Now I've done it. Big crash of my W7. I just could not access it regardless and foolishly, I had not got around to making a partition image of it yet.
Every trick I tried just could not access W7. My system just booted straight to XP. Tried to sort out the problem using some of the features of ultimate boot disk by re-setting my MBR, checking my disk and memory for faults etc., but no help, so I just scrubbed W7 and re-formated the partition, which was sad to do, as I'd spent some time over the last couple of weeks tweaking W7 just so. I didn't lose anything important as I'd only yesterday done a disk back-up of my docs.. Premonition perhaps.
Possible cause: Driver Detective said I needed a display drive update for my W7. Downloaded and installed this driver but it was for W7 only and not XP compatible. Now a lot of my drivers like for the motherboard, ethernet, USB drivers etc. serve both OS systems on my duel boot single HD. The question is, was the instillation of this display driver possibly responsible for the crash? There is nothing else I've been fiddling with that might explain it and it happened just after the W7 display driver install.
What I don't want to do is set-up W7 again (and especially all the tweaks) only to encounter the same problem. Wouldn't the W7 display driver just stay on the W7 partition without affecting the XP's display driver on it's own partition? I checked the Device manager (in XP) and the original XP display driver is still there. No sign of the W7 driver that certainly was there in Device manager (in W7) when I checked straight after installing it. Both OS partitions were set as 'Primary'.
Any ideas?
Now a lot of my drivers like for the motherboard, ethernet, USB drivers etc. serve both OS systems on my duel boot single HD
I'm not sure what you mean here?
Both operating systems should be setup on separate partitions, and files should not co-mingle. Drivers for one system only effect one system.
Resetting an MBR will most likely destroy your dual boot configuration. I don't have much experience with dual boot so I can't really offer any suggestions there.
Sounds like something in the boot configuraton got messed up. It was a matter of determining what that is and repairing it. Its a little late now though.
Gotta be something more mysterious than just a display driver conflict.
What does the machine's boot configurattion file look like?
Hi …DOUG,
I have already re-installed W7. Everything seems fine but I'm not loading that display driver again. On another occasion when I only had XP, a driver I downloaded from Driver Detective also crashed my OS.
I'm not sure if this is relevant. now:
At boot-up I get the usual choice of W7 or earlier version of Windows.
From XP Boot.ini
—————-
;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 /USEPMTIMER
—————————————————————-
I don't know the "Boot.ini" equivalent in W7. I enabled show hidden files in folder options, but BCDEDIT.exe won't open.
From W7 System Config Boot tab:
Windows7 (G:\Windows): Current OS: Default OS
—————————————————————-
Now a lot of my drivers like for the motherboard, ethernet, USB drivers etc. serve both OS systems on my duel boot single HD
I'm not sure what you mean here?
Both operating systems should be setup on separate partitions, and files should not co-mingle. Drivers for one system only effect one system.
Thats what I thought should happen too.
When I checked Device Manager after installing W7, all the same drivers seemed to be there. I'll have to go back into W7 (I'm on XP at the moment) and check out if the drivers are just native. The only driver missing in W7 is my D-Link driver as I haven't set-up the Internet connection there yet..
Gotta be something more mysterious than just a display driver conflict.
What does the machine's boot configurattion file look like?
Hi …DOUG,
I have already re-installed W7. Everything seems fine but I'm not loading that display driver again. On another occasion when I only had XP, a driver I downloaded from Driver Detective also crashed my OS.
I'm not sure if this is relevant. now:
At boot-up I get the usual choice of W7 or earlier version of Windows.
From XP Boot.ini
—————-
;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 /USEPMTIMER
—————————————————————-
I don't know the "Boot.ini" equivalent in W7. I enabled show hidden files in folder options, but BCDEDIT.exe won't open.
From W7 System Config Boot tab:
Windows7 (G:\Windows): Current OS: Default OS
—————————————————————-
Now a lot of my drivers like for the motherboard, ethernet, USB drivers etc. serve both OS systems on my duel boot single HD
Both operating systems should be setup on separate partitions, and files should not co-mingle. Drivers for one system only effect one system.
Just to return to that point there Appleoddity.
I now have W7 fairly well set-up again (and this time created a photo-image safely stored on my "OS images' partition).
I'm in W7 now and just checked my Device Manager. My Video card driver is the same NVIDIA driver as I have in XP (?)
I also ran Driver Detective and that's the only one it says needs updating. Sooo …not Widows native drivers except for the usual ones. How does that work? Must be a neat trick of W7 to save one having to re-install all main drivers.
I tried thinking it through of how that can be possible as XP is on a separate partition. I had a dizzy spell after about 30sec, trying to work out how that could be possible!
Hi Tathra. Simply put, it is not possible. Windows 7 did not load drivers from your XP partition. It probably loaded the drivers automatically using the windows update website which is much more inclusive for Vista and seven.
You likely have the most recent driver on both systems and it appears to be the "same" driver.
Personally, I do not use nor recommend programs like driver detective. If you want the newest driver for your video card please identify the model and download the newest driver for your version of OS from Nvidia.com. Judging from your past posts, you are more than capable of finding these drivers without driver detective. Again, I'm not trying to patronize you, but I know that you are a very skilled person and so you really should be more interested in ensuring you have the right drivers from the right sources. Even though it takes a bit more work. Its likely all your problems stemmed from using driver detective to install some incompatible or problematic software.
Windows 7 did not load drivers from your XP partition. It probably loaded the drivers automatically using the windows update website which is much more inclusive for Vista and seven.
You likely have the most recent driver on both systems and it appears to be the "same" driver.
you really should be more interested in ensuring you have the right drivers from the right sources. Even though it takes a bit more work. Its likely all your problems stemmed from using driver detective to install some incompatible or problematic software.
1. I agree.
2. Very clever updater!
3. I've done another (proper) check, the W7 drivers are not all the same as my XP drivers. They just 'appeared' that way at my initial quick glance. I saw the word "NVIDIA" in Display Driver properties and 'assumed' it was the same as my XP DD. I should have looked a bit further.
4. And yes, I'm lazier than I need to be in this regard. I don't need Driver Detective. I bought it several years ago when it was quite handy to have. DD is now gone!
Thanks everyone for all your kind support
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