Vista Partition boot (in dual boot system) does not complete after partition resizing

Dual boot: C: (XP Pro), V: (Vista). Used Disk Director Suite 10.0 to increase V: and shrink C:. PC went through its paces w/ Disk Director, then asked for Vista repair disk (to repair dual boot configuration?). When it rebooted to Vista, PC hangs up on configuring new desktop. Why? I saw on Disk Director cd boot that V parition now is D partition, and I think that the system is looking for files on V: but it instead sees D:!! Even reinstalling current image with True Image 10.0 did not correct this problem!! Is there a way to change the drive letter using Disk Director boot CD BEFORE my PC bots to Vista, as I get errors when the desktop attempts to load (it is NOT loading everything that needs to load to access ANYTHING on the PC). I cannot run such progs as System Restore, either, as there is not enough of the OS loading to allow me to do this!! HELP!!!!!

 

Regardless what I do (such as reinstate my Vista partition, repair my XP partition, reinstall Vista System 32 folder from Acronis backup), I STILL cannot get Vista to boot to desktop--it still hangs (does not fully load), but if I go in to Task Manager and load "explorer" I DO get a busted down desktop. some of my program icons are there, but I ALSO get a message that my personality did not properly load and I should check the log.

HELP!! I really am stuck and would appreciate whatever assistance my fellow Forum members can offer. I now am thinking of just throwing in the towel and eliminating the two partitions and just installing Vista fresh on the C: drive (one partition). What do you think?

Yes, I DID try to install DD on my current XP C: partition, but when I ran DD it informed me that there were no hard drives seen!! I think that my Hard Drive really is messed up, for nothing seems to work. I even had the same message when I tried to install Vista OVER XP (in XP, as my Vista install disk instructed me to do!!).

If there is a fix that would prevent all of this clean install work, I would like to know this before I cloister myself in my office for the whole weekend; if not, at least I asked.

So again, I kindly ask that if anyone knows what's going on (per my other posts, too) PLEASE HELP ME! I will forever be grateful!!

Thanks in advance, folks!!!

 

Re: Vista Partition boot (in dual boot system) does not complete after partition resi

Richkut:

I've read your other posts but have not responded because I can't think of what might have gone wrong. Have you tried creating a new user account in Vista to see if the new account will work correctly?

If it does, perhaps you can get it set up and then delete your existing user account.

 

Hmmmmm...are you suggesting that I let it boot to Vista, and when it hangs in the desktop use task manager to run explorer, then go into control panel and switch my admin profile to a user profile and THEN create a new admin personality? Has anyone ever tried this, and if so did it make things better or wrose??!!

 

I'm only thinking that there is some problem with your current user profile. So if you can get it to start into Vista, go to the control panel and choose "User Accounts" and see if you can create a new user account. Log out and then log into the new account and see if it works.

 

Rich,

If you can not fix you what you have and you try it again from a clean Vista install. Here are some things to watch out for which I believe to be true (in some cases):

Install DD on the new Vista C: and make a bootable recovery CD.
Reboot to the Recovey CD and do your all partition operations from there. The desktop icon can only be used safely for viewing.

It seems to be critical when you install OSS and I cant tell you exactly when to do it for Vista\XP.

When you go to install XP, hide the vista partition and make the XP partition Active. Do this from DD recovery CD not OSS. DD will name the new active C: You should not have to rename it. Take Recovery CD out and reboot. You should get an XP partition C: Check to see if indeed you are not on the Vista partition. Install XP.

Maybe, you essentially did this the first time?

I am unclear what to do next because as I say at which point you run OSS seems to be critical for success.

I have not done Vista\XP yet, I did get win98\win31 working to learn the basics. Next I am going to try Vista\win98.

MangoMan

 

...and when done reinstalling XP, I assume that I unhide the Vista partition? Then what OS partition is lettered C:, and what is the other partition's Drive letter?

 

What are you currently (and planning on) using as the bootmanager? Vista's bootmanager? Acronis OSS? BING?

Ususally when multi-booting it's best to keep the primary OS partitions from seeing each other. This will allow ALL of them to be the C: drive. If you need to have access to files on the other OS partition(s) then you should create a share partition that you can access from all OS's.

