Second Partition Active

Discussion in 'Acronis Disk Director Suite' started by RodgerMac, Aug 28, 2007.

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  1. RodgerMac

    RodgerMac Registered Member

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    I have 1 primary 500gb HD with two partitons which I setup with Disk Director. On current active partition I have XP Home installed and active. I would like to install Vista on the second partition. Now I'm going to quote TIMANN from a few days ago "According to what I’ve read here I should use the OSS to hide the current active XP Pro partition and set the second currently hidden partition as active". I don't see how that is done. When I start OSS I can hide the XP partition, but I see nothing about the ability to set the second currently hidden partition as active. Even if I follow MudCrab's reply of "If you boot to the OSS menu, put in the Vista DVD, wait for the Vista DVD menu to come up, then right click on it and set the properties how you need (hide xp, set Vista partion Active and not hidden, etc.) When I right click on that Vista menu select properties, select the drive partition for XP I can select Hidden but the Active box is already checked but grayed out so no unchecking it. Then if I select the Vista partition the active box is unchecked but grayed out so I can't select it. Hidden is the only option available there too. How do I get the second partition to be active?
     
  2. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    You will most likely have to do the install manually following the procedure outlined below:

    Deactivate OSS (you can do this from the OSS menu).

    Select XP as the default OS. Make sure the computer boots correctly and directly into XP.

    Boot to DD from the DD CD. Select to use Manual Mode (not the Automatic Mode). Create the new partition for VISTA (if you haven't already done so). Set the VISTA partition as ACTIVE and the XP partition as HIDDEN. Apply the changes.

    Then boot from the VISTA DVD (press a key if needed to boot from the DVD) and install VISTA normally to the partition you created for it. I recommend you let VISTA format the partition (click the Advanced button to get the option). Also, make sure you select the correct partition for VISTA as VISTA will still show the XP partition in the list even though it's hidden.

    Once VISTA is installed, install DD and then OSS. It should find the previous installation and update it.

    When you reboot, you should get the OSS menu with entries for both VISTA and XP. Check the VISTA menu entry properties and make sure the VISTA partition is active and the XP partition is hidden. Check the XP menu entry properties and make sure the XP partition is active and the VISTA partition is hidden.

    If the above active/hidden options are not correct and you can't change them because the checkboxes are grayed out, you'll need to edit the bootwiz.oss file as detailed in this thread.

    ---

    Edited: Specified to use the Manual Mode of DD instead of the default Automatic Mode.
     
    Last edited: Aug 28, 2007
  3. RodgerMac

    RodgerMac Registered Member

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    MudCrab Ok booted to DD CD as suggested in step three above. Created the new Vista partition commited to those changes. But I don't see anywhere in DD to change that partition to active. I can see places change the drive from logical to primary, hide and unhide, advanced, properties. Just nothing that outright says change partition to Active. I must be missing something here. Where is the mysterious Active button? My first partition says primary/active/hidden. I change the second partition to read primary, but can't find out where to change it to active. Thanks Rodger
     
  4. RodgerMac

    RodgerMac Registered Member

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    Never mind I found the active button under manual instead of automatic. Sorry about that I'll let you know how this turns out. thanks Rodger
     
  5. RodgerMac

    RodgerMac Registered Member

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    MudCrab you are a god. It's working great. no cross over between xp and vista solving the system restore problems. Thank You... The only thing i see wrong is my norton antivirus isn't working on the original xp minor problem I'll just reinstall it. again thanks Rodger
     
  6. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    No need to apologize. I always run DD in Manual Mode so I have control over all the options and I don't always remember to mention it. Also, since I don't use Automatic Mode, I'm not familiar with what options are unavailable in that mode.
     
  7. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    I'm glad it worked for you. Doing it this way is much easier than trying to change over to OSS from using XP's or Vista's bootloader. If you run into any snags, post back.
     
  8. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    MudCrab,

    Very nice post.
     
  9. MudCrab

    MudCrab Imaging Specialist

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    Thanks, Brian.

    If OSS throws a fit (which happens all too often), sometimes doing the installs the hard way is actually the easy way.
     
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