C: drive letter alternates between XP +Vista

You can relabel the partition. It's normal for Vista to clear it when it installs.

Here is an updated BOOTWIZ.OSS file to try. OSS did assign a new partition ID to the Vista partition.

 

Sadly, this file is producing the same results as before , same error bubble as previously described.

Just to confirm, I am replacing this file within the 'Bootwiz' folder on the XP partition.

****edit

to triple check and make sure Vista is still ok, I deactivated OSS, hid XP, activated Vista, and I am typing to you from Vista right now, so the Vista parition/install is still working fine. Just need to get OSS to see the damn thing!

 

When you are in OSS, if you right-click on the Vista entry and select Properties and then Partitions, is the checkered flag on the Vista partition? Is the Active checkbox for the Vista partition checked and grayed out?

Since you can boot successfully into Vista with a standard MBR (OSS deactivated) and setting the partition Active, that part should be just fine. It's just a matter of figuring out why OSS is having a problem with it.

I suppose you could try changing the OS TYPE to "unknown" and see if that helps. Perhaps it will force OSS to ignore whatever it's hanging up on. You could try this by editing the BOOTWIZ.OSS file in Notepad (don't use another program) and changing the os_type="ntvista" value to os_type="unknown". (This is on the first line of the Vista OS entry.)

I assume you're using the latest build of DD/OSS (build 2,160).

Can you also start a Command Prompt in Adminstrator Mode (if using UAC) and run the bcdedit command and post the output here? It may help to see it (just in case something else is going on).

 

No to both questions. I am currently doing this while in XP right now. Do I need to do this during bootup in OSS?

I will attempt this after I get a response re: above situation with partitions.

Just checked, it's build 2,117

BRB with this one as I am in XP, and will have to boot Vista. What's UAC again?

 

Here is the BCDEDIT capture

 

Ok, I tried to do this. Oddly, when I opened up bootwiz.oss (the last one you gave me, now inside of the bootwiz folder) this entry was not found anywhere in the document.

I downloaded the bootwiz.oss file again from your post again further up, and opened it up in notepad from the desktop and the entry WAS found. So I made the change to "unknown" and then placed THIS one into the bootwiz folder.

 

***correction to the following.


Once I click on the vista partition it IS set to active and grayed out BUT still no checkered flag beside anything.

 

SOLVED!!!!!

The importance of updates! Once I updated to build 2160, I was asked to reboot, upon arriving at the OSS screen, VOILA, Vista was found automatically, no search or add even required. I removed your "vista manual" entry (it was still there) and am now left with the wonderful image below!

Although a simple fix, after the extensive troubleshooting we have done, I still can't thank you enough for all the help you've provided. If anything I learned a great deal about using Acronis and how to effictively and properly install multiple operating systems.

Thank you again, you've been a HUGE help, couldn't have done it without you.

 

Sorry about that. I should have asked earlier about the build being used. Build 2,160 was the one that added Vista support, if I remember correctly.

There was another fix to get Vista booting using the earlier builds and that would have only taken a few seconds. Updating to the latest build is the best solution, though.

 

No worries, there's just too many parameters to think of all at once when attacking a challenge.

For future reference, I have a 1TB SATA HD on it's way for xmas and I am thinking I would like to use this drive as my primary HD and boot from it since it will be newer/faster, so in other words, fresh installations of everything. What would be the best and simplest way to accomplish what I have just done.

Once the new HD is in, do I use a utility first to create my partitions before installing ANY OS?

Do I do XP or Vista first (Leopard would be thrown in there somewhere)?

Am I going to have to do your 'separation technique' again or can this be avoided if I do the hide/activate way prior to each OS.

Thanks again for the great (and fast) answers!

 

If you install each OS with the others Hidden and the new partition set as Active, each should install and be independent of the others. You shouldn't need to do any separation as XP and Vista wouldn't get mixed up in the first place.

Except for Leopard, which may or may not be supported correctly by an imaging program, another option is to create an image of the Entire Disk and then restore it (resizing as necessary) to the new drive. You could also clone the old drive to the new drive. Either of these methods avoid needing to reinstall if everything goes well.

 

Thanks for the info. I'll have to read up more about maybe doing the cloning. Is DD capable of this?

My only other reason to start fresh is to get all OS's as close as possible to the front of the hard drive. As it stands right now, if you refer back to my desktop image of 'disk management' I think my Vista partition is at the back end of the drive although I could be wrong, it may just be represented this way cause I assigned it a letter (V) way down the alphabet chain.

 

DD doesn't do cloning in the sense that TI does, it just copies partitions. However, this could still be used as you could copy one partition at a time. Both Vista and XP would most likely need boot repairs.

Your Vista partition is physically located at the end of the drive. It's probably operating at 50% or less of the speed of your XP partition. I would definately recommend you move the operating systems to the beginning of the drive in the order of frequency of use (or speed requirements).

