Dual Boot on Vista factory installed notebook

I have tried for about a week with little progress configuring my (almost) new HP Pavilion dv6000 notebook. Currently, I am on hold trying to get OSSelector to see Vista. I am using the 2160 build of AcrDiskDir.

I think it unwise to go any futher, till this works. Has anyone been able to get past this on a new notebook? If so, what is/was step by step proceedure. Please!

BTW !!WARNING!! Use only bootable media!
The first thing I learned is not to do\try anything running the installed Disk Dir on the hard drive. It trashed my HD on a simple "Create Partition" command than again after a clean install on a "Resize" command, both times I had to restore to factory condition. After many phone calls, Elvin at corp sales clewed me in to only attempt actions from the Acronis bootable media.

This actually worked (maybe)... I was able to resize factory C: from 160G down to 60G and still had the 10G factory restore partition. Tried to install another OS without any sucess, then almost lost everything again because OSS cant see Vista and wont let me do a regular boot. Finally, somehow deactivte OSS worked (after trying for an hour) and I was able to get my notebook running again (but are config files corrupted; should I factory restore again to have any chance of getting ADD to dual boot).

Oh yeah, the first problem...
I am new to this forum, tho I have been trying for a week to get a Vista dual boot, because Acronis website software registration doesnt work from the new Windows Mail 6.0.whatever (probably the problem). Finally, this morn I was able to register from an older computer.

Again, has anyone been able to dual boot a Vista notebook. I read in earlier posts of some dual boot success, but they were using a Vista install DVD. The HP notebooks do not come with any installation DVDs, just Vista preinstalled and a recovery partition. I have made the recovery DVDs but I doubt they will work at all like a Vista full version install disk.

 

DD 10, build 2,160 still has problems with OSS seeing some Vista configurations.

It sounds like you are using DD to resize the factory Vista partition. Is that correct? If it is, then I would recommend doing the restore and using Vista's Disk Management to shrink the partition (dont' use DD to make any changes to Vista partitions). Then boot from DD and create the other partition.

What is the "other OS" you're trying to install?

When you tried to install OSS, was it from Vista or from the cd? I've had wierd problems with installing OSS from the cd. For some reason the cd installs the previous build (the one that doesn't recognize Vista). Install DD in Vista and then install OSS from Vista and see if that works. If OSS boots up, check the build and make sure it's 2,160.

 

Thanks MudCrab, is Acronis paying you ? https://www.wilderssecurity.com/images/smilies/wink.gif


=====
It sounds like you are using DD to resize the factory Vista partition. Is that correct? If it is, then I would recommend doing the restore and using Vista's Disk Management to shrink the partition (dont' use DD to make any changes to Vista partitions). Then boot from DD and create the other partition.
=====

I'm not sure if I understand which of the above actions are initialized from the bootable DD on CD (DD-CD) or from the DD program on the hard drive(DD-HD). Does the first shrink have to be done by DD-HD? Then create other primary partition using DD-CD? From my first post you can understand why I am a little paranoid about doing anything from the DD-HD (except make a DD-CD).

I am trying to install Win98 on an operating Vista system (I skipped XP).

=====
When you tried to install OSS, was it from Vista or from the cd? I've had wierd problems with installing OSS from the cd. For some reason the cd installs the previous build (the one that doesn't recognize Vista). Install DD in Vista and then install OSS from Vista and see if that works. If OSS boots up, check the build and make sure it's 2,160.
====

Very good question. I installed OSS from the boot CD, unintentionally. I was all set to install win98 on a new active primary partition, pressed the "Commit" (with my eyes closed) then some time later I was prompted to install OSS for the first time (Key and all... I assumed all necessary installs were done when I installed Disk Director the first time, silly me). I figured the operation would fail after that and it did, just barely got back out because "deactivate" on the new OSS would not see the existing Vista. It would be nice if Acronis gave us a clew about this installation proceedure in the manual.

I will try this proceedure next:
Install DD2077 cd on clean Vista
Patch to 2160
Install OSS from hard drive DD program.
Make a new bootable DD-CD
Create a dual boot win98 partition from DD-CD
(This will probably be another specific proceedure that must be followed\discovered. I am willing to experiment as long as my Vista partition stays safe and I can OSS back to it reliably).

I have also noticed that a new bootable cd created after patching to 2160 still says its the original 2077 in "About". Doesn't give me alot of "confidence in computing"!

