ADDS cannot find any OS!

I've got XP Home Edition installed on my computer and now I have plans to do one more installation of XP (primary and optimized for audio production). I also want to give Ubuntu a try.

So, first I installed Acronis Disc Director Suite, but as I run the OS selector it only find one unspecified OS (that can't boot). No matter how I try with the Detection Wizard, I can't get ADDS to find my only XP installation. There is a boot.ini present.

Might there be something wrong (virus etc) in the MBR, or is there any problem in the bootwiz.oss (attached) that you can recognize?

 

I don't think anything is anything wrong with your MBR or that your computer has a virus. OSS sometimes has a problem properly detecting an OS.

I made some changes to the XP entry:

Code:

		<id3573201542 boot_as_ms71="0" boot_as_os2="0" boot_cd_entry="0" boot_partition="493195655" bootname="bootsect.sys" icon="icon_sys_win" language="english" lba="1" multi="multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS" name_template="XP Home" nthide="0" os_type="ntxp" use_manual_disks_order="0" write_boot="1">
			<partitions>
				<id493195655 active="1" />
				<id2370705041 active="1" />
			</partitions>
		</id3573201542>

I've also attached the modified file. Make a backup of your original and then you can replace it with this one (rename it to BOOTWIZ.OSS) and see if it will boot XP.

 

Hello!

Your modified file solved my problem. Thank you so much MudCrab!!!

So now I should proceed with the second XP installation that I've allocated a partition for on the same HD. I also want to install Ubuntu (on a third partition on the same HD). In what order and in what way do you think I preferably should do this, to not have the same kind of problem?

Cheers!

 

If you have imaging software (like TI), I would recommend you create an Entire Disk Image before you begin your OS installations. This will allow you to return to this state if you run into bad problems.

You should be able to install XP into the second partition. If you want to keep it isolated from the first XP, make sure you Hide the first XP partition before you install the second XP. Then setup each XP's properties in OSS so that the other XP partition is Hidden.

For Ubuntu, I usually install GRUB to the Ubuntu partition's boot sector. OSS picks this up okay and it doesn't mess with OSS in the MBR this way.