Swapping to OS Selector from Bootmagic

I've used DD10 for quite some time, but have stuck with Powerquest Bootmagic - simply because it was installed and working.

Intending to move to DD OS Selector (saves a primary partition). Two questions:
1. should I uninstall Bootmagic first, or will OS selector just overwrite the MBR anyway, so it won't make any difference?
2. Reading some forum threads, OS selector seems to have some 'issues'. So, is it a good move a good move to do this, or would I be advised to stick with tried and trusted Bootmagic?

 

It would help to know what your current setup is.

What operating systems are you booting?

What is your current partition layout?

Are operating systems hidden from each other?

Is the extra Primary partition necessary?

OSS does have some bugs, but most of them can be worked around. I haven't used Bootmagic so I don't know its booting process. I would expect that just overwriting the MBR would allow OSS to take over (as when you install OSS). You'd basically be in the same position as if an OS installation wrote over the MBR and you needed to "repair" Bootmagic to get it working again. However, if OSS recognizes Bootmagic, it may try to "chainload" to it like it does with Vista's boot manager and that doesn't work very well.

If you want to try OSS, I recommend you make an Entire Disk Image backup of the drive before you install it. If it works okay and you like it, you could then make the partitioning changes you want (like removing the Bootmagic partition).

 

NickWhitehead,

BootMagic is a basic boot manager. But if it works .....

if you want to get rid of it, use the uninstall. If that doesn't work replace the boot code with a standard MBR eg fdisk /mbr or fixmbr. Then delete the btmagic.pq folder from C:\ and delete the BootMagic FAT partition.

 

Main one is W2000, about to swap to XP Pro.

Loads of partitions, basically
- a primary as a test partition for different OSs (loaded with whatever vanilla OS I need to try software releases on - I keep a set of images)
- a small primary with the Bootmagic magic stuff (can't recall the details but think that is a requirement of Bootmagic)
- a primary that is the main W2000 boot partition (as above)
- an extended that has a load of logical partitions for various things, including another bootable W2000 installation (booted via the NTloader in the main W2000 partition), simply used to do a True Image backup of the main partition, as I don't trust 'live' backup

Yes, they are all hidden from each other, except when doing the True Image backup.

The extra one seems necessary for Bootmagic, as I recall. Bit of a waste of a primary partition, really.