Win7 Bootloader

[Basie]

I have Linux, WinXP and Win7 on my system.
I had problems with my Grub Bootloader and had to wipe the mbr so I could get back into
Win7. I deleted a couple of Linux Partitions and reinstalled my Linux Distros but somewhere along the
line I lost my WinXP loader because when I choose XP from the Menu I get a hal.dll error which is usually corrected by making an adjustment in the boot.ini file. Problem is how do I get to that file. I did a search from Win7 but it only found the backup boot.ini files. I imagine that it's incorporated into the Win7 boot loader file.

 

[buckjrdley]

Try to re-add XP into the longhorn loader using bcdedit:
http://www.kombitz.com/2009/01/13/how-to-add-windows-xp-to-windows-7-boot-manager/

 

[Basie]

I had to use the WinXP Recovery Console to Add my two WinXP OS's. The old entries were corrupt. Then I overwrote the mbr and got my XP OS's back. Then from XP I use EasyBCD
and edited or changed the Drive letter that my XP boot.ini file was on and then overwrote the mbr again getting back both my Win7 and WinXP back. So now I have to overwrite the
mbr one more time with Grub to get all of my OS's back. I know there must be a Universal
Bootloader but this happens very rarely. Thanks for your help.

 

[buckjrdley]

Multi-OS stuff can be a headache...
You're very knowledgeable so I might just be telling something you already know but as a suggestion, you might want to look into a utility called supergrub:
http://www.supergrubdisk.org/

I use it all the time after I'm being stupid and completely crushing my mbr (which rest assured is quite a bit over the years...)
It works almost flawlessly in detecting both linux and windows systems and booting into them despite loader issues (and can sometimes fix loader issues straight from the disk!!). This makes fixes so much easier than waiting for those pesky windows recovery disks to load and lets you work normally while you find the time to fix the issue.

Cheers!

 

[Anteaus]

I usually recommend that people who are serious about running multiple OSs on a regular basis get a removable harddrive system. You can still add a second common drive that is accessable by both systems. It makes things alot more organaized and avoids the bootloader issues.

 

[Basie]

I got everything back to normal. I will definitely look into the Supergrubdisk. Thanks so much for the tip. I do have a backup drive where I keep Images of my Win7 OS's. This stuff usually happens late at night when I am overtired and shouldn't be messing around with new programs. It's always great to know that I have you guy's as a resource when I
am in trouble again. LOL