Tutorial on Boot.oss file and how to edit

Can anyone point me to a tutorial on how the boot.oss file works and how to make changes to affect the configuration? Thanks

 

I don't know of any tutorial on editing the BOOTWIZ.OSS file. Was there something specific you needed to know about it?

It's just a plain text/xml file. I recommend using the Windows Notepad program to make any changes. The file mostly consists of Disk, Partition and OS section entries.

If you make incorrect changes or changes that OSS doesn't like, it will usually remove them on the first boot or loading of OSS.

If you are able to use the OSS program to make changes, that's the safest way to do it.

 

Thanks for the response. The problem I'm trying to resolve is being unable to install Vista 64. My setup is as follows. I have Six hard drives drive numbers are as per DD10. Xp32 is installed on a partion on #1, Vista 32 is installed on #2, Xp64 is installed on a partition on #6.
All three boot and run using OSS. Settings for boot order are XP32-disk1,Vista32-disk1 and XP64-disk5. To be honest I don't remember how I came to this point as I had major problems installing Vista 32, I think i installed to disk 1, made an image with TI11 then restored it to #2 and restored XP32 image to #1. I think XP64 installed from OSS ok. When I try to install Vista 64 I make all other installs hidden but XP64 won't install because it says it needs to write something to #1 and can't. When I installed Vista 32 I remember that if I didn't hide #1 it installed the Vista Boot manager so I haven't unhidden #1 as I don't want to have to go through the Vista boot manager. by the way the Partition I'm installing to is set Pri-Act like the others.
Hopefully this makes sense. If everything stays as is with the existing three systems and I could get Vista64 installed without the Boot mnanger and it would work in Oss I'd be a happy camper. Would appreciate any assistance in my Quest! Having read many of your posts I've included the bootwiz.oss file from #1. I can furnish any further info you need. Thanks.

 

Hopefully, you have a current backup of all your OS drives (it sounds like you probably do).

It seems that XP64 is on Drive #6, though you state both #5 and #6. Is Vista64 going to be on a drive by itself or on a partition with another OS?

I think what you are attempting to do should work. I would try the following for installing Vista64. Realize that if Vista64 is being installed on a drive that has another OS that the other OS partition must be hidden.

1. Go into the BIOS and note the current Boot Order for your drives. The BIOS may list the drives in one list or there may be a separate list for the Hard Drives. The order is important because some BIOS's use the order list to determine the order in which the drives are shown to an OS. You want the order to remain as it is so you don't have any problems.
2. Now, either disconnect the other drives, disable them in the BIOS or (at least) make sure all the partitions are hidden. I would suggest disabling them or disconnecting them to keep them safe. If you disconnect them, make sure you remember which cable goes to which drive.
3. Set the Vista64 hard drive as the Boot Drive in the BIOS. This will let the installer see it as the primary/booting "main" drive and hopefully it will no longer want to write to a different drive. If the other drives are disabled or disconnected, the installer won't even see any other drives.
4. Make sure the Vista partition is set as the Active partition.
5. Install Vista.
6. Once Vista is up and running okay, reconnect/reenable the other drives, enter the BIOS and make sure to set the Boot Order/Drive Order to the same as it originally was.
7. When you boot back to Drive #1, OSS should find the new Vista drive and setup an entry for it. Check and make sure the OSS entry settings are correct for the Disk Order and for which partitions you want hidden.

 

XP64 is on #6 per DD but the boot order to get it to work in oss is #5. I have hidden all active partitions but the one on #4 where I want to install V64 with DD and tried to install it through Oss and it still failed.

 

That's why I'm saying to not try and install it through OSS. Install it directly to the drive you want. The OSS drive and any other drives should be disconnected or disabled when Vista64 is installed. Vista seems to be a lot more picky about how it's installed than XP is.

 

I tried your suggestion but had no luck. Then I did it a different way, XP has always been my default system installed on the boot drive so I simply formatted the drive and installed Vista 64 to it without a hitch. When done it would repeatedly boot to Vista 64 every time I rebooted the machine. I then created an image of the V64 system, restored my image of XP and everything was back to normal. I can select and boot to either XP, XP64 or Vista32 through OSS.
I then restored the new image of Vista 64 to a partition on another drive and it was detected by OSS but it will not boot to it in Oss. I tried all disks as the boot disk in OSS with no luck. If I understand what you said I have accomplished the same thing doing it the way I did and it should boot through OSS. Would appreciate any further suggestions. Thanks

 

There are some differences. However, it should still work.

When you say it won't boot from OSS, are you getting an error message?

Can you post the updated BOOTWIZ.OSS file for your computer in its current state?

I would also need to know the drive and partition you used. A screenshot of DD in Manual mode might also help since you have quite a few drives and partitions.

 

No errors it just starts as usual with a cursor in top left corner of screen and proceeds no further, normally the cursor disappears in a second and the boot proceeds. Attached are screen shot of DD10 and Bootwiz.oss from Bootwiz directory on boot drive.

 

In my tests, Vista does not like the Disk Order (disk swapping) feature of OSS.

Since the Vista32 installation is booting correctly with the drives in their original order, I would try unchecking the Disk >> Specify boot order manually checkbox option for Vista64 (or leave the option checked but make sure the disks are in the standard BIOS order [as in Vista32's entry]) and see if it will then boot okay.

 

If I use the same disk order as V32 or uncheck the manual order it boots into V32. I tried hiding the V32 and it gives me an "autochk program not found" and reboots.