 

To keep things simpler, I will probably start fresh with the new HD once it arrives. In the mean time, can I use DD to move my Vista partition closer to the front and bump something else back there?

I'm sifting through the program now looking for this.

***updated

from what I can see here, I am going to have to first create unallocated space near the front of the drive using 'free' space, then move the partition into that unallocated area.

Am on the right path?

 

You're on the right path. You'd need to copy/move the Vista partition into unallocated space. You will also need to do a BCD file repair to get it to boot after you do the move.

I hope you have a backup image of your drive. Doing disk operations like this can sometimes go wrong.

 

Is creating a new partition the same as creating unallocated space?

 

No. You create a partition in unallocated space. To get unallocated space, you have to resize (shrink) your existing partitions and then move them so the unallocated space is where you want. This can be time consuming if a lot of data needs to be moved. It can also result in a disaster if something goes wrong and the drive gets messed up (this is why you need a backup).

 

Gotcha! I think I will leave things alone for now since it is operational, until I get that new drive and am able to back everything up first.

Thanks again for the awesome help.

I'm sure I'll be back!

 

Hi MudCrab,

Back again! As previously stated, I got my 1TB drive and am in the process of installing and formatting it. Since you have such great knowledge/advice I thought I'd ask your opinion about partitioning it and how to utilize it to the best of it's abilities.

My intentions are to use the 1TB as my primary drive and have approx 3-5 OS's available for my needs. The current 320GB drive will probably be reformated once the data is transferred over and used as a secondary storage drive to supplement the primary.

Obviously I am assuming that having the most active OS on the first partition makes most sense and go on in order from there. I am also curious about keeping the OS partitions uncluttered from programs and having all programs installed on their own partition. Does this really buy me any performance or advantages?

My planned OS's are XP (most used), then Vista, Leopard, and probably a stripped down version of xp for video editing/music composition.

Thanks in advance.

 

I haven't gone back and read the thread again so if I'm missing something about your setup, let me know.

Hopefully, you'll make backups before you begin.

Installing the most used OS at the beginning of the drive is best as that's the fastest area.

I don't think you'll notice any performance advantage. In addition, you'll need to backup the programs partition in sync with the OS partition because most programs will still install a lot to the OS partition. Personally, I wouldn't recommend using a dedicated programs partition except in the case of very large programs and games. Otherwise, I prefer to keep the OS and the programs on the same partition.

Make sure to get your partition types planned out too (what's going on Primary partitions and what's going on Logical partitions).

I would keep the existing drive in a working state while you get the new one setup (and possibly for a little while longer in case any problems show up and you need your system working).

 

Thanks for the quick reply.

In regards to your last paragraph, when you say about planning primary vs logical. Any partition that will be for an OS must be a primary partition correct? Otherwise, after the 4 or so partions for my OS's, there will be no more partitions, just a final large one for all my data, personal files, etc. This one will be logical correct?

Thanks again

PS - on a weird note, I noticed that after installing my new HD, installing winxp on it, and just now installing Acronis D.D. After a reboot I got the OS Selector (as I used to do with the old HD which is still connected) and it is showing all the OS's on the older hard drive including my main OS now on the new HD, But I have not even installed the OS selector yet since installing D.D. on the new HD!?!!? When I load Acronis D.D. in windows, OS Selector is greyed out in the options indicating I haven't installed it yet. Did it do something odd and locate the old MBR on the old drive or something in that regard? How do I start with a clean slate?

 

You are wanting to install four operating systems (XP, Vista, Leopard and XP-Video/Music). If you use Primary partitions, you can only have four so each could be on a Primary partition. If you want (or need) any Logical partitions on the drive, then you can only have three Primary partitions (the Extended partition container takes up one of the four partition table slots).

I don't know about Leopard so I don't know if can be installed normally to a Logical partition. XP and Vista are easiest on Primary partitions, but can be setup on Logical partitions (this requires extra steps). Linux doesn't care and can be installed completely on Logical partitions.

If you booted even once in a situation where an OSS activated drive was connected (which yours is), OSS can "take over" the non-OSS drive. So, even if you set the new drive to be the booting drive, OSS will still run from the other drive.

I would have recommended setting up the new drive with the old drive disconnected. Or you could deactivate OSS on the old drive and then setup the new drive.

If you disconnect the old drive now, you'll probably need to boot to the XP CD's Recovery Console and run the fixmbr command to reset the MBR back to the default to clear any OSS booting messages/errors.

 

Prior to reading your advice here, I elected to backup all my data from the OLD drive over to the new one and then simply delete all partitions/data on the OLD drive and create one large logical partition. After doing so, I rebooted, 'OS Selector' DID NOT run on startup this time, and the winXP intallation on the new drive started normally, so I guess I got away easy on this one as all appears to be normal after formatting the old drive.