Vista, dual boot & other stories
 

Vista Ultimate RTM, 32bit.
- Install Solaris. Vista becomes unbootable and unrepairable.
- Install Ubuntu. Vista becomes unbootable and unrepairable.
- Install SuSE. Vista becomes unbootable and unrepairable.
- Install Fedora. Vista becomes unbootable and unrepairable.
- Install FreeBSD. Vista becomes unbootable and unrepairable.

[sarcasm]Isn't that UNIX/Linux's fault? Well ofcourse it is! Hey.. wait.. didn't XP dualboot just fine, as did Vista RC1? Those unfinished little critters![/sarcasm]
:tisk:

Well, I'm going to ditch Vista and install triple-boot Linux system instead. I get to use Vista at work so much it feels like goddamn work, not like "constant wow! -experience everytime you do your daily computing chores" like that rich guy told me.

Thats interesting.....I knew Vista would still unscrupulously overwrite the MBR, but now it looks like MS added an "easter-egg" as well...

Any chance of spilling the beans on what in Vista is responsible for this new "feature"? :p ;)

Apparently you can't even Dual boot XP with Vista and neither any other version of Windows if I'm not mistaken...I think there's something written to the HDD...just like when you do another install of Vista it know how many times you've installed it previously.

Monopoly,!,

It will be very interesting to see how this plays out. The community of course will eventually find a way around whatever tricks they are pulling. To some, that is just part of the fun.

First technical question:
Suppose I have Vista on disk 1.
Then install Linux on Disk 2, with GRUB in the disk 2 mbr.
Then swap the boot order in bios, and edit grub config file to chainload Vista.

For fun:
Ask at the store if upgrading Vista will have any downsides--eg losing the ability to dual-boot.

Call MS tech support and ask how to set up the dual boot.

What you mention about installing to the second HDD and then editing grub is what I thought when I heard about this story the first time. I have not tried it but it really *SHOULD* work, I can't see why not...since the Windows installation cannot possibly infect the second HDD... can it :| ?

I doubt with our crop of computer illiterate 'techies' we have here in South Africa that they'd even know what I mean by dual-booting. I mean almost all of these guys wear Microsoft-sponsored shirts :p .

Calling MS...well that's a good one :D

Lol!

Wait... maybe I will... ;)

Maybe it won't even be necessary...I doubt this kind of thing will pass lightly with the EU Commission.

I have no idea how Vista sets up booting. I don't even know if it still uses ntldr, or not.

Nothing could be further from the truth. I have had windows infect a different partition of my drive. It was a fat32 drive, on D, and I had NTFS on C, but during the reinstallation, windows, in it's infinite wisdom decided for some reason to put ntldr and mbr to the d partition, rather than c, even though I formatted only the c partition, and told it to install itself on c, which technically it did, but put the boot loader on d. So make sure you have the partition hidden if its a fat/ntfs partition, or format it as a linux partition.

Very strange because I have about 70GB's of music on an NTFS drive and then I have my Windows on C. I happen to format Windows regularly but keep the data on my D and E drives which are both NTFS (I have another drive for Linux's). This had never happened to me. Must be some strange coincidence.

Heck :confused: you'll never know with Microsoft...

I had a FAT32 partition for storage and the Vista install magically converted it to NTFS. Didn't ask, just went to access it and it was now NTFS, which I did not want. Can't get it back without backing up 40+ gigs of music first. They do have some flaky crap going on.

What's the so called need to use Vista?? :scratch:

In your face Micro$oft.. _|_ _|_

for home desktop usage ... try to only use linux partition as a "storage" of your files ... nowadays , most of the common systems can read/write linux partitions ... and they get better faster then we think ...


.

I've never tried accessing my ext3 drive via Windows is that actually possible ? In actual fact I think I just need 3 months or so more practice with Linux to actually totally wipe Windows :D

you can try this one ::
http://www.chrysocome.net/explore2fs

although not really accessing in a way like read and write mounting ... but i have use before at least one nt service that can "mount" ext2 during bootup or apps(some are read only) that can mount ext2(3 ??) through choosing drive letters from a drop down list ... and same for bsd partition(read only) too ...


//i'm still having them somewhere but hardly go into it and use them now ... but dont tell anybody ... ^_^

.

Apropos, that reminded me that isn't there still a tool for Mac to rwx ext-volumes or for Linux to rwx hfs+-volumes? I've been trying to look for those tools. Until then, I'm stuck with FAT32.