Oh god, Dual boot hell, please help

[dragonsho]

Alright, so this isn't pertaining to dual boot but the problem comes from dual boot.

Basically, I had xp 64bit on C: and E: was 32bit (both on the same physical drive). Now I stopped using 64bit some time ago. I load up my XP disc and basically, erased partition C: Please keep in mind that this part was on purpose. What I didn't realize was that the boot.ini and all the boot files were stored on C: Now I can't get E: to boot. I even went into the recovery console to try and repair it there. I can select C: or E: when I start recovery console but when I try any bootcfg command, such as bootcfg /scan, E: doesn't come up. The only thing that is recognized as a Windows install is C: (Which is where I installed xp 32 bit just now after I f'd up 64bit. I want to use XP on E: because that where the registry is and the OS I've been using for the past 8 months). As far as data, that's all on D: so it's not a huge deal if I have to reinstall windows, just a pain in the ass.

Any advice?

 

[m6oo]

From this article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022

You could try editing the boot.ini file directly by adding a line like:

multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINNT="Windows XP Professionall" /fastdetect

Of course, you may need to adjust the disk/partition parameters to match your config and name the operating system as you like. For the disk/partition params, just look at the existing entry and just adjust the partition number, since they are on the same physical drive.

 

[redline]

I'd get my data off and just start with a clean slate. Use GParted to create two primary partitions. Then use GAG for a boot manager and hide the partitions from each other. This way you can boot into either OS and they won't know about the other OS, and each one will be a C: drive. You could then create a logical partition as a data drive (D: drive) that either OS can access (as long as they are both NTFS file systems). I'm doing this for Vista 64 and XP 32-bit and it works great.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

http://gag.sourceforge.net/

 

[dragonsho]

Thanks.
I actually got my old XP install back running but I still didn't fully resolve my problem.

How would I go about removing the XP install on C: and then getting it to boot directly from F: (which is where my original xp install is now)

 

[m6oo]

[quote name='dragonsho']Thanks.
I actually got my old XP install back running but I still didn't fully resolve my problem.

How would I go about removing the XP install on C: and then getting it to boot directly from F: (which is where my original xp install is now)[/QUOTE]

First thing you could do is to change the boot.ini to make the OS on the F: drive the default...OR...

If you want it to boot directly from F:, then that partition needs to be marked as the ACTIVE partition.

There may be more to it than that. For example, I'm not sure if when you do a secondary OS installation like that (to a non active partition), does it make the drive bootable? If not, then you'll still have to depend upon a bootable C: drive.

Read up on the MBR (master boot record) for more information.