G
Guest
I had some trauma getting Vista Ultimate to multiboot. The constant googling
made me really nauseaous but I eventually got it sorted. Here are some tips
which might help other punters.
I have a dell 5150C, 250gb, SATA. C: 20gb XP Media Edtn, H: 140gb WS2003
R2. I wanted to install Vista Ultimate on I: 60gb.
Before you start, make sure you have a boot CD or floppy with disk utils on
it. I use Acronis Disk Suite. Don't install Acronis OS Selector. MS says
Vista does not like 3rd party bootloaders.
Run Acronis Disk Suite. Create I: partition as primary type (read that Vista
don't like logical partitions. True??). Boot Vista DVD. Pick I: Vista error
"drive does not meet requirements". Google. Some posts say Vista requires an
active partition. Boot from Acronis boot CD. Make I: partition active. Reboot
Vista DVD. Voila! Vista setup now runs. First reboot leaves black screen with
flashing underbar. Reboot Acronis DVD. Set C: active. Reboot. Phew! My old
Boot menu shows XP and W2K3. XP boots OK. Reset I: active. Reboot Vista DVD
run vista Repair to see if I missed anything. Same result. Google. Forums
suggest SATA driver or graphics driver problems. Download all the vista
drivers I can find from support.dell.co.uk. Boot Vista DVD, install SATA
drivers, setup does not recognize my vista drivers, continue. Don't think its
a graphics problem anyway. Black screen. Rollback and boot XP. Google. Find
EasyBCD + VistaBoot. Forum post suggests copying the BOOT directory. Copy
I:\BOOT to C:\BOOT, check C: active. Boot Vista DVD, install (damn! meant to
run repair). First reboot, hey a new boot menu. Vista boots and setup
completes successfully. Run EasyBCD and add entries for XP and WS2K3. Reboot.
Boot menu shows OS options and they all work. Deleted I:\BOOT.
This is an abbreviated version of events. It looks like setting up C:\BOOT
was the key, not the drivers, but I can't be sure. I don't know why it did
not work first time with I: as the active partition. I don't know if install
lets you specify different system and boot partitions.
Hope this helps anyone having similar problems
made me really nauseaous but I eventually got it sorted. Here are some tips
which might help other punters.
I have a dell 5150C, 250gb, SATA. C: 20gb XP Media Edtn, H: 140gb WS2003
R2. I wanted to install Vista Ultimate on I: 60gb.
Before you start, make sure you have a boot CD or floppy with disk utils on
it. I use Acronis Disk Suite. Don't install Acronis OS Selector. MS says
Vista does not like 3rd party bootloaders.
Run Acronis Disk Suite. Create I: partition as primary type (read that Vista
don't like logical partitions. True??). Boot Vista DVD. Pick I: Vista error
"drive does not meet requirements". Google. Some posts say Vista requires an
active partition. Boot from Acronis boot CD. Make I: partition active. Reboot
Vista DVD. Voila! Vista setup now runs. First reboot leaves black screen with
flashing underbar. Reboot Acronis DVD. Set C: active. Reboot. Phew! My old
Boot menu shows XP and W2K3. XP boots OK. Reset I: active. Reboot Vista DVD
run vista Repair to see if I missed anything. Same result. Google. Forums
suggest SATA driver or graphics driver problems. Download all the vista
drivers I can find from support.dell.co.uk. Boot Vista DVD, install SATA
drivers, setup does not recognize my vista drivers, continue. Don't think its
a graphics problem anyway. Black screen. Rollback and boot XP. Google. Find
EasyBCD + VistaBoot. Forum post suggests copying the BOOT directory. Copy
I:\BOOT to C:\BOOT, check C: active. Boot Vista DVD, install (damn! meant to
run repair). First reboot, hey a new boot menu. Vista boots and setup
completes successfully. Run EasyBCD and add entries for XP and WS2K3. Reboot.
Boot menu shows OS options and they all work. Deleted I:\BOOT.
This is an abbreviated version of events. It looks like setting up C:\BOOT
was the key, not the drivers, but I can't be sure. I don't know why it did
not work first time with I: as the active partition. I don't know if install
lets you specify different system and boot partitions.
Hope this helps anyone having similar problems