The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    What just happened here? Dual-boot problem.

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by The Biles, Feb 8, 2009.

  1. The Biles

    The Biles Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    39
    Messages:
    319
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Ok, I have 3 HDDs. Disk 0 has Vista installed on Volume 0 and a separate partition for files at Volume 1. Disk 1 is a backup disk of files. Disk 2 has XP installed on Volume 0 and a separate partition for files at Volume 1. The partitions for extra files (in the Volume 1 positions) were created last night after I had a successful dual-boot config.

    I installed XP first on Disk 2, then Vista on Disk 0. Everything was working and I could boot into either OS. Last night I used the free space of each HDD to create the other partitions at Volume 1. The one on the Vista drive worked fine, but when I went to partition the XP drive something weird happened. It was formatting when I went to sleep, but when I woke up Vista wasn't even showing a disk at Disk 2. I tried refreshing, etc, but it wouldn't show up. I then restarted, and Disk 2 was back in my Disk Manager. However, the new partition was in "RAW" format, and it didn't have the volume name or letter I had assigned when originally partitioning it. I thought this was weird, but I reformatted it to NTFS just fine, and went to boot into XP. Now when I get to XP I get the "hal.dll is missing or corrupt" error.

    I tried using the XP install disk to fix this with bootcfg, but it doesn't even detect the install! (It does, however, detect it when asking me which OS I want to log in to.) I've tried checking this disk for errors, but everything shows up as fine. What could be doing this, and do I need to reinstall?
     
    The Biles, Feb 8, 2009
    #1
  2. ahl395

    ahl395 Ahlball

    Reputations:
    3,867
    Messages:
    8,218
    Likes Received:
    72
    Trophy Points:
    216
    It sounds like you re-formatted it, which would (or should) erase all the data, not some of it...

    I would re-format it again, and install XP Fresh.
     
    ahl395, Feb 8, 2009
    #2
  3. The Biles

    The Biles Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    39
    Messages:
    319
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    That's what I thought too, but I didn't even touch the partition with the OS on it. All of the files are still showing up in My Computer.
     
    The Biles, Feb 8, 2009
    #3
  4. ahl395

    ahl395 Ahlball

    Reputations:
    3,867
    Messages:
    8,218
    Likes Received:
    72
    Trophy Points:
    216
    Hmm, thats weird. :confused:

    Anyway, I would just reformat and reinstall, but you may want to wait for more replies. You may get a solution. Because im not sure. :eek:
     
    ahl395, Feb 8, 2009
    #4
  5. The Biles

    The Biles Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    39
    Messages:
    319
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Ok, this is about to make me sick.

    I reinstalled both OSes. When I reinstall the Vista bootloader and choose to boot into XP I get the NTLDR is missing or corrupt error, but when I remove the Vista bootloader I can boot right into XP. What the hell is wrong with this? Any info I need to post? I'm using EasyBCD, BTW.

    Oh, maybe I should also mention that EasyBCD is installed on both OSes, but the changes only seem to take effect when I edit them in Vista.
     
    The Biles, Feb 8, 2009
    #5