No OS shown in OSS

I bought DD Suite, used it to repartition my desktop, and it all worked fine. I installed OSS, and it didn't see my Vista, the only OS installed. The Vista is an OEM version. I contacted the Acronis chat support link, and was told to wait for a new build. Is this a known problem, or if not, how do I know if the next new build will address whatever is wrong with OSS now?

The chat support couldn't give me a date for a release to fix this - does anybody know anything about this?

 

It's a very well known problem and it's anybody's guess when the next build (or new version) will be released. OSS has never worked correctly with most non-Microsoft OEM versions of Vista.

However, the problem can usually be fixed by editing the BOOTWIZ.OSS file manually.

When you only have one OS and OSS doesn't recognize it, it's a little harder to do this. You need to install OSS and then repair the MBR (you can do this from the Vista DVD, assuming you have one -- instructions can be provided if you need them). Once you can boot back into Vista, you can get the BOOTWIZ.OSS file (as per the instructions here) and attach it to a post so I can see it. If you have a BartPE, VistaPE or WinPE CD (or probably even a Live Linux CD) you can also boot to one of those and copy the file out. Keep in mind that you have to leave OSS installed to get this file. If you uninstall OSS, it will remove the file. Another option that may work to restore the MBR, would be to deactivate OSS by using the DD/OSS CD (I don't remember for sure if that's an option or not). You could also restore the MBR from a TI backup, if you have one taken prior to installing OSS.

Once the file is modified, it needs to be put back in place of the original.

 

I'm a bit of an idiot and despite thinking installing OSS would cause me problems based on what i had read when I bought the software, I installed it on my new computer running Vista. (BTW, OSS works great on this laptop for an XP/OS X dual boot...) Any amplifying info regarding the above fix would be much appreciated.

 

Hello all,

Thank you for choosing Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0

Please accept our apologies for the delay with the response.

daveleau, could you please be more specific? What exactly happens when you installing Vista and Acronis OS Selector? Can you post your BOOTWIZ.OSS file?

We are looking forward to hearing back from you at your earliest convenience.

Thank you.
--
Alexander Nikolsky

 

May I join in too ?

I have just been installing the software on my new HP Laptop which came pre-installed with Vista.

Disk Director installed fine and I resized the main partition to create some space, intending to copy the O/S once I installed the OSS so that I could run a dual-boot system.

Trouble is OSS can't seem to find any bootable operating system, and I am unable to back out.

I would gladly post my BOOTWIZ file if someone could explain how to do this given that I no longer have access to Vista ?

Thanks

 

Strangeman,

Have you tried any of the suggestions in Post #2 of this thread? They deal with deactivating OSS and various methods of obtaining the BOOTWIZ.OSS file.

 

Hi Mudcrab,

My problem is that I can't seem to do anything at all at the moment because I can't boot into the operating system. I had hoped that Disk Director might allow me to copy the file onto a USB drive, but although I can copy the file, I cannot then paste it.

If I try deactivating, OSS just comes back and tells me that it can't find an operating system. Similarly, it seems to have taken charge of the HP recovery facility too (it never occurred to me that I was going to be so messed up as to wish I'd created the recovery disk first!)

I'm currently waiting for someone to lend me a Vista CD so that I can boot from that and reset the mbr, which seems to be my only viable course of action at the moment.

However, if you have any other suggestions in the meantime, I'm eager to learn ....



PS - I've just noticed your response to a similar question further down the forum, where you mention 'forcing' an uninstall of OSS from the CD. How would I go about doing that - I only have the original DD install disk.

 

If you create your own DD CD using Media Builder, you can select which programs to include. If you're using OSS (or plan to), I recommend that you include the OSS programs on the CD.

I don't know if the retail DD CD includes the OSS programs or not.

You would need to boot to the DD/OSS CD and select to setup OSS (this option is in the same main menu where you would select to start DD Full or DD Safe, for example). You should be given a list of choices. Select to uninstall. OSS should uninstall using this method even if it can't find a "valid" OS.

 

That's what I would have expected, but when I boot to the CD, I just get the OSS window with the addition of being able to run DD.

I didn't build a CD because I was lead to believe that this wouldn't be necessary as I had purchased the boxed product.

Would it gain me anything if I tried booting using my TI CD? (although TI is not installed on the laptop)



Correction - I just tried booting the CD again to remind myself - it comes back with Acronis Loader fatal error boot sector not found, or words to that effect press any key to boot to o/s

 

What build of DD are you using?

If the computer supports booting from a flashdrive, have you tried creating a flashdrive that includes DD/OSS and booting from it?

Otherwise, the easiest method is to just restore the MBR, which you should be able to do if you can borrow a Vista DVD.

 

Now I'm confused - I booted up the machine again to find out the build (2,160 by the way) only this time I reacted a bit quicker to the 'press f6 to skip selector' and lo and behold Vista has reappeared.

I shall the uninstall now and then create the recovery disk before planning my next move ...

 

Unfortunately (you know how it is) for some reason, I decided to reboot just to see whether things had magically sorted themselves out. Now all I get regardless of what I try (even booting from CD) is

Starting Acronis Loader...
No Commands for booting Operating System Press <Enter> to reboot ...


pressing enter causes a beep and the message reappears.

 

Since you know approximately when the "F6 message" appears during the booting process, try pressing it several times before the message appears and see if you can get it to skip. In most cases, pressing either ESC or F6 after the message appears usually doesn't work.

The CD should boot. Have you verified that the CD/DVD drive is set to boot before the hard drive in the computer's BIOS?

 

The only difference between booting from CD and booting from hard drive is the sound of the drive itself, the end result is the same. Pressing f6 just causes a beep.

 

I have finally had my mbr restored, so now I am wondering whether to persist with OSS or try something else.

What would be the best steps to take now in order to achieve my goal of having 2 separate Vista installations on my laptop ? (obviously after I've created that restore disc!)

 

Make sure that each OS is installed with the new OS partition Active and any other Windows OS partitions hidden. That is the main thing for any boot manager so that you have more isolated installations (no mixing of Windows booting files).

This thread details another manual installation. If you want to restore an image or copy a partition (using DD, for example), the same rules apply.

 

Mudcrab, thanks for taking the trouble to try to answer some of my questions.

In the meantime, I found www.multibooters.co.uk which has some very useful and seemingly fairly comprehensive information about how it all works, which I would thoroughly recommend to anyone with any interest in the subject.

I have always been happy with TI and no doubt DD will prove useful as it is more up to date than PM which I used to use, but as for OSS, I think I shall give that one a miss - I think it is trying a little bit to hard to be cleverer than a lot of users actually need.