Dual boot: Vista/XP...Recovery of XP gets "cannot find NTLDR"?

Discussion in 'Acronis True Image Product Line' started by ben7777777, May 22, 2009.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. ben7777777

    ben7777777 Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 6, 2009
    Posts:
    18
    Yeah hi peoples, i am using true image 2008.

    Have set up a dual boot with Vista on C:\ and XP on D:\

    which was a battle in itself...anyway, made back up images of each partition.

    Then tried to "Recover" XP image, operation was successful.

    However in rebooting i got error "cant find boot.ini" when i chose XP.

    So, installed EasyBCD and noticed that XP boot points to the C: drive now, why that happened i dont know, but set it to point at the D: drive and rebooted.

    Now i have the error of "cannot find NTLDR" grrr

    Firstly im sure the problem is common, i tried a search of forum but nothing around that was specific to this dilemma.

    Also have i set up my back up wrong for this to happen?

    Have a feeling that the NTLDR files go missing in recovery?

    Anyone know the solution and how i can avoid this occuring everytime i make a recovery?
     
  2. shieber

    shieber Registered Member

    Joined:
    Oct 27, 2004
    Posts:
    3,710
    Check the harddisk boot order in the bios.
     
  3. ben7777777

    ben7777777 Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 6, 2009
    Posts:
    18
    huh, do u mean the OS boot order

    OR

    the boot order of the hard disk
    cos thats weird, not sure how that helps

    the boot order is CD check first, then hard drive
     
  4. jonyjoe81

    jonyjoe81 Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 1, 2007
    Posts:
    829
    get a "boot corrector" it's free. Next use that bootcd to bootup your computer. The boot corrector will let you change your "partition ID" drive letter.

    The boot corrector is found in the "paragon rescue kit 9.0 express" boot cd. It's a free utility. It will fix you up.

    The only thing I find strange is how you suffer a "drive letter" problem when you restore XP back on the same hard drive. Usually that always works. As far as the files being missing, if they where in the backup, they will be restored. If the drive letters are OK, the boot corrector has other tools to check your boot.ini file or to even reslot your partitions.
     
  5. ben7777777

    ben7777777 Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 6, 2009
    Posts:
    18
    yeah hi jonyjoe81, thanks for the reply mate,

    downloading paragon rescue now and will take home to try (no net at home)

    anyhow i havent solved the dilemma yet

    i have found out that true image, within the restoration process, will restore the boot files (eg: ntldr/boot.ini) to the active partition. So my XP files have been put under Vista grr and hence why boot cant locate boot.ini

    Moved them back to XP partition, but the boot still didnt work.

    Theres a guy called "mudcrab" is this forum, who i think has the know on all this, but cant get in touch with him, his threads are pretty detailed.
     
  6. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

    Joined:
    Nov 3, 2006
    Posts:
    6,483
    Location:
    California
    ben7777777,

    When you had your working dual-boot (Vista/XP) system setup and working, were you using Vista's boot loader? If you were, then you should get a menu screen like the one shown here in Part 1.

    Which OS was installed first?

    Which OS is on the Active partition?

    When you booted into XP, which drive letter was assigned to XP's partition and which letter was assigned to Vista's partition?

    When you booted into Vista, which drive letter was assigned to Vista's partition and which letter was assigned to XP's partition?

    Do you have a standard Microsoft OEM or Retail XP CD and Vista DVD?

    ---

    Can you post a screenshot of what Disk Management shows for your drives? In can sometimes help a lot to see the layout.

    Are any of the Windows partitions Logical partitions?

    When you restored the XP partition, did you select to restore it as Primary or Active (assuming it is a Primary partition)?

    ---

    TI does not always handle multi-boot BCD entries correctly. It's possible that the BCD file just needs to be corrected. Can you boot into Vista, start a Command Prompt in Administrator Mode (instructions here, if needed) and post the output of the bcdedit command?
     
  7. ben7777777

    ben7777777 Registered Member

    Joined:
    May 6, 2009
    Posts:
    18
    Hi Mudcrab, firstly thanks for ur response.

    Initially had Vista Ultimate installed, primary partition C: drive. It was and is the active partition.Then made new primary partition D: drive, installed XP on it

    Then of course fixed the Vista bootexe (fixMBR/fixBoot) to give vista control

    And then of course to confirm dual boot and add XP to bootlist, i modified bcdedit with {ntldr} commands as described here..
    http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm

    So all was set up well and working fine, the boot menu had vista first and XP second (no problems, no problems). From here I added other partitions for data, paging files, acronis images.

    Problem came, when had to do a restore of XP, re-imaged the D: drive, "as a primary and not active", operation successful, but went to boot into XP (second on menu list) and got the...

    "cannot find boot.ini"

    so here i stand, stuck at this point. I do know that the NTLDR files were put on Vista's partition, so they were included in the backup image.
    ---------------------------

    I have Vista retail DVD, and a XP standard CD.
    OS partitions are both primary (C & D)

    I also have VistaBootPro, Paragon Rescue, EasyBCD as tools (that havent helped yet) and Using Acronis TI 10

    Will try to get a disk management screen shot asap (not at home at the moment)

    Also tried to remove both OS's and just install XP on C: by itself, using TI image, that didnt work either
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.