On 9/15/2023 6:24 PM, Skybuck Flying wrote:
> Never mind, problem already solved !
>
> The usb stick did have something to do with it.
>
> The boot screen/options/selection menu totally confused me it had two options:
>
> "Boot an earlier version of windows"
> "Windows 7"
>
> Why the fuck it not say windows xp ?!
>
> I did not recognize the first option as being windows xp.
>
> I thought this vmware mis-recognized windows xp as windows 7 so I choose windows 7.
>
> That caused a boot failure because apperently vmware is trying to boot from the usb stick which contains windows-to-go bootable os.
>
> By choose "earlier version if windows" it actually boots into windows xp x64 professional edition !
>
> Seeing the login screen of this old operating system is actually pretty awesome !
>
> My god it has been a long time since I last saw it ! :D
>
> For now I take back what I wrote somewhat... it seems like VMWare and Microsoft at least managed to let me run my old system...
>
> I need to find some old contact or e-mail information. Nothing to important.
> There is a slight chance I might find something :)
>
> At least VMWare should fix their boot option screen/selection menu.
>
> I have never seen that first option called "earlier windows version" wtf.
>
> What is wrong with detecting xp !?! HMMMM.
>
> I wasted one hour copieing 500 GB of system drive just to do this experiment.
>
> But I am glad it's working and I am glad I did not mess around with the boot information. like bcdboot and such... not applicable to windows xp anyway.
>
> I knew the backup/vmware disk must work somehow because I did in the past...
>
> HAHA ! Who would have guessed that picking the wrong boot option/selection would give this false impression !
>
> Pretty stupid.
>
> Bye,
> Skybuck.

BCD booting is a Vista/W7/W8/W8.1/W10/W11 thing.

WinXP and Win2K use boot.ini and you put a "path" in there
which specifies where the OS lives.

Now, in BCD, normally you would only be booting Vista..W11 .
Well, what if a guy wanted to boot WinXP. What then ?

It's a kind of chain booting -- Earlier OS == A boot.ini OS

Now, I have not tried what you've done, but I've heard
there was such an option.

You would need to use "bcdedit" to dump the boot menu
and examine it for such details.

Paul