SOS! OSS OS Selector buggers VISTA booting

SOS! OSS OS Selector buggers VISTA booting

I can't find this very simple case in the forum (see below).

In full: I have a VISTA notebook with an interesting, unchangeable BIOS entry: "Factory installed OS: VISTA".

Factory disk state was: C:VISTA 140GB | D:RECOVERY 8GB

After installing Disk Director Suite 10 (newly purchased only days ago)
and JUST repartitioning the HD to
C:VISTA 80GB | D:RECOVERY 8GB | E:WINME 60GB
before booting, Disk Director appeared telling "No harddisc drives found!".

In between it was hard to recover it by recovery CD, because it won't repartition, so I had to do this manually, but this is a COMPAQ problem.

I reinstalled Vista and DDS 10. I urgently RECOMMEND to do any repartition task STEP BY STEP, not as a collected batch!!! This worked.


* * * N O W * * *
everything was running again and repartitioned as I wished. When booting from floppy and setting E: or C:Active respectively, it was possible to install and boot WINME or VISTA alternately. I got bold enough to install OS SELECTOR - which is running at booting and recognized WINME - but not VISTA!!!

Trying again only leads to "no harddisk found". Gruesome!

HELP! And thanks...

 

All advice I meanwhile found in this forum did not help.
I tried to "cheat" the OSS with copying

ntldr
boot.ini
ntdetect.com

and made a bootsec.vis using tinyhexer
but none helped! OSS will not find it as an OS :-(

 

Are you using build 2,160 or later of DD/OSS? If so, the "cheat" method you used doesn't work. If not, update and see if it finds Vista.

Have you tried using the Safe Mode version of DD from the DD CD? This mode is DOS-based and uses the BIOS to access the drives and is the same mode OSS uses. If OSS sees the drive okay, DD Safe Mode should too.

---

OSS has a problem detecting some brand-name OEM installations of Vista. Acronis knows this, but hasn't released an update fixing the problem. In most cases, adding Vista manually allows it to work. If you post the BOOTWIZ.OSS file (as BOOTWIZ.TXT), I'll take a look at it (instructions can be found here).

 

1. I have the newest german sales version 2,161.
Can't find how to enter a Safe Mode (do you mean something like safe booting with F5/F8?)
2. OSSelector AFTER BOOTING doesn't find the hdisk. In windows it will not find the Vistapartition as bootable OS, just WINME, even with Extras->detect OS.
3. bootwiz.oss see below. I'm stunning at the checkfiles section. Why are these files registered when not helping anything? I can imagine to edit this file, but how?
Many thanks for more
ROMBert

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
<bootwiz>
<disks>
<id4058854020 bios_num="128" crc="370419672" real_bios_num="128" serial="15504" size="312581807" />
</disks>
<cds>
<cd id="235542381" md5_summ="438832e6909a84c467dfceed5948703a" />
</cds>
<partitions>
<id4129740838 begin="63" crc="59422" disk="4058854020" fs="ntfs" number="1" serial="53c356f80557f876" size="185197257" type="7" />
<id2248681045 begin="185197320" crc="26157" disk="4058854020" fs="fat32" number="2" serial="44e31963" size="109659690" type="12" />
<id2028488841 begin="294864896" crc="25625" disk="4058854020" fs="ntfs" number="3" serial="959b5910b4591016" size="17704960" type="7" />
</partitions>
<oses>
<id1353883990 boot_as_ms71="1" boot_as_os2="0" boot_cd_entry="0" boot_partition="2248681045" bootname="bootsect.sys" icon="icon_sys_winold" language="german" lba="1" name_template="%n%l %l(%ll%l)" nthide="0" os_type="winme" uninstall_info="1" use_manual_disks_order="0" write_boot="1">
<partitions>
<id4129740838 active="1" />
</partitions>
</id1353883990>
<id2385152349 boot_as_ms71="0" boot_as_os2="0" boot_cd="235542381" boot_cd_entry="0" icon="icon_sys_unknown" language="" lba="1" locked="1" name_template="Von CD booten" nthide="0" os_type="cd" use_manual_disks_order="0" write_boot="0">
<partitions>
<id4129740838 active="1" />
</partitions>
</id2385152349>
</oses>
<checkfiles>
<checkfile crc="32305" name="ntldr" partition="4129740838" size="251712" />
<checkfile crc="8664" name="boot.ini" partition="4129740838" size="162" />
<checkfile crc="57878" name="io.sys" partition="2248681045" size="110592" />
</checkfiles>
<bootmgr default_os="1353883990" disks_order_feature="1" />
<uninstall_info>
<active_lba_state>
<p1-1 active="1" />
<p1-2 lba="1" />
<p1-3 />
</active_lba_state>
</uninstall_info>
</bootwiz>

