zephyrcat Posted October 16, 2007 Report Share Posted October 16, 2007 Hi! I have an existing Vista system with Windows XP stuck sloppily on top of it due to compatibility. I am fairly familiar with the GRUB bootloader, but I have never used the Windows XP bootloader, but from looking at the Microsoft site and the boot.inf file it seems to make sense. My question is it easy to restore back to a backup if I mess something up? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted October 17, 2007 Report Share Posted October 17, 2007 Hi! I have an existing Vista system with Windows XP stuck sloppily on top of it due to compatibility.Welcome to the Windows Forum.Not quite sure what to make of that sentence above...If you installed Vista after XP, then the Vista boot manager will be installed and active (which does no longer use boot.ini). If this is not the case, then please clarify. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zephyrcat Posted October 17, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2007 Sorry. I meant that first I put Vista on and then XP on top of it. My computer now boots into XP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted October 18, 2007 Report Share Posted October 18, 2007 I don't know how that works if you install it in that sequence. If it were me, I would install a 3rd party boot manager, such as BootMagic. There are a number of other boot managers out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zephyrcat Posted October 19, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 19, 2007 I don't know how that works if you install it in that sequence. If it were me, I would install a 3rd party boot manager, such as BootMagic. There are a number of other boot managers out there.Thanks. I would rather not have to buy bootmagic, since I don't even want to keep it as a dual-boot system. Is it at least true that adding another entry will not mess up the first one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ɹəuəllıʍ ʇɐb Posted October 20, 2007 Report Share Posted October 20, 2007 That should be no problem; make a copy of the original boot.in file though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zephyrcat Posted October 25, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 25, 2007 I finally tried it and the XP part worked just fine. As I knew would happen, Vista had trouble booting, so I stuck in the Vista install disc and told it to repair. This is where the trouble came. The Vista disc wiped out the XP bootloader and put its own one on. Now all I can do is boot into Vista recovery mode. I also found that Vista has a program that looks just like where you go in XP to edit the boot.ini file, except that there is no option to edit it!!! I also found another list of operating systems in the Vista bootloader with no add button. I am thinking that the best thing to do might be to make yet another partition and install Linux and let it install GRUB and edit that, since I at least know how to do that, but I thought you might have a better idea.Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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