OS selector does NOT automatically find my OS
I've search the forums and haven't found my issue so if it's been discussed before please point me to the thread.
Short version:
Installed DD and the OS sector with not issues.
Created a partition, install WinXP with not issues.
OS selector found the new XP installation and I was able to dual boot.
Then, when a USB drive is connected the OS selector menu would not come up. I have to unplug the USB drive every time.
Then, the OS selector stopped altogether. Hitting ESC or F6 would not bring up the OS selector.
Used the rescue CD to get to my main XP installation.
Removed OS selector, DD and upgraded to the latest build.
Installed OS selector and it works with my main XP installation. (Still have to remove the USB drive...)
Not matter what I do I can't get the OS selector to find my second XP installation.
The user guides insists "all OSs will be automatically discovered" but no matter what choices I make in the wizard, no dice.
Since the product hasn't really worked well from the beginning I'm not real happy with the OS selector. The rest of the Disk Director Suite works really well.
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Jim
Thanks for the reply MubCrab.
Location of second XP partition: First SATA disk, second Primary partition (not a logical partition)
I don't remember how I set the partition when XP was installed the second time but I'm assuming it was since that's what I'd have done. I'm not sure why a reinstall of the OS selector software would have not been able to find it.
My Bios is set to boot from the primary (SATA 0) disk first.
Any ideas? Should I convert the partition to logical?
Thanks again!
Don't convert the partition to a Logical. That will only cause more problems.
Please post a screenshot of what DD shows (in Manaul Mode) for your drives. Also, post a copy of the BOOTWIZ.OSS file. I'll take a look at it.
I've got the files attached but I'm not sure what you mean by "manual mode."
DD has two modes: Automatic and Manual. You can switch between them using the View menu. You took the correct screenshot.
Try the attached BOOTWIZ.OSS file and see if it works. Also, please verify that the second XP partition contains ntldr and boot.ini. You can Explore the partition with DD to see if they're there.
Interesting. After using your updated bootwiz the second XP partition shows up in OS selector. However the partition does not have a copy of boot.ini nor ntldr. At least not at the root of the drive where I expect them. I'm assuming that's not normal.
What should I do next? I assume I'll need to copy them over with some modifications? Thanks again!!!
Copy the XP booting files to the root of the second XP partition: boot.ini, ntldr, and ntdetect.com.
Edit the boot.ini file so that it points to the correct partition (I think it should be ...partition(2)). It's normally in two places -- change both of them.
Then see if the partition will boot. If it doesn't, post back with the error message or what happens when it fails.
Mudcrab, I've got bot.ini adjusted but the OS will not boot. OS selector tries but the PC just goes back through the BIOS. No blue screens, it just reboots. Any ideas?
Check the properties of the second XP entry in OSS (the one I added). To access the properties, right-click the entry and select Properties from the pop-up menu.
Look in the Files section. Is the boot.ini file listed? Are the other files listed? If not, use the Add button to add them and see if it will boot.
If it still doesn't boot, please make a copy of the current BOOTWIZ.OSS file and attach it. OSS may have changed it.