System Commander 7, XP, Vista

[fross-perry]

I would like some feedback on this before I try it again. Thanks.

I am using System Commander 7.05 on my PC. My hard drive has four
primary
partitions that contain, respecitvely, Win98 (FAT), Window 2000 (NTFS),
XP (NTFS) and XP Japanese (NTFS). This all working swell.

Now I want to add Vista. But because I have four primaries I cannot
simply add it.
So I deleted the XP Japanese partition and moved another partition,
putting all the
contiguous free space at the end.

Next I boot the Vista DVD and install Vista, letting the Vista
installer format the
free space for it. This goes fine as well.

I boot Vista and notice that I can actually access the other two NTFS
partitions, which I
could not do in XP. Hmm.

Last step, which I have done before, is to boot from the SC diskette
and run CHECKMBR,
which restores the SC MBR.

Now I only have one choice in my SC menu where I had four before, and
it will not boot.

Thoughts?

Thanks,
Fred, San Rafael, CA

 

[Glen]

Download Bootitng and use it. It looks like SC has resored a standard mbr.
Bootitng will still be able to see the other operating systems and boot
them. It can even boot more than 4 primary partitions so you can use xp Jap
if you want.

 

[Jonny]

Never did that way before. Same SC version here. Did you try a clean
install of SC instead from the diskette? You should at least be able to
access all the partitions at that point, and do the windows SC install on
the OS of your choice at that point. Or, changing the active partition and
reinstalling SC to the OS you want those SC graphics menu files to reside
in?

I can't "see" my 98SE or ME partition in XP, hidden by the SC setup menu by
my choice. FAT32 for those, NTFS for XP.

When you install a MS windows OS, the mbr is wiped out. Installs a new one.
Any "hidden" partitions are revealed again. SC does not alter the mbr
itself except providing pointer to the SC boot files, just redirects the PC.
SC's boot files are in the mbr region of the hard drive, but do not reside
as part of the mbr. SC boot files, one them, point at the SC graphic menu
related files residing in one of your boot partitions.

There no reason Vista should not see the other NTFS partitions, and the
previous graphics menu related setup in SC is no longer applicable. You
changed that that when you installed Vista.

 

[fross-perry]

OK, I tried this.

restored original four-partition drive
reformatted XP japanese
installed Vista there
restored MBR

This did not involve moving any partitions.

Now I can get the other three to boot OK, but not Vista.
I get a black screen titled "Windows Boot Manager" and a complaint
about \windows\system32\winload.exe.

thoughts?

 

[Richard Urban]

I am using System Commander 2000 to boot the Win98se version of DOS (the DOS
partition also contains System Commander, Drive Image 7.01 and Partition
Magic 8.01), Windows XP and Windows Vista 5384.4.

When booted into either Windows XP or Vista 5384, the booted O/S is seen as
drive/partition C: and the other operating system is not seen at all.

Drive preparation is the key. It is also very dependent upon HOW you have
installed the various operating systems and the type of partitions you have
them installed to.

It also depends upon the methodology used during the various installs and
the System Commander options used after the installs have been completed.

The easiest way I have found to accomplish the above is to start with an
absolutely clean computer - in other words, a hard drive with nothing on it.
Determine the operating systems you want to install and create the
partitions before hand using the Partition Magic 8.01 floppy disks. All,
important - ***ALL*** partitions must be primary DOS partitions. Leave
logical partitions for your data, not for the operating systems. Primary DOS
partitions can be hidden using System Commander options. Logical partitions
can not.

I have set up computers for my family, and a few "close" friends as above. I
could not begin to charge enough to do it for a plain acquaintance, as time
from start to finish is multiple 10's of hours. And that is without
installing any system protection utilities, configuring same etc.



--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User
(For email, remove the obvious from my address)

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Jonny]

Nope, you originally said and I quote "So I deleted the XP Japanese
partition and moved another partition,
putting all the contiguous free space at the end."

 

[fross-perry]

Jonny, sorry if there is any confusion here. I have done this twice.
The first time
I moved a partition and got completely hosed. The second time I did
not change
the order of the partitions, I just made one of them larger and
installed Vista to it.
After running CHECKMBR, I can boot three of the four as before, but not
Vista.