Partition enumeration is done by the os for DOS level and by each operating
system according to its own rules. Generally they follow the Win2K rules in
the knowledge base. Vista installs using the letter C for an installation
from the DVD and the letter assigned to the partition by a Windows operating
system that Vista is installed from. You can change the drive letters of
any drive not the system or boot drive within a Windows system. Generally
the enumeration will be the first primary partition, the CD drives, then the
logical partitions and then the remaining primary partitions.
"lysander" <lysander@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4C1AADF8-9A8E-4B2F-84CF-198780487682@microsoft.com...
> Interesting John but I had arrived at that solution thinking that it
> seemed
> likely that the tywo may not mix. All my software is legitimate, licensed
> stuff and the installation CD for XP, DVD for Vista are original and
> bought
> by myself.
>
> If I do remove the IDE hdd and install on the SATA drive then XP will be
> on
> primary partition C: and Vista on primary partition D:. If I then
> installed
> a second SATA hdd, then the Vista partition would become E: wouldn't it.
> Would it then do to simply change the drive letter using XP administration
> tool?
>
> My Gigabyte mobo has 8 SATA ports. All are said to be SATA 3Gb/s Cxs but
> 6
> of them are controlled by ICH(R whilst the other four are controlled by
> GIGABYTE SATA2. I haven't a clue what is the difference. Are you able to
> enlighten me? The first 6 are orange coloured and the other four are
> purple
> so that must be significant.
>
> Is the hierarchy of the SATA drive determined by which port it is
> connected?
>
> "John Barnes" wrote:
>
>> Do not have your IDE drive connected when installing. The BIOS of many
>> boards gets confused with both connected. When you get to the section
>> about
>> where to install Vista, delete the partition you want to install on, then
>> create and format the partition. As to the XP, you probably have an SP1
>> disk with a system that wasn't sure whether it was SP1 or SP2 because of
>> the
>> updates you had applied manually.
>>
>> "lysander" <lysander@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:FFD40470-DCE9-4F7B-BDC7-B8434698F5D7@microsoft.com...
>> > Thank you for your reply and I do fully appreciate the lengths to which
>> > you
>> > have gone in trying to help me. I'll try to make my first post
>> > clearer.
>> >
>> > I rebuilt my PC with an GigabyteGA-P35C-DS£R board and 4Gb of DDR2 RAM
>> > adding a new SATA 200Gb hdd. My first post described what was meant to
>> > be
>> > the first, clean load of my old OS, Windows XP Home and then as a dual
>> > boot
>> > option Vista Home Premium. Though I am retired and not an IT trained
>> > guy,
>> > I
>> > do know enough about partitioning new drives and for years used FDISK
>> > for
>> > doing so. This time however, I used the XP CD aware that the best
>> > technique
>> > is to load the old OS first. I created four equal sized partitions on
>> > this
>> > new hdd with the first two as primary and the last two as logical
>> > partitions.
>> > I already had a 150Gb ATA/IDE hdd used for file storage and not OS's.
>> >
>> > My XP installation went fine and I used to doing that having had the OS
>> > for
>> > a few years and built several PC's for the family in the meantime.
>> > That
>> > was
>> > fully updated using MS Windows Update and there were over 80 in total.
>> >
>> > My drives then when booted to XP are
>> > Disk 1. (150Gb IDE)
>> > C: (System)
>> > E:
>> > F:
>> >
>> > Disk 0
>> > WINXP-SYS D: (Boot)
>> > H: VISTA-SYS
>> > I: XP_APPLICS
>> > J: VISTA_APPS
>> >
>> > Things went badly wrong when installing Vista to drive H. It ran
>> > smoothly
>> > completing expanding files, installing them etc when it went for the
>> > first
>> > reboot to run Vista for the first time, THAT was the process which
>> > stalled
>> > at the DOS screen listing all the PCI devices. That is the point at
>> > which
>> > if
>> > "boot to CD" is configured in BIOS, you are invited to hit any key.
>> > The
>> > installation simply stopped at that point. Worse, I could not even get
>> > it
>> > to
>> > boot to the perfect XP installation I had managed earlier.
>> >
>> > I tried again but formatted drive H before doing so. The result was
>> > exactly
>> > the same.
