Vista 64 won't boot but xp pro will...

[Draztic]

Ok first off I hope this is in the right forum section...It could have gone to a few...



Here's my problem... I recently added a 2nd hard drive and installed Vista 64 on it. It is plugged into sata2 on the motherboard. My original hard drive runs xp pro and is plugged to sata1. When I first installed vista I unplugged the xp drive(sata cable) just in case it would cause some problems... Ok everything was fine, Vista installed no problem, I installed all my drivers etc etc. I then hooked xp drive back up and rebooted. (Note: I was planning on choosing to boot xp or vista by changing the boot priority either in bios or by hitting esc)


To make a long story short, now my machine will only boot up into xp. If I choose to boot from the Vista drive it gets as far as the little green loading bar and then it hangs. But XP boots no problem whatsoever.

I switched the sata cables so that Vista was plugged to sata1 and xp was sata2 ...it didn't help.

The only way I can get Vista to boot is if it is the only drive hooked up. Then it boots no problem.

Anybody have a clue what is the problem? This is driving me nuts, Thanks in advance guys!

Note: Sata connectors 3 and 4 are not able to be used as my gpu is in the way. I tried plugging one drive into sata 5 but it wasn't recognized(guess I need a driver installed?)

[Draztic]

I think I got it figured out, I need to re-install vista this time leaving the xp drive plugged in so as to not corrupt the boot.ini file/sequence.

[Tech_Greek]

Yes, because the boot manager in Vista uses a new proccess versus the old ones.

[mbl]

Yes, install Vista again, or try to recover it, but with all drives plugged. Maybe you are going have problems in vista installation.. but it is another story...

Good luck,
MBL.