OS Selector: Vista unknown, booted diagnostic progs, after Selector disabled. Now?

Hello everybody

On christmas I've got a new DELL Inspiron 530 with Windows Vista Home Premium and a 500 GB Serial-ATA-Harddisk which I wanted to partition with the Acronis Disk Director Suite which I loaded and bought from their website.

After Disk Director Suite worked not properly (altough it is Build 2161!) and couldn't partitionate my harddisk, I installed the OS Selector (I haven't really known for what it is.. so I thought it's necessary that Disk Director Suite can make the chances !!!)

So when I started the OS Selector I saw finaly what this software is (and what the name already said....) and I just wanted to return to Vista! But my Vista was showed as "unknown operating system" (this term may be little different in English, because I use the German version "unbekanntes Betriebssystem") and when I took it, just the DELL Diagnostic Services were loaded to check the memory and the system.

After all (it was late night..) I choose the button to "disable" (German: "deaktivieren") OS Selector and hopped to get this way back to Windows. Now every time when the PC is booting, just these diagnostic things were loaded, I can't even back to OS Selector!

I hope you can help me to start up again with Vista (and not to new implement the whole system...)

Greetings from Switzerland and the best wishes for New Year!
Martin


P.S. Sorry for my definitely not perfect English...

 

Re: OS Selector: Vista unknown, booted diagnostic progs, after Selector disabled. Now

I had some experience with OSS and an HP OEM installed Vista Home Premium. After I turned on OSS I couldn't get to Vista. It wouldn't let me deactivate because it didn't see any operating system. I was also using TI and fixed it by doing a restore of the MBR.

So do you have a backup so you can restore the MBR? My recommendation, based on some reading and the above experience is to make sure you have a good backup in place before you mess with partitioning or dual booting software. If Dell is like HP you don't have a disc that will allow you to do a repair. HP has some startup repair directions that I don't understand but may use the recovery partition. Check the Dell site for 'startup repair' and maybe you'll find help there. I also located some repair tools by poking around on the Vistabootpro forum. There were a couple of ISO images designed for those who have OEM Vista. You need to burn an ISO image. There is free software that will do that for you. I use ISO Recorder.

I don't know if any of this helps. There are a number of posters who are far more knowledgeable than me and can help you get out of your mess. I am sure they will jump in after the holiday. Good luck.

Dave

 

Re: OS Selector: Vista unknown, booted diagnostic progs, after Selector disabled. Now

Here is a link to the repair portion of the Vista CD. You should be able to create a repair disc from this. http://www.raymond.cc/blog/archives/2007/12/21/how-to-repair-windows-vista-without-a-vista-dvd-disc/
The link is in the middle of the page.

 

Re: OS Selector: Vista unknown, booted diagnostic progs, after Selector disabled. Now

Dear Dave

Thank you for your help! At the moment, I hope my problem isn't as big as your solutions are complicated..

But I think I can structrure my problems now a bit better:

It's the same problem! But apparently Dell has his own little operating system with this diagnostic tools. So my OSS showed me this unknown operating system and Vista was also hidden! So I could deactivate OSS and chose this Dell thing as standard...

So my first problem is now, how I can reactivate OS Selector from this mini operating system where I can just choose between a "memory test", a "system test" and "exit"..

I think, when I can come back to the OSS, I can fix the not shown Vista the same way you solved this problem. So, does anyone know how I could restart with OSS? Is there a possibility to boot the software via CD-Rom or anything like that?

Otherwise I'll have to restore my whole computer (Fortunately there aren't any data or programs on), but Dell didn't give me a Restore-CD: I've just the Vista-DVD (maybe with this disc I can do the repair?) and a Dell-CD "Drivers and Utilities" (is this maybe something like a Restore-CD?).

Thank you again for your help! I hope I can solve this problem on some way!

Martin

 

Re: OS Selector: Vista unknown, booted diagnostic progs, after Selector disabled. Now

If you created a DD boot CD and included the OSS programs, you should be able to reinstall/uninstall or activate/deactivate OSS by booting to the CD and selecting the appropriate option.

 

Re: OS Selector: Vista unknown, booted diagnostic progs, after Selector disabled. Now

I don't think you need to mess with OSS. In my circumstances I couldn't deactivate because OSS didn't recognize any OSs. As MudCrab indicated you could run DD and OSS from the boot disk you should have made. But if it won't boot to Vista I don't see how that will help you.

You have a standard Vista DVD? In the US the OEM systems typically do not come with the OS disc. HP has a recovery partition from which you make recovery discs. I was under the impression that DELL was similar. If you have the Vista DVD you should be able to boot to it and hit the repair icon which may take care of your problem. If what you have is not a Vista DVD but an OEM version you may be forced to take the route I mentioned or to do a complete restore. Since you don't have any data or programs loaded that will just cost you time. Let it run overnight and you should be OK.

Dave

 

Re: OS Selector: Vista unknown, booted diagnostic progs, after Selector disabled. Now

Yesterday, I booted with the Vista-Disc and processed the Windows Repair Programs: The one for the startup (I don't know how it's called in English..) found and adjusted one mistake, afterwards I tried to reload an older "version" of Vista where the Disk Director Suite wasn't already installed - but this was no use.

Today, with the Disk Director Boot-CD (thank you for the tip! Why hadn't I not this idea!? ), I could now reactivate OS Selector! Great! But for some special ways, I see now two unknown operating systems. One is the Dell Diagnostic thing, the other is not bootable (maybe because of the repair of the Vista-Disc?): The Bootsector-file couldn't have been read. But OK...


So, let's go to the next problem: How can I make Vista visible in the OS Selector? I saw there same possible solutions, but I don't know how I can transcript them when I only can boot OSS. Has someone an idea? Or may the problem be solved with a new installation of Vista (I think the Vista-Disc of Dell can do this)?

 

Re: OS Selector: Vista unknown, booted diagnostic progs, after Selector disabled. Now

If you need to edit the BOOTWIZ.OSS file to attempt manual repairs, you can boot to the DD CD and start DD in Manual Mode. Then Explore the partition with OSS installed on it. Browse to the BOOTWIZ.OSS file and right-click and select Edit. DD will open the file in a text editor and allow you to make changes.

Just remember, DO NOT PASTE any text when using DD to edit these files. Pasting has a high rate of causing corruption. You won't see anything wrong unless you look at the file in a hex editor, but it will be there and OSS will either error or reset the file, making you lose all your changes.