Failure To Boot From Hard Drive

#1 connor johnson

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Posted 22 February 2007 - 04:25 AM

I'll try to summarize the events leading up to my problem as best I can.

I have two hard drives. I tried installing Windows Vista Business on the first one to use in a dual-boot configuration with Windows XP which was on the second hard drive. Well, the Vista installation worked fine, but when I went to boot into XP, I found Vista's boot loader hadn't recognized Windows XP. Clearly frustrated, I tried several different things until I finally decided to format the first hard drive. It was horrible I lost my entire data from the Hard drive. Vista made my data vanish. I hate it. I tried using repair tool and many recovery software, but it did not work. Please help me out.

#2 usasma

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Posted 22 February 2007 - 05:43 PM

There are several nice tools for working with Vista's boot manager that are available for free. I use EasyBCD and Vista Boot Pro.

The XP should still be available on the second hard drive - and if so, you can use the Recovery Console to rebuild the boot sector of your first drive. Use these commands once you're into the Recovery Console:

fixboot
fixmbr
bootcfg /rebuild

- John
**If you need a more detailed explanation, please ask for it. I have the Knack. **

#3 kaleb_keith

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Posted 22 February 2007 - 11:42 PM

I know Vista doesn’t install itself easily. Something must have happened, that’s for sure. What software you have used to recover your data? One of the data recovery software I know is Salvage Data recovery Software for windows. My friend used the software and got his data back. Few days back I tried to recover the data of my office system, which I lost accidentally while formatting and it worked well. Try with their software. I think their site name is salvage data.
All the best. :huh:

#4 RandomUser

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Posted 23 February 2007 - 12:49 AM

I have a few questions about the HDD Configuration.

First off, I'm guessing you're using SATA drives? Please correct me if that's not the case.
Secondly, who's the manufacturer of the Mother Board?

Here's what I think might be going on.

B/C XP "Likes" to be on the First HDD before other OS's it may have an issue identifying itself to Vista, which is on the First HDD.

Make certain that you have the Correct Drivers for your SATA Controller, and install the XP compatable driver with XP and the Vista Compatable driver with, get this, Vista.

Also, Install XP on the First HDD and Vista on the Second. The Vista Bootloader should be able to
hypothesize what to do with XP.

I'm making assumptions here b/c this appears to be the most common dual boot mistake with Vista.

If your situation is different somehow, please correct me.