Can't Boot Restored Image

I have 3 internal IDE hard drives. Drive 1 is a 500GB with an 80GB partition that has XP Pro on it and that is what I am normally booted into.
Drive 2 is a 320GB with an 80GB partition with the Restore of the 80GB partition on Drive 1 and it also has Vista on a 217GB partition. I can't boot into the 80GB partition on Drive 2. Drive 3 is 250GB and contains the backup files of Drive 1.
My boot choices are Vista or Earlier XP. When I select Earlier XP there is a choice of XP on the 80GB of Drive 1 or the XP on the 80GB of Drive 2. If I select Vista it boots into Vista. If I select XP on the 80GB partition of Drive 1 it boots into XP Pro. If I select XP Pro on the 80GB partition of Drive 2 then the screen turns black and nothing happens.
I have set Drive 2 as Master with Drive 1 disconnected and boot stops with, "Invalid Operating System".
I was told that the problem is that the restore was made to another hard drive (Drive 2) and that I should:

"...boot from the XP installation CD, run it's repair console by hitting the R key and type in the following command:
fixboot"

The first screen that appears when I boot using the XP Pro installation CD displays, "The following list shows the
partitions and unpartitioned space on this computer.
Use the UP and DOWN ARROW keys to select and item in the list.
To setup Windows XP on the selected item, press ENTER.
To create a partition in the unpartitioned space, press C.
To delete the selected partition, press D."

Now, in the box below it displays:
"131070 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on bus 0 on atapi [MBR]

C: Partition1 [Unknown] 131072 MB ( 131071 MB free)"

Then, at the bottom the following is displayed:

"Enter=Install D=Delete Partition F3=Quit"

When I press R, nothing happens. I shut down since I didn't want to install XP Pro again---just do the repair that I was told would fix the problem.

I had Drive 2 connected as Master and Drive 1 disconnected when trying to boot up so I was first wondering why only 1 partition appears. But I assumed that the XP installation disk does not recognize Vista that is installed on the remaining 217GB partition. I'm still trying to figure out why it is showing the 131.07GB when neither partition is that size.

I would greatly appreciate help with this problem.

Thanks. Don

 

Vista boots differently from XP. If you set up drive two to boot from XP, it won't boot into Vista again.

You could go through the process of creating a dual boot setup for XP installed after Vista to make it dual boot, but that's the only solution I can think of. Google around for dual boot with XP and Vista for instructions on installing XP after Vista. Here's one lead:

http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm

 

Thank you for your reply and info, John.

My situation is a little different from that described in the site that you suggested.

My intention is end up with Drives 1 and 2 having identical images so that when one fails I can immediately use the other.

I've gotten part way with having installed Vista first on the 217GB partition of Drive 2 and then doing a Restore of the XP Pro partition on Drive 1 to the 80GB partition on Drive 2. But, I can't proceed until I can boot the restored XP partition on Drve 2.

So, while I can now boot into XP Pro on Drive 1 or Vista on Drive 2, I want in the end to be able to have 4 boot choices--XP Pro on either Drive 1 or Drive 2 and the same for Vista.

Thanks again for your willingness to help me.

Don

 

There are different ways of dual booting XP and Vista explained on the Internet depending on which OS you install first. I did XP first and Vista second and Vista sets up it's own dual boot manager.
I've also used EasyBCD (a free utility) which I think, doesn't care which OS you install first.

 

Thank you, DwnNdrty, for your info and link.
Don

 

Let us know which method you used, if you get something working.

 

Why don't you take the easy route of installing Vista on drive 1 that already has the bootable XP? Vista will set up the dual boot for you.

You can then make an image of that drive and restore it to the second drive or clone drive 1 to drive 2.