I just knew Vista would suck..and..it does. Problems already! Won't boot without CD!

[dude_56013]

Well, I was reluctant to make the switch to Vista in the first place, and I guess it was with good reason. I've been up and running for about 3 hours and I've got major problems. When I restart, with the Vista install CD IN (and CD as first boot device) and I just let the "press any key to boot from cd" pass by and go to the harddrive (second boot dev.) it loads just fine, but when the CD is OUT, Vista goes to load and it errors and says that it's missing some \$windows.~bt\windows\system32\winload.exe file. There's also an error number. I didn't write it down but I think it was 0's with an "f" at the end..if you need it I can get it. Hopefully someone can shine some light on the subject and convince me that Vista doesn't completely suck. BTW it is SP1 and it's the Ultimate x64 edition..

Thanks to any help as always
Zac

Stupid Microsoft...

 

[Prodigy146]

1. Are you sure you did a full format?

2. Try running Hard Drive Diagnostic

3. go into cmd and type sfc /scannow (that will scan for any missing windows files)

4. Try Chkdisk and/or Seatools

5. You might have bad caps http://www.badcaps.net/ident/

If none of this works, Reinstall Vista but before you do that disconnect all hard-drives other than the one your installing to.

Hope this helps

 

[dude_56013]

*Brand new hard drive...so yes, it has a full format.
*Ran every test in SeaTools before I even formatted..passed every one of them.
*Bad caps would have nothing to do with why it boots from cd and not hdd

Vista probably just sucks, period. Bahhh bad move on my part getting this crap.

I'll scrounge google and see what else I can find...

EDIT: Oh man, I totally forgot to mention that it's a dual boot with XP...yes, XP was installed first..

 

[Prodigy146]

Make sure you can view all hidden files

you will see boot.ini on the C: drive (your xp drive)

You need to copy it to the vista drive.

 

[dude_56013]

Ok, I unhid the files, but I'm not seeing a boot.ini file on my XP partition. Is it in a certain folder? I haven't messed with boot.ini for a while so I can't remember

 

[Prodigy146]

Ok i figured it out

Go to C: drive
Click tools then folder options
Click View tab then click the Hide protected operating system files check box
Click ok
Now you should see a notepad file: boot

Now try and copy that to your vista drive

 

[dude_56013]

I don't think this will work since I installed Vista AFTER XP..therefore the only thing on that XP boot file is the XP boot partition...so copying it to the vista partition isn't going to do anything but load XP!! Here's what the file says if you don't get what I'm saying:

;
;Warning: Boot.ini is used on Windows XP and earlier operating systems.
;Warning: Use BCDEDIT.exe to modify Windows Vista boot options.
;
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /NOEXECUTE=OPTIN /FASTDETECT


EDIT: Wow, do I feel retarded. I apologize for making a really big donkey out of myself. I can't believe I forgot to change my hard drive boot order. Since the Vista boot loader will take seniority over EVERY hard drive, it was looking for my XP partition that is on the SAME hdd that Vista itself is one, but my bios was pointing it to my old hdd's xp partition....although, that really is still vista's fault for overriding the BIOS...the only thing that was working was the cd because apparently it has more brains than vista's boot loader does! So, thanks prodigy for the moral support . I'm just glad it's fixed....I guess this is a lesson to anyone else who's having problems....maybe vista won't be too bad after all ;-)

Thanks
Zac

 

[Prodigy146]

My dumbass brother said that would sorry about that man

Try this
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

That should fix it

 

[dude_se]

yea when he installed vista it made a new boot.ini (i forgot what they call boot.inis on vista now lol)

why not just put your hdd as first boot device in the bios? and totally get rid of cdrom

 

[dude_56013]

why not just put your hdd as first boot device in the bios? and totally get rid of cdrom

I did. If you read my edit above, that's what fixed it! Like I said above, I forgot to change my hard drive boot order...dumb dumb dumb mistake on my part causing me a mess of confusion...I only put the cd rom in the boot order after vista wouldn't start up, but now that it does, the cd rom is out of the boot order as well. I usually only have one boot device for boot, and that's hard drive. Some people get carried away and put floppy, then cd, then removable, then hdd, but that tends to slow boot just a bit...I just keep it simple.