Dual Boot problems

[John Farrar]

My PC has two harddrives, both with Windows XP Pro installed on them. I can use the BIOS Boot Popup Menu to boot into either OS but wanted to have one OS hidden when booting into the other OS.

So, I bought Disk Director with the idea of using OS Selector. The problem is that OS Selector only sees one OS, the one on the Primary drive. According to Acronis, the reason is that I installed the 2nd OS having made that drive the Primary for the install.

So, OS Selector will only detect OSs providing you do not install OSs the way I have. How the h**l was I supposed to know that? ??? The blurb for OS Selector, page 79 7.2 of the manual states :-

"After Acronis OS Selector is installed together with Acronis Disk Director Suite, all operating systems that exist on the PC will be automatically located and added to the boot menu"

That statement is obviously not correct. Certain conditions apply that are not allowed for and should be corrected. >:(
John

PS Just received an email from Acronis
"We do understand your point. Our Development Team will work on Acronis OS Selector and we also will try to make our manuals more clear."
That is welcome news.

[John Farrar]

Final comment from Andrew states that there is nothing I can do to get OS Selector to recognise the 2nd OS as I installed it incorrectly. I'm stuffed. >:(
Is there a boot manager program that will detect ANY and ALL OSs and hide the one not wanted?
TIA
John

[Acronis Support]

Dear John,

Acronis OS Selector will recognize your second OS if you modify the "boot.ini" file on the first hard disk drive the way I emailed you. The problem it that in this case you will be unable to hide the first hard disk drive from the second OS (cause the boot part of the second OS will be on the first hard disk drive). And also there will be a problem that your programs installed under the second OS may become corrupted.

Thank you.

[John Farrar]

With respect Andrew, modifying my boot.ini file is not an option if this statement is true.

"And also there will be a problem that your programs installed under the second OS may become corrupted."
John

[Roger Rabbit]

John,
I suspect I purchased Disk Director for similar reasons & have just had a very similar experience/problem (made a fresh WinXP install on to a new HD only to discover that Acronis OS selector wouldn't recognise/menu it) and feel misled. Not the sort of basic problem you expect from software that got a thumbs up from PCPro.
What did you decide to do to resolve the situation ?
Roger.

[John Farrar]

Roger
Yes I agree. It really is a nonsense that OS Selector is unable to find a bootable OS in this day and age. I solved the problem by getting OSL2000 (http://www.osloader.com/) which works very well, at least no problems encountered so far. It has a 'DOS' interface but does the job, hides the non-booted OS and more.
HTH
John

[Dibble]

this is what acronis say.....

Acronis OS Selector 8.0 could only detect Linux if its loader is installed in Master Boot Record (MBR) or in boot sector of primary partition. You should boot your Linux from bootable diskette or CDROM and install Linux loader into MBR or boot sector of primary partition. Look at your system manual on how to do this, or contact your system vendor support team.

[John Farrar]

Hi Dibble
I don't know if your post was specifically for my benefit but I do not have Linux on my PC; 2 installs of XP Pro. OSL2000 had no problems in detecting the 2 installations and I can boot into either one with one hidden, which is what I expected OSS to do. One day perhaps. ???
John