored partition, so you can enlarge any of them to a size that's appropriate for your new disk.

 

First thanks for taking the time to answer. I will give it some thought.

In the mean time, I have one final question (and possibly a problem)/ The 3 partitions are about 220 GB. So as you can understand backing it up might be a problem. Isn't it possible to back it up to the new 1 TB harddisk?

 

Is 220 GB the used space? TI backups only include used sectors, and are compressed.

Is only one of the partitions the OS? Are the other two partitions only data?

If that's the case then here's what I'd do:

1. Use DD to create new partitions on the new disk, except for the XP64 partition. Leave unallocated space at the beginning of the disk as a placeholder for the XP64 OS.
2. Using Windows Explorer, copy and paste the files for the other two (non-OS) partitions. Now you have a disk with all of the data files and a bunch of unallocated space just waiting to become the new XP64 partition. Hopefully you will have enough room on one of the two data partitions for temporary storage of the OS partition backup.
3. Use TI to create an image of your existing XP64 partition. Save the image file to one of the data partitions on the new disk
4. Use TI to restore the image file to the unallocated space on the new disk. Resize to fit. Restore the partition as primary, active.
5. Remove the old disk and boot from the new disk.

Wait, I'm forgetting that you have a multiboot system. Which disk/partition contains the boot files for your system? Does the Vista boot loader handle selection of which OS to boot?

 

The XP x64 partition (one of the 3 partitions which need to be transfered) contains the boot files, cause when I do dir/a it shows "Boot" dir and bootmgr, along with several boot files.

And yes the Vista boot loader handles the OS-selection to boot.

To be honest I am currently deciding between Norton Ghost and True Image. Is one better than the other?

 

I think you should be OK. The entry in the Vista BCD for XP64 may not work after restoration since your new disk will have a new disk ID and thus the partition GUID will be different, but that's easily repaired by booting into Vista and displaying the BCD contents (type "bcdedit" from an elevated command prompt). If the XP64 entry is incorrect it will be listed as "Unknown" instead of "Partition=L:" (or whichever drive letter is appropriate). Then you can easily change it by the command "bcdedit set {ntldr} partition=L:" (or the appropriate drive letter).

I have no experience with Ghost so I can't comment. True Image, despite its problems, has been invaluable to me. I've been using it for over 3 years now and would not want to be without it.

 

Mark,

Since the XP partition is the booting partition and it's being restored along with several other partitions being changed, won't that make XP reassign drive letters? If it does, the XP (booting partition) will be assigned first available letter which probably won't be L:. This would require booting into Vista and fixing the XP Registry entry (as was done in Posts 3 & 4).

---

I've tried this before and it didn't work in my computer. The drive kept losing the connection. It lasted the longest in Windows and the shortest when booted to TI (we're talking minutes here). However, this does work for some people. Keep the cables as short as possible. Personally, I'd just keep the drive as an internal or get a real eSATA card. That being said, I haven't tried running Windows off either of my eSATA capable computers.

 

Okay after trying the trial version of Acronis True Image, I decided the buy it.
After that I made a backup image, etc.
I restored the image and unplugged the old drive.

Now I have a problem; Vista x64 boots up just fine, but Windows XP x64 gives me a \ntldr error when I select it.

I already checked the strings in the hives in Vista x64 (and changed the L partition to correspond), but it still gives me the \ntldr error when I select XP x64. Sigh...

Here is a screenshot of the Vista x64 registry: vista_x64_new.jpg

And here is a screenshot of the XP x64 registry (loaded in Vista x64 of course): xp_x64_new.jpg

I removed the "old" harddrive strings, cause it isn't used anymore.

 

Is the boot.ini file set to point to the correct partition (the XP partition)?

Is the {ntldr} entry in the BCD file pointing to the correct partition (see Post #15)?

Code:

bcdedit /set {ntldr} device partition=L: <ENTER>
bcdedit /set {ntldr} osdevice partition=L: <ENTER>

(I think that's right. I'm just going from memory.)

 

Oops... I really feel dumb now.

After reading what you typed, I decided to use and check my configuration with EasyBCD. Seems it was pointing XP x64 to the deleted partition. So I changed it to the correct partition and voila; I am in XP x64 now and the eSATA drive (from an internal SATA connector) is working fine!

Thanks!

 

You're welcome.

Keep an eye on the "fake" eSATA setup. Hopefully, it will be stable for you. Time will tell.

 

Paul:

Thanks for jumping in and helping out.