Oops

[John Jay Smith]

vistabooboo....

I have multibooted XP with various flavors of linuxes many times..... but
vista has another way for the bootloader... I believe I saw a program that
helps you edit the bootloader...

the general rule with xp, was that you had to make the linux boot loader to
take over...

so first you installed windows, then linux... or if you did it the other way
around you had to start the linux installation again and select an option to
fix the bootloader....

 

[Bernie]

It had to happen...I've been using Vista for a few weeks and everything
had been pretty smooth until about 20 minutes ago.

There are two drives. One is a dedicated data drive and the other has
four partitions; XP, Vista, Ubuntu and a linux swap.

Everything was completely fine until I installed Ubuntu. When the
installation completed I rebooted and first thought I'd check that the
Windows installations were still okay. I rebooted and got to the Linux
boot manager and selected the Windows option which took me to the
regular Windows boot manager and I selected to boot to Vista. Vista
started up fine and everything looked good so I rebooted to have a look
at XP....

But the machine can no longer get to the Linux boot manager. After POST
it sort of looks at it and decides to restart instead and just continues
to cycle through POST to fail to load Linux boot manager to restart again.

Now this is a test machine and I'm not worried about losing data but I
don't want to wipe it all out and start again if it can be avoided. It
has taken a while to get the settings in XP and Vista just the way I
like them.

But I know very little about Linux and it's boot manager. Presumably I
could boot from the Linux CD (Ubuntu desktop for x86) and find a tool
somewhere to fix it.

If I have to go to a Linux group to ask I think I'll just wipe and start
again.

So Linux freaks now is your chance to shine....

 

[Bernie]

I don't mind the vistabooboo but I don't want it to turn into a vistabooHoo!

I know I can just boot with the XP CD and get to the recovery console
and just do fixmbr but that would bugger up the Vista boot thing too.
Fortunately I did use the Vista super boot thingy and backed up the boot
settings but I'm not too sure where I put the backup I don't mind
losing the Linux boot option for now as it was only just installed so
there isn't anything to lose anyway. But I would like to get back to the
dual boot option with XP and Vista.

 

[Bernie]

I've got back XP and Vista with just fixmbr. Now to find a better way of
adding Ubuntu.

 

[John Jay Smith]

there is one tool that claims it can work with 100 os!
I have used it pre-vista and it worked very well with win and lin

www.osloader.com

 

[Bernie]

Cheers John. I can't remember the thread but I thought of that a few
days ago and said there was a util that could detect all bootable O/Ses
on a system but couldn't remember the name of it. I used this a few
years ago and it works fine.

So unless anyone else comes up with a better suggestion I think the
solution is to boot from XP CD and go to recovery console and run
fixmbr. Then boot into XP and install this thing and that will detect
Vista and Ubuntu and create a new boot menu.... if it still works the
way I remember it and if I do actually remember it accurately.

 

[Mark D. VandenBeg]

I've got back XP and Vista with just fixmbr. Now to find a better way of
adding Ubuntu.

There has to be a usable freeware boot manager out there somewhere.

 

[Rasmus Bertelsen]

There has to be a usable freeware boot manager out there somewhere.

Can you not use VistaBoot PRO? Link to it's forum:
http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=185

Regards,
Rasmus Bertelsen

 

[Rasmus Bertelsen]

SNIP

Can you not use VistaBoot PRO? Link to it's forum:
http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=185

Regards,
Rasmus Bertelsen

My bad. It doesn't support inserts of non-Windows OS'es as Linux!
Sorry for that!

Regards,
Rasmus Bertelsen

 

[John Jay Smith]

Hello.. when I used osloader 2000

it detected everything automatically even if the normal boot loaders of the
programs were not working... As I remember also this was shareware, however
it did not stop functioning,
rather it only told you to register, and you could ignore that and continue
using it....

The way you installed it was using a win98 boot disk floopy that had the
program on it.. so you could install it from there. Of course
for those who do not have a floppy there are win98 boot cd images around
like here for example: http://www.bootdisk.com/

Since it now says it supports vista perhaps it is a solution.
To tell you the truth, I gave up multibooting because it was too much of a
hassle to set everything up... at one point I had 5 OS's on. After that I
just used virtual machines to do everything.. or had a separete test machine
that I didnt mind formating all the time.

I have now something like 10 virtual machines with various versions of
windows and linux. The only thing I must say about virtual machines
is that they are slower than a normal pc... and that the host must have at
least 1 gb or ram. I have 1 GB and it works, but I am thinking about
upgrading to 2 gb, so that I can give pleanty or ram to the client... I
believe that as hardware becomes faster virtual machines will be the
ultimate solution... vmware and microsoft see that coming and thats why they
are investing, and giving some of their programs out for free.

 

[Beck]

I've got back XP and Vista with just fixmbr. Now to find a better way of
adding Ubuntu.

When I installed Ubuntu 6 after XP and Vista I found a similar problem to
yours - I could not boot into Vista. XP and Ubuntu were fine. I put in the
Vista DVD and started the recovery console and chose the option to fix the
boot - which it did, it gave me a new fixed boot entry, but then I lost
Ubuntu.
Couldn't be arsed to work it all out. Ubuntu was not important to me.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Remember that the files on bootdisk.com are makedisk files that generate a
floppy on your drive A: If you do not have an internal floppy drive they
are a little as $15.

 

[John Jay Smith]

yes.. I thought there were cdrom images too there... I cannot be sure..
I have an information overload here and my brain cant keep up....

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Yes he does also offer some utility cd's that can be used in lieu of an A:
drive.

 

[Guest]

A reply and a question:
Using any non windows related boot loader [manager] the OS`s have to
installed in a certain order.
When windows installs it renews the bootblock wiping out all other boot info
and effectively replaces the bootblock.
So to use OS`s such as Linux first install install say XP,then hide the
partion in the boot manager and then install Vista then repeat and install
any non windows related OS`s.
I am still using a very old boot manager program called "System Commander"
that can do all of the obove but there must be modern boot from CD/DVD boot
programs that can do it.
The point is the order that the OS`s are installed and on which partion is
very important.

My question is:
My motherboard has its own builtin boot manager to get my system up to date
could I use it after installing Vista [32 or 64bit]?
Joe.

 

[Richard Urban]

Joe,

I am using System Commander 2000 and have been for years.

I have no problem installing any operating system on any of the primary
partitions on any of my 4 hard drives.

Exactly what problems are you having?

--
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!

A reply and a question:
Using any non windows related boot loader [manager] the OS`s have to
installed in a certain order.
When windows installs it renews the bootblock wiping out all other boot
info
and effectively replaces the bootblock.
So to use OS`s such as Linux first install install say XP,then hide the
partion in the boot manager and then install Vista then repeat and install
any non windows related OS`s.
I am still using a very old boot manager program called "System Commander"
that can do all of the obove but there must be modern boot from CD/DVD
boot
programs that can do it.
The point is the order that the OS`s are installed and on which partion is
very important.

My question is:
My motherboard has its own builtin boot manager to get my system up to
date
could I use it after installing Vista [32 or 64bit]?
Joe.

vistabooboo....

I have multibooted XP with various flavors of linuxes many times..... but
vista has another way for the bootloader... I believe I saw a program
that
helps you edit the bootloader...

the general rule with xp, was that you had to make the linux boot loader
to
take over...

so first you installed windows, then linux... or if you did it the other
way
around you had to start the linux installation again and select an option
to
fix the bootloader....