OSS unable to detect XP

Hi,

I did have XP working with OSS. But when I tried installing Vista on a second partition multiple icons appeared in OSS. I deleted them but some how the XP icon got deleted as well and now it won't pickup XP even after reinstalling the software several times. I've checked the boot.ini file and it seams fine. I can boot into XP without OSS (f6 during boot up) and that gives no problems.

Any Ideas?

 

Instead of reinstalling the software, have you tried to use the detection wizard of OSS to detect the XP partition?

 

baggio4378,

When you're booted into XP, you might try uninstalling OSS and then reinstall it. Make sure that the XP setup gets selected as default when you uninstall.

Another option, as Maal656 suggested, is to use the OS Detection Wizard to try and find the XP partition. This may work and it may not. OSS seems, in some cases, to be unable to find an existing OS after it's been removed from the menu.

When you installed Vista, did Vista's bootloader "see" your XP partition? Was the XP partition "hidden" from Vista before and after Vista's installation?

Do you still have Vista on the computer?
Does Vista show up in the OSS menu and does it boot into Vista correctly?

 

First thing I tried was the wizard.. that has never worked for me.

I could uninstall it again.. problem is when it asks to choose an OS XP isn't even listed there.. I usally just select boot from floppy and just let my bios boot sequence boot from the hard drive.


"When you installed Vista, did Vista's bootloader "see" your XP partition? Was the XP partition "hidden" from Vista before and after Vista's installation?"

No I forgot to hide the XP partition in OSS which screwed things up a bit.. at that point I decided to format the vista partition and start again but I only want to install vista if I can get OSS to list XP

It usually lists vista when I install it on a formatted partition and it does boot into vista... but I don't have vista at this point in time as I just want to get OSS to detect XP before I worry about Vista.

 

Vista's bootloadr has become tangled in your XP setup. That's why it's so important that Vista not "see" the XP partition during a Vista install. The XP partition needs to be marked "hidden" and the Vista partition needs to be marked "active" and not hidden before you do the install.

If you have an XP cd, you can boot from it and do a repair to get XP booting normally with its own boot files (instead of Vista's). This will deactivate OSS because the MBR will be rewritten. Boot into Windows and reinstall OSS. Hopefully that will work.

 

hmm, ok. But I can uninstall OSS completely and XP boots fine...

 

But when you reinstall OSS, does OSS find XP and setup the menu item for it? (If it does, great!)

I thought that was the problem. Vista's bootloader doesn't have any problem starting XP. The problem is that OSS is looking for XP's bootloader. Since it doesn't find it, it can't setup the menu entry.

 

I see, how do i go about fixing XP's boot loader? Do I need to do it at the command prompt or can i use some sort of recovery console on the bootable cd?

 

Take a look at this link from the Microsoft KB: How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP

You can run it from the XP cd or you can add the Recovery Console option to the Windows startup menu and run it from there.

I haven't done this before, but from reading other posts, I think the commands you want to run are fixmbr and bootcfg /rebuild

 

Hi,

I tried what you suggested and I ended up with acronis OSS not being able to load properly and bypassing OSS led to "Invalid Partition Table" but then I ran bootfix to rewrite the boot sector and everything works now... So Properly better off just running bootfix.