Question for Mudcrab or anybody: Fix This Bootwiz File?

I would greatly appreciate anyone who can interpret my attached bootwiz.oss text file copy and advise how to change it so as to be able to use OSS for a dual boot XP / Vista setup.

OS Detection Wizard cannot detect EITHER OS, but I am able to boot into either with Rescue disk setting either partition to active. I've tried using disk director to set active partition, etc. and am down to editing the oss file.

Please help!?!

 

Can you please verify what partitions are used for XP and Vista?

From looking at the file, it seems that XP is the first Primary partition on Disk 1. Is Vista the second Primary partition on Disk 1 or is it the first Primary on Disk 2?

Did you install XP and then Vista?

Was the XP partition hidden when you installed Vista?

Most likely, the XP and Vista entries can be manually added to the file. Let me know the partitions and I'll make the changes.

 

XP is d(0)P(1) and Vista is d(0)p(2).

Did you install XP and then Vista? - YES

Was the XP partition hidden when you installed Vista? - NO

Most likely, the XP and Vista entries can be manually added to the file. Let me know the partitions and I'll make the changes.[/QUOTE]

THANKS

 

When you set a partition Active and boot it, does it boot directly into that Windows or do you get Vista's boot manager menu where you can select XP or Vista?

Are you sure that Vista's booting files are on the Vista partition (bootmgr and the hidden Boot folder)?

 

Previously, I used Vista's boot manager; however, I have followed your instructions in "Separating Vista and XP when using Vista's boot manager" but am still unable to get OS detector to detect either OS(!). In other words, OSS detect didn't work with Vista's boot manager, and doesn't work without Vista's boot manager.

Currently, I am using desktop shortcuts for computer management in both OSes to switch the active partition prior to logging off so the computer boots to whichever I've set active (but I'd still like to get OSS to work...)

 

Okay. I just wanted to make sure they were separated. It sounds like they are. I'll make the changes and post the file.

 

Here's the modified BOOTWIZ.OSS file. Hopefully, it will work for you.

 

Thanks for your help. Sorry for being slow, but should I just replace the oss file, activate oss, and see what happens?

 

Yes, just replace the file. Keep a copy of the old one just in case.

It may work better to reactivate OSS before you replace the file, but you can try replacing it prior to reactivating. I don't think there's really a perfect method. What works on one system may not on another. Try it one way and if it doesn't work, try it the other way.

In any case, reboot the computer after you replace the file so OSS can "adjust" to it. It will either work or kick out some or all of the changes.

Also, I setup the file so that XP and Vista would be hidden from each other. You can adjust the properties of each to what you want if they both show up and work correctly.

 

Sorry for the delayed followup, but I used a similar oss file to create the working dual boot.

FYI for you and others, the "breakthru" getting vista recognized was to use Disk Director to make all non-vista partitions hidden, then to "repair Vista" with the installation CD, then to edit the bootwiz.oss file and manually enter the vista boot parameters.

Thank you MudCrab for your help.

Can you explain the difference between "write boot = 0" and write boot = 1? I was worried about setting these to 0, but it worked...

 

It can take some tweaking sometimes to get OSS to find an OS.

You're welcome.

As far as I know, this option determines if the boot sector of the booting partition for the OS get rewritten when you boot that OS. Disabled ("0") should be fine as Windows doesn't change it. In any case, when you manually edit the BOOTWIZ.OSS file, OSS doesn't have a saved boot sector file so I don't know if it could rewrite it even if the option were enabled. I think the OSS default is to have this option enabled for any Windows operating systems.