Question re: OS Selector and its interaction with Windows Boot Manager

Hello all - Ive downloaded the trial version of Disc Director. I am interested in using the included OS selector, but am having trouble having it play nicely with Windows' Boot Manager.

Before installing OS Selector, I had already setup a dual-boot partition using Windows - XP and Vista. OS Selector installed fine and actually functions without a hitch. However, after selecting the OS to boot into from inside Selector, I am still brought to the original Boot Manager screen to AGAIN choose which OS I want to boot into.

Any suggestions how I can eliminate having to deal with Boot Manager at this point?

 

OSS currently does not play nice with Windows Boot Manager. If it detects the multiple installed operating systems, it will usually have both of them going to the same Windows Boot Manager menu.

The problem of fixing this can vary from fairly easy to very difficult depending on how the system is setup. Basically, you need to separate them from each other so that they are booting independently. At the very least, it requires doing boot repairs. The end result is that each OS will boot with its partition Active and the other Hidden.

Is there a particular reason you want to use OSS instead of your current setup?

 

Same problem here...

The notion that neither the OS Selector software itself, nor any of the FAQs, guides and forums dedicated to supporting the product can't provide a satisfactory explanation of how to eliminate such a redundancy is kind of a joke.

 

On the machine where I plan to use DD10 and TI workstation, the windows boot menu comes up nicely, after installing Ubuntu Startup Manager, showing XP, Vista (set as default) and Ubuntu.

On a test machine, with clean installations of the above op. systems, the DD10 OSS is a pain, the start screen comes up, but the mouse becomes inoperable, and only the <Alt> and arrow keys plus <enter> works.

Is there really any need to use the OSS?
What again are the advantages?

(I hope to later use DD10 and TI commercially)

And btw. - I followed the instructions here
and my system (on same test machine) has no file named Bootwiz.oss on it anywhere, after installing the OSS. ??

 

Personal preference. When working properly, OSS presents a nice, graphical boot screen with icons showing the operating system choices. When working properly, it is easier to set up without delving into the command line syntax of Ubuntu's boot manager (GRUB). However, the "when working properly" is the caveat. If something doesn't work properly then OSS can be a bear to troubleshoot. MudCrab is the resident forum expert on OSS and may be able to help.

On the other hand, if you learn GRUB's syntax, which is somewhat esoteric, then there is nothing wrong with using GRUB as a boot manager. You can make it do almost any boot task but you have to be willing to read and understand the documentation. The interface is plain, but it does work. Personally, I use GRUB and prefer it over OSS.

 

Because of the age of DD/OSS, some computers (especially newer ones) are not correctly supported. Usually, this results in either the keyboard and/or mouse not working correctly. Besides checking the Legacy USB option in the BIOS there's not much you can do except contact Acronis Support and submit a request for a build that supports your hardware.

If OSS was installed, the file has to exist somewhere or else the program wouldn't be able to run at all.

 

Thanks lots, Mark And MudCrab.

Mark, I would much prefer OSS - the graphical interface, since am a novice to GRUB and Linux, but hope to learn the basics and more over time.

Installed DD-10 etc. on the XP pro partition. Neither Vista nor XP are OEM versions.

A few notes: While when starting up I can only use the arrow keys and <enter> to select the OS, as soon as I get in I have an OSS desktop icon, and when opening that things work fine, mouse and everything. Click on Vista, and it reboots to the Vista boot menu (Vista or earlier version of windows) or Linux. Click on Linux, and it goes into the Ubuntu boot loader, with Vista Longhorn at the bottom, but no XP - but you get that option when choosing Vista, i.e. earlier version of window.

And funnier still, both when starting up, or when entering from the desktop, the OSS lists Vista business (English), XP Pro (Norwegian), and Linux.
Problem? I don't have Vista English on there, only the Norwegian version.


MudCrab, (both machines are only a few months old), on the DD-10 partition (XP) have bootwiz - (microsoft office search), bootwiz.txt, bootwiz (search in office),bootwiz.key - and a couple of these are related to MS Outlook it seems. Have looked both inside and outside the bootwiz folders.

No Bootwiz.OSS - in fact no .OSS file at all on this partition. Have searched for bootwiz, Bootwiz.OSS, *.OSS etc, and include hidden files, folders and system files.

When going into Vista, in the Bootwiz folder there - is a file called context.OSS.

Am am enclosing both bootwiz.txt and context.OSS (which I renamed context.txt)

When time permits, kindly take a look and see if this makes any sense, I am in no hurry.
(having resigned myself to the fact that paying $250 US for all this (locally) was maybe not such a good idea, since already have used gparted, and have partition magic 7.)

