Unable to add W2000 to existing multiboot system

Hi,

I recently purchased a new desktop that I planned to set up with at least Vista, XP Pro and W2000. I installed Vista first, DD10 and then added XP Pro. This works just fine.

When I attempt to install W2000 in an available partition, this is when I get into trouble.

I seem to be unable to properly hide the Vista partition from the W2000 installation. I have the latest version of OS Selector and DD10. It appears that my attempts to install W2K always "step on" my Vista partition, even though I attempt to hide this partition during the W2K installation process.

I realize that OS Selector has some issues here and there. I used to be a long time user of System Commander, but it's most current support for newer hardware and Vista is lacking. So that's why I went to Acronis. I can at least see things on the monitor although I have to use a hard-wired mouse or DOS keys in order to navigate the system when booting from the recovery CD.

That being said, is there a great way to totally hide my Vista partition during the W2K installation process?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Tom

 

Are you using the regular "hide" checkbox for the Vista (and XP) partitions?

Or are you using the Windows 2000 "Force hiding partitions" option in the Advanced section of the OS's properties. Try it if you haven't.

 

I have been using the "regular hide" check box in the properties section for the Vista and XP Pro partitions.

I have read about the "Force Hiding Partitions" option but was a little unclear about when and how to use it. (The docs seem to discourage the use of this option.)

So, my guess is that I should enable this option for both the Vista and XP Pro partitions.

Should I do this Vista > OS Selector first for both OS's? And then boot from the recovery CD, start OS Selector, (just to be sure) enable/verify that this option is in place for Vista and XP Pro in properties, pop in the W2K CD, wait for it to be discovered, and then also set the "regular hide" check box for these two partitions in the W2K CD properties and then give it a go?

Any and all suggestions would be welcomed for this procedure.

Thanks!

 

The "Force" option should only need to be set for the Windows 2000 menu item. Also check the "hide" checkboxes for the Vista and XP partitions.

Don't use the "Force" option in Vista's or XP's OS properties.

If OSS sees the Windows 2000 install cd, you should be able to setup the options for that menu item to install it. Or use the New Operating System Wizard.

You should be able to tell when you boot the Windows 2000 cd and start the install if it's working correctly or not.

OSS won't see the DVD drive on my computer (because of the JMicron chipset) so I've always had to install manually.

 

Thanks much for the clarification on the procedure and options.

OSS does recognize my W2K CD when booting from the recovery CD. (It has a bazillion times thus far.) The W2K install process has proceeded as expected until it reboots. At that point, I have expected OSS to stay out of the way and the installation process should proceed under the control of the W2K installation process. That is what has not been happening. Hopefully the "Force" option will allow the W2K installation to proceed as expected.

I'll give this a try tomorrow and report back with results.

Thanks much!

 

Good news! The "Force" option applied to W2000 plus hiding XP Pro & Vista worked.

I sort of expected the first W2K installation process reboot to not see OSS. But it did. I just selected W2K and all continued as expected. All my OS's see their C: drives and all is right with the world.

Thanks much for your help!

 

I'm glad you got it working.

Did you install from the Windows 2000 CD menu option? Or did you end up doing it manually?

If you have True Image, you might want to consider creating a backup image of your entire drive now that it's setup. That way you have a good clean base image to restore later if you need to.

 

I was unable to use the W2K CD menu option from OSS. I could select it and set parameters and OSS would act like it was going to do something, but it would not. So I did it manually.

I did purchase TI and plan to make use of it once I get a few more basic essential programs installed.

Thanks much again for your invaluable help!

 

Well, as it turns out, I'm not done with this configuration exercise.

Seems that OSS thinks that no one ever allows a defrag to occur that touches its control files and it uses absolute addresses that get written into the MBR.

I received this morning a response (in response to my inquiry last week about how to handle W2k) from the Acronis tech staff that pointed out this little detail. Of course, one can always use the recovery CD and all will be fine as they suggested. But they also suggested a work around (that probably everyone should follow as a standard procedure). And that is to install OSS into a small separate logical partition that you never defrag.

I gave it a try earlier tonight and it looked like it would work. However, my W2000 partition has "left the building". I can get to XP Pro and Vista just fine. W2000 has gone off into the ozone.

I think the use of a tiny logical partition for OSS makes great sense. And if I had used this process from the start, all would probably be fine now. But, that's not what I did. So I think all I have to do now is blow away my W2k partition and install it from scratch following the special hiding suggestions that appear earlier in this thread.

I'll report back with my results so other users might benefit from my experiences.

 

What works really well is to install OSS in a separate logical partition. Then in your disk defrag utility, make sure that this tiny little partition never gets defrag treatment. Do this and follow the other instructions in this thread and you should get along fine with OSS.

So, I'd suggest to all Windows OSS users that they always install OSS in a separate partition. This approach is working quite well for me.

 

I also have done this. It seems to work better in some cases and it also allows restoring any of the Windows partitions (using TI) without disturbing any of the OSS files.