hiding vista and xp partitions

[John Barnes]

Testing it is your best bet. Then you will know for sure with your setup.

 

[michail iakovou yos]

Nope acronis did not work... I hid the vista partition.. but vista could not
boot anymore
I had to undo the hiding to be able to boot there

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

The problem isn't caused by system restore. System restore is one of the
victims, not the perpertrator. Changing the drive enumeration doesn't help
either. The issue is caused by the incompatibility of XP volsnap.sys and
Vista volsnap.sys. Volsnap.sys, the VSS driver, operates system-wide.
Volsnap.sys runs on startup unless you boot into Safe Mode. On startup it
enumerates all snapshots on all the volumes it can see. When you boot into
XP, the XP version of volsnap.sys is going to determine that the snapshots
taken by the Vista volsnap.sys are in an incorrect format and delete them.
That includes system restore points, previous versions of files, backup
files, and CompletePC Backup images if connected to the system.

The problem isn't confined to Vista created VSS files either. Many ISV's
now leverage volsnap.sys in their programs. I understand that some of the
third party backup utilities rely on VSS during backup creation.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

The poster also reported back that the Disk Director part of the Acronis
suite did not succeed in hiding the Vista partition as needed to prevent the
issue. Apparently, an update to DD will be needed.

 

[Alexander Suhovey]

Volsnap.sys runs on startup unless you boot into Safe Mode. On startup it

enumerates all snapshots on all the volumes it can see.

Even if a volume does not have any drive letters/mount points assigned?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Try it. If XP volsnap.sys can enumerate the snapshots, then it will kill
them. If it can't, then it won't. Are you using any drives without
letters/mount points? Is such a drive usable?

 

[Alexander Suhovey]

Sorry, I'm not that good at English so I didn't fully understand your
answer. By "try it" did you mean you don't know or "try it and you'll see
I'm right"?

As for volumes, I was using this approach (unassign drive letter for volume
with another OS) for my test multi-boot computers with different versions of
Windows to isolate them from each other mainly in terms of recycle bin,
system restore, indexing and disk access in general. I'd be interested to
hear if volumes without drive letters/mount points are still being accessed
by OS for whatever reason and being writed to.

 

[michail iakovou yos]

I'd be interested to hear if volumes without drive letters/mount points

are still being accessed by OS for whatever reason and being writed to.

how do you achieve this?

 

[DCR]

In XP: START>All Programs>Accessories>Administrative Tools>Computer Management
Highlight Disk Management
Right click Vista partition
Click Change Drive Letter and Paths
Click Change Button
Deselect Assign the following drive letter
Click OK to accept change

NOTE: This method does NOT prevent the Vista restore points from being deleted anyway.
I have tried it, it does NOT work

I am currently testing the method of disabling monitoring of the Vista drive by XP's
System Restore service.
Control Panel>System>System Restore Tab
Select Drive
Settings
Check Turn off System Restore on this Drive

I will post results of this test.


DCR


|> I'd be interested to hear if volumes without drive letters/mount points
| > are still being accessed by OS for whatever reason and being writed to.
|
|
| how do you achieve this?
|
|
| | > Sorry, I'm not that good at English so I didn't fully understand your
| > answer. By "try it" did you mean you don't know or "try it and you'll see
| > I'm right"?
| >
| > As for volumes, I was using this approach (unassign drive letter for
| > volume with another OS) for my test multi-boot computers with different
| > versions of Windows to isolate them from each other mainly in terms of
| > recycle bin, system restore, indexing and disk access in general. I'd be
| > interested to hear if volumes without drive letters/mount points are still
| > being accessed by OS for whatever reason and being writed to.
| >
| > --
| > Alexander Suhovey
| >
| > | >> Try it. If XP volsnap.sys can enumerate the snapshots, then it will kill
| >> them. If it can't, then it won't. Are you using any drives without
| >> letters/mount points? Is such a drive usable?
| >>
| >> | >>>> Volsnap.sys runs on startup unless you boot into Safe Mode. On startup
| >>>> it enumerates all snapshots on all the volumes it can see.
| >>>
| >>> Even if a volume does not have any drive letters/mount points assigned?
| >>>
| >>> --
| >>
| >
|
|

 

[MICHAEL]

In XP: START>All Programs>Accessories>Administrative Tools>Computer Management
Highlight Disk Management
Right click Vista partition
Click Change Drive Letter and Paths
Click Change Button
Deselect Assign the following drive letter
Click OK to accept change

NOTE: This method does NOT prevent the Vista restore points from being deleted anyway.
I have tried it, it does NOT work

I am currently testing the method of disabling monitoring of the Vista drive by XP's
System Restore service.
Control Panel>System>System Restore Tab
Select Drive
Settings
Check Turn off System Restore on this Drive

I will post results of this test.

