My dual boot setup: what happens at start up?

[DJ Bjorklund]

Bear with me, as I ask what I'm sure is a very remedial question. But
I need to know.

Where does that which produces the selection screen I see upon
start/restart reside? On my C(XP) drive, or K(Vista partition -on 2nd
internal drive)?

If on C, Vista then rewrites what is known as the "master boot
record"(MBR) on the boot HDD designated by system setup. Is that
about right?

And if true this would remain as it is now, even if I removed the
Vista partition from my system (not going to, just curious)? The
difference of course being that if I then selected to boot to
Vista,...it couldn't, and would probably default to XP(?)

And of course the world would perhaps spin off its axis, but don't
worry, as I said above, I'm not intending to eliminate the Vista
partition, I'm just theorizing a bit ;-)

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Hello

Bear with me, as I ask what I'm sure is a very remedial question.
Nonsense.

Where does that which produces the selection screen I see upon
start/restart reside? On my C(XP) drive, or K(Vista partition -on 2nd
internal drive)?

This resides on the boot partition, which should be your C(XP) drive.

If on C, Vista then rewrites what is known as the "master boot
record"(MBR) on the boot HDD designated by system setup. Is that
about right?

That is correct.

And if true this would remain as it is now, even if I removed the
Vista partition from my system (not going to, just curious)? The
difference of course being that if I then selected to boot to
Vista,...it couldn't, and would probably default to XP(?)

Correct as well ... except, the Vista boot screen would still let you select
Vista, but would either give an error or a black screen, and you would have
to restart your computer.

And of course the world would perhaps spin off its axis, but don't
worry, as I said above, I'm not intending to eliminate the Vista
partition, I'm just theorizing a bit ;-)

You can get rid of the Vista partition no trouble in this case - you
installed Vista to a seperate partition.

All the Vista boot stuff is located in a hidden directory called 'boot' on
your boot partition (which is same one XP puts boot.ini and ntldr on).

And, if you do want to get rid of Vista, you can (fairly) easily revert back
to the XP bootloader and complete the process

- JB

 

[andy]

Bear with me, as I ask what I'm sure is a very remedial question. But
I need to know.

Where does that which produces the selection screen I see upon
start/restart reside? On my C(XP) drive, or K(Vista partition -on 2nd
internal drive)?

It's on the active primary partition on the disk that the BIOS boots.
Run the Disk Management snap-in. It's on the partition that's
identified as system.

 

[David Wilkinson]

Jimmy Brush wrote:

[snip]

That is correct.

I am a developer, and I want to build a test machine with various OS's,
including Vista beta.

What happens if I install other OS's after installing Vista? Does that
mess up the Vista boot loader?

David Wilkinson

==========

 

[Jimmy Brush]

I am a developer, and I want to build a test machine with various OS's,

including Vista beta.

What happens if I install other OS's after installing Vista? Does that
mess up the Vista boot loader?

Yes, that will mess up the bootloader. More specifically, the other OS's
bootloader will get loaded instead of Vista's, and you will no longer be
able to boot into Vista.

Vista uses a completely different bootloader than XP. In fact, there is an
option that says "Previous operating systems" on the Vista boot menu, and
when you select that, the Vista bootloader loads the XP (or previous)
bootloader... this creates a nice chain of bootloaders, so you can still
boot into all your other operating systems.

In short, you must install Vista LAST in order for things to work properly.

In general, you should always install your OSes oldest to newest.

- JB

 

[David Wilkinson]

Yes, that will mess up the bootloader. More specifically, the other OS's
bootloader will get loaded instead of Vista's, and you will no longer be
able to boot into Vista.

Vista uses a completely different bootloader than XP. In fact, there is
an option that says "Previous operating systems" on the Vista boot menu,
and when you select that, the Vista bootloader loads the XP (or
previous) bootloader... this creates a nice chain of bootloaders, so you
can still boot into all your other operating systems.

In short, you must install Vista LAST in order for things to work properly.

In general, you should always install your OSes oldest to newest.

- JB

Jimmy:

Thanks. Presumably the Vista boot loader can be restored by reinstalling
Vista, yes? Can it be done without a complete reinstall?

Another question: when Vista creates this "chain" does it include linux
installations?

David Wilkinson

 

[Jimmy Brush]

Thanks. Presumably the Vista boot loader can be restored by reinstalling

Vista, yes? Can it be done without a complete reinstall?

Yes, both are true. To get it back without re-installing:

- Boot the Vista Setup DVD
- Click System Recovery Options
- Select command line
- Type: X:\boot\bootsect /nt60 c:
* Where X is your DVD-ROM drive and c: is your boot drive

Another question: when Vista creates this "chain" does it include linux
installations?

I don't know for sure, as I haven't tested it myself ... I would THINK it
would, as I don't see why it wouldn't, but don't hold me to that

- JB

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

If you are multibooting, once Vista is installed there are actually two boot
options screens. One you do not see if there is only one legacy Windows on
your box. Choosing Older Version of Windows goes straight to XP. This is
normal behavior when only one OS is present in any version of Windows.

The second boot options screen is built by Vista. If Vista were the only OS
on the box you would not see it either. Since you have at least two OS's,
you get the Vista boot options screen showing Vista and the presence of
legacy system(s), but you don't know how many. Choosing legacy (Old Version
of Windows) will either boot the legacy OS or bring up a second screen.

Now consider a box where you have XP Home and XP Pro installed and have a
standard boot options screen for them. Now you install Vista. That creates
a new boot options screen with two entries: Microsoft Windows (Vista) and
Old Versions of Windows (XP Home and Pro). Now when you choose Old Version
of Windows you do get the old boot options screen showing XP Home and XP Pro
and then you choose again.

The reason you are not seeing this second boot options screen now is that
you have only one XP and it is normal behavior for that boot options screen
not to show.

In the first couple of builds of beta 1 we saw both screens regardless and
the testers complained about having to deal with two screens if there was
only going to be one more choice. Oddly, the second screen not only offered
the old Windows but Vista again. It really was confusing. The present set
up is about right.

 

[DJ Bjorklund]

All the Vista boot stuff is located in a hidden directory called 'boot' on
your boot partition (which is same one XP puts boot.ini and ntldr on).

How do I view those files...? (Can they be viewed?) I'm pretty sure
I'm config'd to view hidden system type stuff, but still can't see it.

Also, thanks for the helpful response to my initial post Jimmy.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

You veiw and edit the boot configuration data store with BDCedit (hard way)
or VistaBootPro (easy way). VistaBootPro can be downloaded from
http://www.vistabootpro.org/intro.php
Things have really changed since XP.

 

[Jimmy Brush]

How do I view those files...? (Can they be viewed?) I'm pretty sure

I'm config'd to view hidden system type stuff, but still can't see it.

Yes, you can view them. I believe you also have to uncheck "Hide protected
operating system files" from the View tab in Folder Options.

Also, thanks for the helpful response to my initial post Jimmy.

You're welcome

- JB