Server 2003 Multi-boot

Does anybody have any experience of installing Windows Server 2003 on an OSS multi-boot system?

I currently have an OSS setup booting a number of XP / Vista versions.
When I try to install Server 2003 on a new partition, I get a blue screen STOP 7B error.
Is there some conflict between using OSS boot manager and what the Server 2003 install cd is expecting?

Any help on this one would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Krachmacher

 

I've been running server 2003 for some years now, and it's always dual booted fine with windows xp. Recently, I tried to setup a dual boot with windows server 2008 (which is similar in code to vista) and I too, got a blue screen.

My guess is that the problem may have nothing to do with acronis, but rather conflicting ways that server 2003 and vista approach boot up. Im working on a solution to the dual boot situation myself.

Good luck

 

Can you post the exact steps you used when installing Server 2003?

Did you try to install it manually or by using the CD icon in OSS?

Was Server 2003 installed to a partition on the booting hard drive or onto another hard drive?

Did OSS detect Server 2003 correctly and setup the menu entry for it?

 

I just thought about something - you say you already have vista installed?

You'd have to first have windows server 2003 installed, then install vista- you have to install the older operating system first.

 

When using OSS, the installation order doesn't matter (in most cases). It only matters if you're using the Windows bootmanager since only newer versions of Windows will detect older versions.

 

He could always try it without oss and see if that does it, but thats getting into some time and experimentation.

 

OK, here are the exact steps I took to try to install Server 2003.

1. Boot from the Acronis recovery CD and go to DD Safe Mode
2. Make sure the target partition for the install is Active, Not Hidden and all others Hidden
3. Boot from the Server 2003 CD
4. The Server Install prompts me to choose between Standard & Enterprise editions. I choose Standard.
5. I then see some standard Windows install stuff.....loading drivers etc
6. Thats it - this is when I get the blue screen. It doesn't even get as far as prompting me to choose install partition.

 

I don't think i've ever had that happen - I don't think oss is a contributing factor in this case.

What you may have to do, is to update your acronis image (on another disk or partition, right?), then boot with the windows server 2003 cd, let it format the drive, then try installing it. If all goes well, you can then move on to installing vista. If all still goes well, lastly work with acronis oss.

If something blue screens on you, you can always recover back to where you are now with your acronis rescue cd and image you'll update before trying this.

It depends on how important this is to you, if you want to go to the effort required- sometimes you just gotta roll up your sleeves and experiment.

 

It sounds like you're trying a manual install. Is OSS deactivated? It should work either way, though.

Do you have a spare drive you could try the install on to see if it's just the computer/Server mix that's causing the problem?

Do you need to F6 in any drivers for your system?

If Server isn't even getting to the install screen, then I doubt OSS is causing any problems.

Do you know if the Server version can "see" hidden partitions (like Windows 2000 can)? If it can, perhaps it's having a problem with that. To fix that, you'd have to install FROM OSS and select the option to Force Hide all the other partitions.

Personally, I'd try the install on a spare drive first to eliminate the possibility of a hardware conflict before messing with the existing drive.

I do hope you have a good backup image of the existing drive in case you need it.

 

Let us know what happens with it

 

I've installed Server 2003 successfully on another test machine. This did have OSS with XP / Vista boots, and I installed 2003 manually. After the install, OSS seems to have disappeared (when I try to activate from the rescue disk, it fails). I dont really need multi-boot on this machine, I'll just use it now as a test 2003 server, I dont want to risk messing up the server by attempting to recover the other boots.

I'm thinking the problem with the other machine may be due to the fact that it has a dual-disc that was originally set up as RAID and I split to 2 separate discs. Maybe I do need to F6 at install time to load RAID drivers. Funny that XP/Vista install never complains though.

Thanks for all yer help,
Krachmacher