That's not going to work. The problem is deeper than that-
it's called volsnap.sys. System Restore will use volsnap.sys
but it doesn't control the deletion of Vista's restore points.


-Michael

 

[DCR]

I feared as much..
Just wanted to give it a fly-by though...
No harm to be done.

DCR


|
| > In XP: START>All Programs>Accessories>Administrative Tools>Computer Management
| > Highlight Disk Management
| > Right click Vista partition
| > Click Change Drive Letter and Paths
| > Click Change Button
| > Deselect Assign the following drive letter
| > Click OK to accept change
| >
| > NOTE: This method does NOT prevent the Vista restore points from being deleted anyway.
| > I have tried it, it does NOT work
| >
| > I am currently testing the method of disabling monitoring of the Vista drive by XP's
| > System Restore service.
| > Control Panel>System>System Restore Tab
| > Select Drive
| > Settings
| > Check Turn off System Restore on this Drive
| >
| > I will post results of this test.
|
| That's not going to work. The problem is deeper than that-
| it's called volsnap.sys. System Restore will use volsnap.sys
| but it doesn't control the deletion of Vista's restore points.
|
|
| -Michael
|
| > | > |> I'd be interested to hear if volumes without drive letters/mount points
| > | > are still being accessed by OS for whatever reason and being writed to.
| > |
| > |
| > | how do you achieve this?
| > |
| > |
| > | | > | > Sorry, I'm not that good at English so I didn't fully understand your
| > | > answer. By "try it" did you mean you don't know or "try it and you'll see
| > | > I'm right"?
| > | >
| > | > As for volumes, I was using this approach (unassign drive letter for
| > | > volume with another OS) for my test multi-boot computers with different
| > | > versions of Windows to isolate them from each other mainly in terms of
| > | > recycle bin, system restore, indexing and disk access in general. I'd be
| > | > interested to hear if volumes without drive letters/mount points are still
| > | > being accessed by OS for whatever reason and being writed to.
| > | >
| > | > --
| > | > Alexander Suhovey
| > | >
| > | > | > | >> Try it. If XP volsnap.sys can enumerate the snapshots, then it will kill
| > | >> them. If it can't, then it won't. Are you using any drives without
| > | >> letters/mount points? Is such a drive usable?
| > | >>
| > | >> | > | >>>> Volsnap.sys runs on startup unless you boot into Safe Mode. On startup
| > | >>>> it enumerates all snapshots on all the volumes it can see.
| > | >>>
| > | >>> Even if a volume does not have any drive letters/mount points assigned?
| > | >>>
| > | >>> --
| > | >>
| > | >
| > |
| > |
| >
| >
|

 

[MICHAEL]

True. Some of us tried many different things early on.

Three options, unfortunately.
BitLocker (only Ultimate and Enterprise)
Hide the Vista partition from XP.
Don't dual boot XP and Vista.

A fourth option would be for Microsoft to fix the problem,
that is highly unlikely. Seems it would take some major
rewriting of some XP code.


-Michael

 

[David Wilkinson]

but someone said here that you could do it with acronis and that
acronis was vista compatible....

I will see that other program you say

Red nosed:

As I understand it, BootIt NG does not have to be "Vista-compatible"
because it installs as its own "mini-OS" on a separate partition. It
boots all Windows OS's in the same way, by rewriting the partition table
in the MBR to include only the boot partition of the selected OS.
Partitions belonging to other OS's are automatically hidden, because
they are not in the partition table.

The same goes for the ancient Ranish Partition Manager.

David Wilkinson

 

[Dennis Pack]

Michael:
One addition to your list is that BitLocker is supposed to be
available in the Business version also. Have a great day.

 

[MICHAEL]

I don't think so, Dennis.

It should have been part of Business,
but it's not.

Take care,

Michael

 

[Tom Porterfield]

Michael:
One addition to your list is that BitLocker is supposed to be
available in the Business version also. Have a great day.

Maybe it *was* supposed to be, but in RTM BitLocker is only available in
Ultimate and Enterprise. See http://support.teloep.org/vistaver.htm for
more info.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Your English is quite understandable. Congratulations on your hard work to
achieve that.

By try it I meant "try it and you'll see whether or not it works." A couple
of replies down DCR reports that he tried it and it did not prevent the loss
of VSS snapshots, so no need for you to try it.

 

[Alexander Suhovey]

Hey, thanks. Actually, it wasn't hard work, just a lot of time. As they say,
"Water eats rock. Over time."

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

A good saying. As a matter of fact my wife has referred to me as a drip
also.

(I am punning of course. A drip is a jerk)

Hey, thanks. Actually, it wasn't hard work, just a lot of time. As they
say, "Water eats rock. Over time."