XP PRO (SP3 + extras) and 8.1 running, then no 8.1 boot

[Gibbs]

I have Windows XP Pro with SP3 and extra updates slip-streamed into the install/repair and all was going well.  I resized a partition and created a NTFS partition to install Windows 8.1 into.  That went very well and I was dual booting into 8.1 PRO as the default and XP PRO as the "Earlier operating system".   I was recently having issues with the screen freezing and I hit the sleep button on my keyboard.  It responded, and when I hit power it came back up but did not fix the frozen screen and so I rebooted. 

I got the new Windows 8.1 spinning circle and then it goes to the boot menu.  Tried booting into 8.1 and all it does now is just hang there.  Power off.  Boot again and get into the boot menu again and I can boot into "Earlier Operating System" which is Windows XP PRO.  I've tried the DVD I bought for the Windows 8.1 PRO instillation and boot from it and then tried  bootrec /fixmbr  and then bootrec  /fixboot (both say ok).  Then bootrec /scanOs  and it comes back as 0.  Finally I input bootrec /rebuildbdc   and it completes.  I tried to boot into 8.1 and still hangs.  XP always seems to boot up.  In the C:\  (where XP resides) is the NTLDR  and not /bootmgr in the C:\ partition.



Drive 0 (first SATA drive) is partitioned into 3 partitions.  Primary drive C:  logical drive D: where I keeps updates etc.  and the other partition that was logical (which I tried setting to primary to fix this)  is Drive F:  where Windows 81 PRO resides and is named 8.1_Pro  so I know which partition has "what"  operating system on it.  I can see the F: Windows 8.1 PRO dirctories and all is there.  I did delete the hiberfil.sys that was on F:  as it was big and thought it might help me recover my OS booting.  (NOTE:  I hae the original hiberfil.sys on another 1 TB hard drive that I had used to clone to this Western Digital 1 TB hard drive, so I can recover   copy/paste if needed).

Windows 8.1 pro is there, I just can't seem to boot into it.

BIOS is Award BIOS and the SATA drive 1- 4 are set to IDE as well as SATA drive 5 - 6. native IDE.  I do not believe my BIOS is setup for the later booting UEFI.

Hope this makes some sense!  If you need further info about the BIOS or configuration let me know.  12 GB RAM  DDR3 along with AM3+ quad core processor. by AMD.


Suggestions?

[Gibbs]

Also forgot to mention that I had already turned off "Fast Startup" in the power configuration as in dual boot setup that can cause issues if you power down.  More so than if you simply reboot, but I unchecked that option (default was on)  long time ago.

[boyans.net]

Hi Gibbs,

When the boot menu is displayed that means that boot manager(bootmgr) is in place (e.g. first disk, active partition) and BCD is in place and is readable. So no problems with boot related files.

If "BootMenuPolicy" is set to "legacy" (0) the booting stops and just boot menu is displayed waiting for user to select a boot entry.

If "BootMenuPolicy" is set to "standard" (1) then we have a preloading of OS files (winload.exe is loaded and executed which loads kernel, kernel boot drivers, eventually antivirus program).

You can change the value of element "BootMenuPolicy"  of default loader (should be Windows 8.1) to "legacy". 

This can be done using bcdedit from Windows XP (just copy bcdedit.exe from VisualBCD package to Windows XP, bcdedit must be from Windows 7 or Windows 8, bcdedit from Windows 8.1 cannot run on Windows XP).

bcdedit /set {default} bootmenupolicy legacy

You should also place back "hiberfil.sys" to Windows 8.1 partition. (delete only after you have disabled hibernation from a running Windows 8.1 and rebooted)

When you reboot you can select Windows 8.1 boot entry and then after typing "F8" key you will have access to advanced boot options - try booting to safe mode which loads only basic Windows 8.1 modules. 

If you cannot boot to safe mode - try 

1) "Automatic/startup repair" using Windows 8.1 DVD (should be run 3 times with rebooting after each run)

2) If Automatic repair did not fix booting to "safe mode" try offline sfc (System File Check)

how to - read suggestions on http://www.boyans.net/RepairWindows/The_drive_where_Windows_is_installed_is_locked.html

If you still cannot boot Windows 8.1 post outcome of steps you executed (automatic repair, sfc).