ross m. greenberg

> Ross, when you dual boot XP and Vista, assuming you allowed Vista to create
> the dual boot during its setup, the boot files are placed on XP partition.
>
> You probably could bring your clone back to your F drive and it might see
> the boot files on your XP partition. If it doesn't, you would boot from the
> Vista DVD and run the repair option which should replace the boot files on
> the XP Partition and make your formerly cloned Vista, dual boot aware.
>
> I haven't done this quite this way but I did make images of Vista in a dual
> boot scenario and had to do the above to restore my dual boot setup.


Michael: the system was originally an XP Pro system. I use Partition Magic to split the XP partition into two partitions. Using the MSDN Vista disc, I installed Vista Ultimate. I was merrily
backing off on a regular basis to my external USB drive.

What files are actually required by Vista for booting any way?

I was considering copying every file I could see from my backup USB drive -- with a control A/control C -- the control V'ing on to the bootable drive, including the registry of course. Will this work?

This Dell machine only provides for booting off the hard disk or CDs/DVDs. Booting off the Vista DVD and then going to repair does not see the USB, it only sees the hard disc.

Now what?

Ross