 

Your procedure needs a little revision to work better:

1. Restore your Vista system (recover cd or whatever you use to get back to a clean state.)
2. DO NOT install the 2,077 build of DD
3. Install the 2,160 build (earlier builds/versions do not need to be installed). This will also fix the wrong build number still showing
4. If you can possibly do the resizing/moving of the Vista partition with Vista's disk management then do it that way, otherwise, boot from the DD cd and do it from there. You need to make space at the start for the Win98 install.
5. Get Vista booting properly. Run repair if needed.
6. Install OSS from Vista (hopefully it works correctly...)

If it were me, I would do the partition moving/resizing first because it will probably cause a Vista repair to be needed. Get Vista booting from it's new location and then install OSS. Moving Vista after OSS is installed may de-link it with OSS and cause problems.

Changing the partition/booting setup may make the restore partition unusable. Do you have a complete backup image (a TI image) or a complete restore DVD that came with your computer that you can return to a factory install condition if needed?

 

Also, have you checked that Win98 will even run on this computer? I ask because most newer systems do not support Win98/WinME or previous versions. There are no drivers and it can be very difficult to even get it installed let alone get it running. I just recently tested out that scenario for someone else and it was able to run, but the hard drives were in compatiblity mode, it could only have standard VGA graphics, no chipset support (usb, firewire, network), etc.

All this may not be worth the trouble if the system can't support Win98.

If you just need Win98 and it's not for games/DirectX/etc. then you could install Win98 in a Virtual Machine on Vista using MS Virtual PC 2007 (or a third-part VM player).

 

thanks again....
I am going to go for your revised proceedure.

I do not even know how do to run Vista "Repair" you are talking about?

Yes, I have the TI restore DVDs and have used them once after DD trashed everything the second time (restore from D: factory partition the first time DD trashed everything was much eaiser).

Your second to last post gave me great hope I could still use all my great familiar win98 programs on my new Vista notebook, but your last post really threw me a loop! I didn't know that was an issue when I bought the HP Pavilion notebook. I am going to call HP and try to find out.

 

You may not have the repair option if you don't have a "real" Vista DVD. Did your computer come with one? While you're asking HP, find out how you're supposed to do a repair if you need to. Ususally, you just boot from the Vista DVD and select the repair option.

I wasn't trying to throw you for a loop, but just bring to your attention the possible problems associated with trying to install Win98 on newer hardware. Depending on what you're trying to do with it, it may be acceptable for you. You really won't know until you try it, as I suspect HP will tell you Win98 is not a supported OS on that computer and that will be the end of it.

If you want to make an easy test. Just clear the hard drive using DD and make a FAT32 primary partition at the start for Win98, say 10GB. Then install Win98 and see if it works. You should know quickly one way or the other. Also, if I remember correctly, I had to make a Win98 bootable floppy with CD drivers and boot from that, then run the setup.exe file on the cd since the Win98 CD is not bootable (at least the one I have isn't). Normally Win98 was installed from DOS or Win95 and not from scratch.

 

You were right on point again, MudCrab...

I just got off the phone from HP Pavilion help Bombay and even managed to talk to a 2ed level supervisor and yes,he gave me the standard we only support Vista not even XP let alone win98... possible problems with drivers and maybe even BIOS. What if I reformat entire drive and install win98, will notebook hardware work? "Probably not, not supported." But then again this may be just their standard reply and I'm hoping some programs work, so I am still going to try it like you suggest. If it wont work, I will look into virtual machines.

I will have to take another look to see if the HP restore dvds have a Repair option, dont think they do. I have a good full version bootable Win98 install cd so that shouldn't be a problem.

This raises a larger question, if most of the new Vista computers hardware will not support XP and certainly not the ancient win98 programs why do we need dual boot software. The simple partition operations can be done directly from Vista built-in menues.

 

XP is probably fully supported on the new computer, the thing is that since it was sold with Vista, that is the only OS HP will support. Most computer manufacturers work this way. You can put XP on it, but don't call them for any help, basically. Same with any older OS's. The only difference is you'll have a hard time finding drivers for pre-XP at this point. Most new hardware developers just don't bother making them.

Dual-boot software (like OSS, GRUB, BING, etc.) is not just for supporting prior/older versions. Some people (like myself) use it to have multiple current OS's installed. For example, I have a Vista setup, 1 XP Pro for work/testing, 1 XP Pro for only games, Ubuntu Edgy, Kubuntu Edgy and Ubuntu Feisty.

If you find you're frequently needing to boot into older OS's, you may be better off doing it on an older computer that they support directly.