Have I messed-up DD? If I have, what do I do next?

Discussion in 'Acronis Disk Director Suite' started by robertles, Oct 5, 2006.

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  1. robertles

    robertles Registered Member

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    I seem somehow to have managed to mess up DD, because it will no longer boot into one of my Active, bootable, partitions (though it was doing so every time before). 2 o/s's appear on OS Selector ('XP Home' and 'XP Home(2)'). I've had XP Home 2 as the default for some days now, with the Default configuration set to 'Immediately', and - 'til now - OS Selector has booted straight into XP Home 2.

    In an effort to restore a partition I'd mistakenly deleted I went into 'OS Detection Wizard'. I didn't retrieve the lost partition but in the process of fiddling about I may have changed a setting I shouldn't have changed because it was after that that OS Selector stopped booting into XP Home 2. I've tried to see what I might have changed but - to be honest - I'm lost.

    How do I set about trying to troubleshoot this problem please? Or do I have to uninstall/reinstall DD? I'm new to this and badly in need of help.
     
  2. bodgy

    bodgy Registered Member

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    The rescue CD is your friend (well hopefully).

    Bung in the CD and de-activate OSS. Then in DD check to make sure your partitions are appearing as you think they should be including the correct one appearing as Active.

    Then re-activate OSS - you might need to reboot to get back to this bit. See how you go. If this doesn't work and the 'boot windows normally' option doesn't work, the next thing assuming everything else looked OK, is to uninstall just OSS.

    Again if your system is unable to boot, load up the XP CD go to console mode and repair your boot.ini - this ought to get you back to booting into windows. It is possible that the MBR will need to be repaired as well.

    Do a search on boot.ini, I've mentioned previously how to remake this - if you can't find it I'll repost - off to bed now.

    Colin
     
  3. robertles

    robertles Registered Member

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    Hi Colin

    Thanks for your response. I hadn't yet burned the CD (but I have now!).

    Perhaps I ought to provide a little more info. I'm ATM stuck at a half-way stage in changing my disks' configuration. I have 2 hard drives:- the older one has one copy of WinXP Home on it and no other o/s, and I'm trying to use DD to set up the newer one (a SATA disk) as my only future bootable HDD. I started by partititioning it with a primary FAT32 partition to hold Win98 SE, followed by a second primary FAT32 partition to hold another copy of WinXP Home, then a logical partition (for data). When OSS stopped working I was in the process of getting my SATA disk configured to take over its intended future role. To test the new setup, I've been shutting down the older disk in the BIOS from time to time. Before OSS stopped working, when I did this it of course only showed the one (SATA) disk and I was able to boot that; now although it still shows that one disk as before, it won't boot it any more.

    The process of deactivating/reactivating OSS (with only the SATA drive enabled) doesn't work. Neither does uninstalling OSS.
    OK, thanks, I'll keep this in mind as the next step - just so long as I can manage to find my way into the console.:eek:
     
    Last edited: Oct 6, 2006
  4. bodgy

    bodgy Registered Member

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    Ahh, maybe OSS is only on your old drive or at least part of the files are.

    What happens if you install OSS on the new drive - without the old drive attached to a data cable?

    Colin
     
  5. robertles

    robertles Registered Member

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    I haven't succeeded in installing DD Suite on the new drive.

    While I was still able to boot to either drive (using OSS installed on the older drive), after having booted the new drive I tried to install DD on it and found that I hadn't left myself enough space for it on that partition :oops:

    By the time I had worked out how to shunt partitions so as to create enough unallocated space to expand that partition, I had lost the ability to boot to that drive any more (as already described). As a result, I still can't install DD/OSS on the new drive - although now it's for a different reason.
     
  6. bodgy

    bodgy Registered Member

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    WOW I've JUST REALISED, THIS POST BELONGS IN A FORUM 65 SORRY ABOUT THAT! Robertles this info won't help you!

    It's too long to print here, but this problem concerns Roxio and IOmega drivers - both very similar to your problem.

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/822052#6j

    Colin
     
    Last edited: Oct 6, 2006
  7. robertles

    robertles Registered Member

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    Thanks Colin, I'll take a look at that thread (after the weekend).

    Meanwhile, here's what I've decided to do - but not until after I've read that thread (after the weekend);)
    • format the WinXP partition on my SATA drive
    • reinstall WinXP on that partition
    • uninstall DD Suite completely (ie from the P-ATA drive)
    • reinstall it but do not reinstall/activate OSS this time
    • install XOSL - which comes bundled with Smart Boot Manager - and which is freeware
    My idea is to get rid of OSS completely and there doesn't seem to be any other way. There's no Start Menu shortcut called 'Uninstall OSS' (why not, Acronis Support?) and it can't be uninstalled via <Control panel - Add/remove programs> either. Having done so, I propose using Smart Boot Manager instead.

    Right now, I'm feeling a mite disenchanted with DD Suite. If I weren't such a duffer when it comes to running DOS-based programs, I'd probably shelve this product entirely - in spite of having only just paid for it - and use Ranish Partition Manager instead.

    In your opinion (or anyone else's who's reading this), is my analysis and proposed solution valid, or have I missed something important?
     
  8. robertles

    robertles Registered Member

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    bump - Acronis Support?
     
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