OSS entangled my Win7 OS files and uses old VistaOS files with my Win7 programs!
Hi,
SUMMARY:
OSS somehow installed Vista OS files UNDER my existing Win7 install, so the OS is effectively is Vista now but all my Win7 programs and files remained accessible. They don't run as they are not compatible with many drivers and dlls in Vista. I found the missing system files (19GB) in the bootwiz directory.
How can I revert my system to Win7?
DETAILS:
I have a Dell Studio 1555 with 4 partitions:
1. Win7 x64 (as per factory settings there was a Vista Home Premium on it that I formatted and did a clean Win7 install)
2. Dell recovery partition
3. Dell diagnostic partition
4. Windows XP
After creating the 4. partition and installing XP I installed OSS to be able to multi boot.
After a reboot OSS saw 4 OSes:
1. Unknown (supposedly the diagnostic partition)
2. Win 7 x64
3. Win XP x32
4. Vista Home Premium x64
I was surprised to see Vista there as on the Win7 partition everything was formatted prior Win7 install. I was curious (and stupid) enough to select Vista Home Premium to see what happens.
The strangest thing happened: Vista Home Premium was booting up and at the login screen it asked for my Win7 credentials and accepted it! The wrote preparing desktop.
When Vista logged in, there were several dll and driver errors. After somehow I managed to go through the error messages, I found out that all my programs, setting and data ARE available from my Win7 settings.
They don't run on Vista because of the failed services.
Then I reset the computer and the OSS did not recognized Win7 anymore only Vista. Then from the menu i made a scan and OSS found two more OSes: win7 and a strange Home (TM) OS. I though I was saved but trying booting from Win7 gave back an error message: OS cannot be recognized (or similar)
Then I used the bootrec /fixmbr /fixboot /rebuild bcd combo to get rid of acronis OSS. It worked and my computer now boots into this hybrid OS.
Basically what happened was somehow the Win7OS was replaced by VistaOS with keeping all information and installed program available on Win7.
I checked the Win7 partition and found that the windows directory is empty.
I checked the BOOTWIZ directory that has 5 directories with random characters and in the first one I found all the system files that are missing!
MY QUESTION:
How can I revert the partition back to Win7? It seems I have all the files but somehow OSS are entagled them in its own directory.
Should I try to reinstall OSS on this broken hybrid OS and do something with the OSS again?
Any help is appreciated, obviously I am frustrated and worried I will lose my programs and data.
Thanks,
Mark

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OK, here is some update:
I managed to reinstall OSS selector on the XP partition, so I can see all OS-es OSS sees. It looks like a complete mess: Some OS-es found twice, some are strangely named... When I click on boot Win7 english, I get the following error message:
Acronis OS Selector was unable to load Windows 7 (English) operating system: the file system type of the operating system is not supported.
How can I fix this?
Regarding the original problem:
I figured out that I might need to enable the folder restoring option at Win7 OS, so OSS can reload the data from its 'Windows directory'. Am I correct, would that help?
Thanks,
Mark
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Sorry made another incorrect assumption I think. Sounds like you are using DD10 - to use W7 you need DD11?
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Hi Ray,
Thanks for your comment. I use DD11.
Cheers,
Mark
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Hi Ray,
I missed you previous reply. Let me read it now!
Thanks,
Mark
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Ray,
Would this fix OSS to be able to load the W7? I am a bit afraid to delete any of the existing information...
Thx,
Mark
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Hi Mark,
Mark Said:
"Would this fix OSS to be able to load the W7?"
That is what I am hoping.
The other OS's can be added back later. The important thing is to get W7 where DD11 its installed (have I got that right?) Running again so we have a stable base on which to build.
BTW Do you have DD10 as well or just DD11?
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Hi Ray,
Ok, I will give it a try and let you know what happened. I have DD11 only.
Cheers,
Mark
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Ray, should I remove all instances that is not W7? If you look at the screenshot I attached, you could see there are many, possibly some of them broken information on different OS-es...
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Hi Mark
Yes remove all but the W7 one.
Take a look at the attached images in order 2-3 are shown by clicking on the partitions option on the left side when the W7 option is selected on the right.
I hope that all makes sense
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If you haven't created an Entire Disk Image backup of the drive, I strongly recommend it.
If Vista is not installed and the files are/were not available, OSS can't be using them (it can't "create" them from nothing). It's possible there may be permission issues related to OSS moving the system files. If you have a backup created prior to this problem, you may want to consider using it.
The problem here is that OSS is "protecting" the Windows 7 system files. These are the ones in the BOOTWIZ sub-folder. This can happen when it thinks there are two operating systems on one partition or just for no reason. Care must be taken to avoid the deletion of these files (backup first).
Check the Properties of the Windows 7 OSS menu entry. In the Folders section, check the Properties of the folders. Is the "restoring folder contents" option enabled? If so, disable it. This should move the files from the BOOTWIZ sub-folder back to the standard folders. I say "should" because it won't if the wrong partition is referenced. This may be the case because OSS is reporting an unsupported file system.
Can you post a copy of the BOOTWIZ.OSS file (instructions can be found here) along with a screenshot of what DD shows for the partitions. Please indicate which partition contains which OS if it's not clear.
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Hi Ray and MudCrab,
Finally, the problem is resolved: the W7 is restored and working fine!
Here is what I did:
1. Followed Ray's recommendation and deleted all other OS-es different from W7. (Thanks for the attachments) After I launched it, it returned the same error message as before and did not boot.
2. I ran the OS detection wizard on the partitions. Strange thing happened, the wizard found two XP OS-es on the XP partition and two W7 on the W7 partition with one having correct name and the other having a strange name. (I did not run the wizard on the rescue partition, so there was no Vista found)
3. I clicked the correctly named W7 OS and voila, the files were returned and the system booted correctly.
It might sound easy, but since I did not understand fully what AOSS does to the files, it took me a long time to figure out what might happened. MudCrab, thanks for describing what you think about what happened to the system (especially the turning off the protection part is very useful) as much as I understand AOSS now, I agree with you.
One thing remained strange: why the wizard brings up so many redundant information on the different OS-es?
Guys, many thanks for your help, I really appreciate!
Mark
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Hi Mark,
Glad to hear things are back to some somewhere near normal. Have you managed to add in the other OS's now and get them to work OK? One thing with the OS Detection Wizard when you add in the other partitions in the wizard you must make the partition unhidden and bootable and on the last screen of the wizard make sure it has detect the OS you believe to be in that partition. Once the detection has taken place you can then use the same methods as the images I attached to ensure that when each OS is selected to run the appropriate partition(s) are set hidden/unhidden/active.
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Hi Ray,
Thanks, I am glad, too... :-)
It seems when I run the wizard it finds two instances of each OS's: I have 2 XPs and 2W7s. The first one of those are giving back different error messages - they don't run. However, the second instances are just boot the selected OS just fine.
I used the wizard as you described.
I don't know why the wizard gives back more instances of the same OS's, but this caused the problem: at the beginning when I ran it on the RECOVERY partition it found the Vista partition, and some it started to use/load the files from it, but kept Program Files and others intact.
Also the naming is strange, if you look at the file I attached you could see "(TM) home premium (english)" that is clearly not correct. And it doesnt run as you would expect.
All in all it works now: I will just simply delete the redundand OS information from the boot loader.
Thanks once more for your help and for MudCrab, too.
All the best,
Mark
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Hi Mark
No Problem - glad we got it working.
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