dual boot WIN7/XP problems with losing boot menu
I'm interested in knowing how other Acronis users are handling a dual boot WIN7/XP system? Whenever I revert to an old Acronis XP image I have been restoring the MBR, I wonder if not doing that would enable WIN7 to still have a boot menu?
My transition to WIN7 has been a long process, primarily because my Layla 24 sound card has had driver problems that are about to be resolved. I installed WIN7, it was on a separate 80 gig HD and I left a 2nd 80 gig HD there for my XP, so I'd have a dual boot system. I tend to have lots of Acronis image files for each time I change something on my boot HD. After installing WIN7, I had to abandon using it because of driver problems.
In the mean time I've created lots of image files for my XP HD. When you install WIN7, if it sees an XP installation it automatically creates a boot menu so you can choose either WIN7 or XP. If you revert the XP HD to a pre WIN7 image then you can't boot to WIN7, because it puts the boot info files and changes to the MBR on the XP HD, which a pre WIN7 XP HD doesn't have on it.
WIN7 can fix this by putting in the WIN7 install CD and choosing repair computer and then choose fix startup problem. It takes 3x of doing this process until you can actually boot to WIN7 again. I then use Easy BCD in WIN7 to alter the startup boot menu.
Now here's the problem. Somehow it corrupts the XP HD by fixing the startup problem. Now Sonar, my audio recording software almost immediately crashes with a MS Visual C+++ run time error, shortly after opening Sonar. I then went a ahead and uninstalled my sound card driver and Sonar and then reinstalled my sound card driver and then Sonar. I still have the same crashing problem.
Has anyone had similar problems and found a solution? I wish I could change WIN7 so it would put all the MBR boot info on it's own HD instead of the XP HD. I wonder if using one HD and installing WIN7 on a partition would help? I made tons of changes to WIN7, so I'd hate to have to completely start over with a clean install. Whenever I revert to an old Acronis XP image I also restore the MBR, I wonder if not doing that would enable WIN7 to still have a boot menu?
Any suggestions?
Gerry:
When you install Windows 7, the installer puts the boot manager and related boot menu information on the Windows XP partition. That's why when you restore an XP image from before installing Win 7, all of the boot information for Win 7 is lost. None of this has anything to do with the MBR, so you can restore it at will. (As a footnote, the boot code in the XP MBR is slightly different from the code in a Win7 MBR; the difference is that Win7 adds a little extra code to deal with BitLocker, but both MBRs will boot either system, assuming BitLocker isn't in use).
I think you may want to make these two installations independent. Since you seem to have a variety of images at your disposal in case this doesn't work, why not give this a try? Disconnect the disk that Win7 is installed to and restore a pre-Win7 image to the XP partition. Make sure XP is working properly, including your audio recording software. Then disconnect the XP disk, connect the Win7 disk and try booting Win7. It will fail, but try a repair with the W7 repair disk. After multiple repairs, it should be able to make the W7 partition active, set up the W7 boot manager, and succeed in booting from the Windows 7 partition. Then connect both disks. Use your BIOS menu to make the Win7 disk the boot device and then use EasyBCD to add XP to the Windows 7 boot menu.
Here's the solution to making Win7 and XP independent:
http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/227235-win-7-corrupting-x…
As suspected Windows 7 HD does not have its System boot files and is booting off the the XP HD therefore dependent upon it.
To correct this, unplug all other HD's except Windows 7, set Windows 7 HD first HD to boot in BIOS setup, boot the Windows 7 DVD or System Repair Disk to run Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times until Windows 7 boots on its own and holds the System flag.
I would also move Windows 7 HD into Disk1 position by swapping the cable for Data (E) drive to it first. This is so no other data HD can be in a position to steal the System boot files if accidentally marked Active and in a preceding position.
Once Windows 7 boots on its own, plug back in the other HD's, choose XP to boot when needed by tapping the one-time BIOS Boot Menu key at boot.
Reimaging XP should now no longer steal the boot from Windows 7 since it's independently booted.