What the hell happened???

[Beck]

Okay here is the deal:
Using RC2

Windows Vista on C: partition
Windows Vista (recovered) on D: partition

Both available at boot, both have different programs installed on them.

Decided to clean the drive D in preparation for Vista Home Premium tomorrow.

Used VistaBootPro to delete the second option Vista (recovered). Went to
format drive D: but at end of format it told me it was unable to format.

Rebooted and voila! "Missing operating system" error message. wtf?

I booted with the Vista DVD and went to repair. It is supposed to list the
drives and OS available. It listed none, no drives, no OS installed,
nothing. Startup repair failed, system restore failed.

Went into setup to reinstall Vista and both drives there listed present and
correct. Managed to delete both partitions, create a new one and install
Vista.

I am totally confused by what happened here. I had two different installs
of Vista, why would deleting one mean deleting both?

Finally I would like to thank Michael for earlier today advised I did a
backup of my files and settings, without his prompt, I would not have made a
disc. (even though some of the files failed to recover and the message
store is corrupted) lol.

So... any ideas as to what just magically happened?

 

[JP]

Maybe VistaBootPro? That program has not been updated since RC1.

 

[Beck]

Maybe VistaBootPro? That program has not been updated since RC1.

But to destroy two whole partitions?
What a bummer. I am never using that again

 

[MICHAEL]

I feel bad because I put that seed in your brain.

More than likely, there were boot files on the
D partition, and/or, pointers to your C partition.
I think that's how you say that.

When VistaBootPro removed D's entry,
all boot logic broke down. Something like that.

I'm sort of guessing because I have only
dual booted XP and Vista, not two versions
of Vista.

Sorry. Tomorrow, you'll have the real thing.

Take care,

Michael

 

[Kerry Brown]

I'm guessing D: was the active partition and had the boot files on it.

 

[Beck]

I feel bad because I put that seed in your brain.

More than likely, there were boot files on the
D partition, and/or, pointers to your C partition.
I think that's how you say that.

When VistaBootPro removed D's entry, all boot logic broke down. Something
like that.

I'm sort of guessing because I have only
dual booted XP and Vista, not two versions
of Vista.

Sorry. Tomorrow, you'll have the real thing.

Don't feel bad, none of it was your fault.
I thank you for the file and settings advice.
However I won't be using file settings transfer tomorrow, the way it has
restored my emails and newsgroups is crap and everything is all disjointed.

 

[Beck]

I'm guessing D: was the active partition and had the boot files on it.

I can see how that could make it the case. Although I was logged onto the C
partition and tried to delete the D. How can the D be active if I was not
using it?

 

[Kerry Brown]

Very cool, thanks for the link.

 

[Kerry Brown]

Very cool, thanks for the link.

 

[Kerry Brown]

The active partition is a term that means which partition the boot files are
on. It doesn't mean which partition you are using right now.