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Vista failing to boot when disk physically shifted from ID0

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Re: Vista failing to boot when disk physically shifted from ID0

Postby JabbaPapa » Wed Feb 23, 2011 8:54 am

aaaaah -- I see you have a Recovery partition too, as well as another nuisance letterless OEM partition at the start of your old Vista drive and another one at the start of your new Vista drive...

If you include the 100 MB system reserved for W7, we're basically looking at the next-to-worst-case scenario, though at least there are no logical partitions involved...

Frankly, the partitioning is a mess :(

In a case like this one, I would personally suggest just completely reinstalling the new Vista setup that you are attempting to create, after formatting the drive. The 100 MB W7 partition is probably not ideal either, but it can be left alone. Simply so as to keep this as simple as possible.

First -- In DBP, remove the boot entry for the new Vista.

Second, probably from W7, go into disk management and delete both of the partitions on the new Vista drive -- then, create a new partition on that drive, using the same tool, so that your new partition fills the entire hard drive. This will ensure that no unwanted empty and letterless partitions are created (for whichever reason) during Windows setup.

Third, with the old Vista drive unplugged (and I don't normally recommend this BTW), clean install a new Vista setup onto the new drive. Do not format the drive during Windows setup.

Fourth, when setup has completed, and after you have used DualBootPRO to ensure that Vista/W7 dual-boot is working, plug the old Vista back into drive zero position, with the new drive plugged in.

Boot into the old Vista -- and in there, go to Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools and run the Windows Easy Transfer tool.

Create a Folder in your new Vista drive (called "Transfer" or whatever) -- and then backup the entire contents of your old Vista setup using this Easy Transfer tool into that folder. Copy any other contents that you wish to transfer onto the same drive, if they have not already been copied by the tool --- Careful !!! If you have manually re-defined the documents files as being ones located on your Data drive, Easy Transfer may also attempt to backup these contents, unnecessarily, unless you tell it, manually, not to do so !!! These contents do not need to be transferred, given that they exist in a separate hard drive that you will not be changing.

Fifth, when you are satisfied that all desirable data has been copied into your backup, switch off, and put the new Vista drive back into the drive zero position (you can have the old Vista drive plugged in too, at this stage, in a different position) -- and boot into the new Vista. You will now be able to use the Easy Transfer tool to recover the settings and desktop and other data from your old Vista setup, by using the data created in the "Transfer" folder. You should also at this stage be able to successfully create a boot environment including your old Vista, though it is always possible that interference from the letterless partitions on that drive might still occur.

When all checks and verifications, and potential clean-up tasks have been performed, so that you are satisfied that all of your old Vista data and stuff has been successfully transferred to the new one, and you are satisfied that your New Vista/W7 dual boot is functional, then you can delete the "Transfer " folder, and then do whatever you like with the drive containing your old Vista setup... :)

---

A faster alternative would be to just run the Easy Transfer Tool from your old Vista to your new Vista in your current partitions configuration -- but, while you would certainly save yourself the hassle of a clean Windows setup + drivers etc, and your system would be bootable, the non-ideal partitioning would remain, which is why the DualBootPRO is having trouble creating the desired multi-boot environment in the first place !! ;)
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