>> >
>> > I did then manage to retrieve XP by doing a repair installation from
>> > the
>> > XP
>> > CD. This OS now works but it has defaulted to IE 6 for example. THAT
>> > is
>> > the
>> > XP installation which now runs OK but to which I simply cannot apply
>> > Windows
>> > Updates. They are downloaded and the machine goes through the motions
>> > of
>> > installing them only to drop out telling me that they have not been
>> > installed. NONE OF THE 77 OR SO ATTEMPTED!!!!! I have installed IE 7
>> > from
>> > CD
>> > and if I download individual KB numbers, I can install each one
>> > manually.
>> >
>> > So I now have an XP installation which is severely compromised and I
>> > cannot
>> > get Vista to install without screwing everything up.
>> >
>> > Finally, though I have no idea how to use it fully, I downloaded
>> > VistaBootPRO 3.3 which tells me that I have THREE OS's installed. See:
>> >
>> > There is currently 3 OS(s) installed on your system.
>> > The current boot timeout is: 3
>> >
>> > Default OS: Microsoft Windows Vista
>> >
>> > Entry 1
>> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> > Name: Earlier Version of Windows
>> > BCD ID: {ntldr}
>> > Boot Drive: C:
>> > System Bootloader: \ntldr
>> >
>> > Entry 2
>> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> > Name: Microsoft Windows Vista
>> > BCD ID: {default}
>> > Boot Drive: H:
>> > Windows Drive: H:
>> > System Bootloader: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
>> > Windows Directory: \Windows
>> >
>> > Entry 3
>> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> > Name: Microsoft Windows Vista
>> > BCD ID: {08315b6e-42b8-11dc-973b-d05bccd6a037}
>> > Boot Drive: H:
>> > Windows Drive: H:
>> > System Bootloader: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
>> > Windows Directory: \Windows
>> >
>> > ------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >
>> > Left to my own very limited knowledge resources I would totally
>> > repartition
>> > the 200GB drive and start again but I have done that three times and
>> > even
>> > ran
>> > out of XP activation attempts. If I eventually got to a clean, dual
>> > boot
>> > system I would think it worth it but I am now seriously considering
>> > forgetting trying to install Vista at all and just sticking with XP
>> > which
>> > I
>> > must have for one or two legacy pieces of software without which I am
>> > sunk.
>> >
>> > I hope that makes things clearer. In the meantime I will try to digest
>> > the
>> > wide range of options and process you have offered to see if I can get
>> > to
>> > a
>> > solution that way. To be honest, I cannot soo much chance of even
>> > cleaning
>> > up XP if I am unable to install MS Updates as my PC gives absolutely no
>> > error
>> > code numbers to use tackling that rather incidental problem.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > "Chad Harris" wrote:
>> >
>> >> I'm a little confused by the post. Is Vista booting now or not?
>> >> Which
>> >> OS
>> >> had "77 updates left to install and why isn't MSFT Update finding what
>> >> has
>> >> to be installed and setting it up?
>> >>
>> >> When you installed Vista, was XP already installed? It's much better
>> >> and
>> >> there are less complications when you install the older Windows OS
>> >> first
>> >> on
>> >> a dual boot.
>> >>
>> >> I ususally try to run Vista setup from the XP desktop on a dual boot,
>> >> and
>> >> then the bios won't change your drive letters which to me is hardly a
>> >> big
>> >> deal.
>> >>
>> >> If Vista is not booting Lysander, I'd use these steps:
>> >>
>> >> You can try a restore point to before this happened or you try the
>> >> steps
>> >> below if you have a Vista DVD:
>> >>
>> >> Pressing F8 repeatedly when you seem the firmware screen may be is a
>> >> generic
>> >> way to launch Windows RE on some OEM Vista computers.
>> >>
>> >> Startup Repair will look like this when you put in the Vista DVD:
>> >>
>> >> http://www.vistaclues.com/wp-content...r-computer.png
>> >>
>> >> You run the startup repair tool this way (and system restore from here
>> >> is
>> >> also sometimes effective):
>> >>
>> >> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925810/en-us
>> >>
>> >> How To Run Startup Repair In Vista Ultimate (Multiple Screenshots)
>> >> http://www.windowsvista.windowsreins...rtup/index.htm
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> I'm going to give you a bunch of links and most of them you won't
>> >> have
>> >> to
>> >> use, but they are alternative ways to fix Vista.
>> >>
>> >> Right now I want you to put in the DVD and restart. It will
>> >> automatically
>> >> take you to this on your screen:
>> >>
>> >> http://www.vistaclues.com/wp-content...r-computer.png
>> >>
>> >> That will allow you to go to the Vista setup that has a Repair link
>> >> on
>> >> the
>> >> lower left corner>click it and then you'll see a gray backgrounded
>> >> list
>> >> and
>> >> I want you to click Startup Repair from it and follow the directions.
