Without seeing a post of your Disk Management screen I would venture to say that the boot partition should be (3)

..

I'm including a link containing a screenshot of my disk management..plz help me out!!
thanx..

sam4u wrote:

Hi, My problem still remains as it was..no hope as yet! I checked my disk management as follws: C:(Vista)-- Healthy (System,Boot,page file..) D:(HP recovery manager)-- Healthy (Primary partition) E:(XP)-- Healthy (Primary partition) (I'm adding a link at the end for a screenshot of my disk management) I kept the 3 files for XP(ntldr, NTDETECT, and boot.ini ) in both C and E drive. -then followed the VistaBootPRO v.3.3 Method(though I have VBP 3.2) . Open VistaBootPRO and go to the "System Bootloader" screen . Select "Windows Vista Bootloader" . Select "All Drives" . Select Force Install and then click on "Install Bootloader" -I ran "Run Diagnostics",rebooted the system several times but the entry "earlier version of Windows" never shows up. While booting I can still have only 2 entries-- "Vista","HP recovery manager". I checked my boot.ini from VBP->Legacy Editor which I'm pasting below. boot.ini _______________________________________________________________________________ [boot loader] timeout=30 default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS [operating systems] multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect ________________________________________________________________________________ Is the boot.ini wrong? should the "partition(2)" have been partition(3)?? Vista is not giving access to it either. Plz let me know if there is any way out to get ddual booting. Plz note I DON'T HAVE Vista Installation DVD, I only have a set of Vista recovery dvd. Eagerly waiting for any help!! [color=brown][/color]

http://picasaweb.google.com/cool.soumen/Vista/photo#5203069992527025666

Could some one plz gimme a solution on how to fix the problem on getting dual boot??? Am I in a wrong place??

Once again,my problem is that now I can boot into either OS with the help of Vistabootpro,indirectly,by first booting into the other OS and then applying the Vista/Legacy boot loader option of VBP.I'll explain it,if say Vista is running,I can run VBP-->go to the "System Bootloader" screen-->Select "Windows Legacy Bootloader"-->Select "All Drives"--> "Install Bootloader"..After rebooting ,the system will enter into XP..
Similar way can be taken to boot into Vista......But could someone plz tell me if this method of toggling btw OS is safe or it may cause any damage to my system??
Thanx in advance..
Sam

The easiest way is to get Vista booting and then follow the direction at the beginning of this thread.

Partition 2 is correct, like NT50 said it would be best if you follow the guide located here once you get Vista booting.

http://www.pronetworks.org/index.php/guides/post/dual_boot_trouble_shooting_guide_vista_running/

Thanx for the reply...but as I had said that I already tried the mentioned thread but couldn't fix the problem..may b I was not clear enough to put the problem as it was...anyways,I got the solution from Graham...Thanx a lot to Graham!!!He saved my life!
Thanks,
Sam

http://www.pronetworks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=766910#766910

http://www.pronetworks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=766910#766910

Ok my problem is that I installed everything correctly and I am able to boot XP or Vista. However the only problem is that I can only boot one and not boot the other even by selecting it at bootup.

If I am able to boot XP I can not boot Vista until I reinstalled Vista boot loader on all the drives. Then when I do this I can not boot XP without getting this error message
File: \ntldr
Status: 0xc000000f
Info: The selected entry could not be loaded because the appliaction is missing or corrupt.

So if I am able to boot to Vista I reinstalled Legacy (XP) boot loader so I can boot XP. If I do this I am not able to boot Vista because it does not recognize Vista on any drives.

Locate and copy the files ntldr, boot.ini and NTDETECT.COM from your XP drive to the same location on the Vista drive and then see if you can boot to XP.

You'll need to set folder options>view to see hidden files and folders and not to hide protected operating system files to see those files. Once you find them, copy and paste them to the same location you find them (the root of the drive), but on the Vista drive.

Hi folks,

I found problems trying to follow this Dual Boot Trouble Shooting Guide:

"6. Select the three files in question and right click and then select "Copy"
7. Go back and open your Vista (or XP) drive and right click and then select paste"

1st problem:
There are 2 ntldr and 2 NTDETECT files (?) in my XP partition: one of each in the WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles and WINDOWS\SoftwareDistribution\Download folders, respectively.
Which one should I copy to "System" (Vista) drive?

2nd problem: boot.ini is missing in XP partition. It is present in Vista partition but I got "Access Denied" trying to edit it.
How to deal with this ?

Thanks in advance.