Oh and PS, yesterday I did something very unwise. Installed the OSS on my main machine (already had DD-10 on the Vista partition there), and that was that. It froze completely on startup, had to use the Media-Builder CD to uninstall, and then my fine GRUB bootmenu was gone, could not boot at all. Using the Vista CD to repair didn't work, doing a systemrestore didn't work, doing a FDISK /mbr and then repairing with the Vista CD worked, but the GRUB loader is still gone - so am having some fun with that.

Time to make a BartPE disc!

When did you say -- are Acronis coming out with an update covering the newer machines?

I'll contact tech support on this.

Thanks again for your help, this space is so filled with useful information it is becoming a favorite!

 

TrondE:

About restoring GRUB on your main machine- are you a True Image user? If so and if you have an image from when GRUB was working then restore just MBR and Track 0 from the image and your GRUB menu will return.

 

Haven't installed it yet, Mark - the local vendor talked me into the TI Echo Workstation 9.5 instead of the Home edition, and it seems to require a server address (which I don't have yet), before it will install itself, but I'll take that up in the other forum after trying some more.

Will contact Acronis support regarding this OSS thing, tried it on an older machine and again it didn't work.

 

TrondE,

I looked at your attached files but they are not the correct ones to be able really tell anything about OSS.

For Echo 9.5, I've installed it several times and it never asked for a server address. Are you sure you're just installing TIEW and not one of the other programs (Agent, etc.)? TIEW looks a lot like TI 10 when run except it has more options. If you don't need the "network" control programs, you don't have to install them.

 

Thanks MudCrab.
Those are the only .OSS or similar files on this machine, be it in XP or Vista. Installed XP first.

Since this is a borrowed test machine (A Dell Optiplex 745, but with own XP installed - over the originel Dell XP installation), I can do an DD-10 uninstall, then use the Acronis Cleanup Program, and try over, if that may help.
Kindly advice on that.

Should I then also reset the MBR, i.e. FDISK /MBR?

I'll try installing the TI again, let you know in the TI forum if encounter any problems.

(Sorry to be such a pain, but Acronis came so highly recommended and really looked forard to using it, so am just a little frustrated about the OSS. The Disk Director works like a charm though, and am enjoying that, learning it more and more.)

 

If OSS is installed, you should have a BOOTWIZ folder on almost every (if not every) partition. The main BOOTWIZ folder is hidden. If you did a default installation of OSS, it probably selected the currently Active partition (the booting partition). Are you sure you enabled viewing of Hidden and System Files?

If you boot to the DD CD and browse your partitions, can you find the main OSS BOOTWIZ folder?

If you really can't find it anywhere, you'll probably have to reinstall OSS. You shouldn't need to reset the MBR as OSS will take that over. DD and/or TI shouldn't need to be reinstalled. You can install/reinstall OSS from the DD CD or from Windows (if you installed DD in Windows). If the OSS programs are not included on your DD CD, create another CD that does include them. It can be very handy to have the programs on the DD CD.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, and pardon the late reply, am trying to get some vacation days in between

I do have a bootwiz folder on both the XP and Vista partition, and have enabled viewing hidden files and folders and system-files.

Problem is, have no bootwiz.oss file anywhere, only the "context.oss" file (in the Vista partition) which I copied then saved as context.txt, and a bootwiz.txt in the XP partition (where DD is installed) (installed XP first, then Vista) - and when I enclosed the latter file here, it showed up as "bootwiz.log".

Bought these programs via download on the web, and made a bootable media CD, but when booting from that, and clicking on DD suite (recommended) it can't find any hard disks.

I'll try just uninstalling the OSS, and if that doesn't work, I'll uninstall the whole DD suite, use the cleanup program, reset the MBR, and try again, unless you have other suggestions.

Could Dell with their own tiny proprietary partition (that you just cannot get rid of) have anything to do with this?

2nd question, on my main machine where I intend to use this, and where the OSS just crashed the Booting ability altogether, could Ubuntu and its bootloader have anything to do with this? Is there an idea to uninstall ubuntu, also the Disk Director suite, and then reinstall DD before reinstalling Ubuntu?

Thanks again, I'll get it working sooner or later.

 

If you do reinstall OSS, you could select the custom install option and select the partition for the installation. That way, you'll know where it is.

With Ubuntu, you should have the choice of either installing GRUB into the MBR or the Ubuntu partition's boot sector. I usually select the boot sector and leave the MBR alone. However, I have done it the other way and it worked too (you may need to reactive OSS after Ubuntu is installed).