Black screen problem dual booting XP+Vista

[brainii]

Here is the situation:
I got 2 hard disks as an array RAID 0 as my C:\ drive with XP Pro installed.

I want to install both XP and Vista on C:\ and here is what I did:

1. Used Partition Magic to create another partition on C:\
2. Booted from Vista DVD and installed vista on 2nd partition as normal but at the point of installation where it needs to restart, after it restarted I didn't get a menu to select Vista or XP, instead it went straight to XP like before.
3. I tried adding an option to boot to Vista using the boot.ini of XP. Upon restart the option was there but when selected, it just gives a black screen and stays there forever.
4. I also changed the active partition from c:\ to the new partition of Vista. No difference.

I know that my steps are correct, so why don't I see the Vista boot loader upon restart?
I also know that both my Vista dvd works and my PC works with Vista as I have installed Vista succesfully on the same computer using a third, seperate hard drive.

Can someone tell me how to boot to the freakin Vista partition?
thanks

 

[Po`Girl]

Boot into your Vista DVD and choose "Repair"

That should reinstate the Vista bootloader.

Then download EasyBCD for further configuration, if necessary.

Good page HERE

 

[brainii]

there is no repair option.
when I boot from the dvd the 2nd time I can only restart the installation and the results are the same as before

 

[Po`Girl]

Are you saying,you don`t see Repair (bottom left) ?

There is a much more detailed page HERE



>>>>^

 

[brainii]

yeah, pretty sure repair is not there.
btw, I have tried easybcd etc but since it doesnt boot in the vista partition anyway it makes no difference

 

[Po`Girl]

I can only suggest you disable the RAID and detach the 2nd hard drive,

then try the install again.Keep it simple,as they say.

As for EasyBCD,yes,that can only be used in Vista itself.

 

[AlbertLionheart]

I think maybe you should have installed XP first. I have just done much the same thing in the order (the only difference was I was creating a RAID1 array) XP Pro then Vista Home Premium and it worked without a problem.
If you are going to try again this is what I would do.

 

[brainii]

Albert perhaps u didnt read my original message.
XP is installed first.

and how can I disable the raid array? I'm running raid 0 not raid 1, if I remove a hard drive I wont have access to the files as I'm not mirroring.

oh well.

I think eventually I'll backup everything and format the raid array, as I also have some programs that freeze the pc when double clicked and I think they are viruses or spyware (even though multiple scans using various tools didnt find anything important).

 

[Po`Girl]

No,I meant just detach the 2nd hard drive,whilst getting your XP/Vista installs sorted

on the other drive.

Your RAID doesn`t sound like RAID to me.It sounds like THD (Two Hard Drives)

 

[brainii]

I'm not sure what do u mean.
I got 3 disks, 2 of them r Raid 0 so they both work as one unit, if I disable either, the other won't work either.

 

[1upurs]

I can only suggest you disable the RAID and detach the 2nd hard drive,

then try the install again.Keep it simple,as they say.

As for EasyBCD,yes,that can only be used in Vista itself.

this method actually work

 

[brainii]

could someone explain to me how would that work?
If I disable the raid, doesn't it mean that I will not have the 2 hard drives available for use?

please, I must be really stupid, give me the numbered steps do make this work.

 

[BlameCanada]

I have a BSc and MSc in Computer Science and have been using PC's since I was 7 years old..

Hey,your more qualified than anybody here ? :grinthumb

 

[brainii]

well, I don't know if I'm more qualified or not, but let's just say that they don't teach u these things in universities.

From my own experience and knowledge however, I do know that once you disconnect one disk from a raid 0 array, the whole array goes, and if that goes, the only solution is a format, i.e. u cannot install Vista or XP on one of the disks and also keep all the data you had before on both disks. (and formatting, I do NOT want to do, I got 400gb of data on that array, customised programs etc, to format and re-install/configure everything would takes ages, and I don't have all that time to waste).

However, as I have another weird problem with some specific apps freezing (see my other post) I might eventually be forced to format in the end and after I back up everything