>> >>
>> >> The gray screen after you click the first link in the above pic will
>> >> look
>> >> like this:
>> >>
>> >> http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winv...ir/Image17.gif
>> >>
>> >> Click Startup Repair, the link at the top and after it scans>click OK
>> >> and
>> >> let it try to repair Vista. It will tell you if it does, and if not
>> >>
>> >> This should work, but if not,then you can follow the alternative ways
>> >> to
>> >> fix
>> >> this including booting into Safe Mode by tapping the F8 key and using
>> >> System
>> >> Restore.
>> >>
>> >> Directions and links for alternative ways to fix this are below, but I
>> >> hope
>> >> you won't need them:
>> >>
>> >> If you have any questions on getting the Startup Repair done, just
>> >> post
>> >> them.
>> >>
>> >> If you have a Vista DVD try Startup Repair. If that doesn't work, try
>> >> SafeMode>System Restore from the Recovery Environment, and you always
>> >> have
>> >> the F8 advanced options ( five of them including Last Known Good
>> >> Configuration) and a repair install (with the DVD) as well.
>> >>
>> >> In addition you can use the Bootsect tool to manually repair the boot
>> >> sector
>> >> by accessing the command prompt from the DVD or from F8 and typing at
>> >> the
>> >> prompt:
>> >>
>> >> ****Ten Methods to Repair BSOD No Boots or Serious Problems in
>> >> Windows
>> >> Vista****
>> >>
>> >> ***Startup Repair and System Restore from the Win Recovery Environment
>> >> on
>> >> the DVD***
>> >>
>> >> Although MSFT's Official Party Line as expressed by the Win RE team is
>> >> that
>> >> Startup Repair is only to fix startups, like a lot of features rtm'd
>> >> that
>> >> have broader application, so does Startup Repair. I have used it many
>> >> times
>> >> to fix major systemic problems in Vista when it would still boot
>> >> successfully, and am talking with them to try to find out why they
>> >> seem
>> >> to
>> >> bill it as only fixing startup problems.
>> >>
>> >> You can run Startup Repair by putting your Vista DVD in after
>> >> theanguage
>> >> screen in setup. You can also run System Restore from the same
>> >> location.
>> >>
>> >> You run the startup repair tool this way (and system restore from here
>> >> is
>> >> also sometimes effective):
>> >>
>> >> http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925810/en-us
>> >>
>> >> How To Run Startup Repair In Vista Ultimate (Multiple Screenshots)
>> >> http://www.windowsvista.windowsreins...rtup/index.htm
>> >>
>> >> Note The computer must be configured to start from a CD or from a DVD.
>> >> For
>> >> information about how to configure the computer to start from a CD or
>> >> from a
>> >> DVD, see the information that came with the computer.
>> >> 2. Restart the computer. To do this, click Start, click the arrow next
>> >> to
>> >> the Lock button, and then click Restart.
>> >>
>> >> This usually means that you enter bios setup by whatever key or keys
>> >> (sometimes there is more than one key that will do it for your
>> >> model--go
>> >> to
>> >> pc manufacturer site) and configure CD to be first in the boot order
>> >> (this
>> >> will allow you to boot from the Vista DVD as well):
>> >>
>> >> See for ref:
>> >> Access/Enter Motherboard BIOS (applies to Vista as well)
>> >> http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm
>> >>
>> >> Boot Order in Bios (Set Boot from HD 1st)
>> >> http://www.short-media.com/images/mm...ios/bios03.jpg
>> >>
>> >> Note If you cannot restart the computer by using this method, use the
>> >> power
>> >> button to turn off the computer. Then, turn the computer back on.
>> >>
>> >> 3. Set your language preference, and then click Next.
>> >>
>> >> Note In most cases, the startup repair process starts automatically,
>> >> and
>> >> you
>> >> do not have the option to select it in the System Recovery Options
>> >> menu.
>> >>
>> >> 4. Click Repair your computer.
>> >>
>> >> 5. In the System Recovery Options dialog box, click the operating
>> >> system
>> >> that you want to repair, and then click Next.
>> >>
>> >> 6. In the System Recovery Options menu, click Startup Repair to start
>> >> the
>> >> repair process.
>> >>
>> >> 7. When the repair process is complete, click Finish.
>> >>
>> >> Additional References for Startup Repair With Screenshots:
>> >>
>> >> How to Use Startup Repair:
>> >>
>> >> ***Accessing Windows RE (Repair Environment):***
>> >>