Dual boot issue when I changed Vista to XP..

Hello,

Ok so here is what happened.

First off:

My computer came with Vista Home Premium installed. I have an asus G50-vt-x5.

It has one 320gb HDD, the manufacturer when they installed the OS had it setup this way.

The HDD was split into 3 partitions. 10gb for a recovery (Do not touch thing)

160 for vista64
140 for Data

(don't know why I'm told those numbers since they don't add up to 320)

The names of the partitions were as followed:

c was vista64
d was DATA

And somewhere the 10gb backup was in there.

Here is what I have done and need help with now:

First, since I had vista before windows 7 was launched it was installed on "C". I really wanted to try out 7 so I installed it on "D".

Super easy to get dual boot going from there, I didn't have to do anything other then specify the partition to install 7 on.

NOW, here is where things start to suck!

I started to like 7 better then vista, go figure, and so what I did was I got Xp 64 bit and installed that over where vista was installed "C" and so that way I would have Windows 7 and Xp 64. Sounded like a good combo to me.

But here is what happened.

When I installed XP that is the only OS that boots up now, 7 is not an option. I did not overwrite 7 because when I'm logged into XP I can access the DATA drive and see all my stuff still on 7.

What used to happen before was when I started my computer a boot manager would start asking me which OS I would like to start up Vista or Windows 7. Now that boot manager is gone.

Why did the boot manager go away now that Xp is where vista was? Why is the 7 install on the DATA drive not being recognized as an OS anymore? At this point I just want 7 back, that's the only os I want now.

I'm trying to get my vista cd's to install vista again in it's normal place hoping that things just revert back by default with having environment all back in place.

Please, any ideas?

I can give more details if you need them.

 

Whenever you install an older version of Windows on top of a newer one, you destroy the MBR.

Fix the MBR: http://www.lancelhoff.com/how-to-fix-vista-mbr-repair-broken-vista/

And then just format C: and use that as a data partition, since all you want is Windows 7.

 

Ok I think I understand. I cannot for the life of me find my Vista cd's, so what I did was I got a friends install CD's for Vista Ultimate. Can I just install the Ultimate edition for everything to work? I know that the tutorial you sent me talks about "recovering" the version of vista I have but since I have to go with a different version is there go to be an issue if I go the route of installing a better version and not do a "recovery"?

And how would I format "C" to make is a data partition? I will google this stuff but for the sake of a time I wanted to ask as well.

 

You're not performing a recovery, you're just restoring the MBR. And to do this, you will need Windows 7 discs, not Vista discs.

Formatting is easy. After you get back into Windows 7, just go to My Computer and right click on the partition and select format.

 

OK so I want to make sure that I'm understanding you right before I continue since I read online that if you don't know what your doing when it comes to MBR that you can really screw up some stuff.

I only assumed I had to do something with vista since the link you gave me talked about vista, that's all.

Now here is what I think I need to do:

Take my windows 7 ultimate cd and boot from that and do a restore of the MBR that way.

Question:

Do I act as if I'm going to install Windows 7 on the partition where Vista used to be? So basically dual booting 7 & 7 it would look like.

Or am I acting like I'm going to install 7 over my current installation of 7?

I understand the formatting of the partition now, I just want to make sure that I have the first steps correct now.

Thanks for the fast replies!

 

Ok so I went ahead and did the "Click Repair Computer" link like in the vista tutorial but while using my windows 7 cd's and here is what it said.

First I must mention the inside the box where it's suppose to tell you that it picked up an OS there was nothing, actually a small window popped up tell me that there were error to fix and here is what it said.

It's said something about fixing a Vista Home Premium thing on partition part "D".

The fact that it's "D" made my head turn sideways as I don't know how that happened. But I hit repair and the computer said that it needed to be restarted so I let it restart. I then waited for a Bootmanager to appear but one never did, the computer simply booted right up into Xp.

So I went to my computer while in XP and saw this for the HDD on the computer:

(C: ) DATA <------- That's where all my Windows 7 files are.
(F: ) Local Disk <--- That's the one where XP is installed.

I'm a little confused now, first the repair option picked up an OS that isn't even on the computer (Vista Home Premium).

Did I not do a step right?

 

Put in your Windows 7 disc while in XP, and open a command prompt.

Type:

Code:

(letter of DVD drive):\boot\ bootsect.exe /nt60 all

Then reboot.

 

Ok, so I tried doing the cmd line that you gave me and it just wasn't working so I googled the cmd that you gave me to see what it was and I came across a very helpful in the terms that it gave me back my boot manager.

Here is the link: http://neosmart.net/blog/2009/windows-7-system-repair-discs/

At the bottom of the article there is a download link for a Windows 7 Repair CD.

I installed the CD and and it gave me back my boot manager. What I have done just to keep you up to date after the CMD line option didn't work.

First I uninstalled the XP OS that I had on here. I over wrote it with Window 7 Ult. So basically here is how my system looks.

HDD "C" Windows 7 <-- new install.
HDD "D" (the data one) Windows 7 <-- old install that will now boot and it the one I need to get working.

Some interesting things happened when I did the Window 7 Repair CD.

First it got me my bootmanager back! YES!

Here's where it get's weird.

It picked up the New windows 7 installation as expected, but where it should say the name for the other windows 7 installation it says "Vista Home Premium"..........

I have no idea how that happened as there is not vista installed at all. So thinking that maybe the name is just screwed up since I have Windows 7 installed twice I tried to boot the "Vista" OS and sure enough it started to load into vista until it ran into errors which I wasn't the least bit surprised about since "Vista" shouldn't be on there in the first place.


I'm thinking that the Window 7 Repair Cd picking up the "Vista" OS is a clue to getting to the problem, I just don't know what to do. I have a feeling that I'm really close to getting my system back but just don't know what the next step is.

Please, I know that this is getting to be a lot but if you have anymore helpful ideas I would be more grateful.

 

Hey Lithus,

Just came across this old thread. Thanks again for helping me out. As I read my responses to you I'm amazed at how much more I now know thanks to your tips.

Rep is given to you.