Like this: [VISTA 80GB Primary][XP HOME 40GB Primary][DATA 30GB (primary or logical)]

When Vista is booted, the Vista partition is Primary/Active and the XP partition is hidden. Vista will be the C: drive and Data will be the D: drive.

When XP is booted, the XP partition is Primary/Active and the Vista partition is hidden. XP will be the C: drive and Data will be the D: drive.

As far as I know, Vista's boot manager won't do this. It lets you see the "old" OS partition.

Do you use True Image? Do you have a complete image of the drive before you made the resize to the partitions? It would have to be a complete drive image backup, not just the partition because you'd need to restore the entire drive image (check the "disk #" box). If so, have you restored that image and gotten a working system? If it doesn't work, you could try wiping the drive with DD first and then try the restore again.

If you get a working system from the restore. You may be better off to try resizing the partitions using Vista Disk Manager instead of DD. That is, if the resize is the only change you wanted.

As for the drive letters being different in DD when booted from the rescue cd, that is perfectly normal. DD is just listing them and assigning letters. It does not show the letters as they would be when booted into either OS. That's why you can't go by the drive letter(s) in DD or TI. You have to go by the partitions (which are hopefully labeled with meaningful names) so you know which ones you're working with.

 

Thanks for so much helpful info. I will try to see if any of this works now, and report back. Just two more questions, though: how do you create a share paritition to see both OS partitions? ...and if I have a restored V: partition later listed as C:, will all of the programs work (e.g., will the registry self-correct its pointers so that the data is seen on C: rather than V:?)?

By the way, I would LIKE to use Acronis OSS, if I can get it to work (one thing at a time!).

 

If you restore the V: partition image to the first partition on the hard drive and run Vista repair, you may get a bootable system, but I don't think the drive letter will change. When Vista boots it will probably still be the V: drive. That is why I recommended a clean install to get things straightned out and break the boot-link between XP and Vista caused by Vista's bootloader.

Using DD, you can create your partitions like this: Clear all the partitions, create a primary active NTFS partition for Vista (make it the size you want), create a primary NTFS partition for XP and then HIDE it, then create another partition in the remaining unallocated space that will be the D: drive in both the XP and Vista boots.

Like this: [VISTA 80GB Primary][XP HOME 40GB Primary][DATA 30GB (primary or logical)]

With the Vista partition marked Active and the XP partition marked Hidden, boot from the Vista DVD and install Vista. It should go in as the C: drive and recognize the DATA partition as the D: drive.

Once you get that far, I would recommend doing a complete drive backup with TI so you can return to this point later if something goes wrong with the XP install.

Then install DD in Vista and install OSS. Make sure OSS works and lets you load into Vista before proceeding.

 

...and so all DATA files for both OSs should be pointed to write to the D: partition? Won't this potentially cause confusion if I use the same prog in both XP and Vista (say MS Word, for example)? Won't both write/overwrite the same file, too? Right now I have all data write to the respective boot drive. So how do you do it? I know for sure that I first will try reinstating with a complete image backup (I think that I have one), which (correct me if I am wrong) will get me back where I started the other day (except for any chenged data files, which I have handy backed up on a thumb drive, thank goodness!). If successful with the image restore, this will NOT change the new partition sizes (the process that got me where I am today), will it? Wish me luck!!

 

The DATA/SHARE partition is just used as an easy way to transfer files between the OS's since they can't "see" eachother. You can store whatever you want there. Depending on how you use your dual-boot system, you may not need to transfer files between them.

Just think of using it instead of copying a file to a flash drive, then rebooting into the other OS and then copying the file back. Since both OS's have access to the DATA/SHARE partition, files that are need/used in both OS's can be stored there.

For example: I have most of my downloads (program, updates, game patches, etc.) stored on a share on my network. I can access these files from any computer and from any OS booted on the computer.

If you store a Word file in the shared partition you'll be able to open/edit it with either OS. As far as file version differences go (Word 2000 vs. Word 2007, for example) you'd have that problem anyway.