"A disk read error occured" - Tried to install XP on Vista machine....

[D22]

Config is in my sig...to make sure it was nothing with my settings I restored optimized defaults in the bios.

It started when I tried to install XP on a different partition from Vista. I had already made the partition with Vista when I first installed it since I knew I would want XP for compatibility later on. Now no matter what I do I can't even get back into my original Vista partition or anything.

XP install disk "A disk read error occurred Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart"
Vista install disk "A disk read error occurred Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart"

I don't even know what to do, I haven't backed up my files recently either so all I can really think of to do is to buy another hard drive (since I was going to anyway) reinstall Vista on it and use that install to get into the other one...Is there anything I can try without losing all my files? I can't possibly think of anything I did wrong, I thought Vista and XP can be dual booted with no issues what am I missing???

 

[stogez]

I'm pretty sure the problem occured since you decided to install XP after Vista. As far as I've tried, it works perfectly if you switch the order. The bootloader for Vista takes precedence over the XP one.
When you installed XP after Vista, it probably killed the bootloader.
I could be completely wrong though. If you have the Vista DVD, you could try to run the setup again and repair the install. You should get options like "Fixboot" and "FixMBR" etc. Those are actually from XP and I don't have a Vista machine in front of me or I would get you the exact commands.

 

[Captante]

Since you can't get into either version of Windows at the moment its going to be a PITA, but this free utility should enable you to restore your system to working order ... I suggest referring to the forum on their site for instructions to get it done.


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