Locking the MBR ?

I know how to restore the OS Selector. But it seems to "get lost" often.

Is there a way that a regular verify/check/restore process of some sort can be implemented to help avoid this issue?

Regards,
Chuck Billow

 

What do you mean by "get lost" ?

I assume it requires that you reactivate OSS to be able to boot.

What build of DD/OSS are you using?
Do you have the same build installed in each Windows OS?
What OS's are you running?
Do you get a specific error message?
Is the error message the same every time?
Is there any pattern to the "get lost" problem?

Some new computers have a BIOS option that blocks writing to the MBR. You could try that if you have the option.

There was just a post today about a defrag screwing up OSS. I have not experienced this myself, but I have OSS installed in a non-OS partition.

 

Mudcrab:

I've overstated the problem a bit: I CAN still boot, but I the the "Choose your OS" box at boot-up...

In your reply, the reference to defrag messing up OSS might just be me... I use Diskeeper and it's defragging in the background. And that may be what my issue is as well...

Maybe I'll post over at the Diskeeper board...

Regards,
Chuck Billow

 

So it's just booting into one of your OS's and not letting you choose from the menu?

If you have OSS installed in Windows and run it to switch between OS's, make sure you have the same build installed on each one. I made this mistake before. Running different builds will corrupt the OSS data even though the "correct" build is actually used when booting.

 

Yes, it's just "eliminating" the choice.

>>
make sure you have the same build installed on each one
<<

I'm not sure what you mean here. There's only one install of OSS on each machine, and how can I use the same OS version if I'm using OSS to choose between several OSS's?

Regards,
Chuck

 

Sorry, I wasn't clear. I have 2 XP's and Vista on my computer. I have installed OSS into all of them so I can run the program from Windows and select what I want to reboot into (it skips the menu this way).

The problem was that I had build 2,160 installed in Vista and one of the XP's. The other XP still had the previous build (2,117?) installed. Whenever I ran OSS from that XP it would corrupt the OSS files. Updating so all the Windows OS's had the same build installed fixed the problem.

If you have only installed OSS to the MBR and don't use the Windows OSS program, then it's probably not causing the problem for you.

There is an option to skip the menu and boot directly into the default OS. Is that option getting selected somehow?

 

>>
Is that option getting selected somehow?
<<

That may be what it is... I know about it, and I don't see the prelim "F3 (or is it F6) to choose" where I DID originally...
Is there a choice to bypass something that I inadvertently selected?

CB

 

If you're not seeing the Acronis Loader text (Press ESC or F6...) when you boot, then it's more likely that the OS is loading directly and the MBR has been overwritten.

When I've tried the Direct/Default boot option (or when selecting an OS from Windows) OSS always displays the ESC/F6 text. Then it continues with the boot, bypassing the menu.

 

Yea, that's what I thought too...

Well, I've re-set it again, so we'll see... And I posted to Diskeeper board, so we'll see if that's an issue as well...

Thanks,
Chuck