 

Can you boot into Vista32 and do the following:

1. Start the Command Prompt in Administrator Mode and run the bcdedit command. Post or attach the output.

2. While still in the Command Prompt, run the bcdedit command on the Vista64 partition. Post or attach the output. The command would be:

Code:

bcdedit /store [B][COLOR="Red"]X[/COLOR][/B]:\boot\bcd

...where "X" is the drive letter assigned to the Vista64 partition.

It's possible the BCD file for the Vista64 installation is incorrect.

 

I've included a screen shot of the two because I couldn't figure out how to get the .log file in text. I've also attached the two log files from the boot directory.The screenshot on the left is the V32

 

The BCD files shown seem to be pointing to the correct partitions.

Do you get the same results when you run bcdedit (with no parameters) as when you run it the way you did (bcdedit /store c:\boot\bcd)? I ask because sometimes Vista will actually pull up a different BCD file if one is not specified and that one is the one used to boot. Your Vista32 is booting properly, I just want to make sure it's using the BCD file on the Vista32 partition (everything should still point to the C: partition).

If you use the Disk Order feature in the Vista64 OSS entry and set the Vista64 drive so it's second in the list instead of first (it would be in place of the Vista32 drive), does it make a difference?

 

If I don't use the whole path the command fails. I tried the disk order and it doesn't work. I noticed that when I'm in XP and look at the config for V64 in OSS it says that the system files are located in E:\. In case I don't understand how to do this, I start from XP and install the OSS then when I want to use a different system I reboot and select the system from the OSS window. Am I supposed to install OSS from all Systems and reboot from each system using it's copy of OSS? I've attached the config for V64.

 

OSS is installed correctly and you are trying the right things. You can install OSS in each Windows OS as you desire, however it is not required in order to work. OSS doesn't have to be installed in any OS if you don't want to.

When you run OSS in XP, what drive letter is used for the Vista32's files and what drive letter is assigned to the Vista32 partition? Same question for Vista64.

Save a copy of your BOOTWIZ.OSS file. What happens if you delete the system_root_identifier=... section of the Vista64 entry? Keep the drives in the BIOS order. OSS may just put it right back in, but it's not required when booting Vista from a Logical partition or a Primary partition when OSS can't find Vista.

Code:

		<id3020881975 boot_as_ms71="0" boot_as_os2="0" boot_cd_entry="0" boot_partition="3873327521" bootname="bootsect.sys" icon="icon_sys_vista" language="english" lba="1" name_template="%n%l %l(%ll%l)" nthide="0" os_type="ntvista" [B][COLOR="Red"]system_root_identifier="0000000000000000000000000000000006000000000000004800000000000000007e00000000000000000000000000000000000001000000ae4948c500000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000\Windows"[/COLOR][/B] use_manual_disks_order="1" write_boot="1">

 

XP32 is files-C and Drive is C
XP64 is files-F and Drive is K
Vista32 is files-D and Drive L
Vista 64 is files-E and Drive J.

Files drive is from OSS and Disk is from "My Computer" or DD

 

I tried deleting the entry. No change in performance and the entry was replaced. I assume I should restore the original file?

 

You can restore the original.

I'm going to add the Vista64 entry in manually and attach the BOOTWIZ.OSS file so you can try it.

 

Here's the BOOTWIZ.OSS file with the Vista64 manually added entry. The settings are for the XP and Vista32 partitions to be hidden. Try it that way first. If it has the same problem, try hiding the XP64 partition so that the Vista64 is the only unhidden Primary partition.

 

I replaced "boot.oss" with yours, rebooted and tried, it didn't work(frozen cursor top left). I hid xp64 and no change. I looked at config for"Manual 64" there were no folders or files listed so I added them manually and retried. Now it looked like it was booting but when it got past the intro graphic it stopped and said "autochk program not found - skipping autochk" then it rebooted.The other three systems boot as before? I appreciate your help and only hope you don't charge by the hour!

 

I did a little playing and tried unhiding the V32 partition and it booted fine except it booted the V32 system. I though that if it was installed to the main drive as it was, that it didn't care about other drives and had everything it needed on that drive?

 

It does. The problem is how Vista boots. Frankly, I'm surprised that you're getting Vista32 to boot with the settings it has. The fact that bcdedit without using the /store parameter can't pull up the BCD file says that something is not normal.

Can you boot into Vista32 and post a screenshot of what Disk Management shows for your drives?

I'll try to run a few tests on this scenario and see what I can find out.

 

Here's the screenshot. BTW I don't know if I told you but to bootV32 I have to set the disk to "1" instead of "2" which is where it is. Not so with XP64 as it is on "6" and it boots with disk set to "6".

 

When you reformatted the XP drive and installed Vista64, were all the other partitions/drives visible? If so, it would be a good idea to check what your drive letter assignments are.

Can you post another couple of screenshots?

Start Vista32 and run the Registry Editor. Browse to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices key. You'll see your drive letter assignments on the right side of the screen. If you need to, scroll down to get to them (sometimes there are a lot of \??\Volume... entries. Take a screenshot.

Now, load the System Hive of the Vista64 system and browse to the same key. Take a screenshot. Instructions on loading another system's hive is detailed in this post. Note that you're not going to be deleting anything or making any changes, but you can follow the instructions to load, view and unload the Vista64 System hive.

Make sure to include the Data column in the screenshots.