OS Selector "cannot boot"?

Hi, I'm trying to use OSS for switching between XP and Vista 64-bit. The OS Selector boot up screen appears after turning on the comp, but when I choose a system to boot into, I end up with a black screen and blinking cursor, while my HDD (RAID0, ATI AHCI Compatible RAID Controller) is idle (doesn't flash its LED). This kind of "reaction" also appears when I try to change the display options or to switch to Disk Editor. Is there any way to get the OSS to actually work? Currently, I only can boot an OS when I deactivate OSS and tell it which OS to boot next time.
Thanks

 

I had a similar problem and I fixed it by going into my bios and making sure the boot sector protection is off when you install. It makes sure a virus won't pooch your hard drive, but it also keeps a legit program from messing with your boot sector. Just make sure you enable it again after everything is up and running.

 

Actually, if OSS is set to restore the MBR for an OS (the default for some), then you might have to leave the setting off if you got an error message every time you booted or had other problems.

 

thanks for the info, also to MudCrab.
so do I need to reinstall anything?

 

If a reinstallation doesn't fix the problem, then you may need to submit a support request to Acronis and see if they can provide a custom version for you. It's possible that OSS is having a problem with your computer (not detecting the hardware correctly, etc.).

I assume that OSS found both of your Windows installations and setup menu entries for them?

Is OSS installed to one of the Windows partitions or to another partition?

Is your RAID 0 array the first hard drive boot device selected in the BIOS?

 

MudCrab:
- OSS found both systems correctly
- It's installed on both systems - I don't want to use a CD
- RAID array is the 4th boot device (1 - floppy, 2,3 - CD drives, 4 - HDD)

thanks for your reaction

 

You have an XP partition and a Vista 64-bit partition. I was trying to find out which partition has the OSS files on it. I realize you have installed OSS into each Windows, but the "base" OSS files are installed only in one partition.

It is a hidden BOOTWIZ folder that contains quite a few files a several sub-folders. Which partition is that on?

Or did you do a custom install of OSS and select a different partition for the OSS files?

For each OS, have you verified that the properties are correct?
(Which partition is active, if any are hidden, disk order, etc.)

 

Both partitions have the BOOTWIZ folder but the XP has more files in it so i guess it's the "base" installation.

re Properties for each OS:

• No partitions are hidden for any OS (2 system partitions and 1 data partition)
• As there is only one disk (the RAID), I cannot do much with disk order
• Each system has its own partition set as active.

 

Before installing OSS, how did you select if you wanted to boot XP or Vista?

 

I used another software to create my Vista partition and set it as active. That software did not work in Vista so I used another one to set XP partition as active to be able to use XP again. I ended up with a minor disaster as my backups were not complete and the XP partition was no longer accessible.