 

oh pity, no answer.
but i'll add that i have oem vista from compaq presario notebook...
best regards
rombert

 

Okay.

No. When you create the DD/OSS CD using the Acronis Media Builder program, you can select which programs you want to include. In most cases, it's best to include them all (DD Full, DD Safe and the OSS programs). This gives you access to them from the main Acronis menu when you boot the CD.

You say that OSS doesn't find the hard drive. However, since OSS found Windows ME and you can boot it from the OSS menu, it must have found the drive.

I'll look at the file. I didn't see it the last time I looked at the thread, but you edited it so maybe it wasn't there then.

As a note, I much prefer that the file be attached to the post instead of pasted in. It takes more time to fix the pasted file and I've stated this in many posts and on the instructions.

 

Here is a modified BOOTWIZ.OSS file to try. Please delete the files you copied to the Vista partition when you tried the "cheat" method (ntldr, boot.ini, ntdetect.com) as they may cause confusion.

 

Dear Mudcrab,
thanks for your bootwiz.oss.
Now it shows "winme" and "vista manual".
in Extras-Options-Start Options (german version) I select "Startup with delay 7 sec". There arises no startup message. If I declare "Off", I expect to get a selection message at startup - but there is none and Vista starts. With "Instantly" and /or Escape it's the same. I don't dare to select winme, for I don't know how to reset this.

With the rescue media I'd ask why should it do something else than the Original CD? Ok. I created one. It works!
- DDS normal doessn't find a HDD again and reboots.
- DDS safe mode finds the partitions.
- "Activate OSS-Selector Activate" - runs and reboots. Let's see: Oh, OSS looks like in Vista. I select Vista and it boots.
Next time startup: "Acronis boot Loader... Press ESC for menu". Pressing ESC is a mistake. Vista loads directly. Pressing F6 is a mistake. Rescue Disk again? Activating OS-Selector again does no change.

Back in Vista, I setup to 7 seconds delay again. Now I can select WinME, it starts, but after shutting down and restarting VISTA is active again...

Exhausting, isn't it?

 

Are you saying that you don't get the OSS menu on boot-up except for the first time after OSS is reactivated by using the CD? It sounds like this worked only one time and then it didn't help anymore.

Is Vista set as the default OS?

When you make the changes for the time-out and the default OS, are those changes remaining set when you reboot and start OSS or are they reverting to some other values?

Pressing either ESC or F6 is very tricking with OSS. From what I've read, you need to press the key immediately when the text is displayed or even before the text is displayed. If you wait, neither seems to do anything.

Have you tried reactivating OSS from Windows?

 

Warning of using OSS with new VISTA editions

In the configuration I told: yes. It worked once. Entering the menu didn't work satisfactorily, and not because startup timing, I do know when to press the keys. Vista always was set default (because there runs OSS, I hoped).
Yes, normally the changes remained, but were bad in itself for being infunctional.

I am a computer scientist, no beginner or so.

Since using DDS/OSS I'm continuously working in long-lasting "rescue" and "emergency" conditions. After all, OSS did recognize neither VISTA nor ME. Obviously it is not able to respect a newly connected USB-3,5"-Floppy with my ME-Startdisk. Or, more precisely, now both HD-bootsectors are away and I just can chose the OSS-entry "Boot from 3,5"-Disk" and remember how to work with FDISK - what deflating!

Don't know what DDS and OSS is good for. Even for beginners, It seems to be easier using the partitioning tools (FDSIK, DISKPART) of the OSes to set active the appropriate OS manually. I'll write a slip of paper for my end user.