Acronis TI OEM 10.0 Dual Boot XP/Vista

Hi,

I have a Motion Computing LE1700 that comes with an OEM version of Acronis True Image v10.0 installed. The system currently is running Windows XP Pro, but I'd like to add a dual boot for Vista.

I've read plenty of instructions on how to do this using GParted, but I'm wondering what will happen to the Acronis OEM software that is installed if I try this.

It looks like there is some boot loader from Acronis that loads when the computer is restarted. Will I need to re-install this or will it still work after the dual-boot is setup? (I don't have the install media and its not downloadable)

Any experiences or advice is appreciated.

Thanks!

 

If you have (or the OEM created a Secure Zone, I'd remove that before partitioning the drive for dual boot.

If the Startup Manager has been activated in TrueImage, definitely turn that off with the options in TrueImage. One sign that this is active is if you see a message to press F11... when booting.

You need to partition your hard disk so that there is an empty partition to install Vista to. Acronis Disk Director can do that for you if you don't have the drive partitioned already.

You can just install Vista and let it handle the dual boot function if you want to. Vista wiil see the XP installation and ask whether you want to upgrade or install Vista in a different partition.

 

Yes, if you have a secure zone or startup recovery manager, by al lmeans lose them. For restores, use a BootCD first. If you haven't made one, do so and then test it with a restore to a spare or at least go thorugh all the steps of doing a restore except the very last "Proceed".

 

Thanks. In fact it looks like a "zone" has been created because there is an option in the TrueImage menu that says "Remove Acronis OEM Zone". I'm assuming that removing that won't delete all the software.

And, yes, there is some sort of Acronis boot loader during startup that says to hit "Enter". When you do it takes you into the restore application (pre OS loading). I'll try to disable that also.

I don't have the Acronis Disk Director product, nor am I planning on using that to do the partitioning. I was just going to use Gparted for partitioning, then follow some online instructions I saw about dual booting Vista and XP.

(An aside -- one thing about the Motion LE1700 Tablet PCs is that they don't have a DVD drive, just USB ports. So, all recovery operations have to start with an externally USB connected drive.)

Any other tips are much appreciated! Thanks.