Need a boot manager for Vista, XP and Linux

[fartucci]

I am wondering if anyone can recommend a good boot manager. For a long time, I have dual booted Windows XP and various versions of Linux, and I have used Partition Magic and Boot Magic for dual booting. I now have a new system with Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit on one drive, Windows XP Pro on a second drive, and Xandros Linux on a third drive. I have found that Boot Magic does not work well with Vista, so I am stuck with Vista's boot manager. Once installed, however, I only have the options of booting into Vista or "an old version of Windows," i.e. Windows XP. I do not have the option of booting into Linux. So, my third drive with Linux is doing nothing but taking up space at the moment.

Does anyone know of a good boot manager that will allow me to boot into all three OSs? Thanks.

[del_fuego]

Google for "Acronis OS Selector". It comes as part of a Acronis partitioning suite which i find better than partition magic etc. Acronis OS Selector supports XP, Vista and Linux, it works well with Lilo. I use it to boot between all three as i much prefere an independent boot manager rather than dealing with Windows cr@ppy boot loader or being prisoner to grub or lilo.

Hope this helps you buddy.

Cheers, del. :toast:

[fartucci]

Del, thanks, that looks perfect. I'll give it a try this weekend. I'm wondering, did you install the program in Vista, XP, or both? It looks like it has a lot of features other than the boot manager, so I would be inclined to install it in both.

[del_fuego]

Install it in both as the partitioning portion of the app is excellent and worth having at hand if needed. The OS Selector only has to be installed once from whichever os you choose, it doesnt really matter as you do all the configuring at post before it boots into an os, much like you'd expect. Good thing with this is that it uses standard vesa drivers at the selection/configuration screen so you can manually set your resolution and you get use of the mouse too, bonus!

I'm sure that you'll like it.

Cheers, del. :toast:

[fartucci]

Del, I finally got my system back together this week (installed RMA board and second water cooling loop), so I purchased Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0, which comes with OS Selector, like you suggested. The program works great. To get OS Selector running properly, at least on my system, you MUST go to Options >> Startup Options and check "Do not load CD-ROM Drivers." Otherwise, the boot manager runs very slowly at startup and is unresponsive almost to the point of being unusable. At first I was concerned that there was a real problem with the program. But after searching on the web for a while, I found this solution and now it runs just fine.

Thanks a lot Del, I'm glad to have Linux back.

:toast:

[mezcal]

Is there a particular reason you didn't just use GRUB?
Just curious as it worked fine for me triple booting as you describe.

[BlaqMale]

i've been using acronis os selector for a little while and i love it, nice gui so i can choose between xp, vista, linux and os x :)

[del_fuego]

Grub itself is fine, although i prefere lilo in text mode. My reccomendation for Acronis OS selector is based on ease of use with multiple operating systems, configure it without the use of any os (and with the use of the mouse too!) and just leave grub, lilo, xp, vista alone to do their own thing without the need for checking fstab, boot.ini etc.... easy-peasy!

Fartucci, glad to have helped out, anytime bud. :toast:

[mezcal]

Grub itself is fine, although i prefere lilo in text mode. My reccomendation for Acronis OS selector is based on ease of use with multiple operating systems, configure it without the use of any os (and with the use of the mouse too!) and just leave grub, lilo, xp, vista alone to do their own thing without the need for checking fstab, boot.ini etc.... easy-peasy!


Gotcha. I have acronis but I've just never loaded that module.
Might give it a try on my next build.

BTW, there was a serious issue (hd corruption) with installing vista on disk director formated partitions a few months ago. I experienced this myself and there was a growing thread on the Wilder Security forums about it at the time.
They have probably solved it by now, I don't know. Haven't had vista loaded lately myself.

[erixon]

I'm having problem's with OS selector. I have windows xp and Vista on two separate harddisks, installed os selector in windows xp, But when OS selector starts when i boot, it refuses to start Vista, only xp works :-( When i try to start vista it says : Fallback 1 Find --set-root /Bootmgr. Anyone having a solution ??

[makatee]

Grub Ftw!

[Knight]

Ok well I use gparted to create a 10gig partition. I restart and XP loads. XP does not see a new partition when I go into My computer. Is that what should happen?

[Knight]

I used gparted to resized the 10gig partition to a 20gig piece. Their is no indication that a new partition has been made, but when I go to C: properties the total disk space is lowered by 10gigs. (increase the unallocated space by 10 gigs)

When I try to install Vista it only sees my C: drive and the external that I have, but no new unallocated space.

What am I doing wrong. :confused:

[mezcal]

Probably need to create the partition in the unallocated space from disk management console first. You don't necessarily have to format it, just create it (primary) and give it a letter (I suggest V :) )
BTW, I prefer to start the vista install from INSIDE xp. This keeps it from changing all your drive letters around depending on which os you boot. I found that quite confusing-it also afforded me the opportunity to delete my data partition by mistake :slapass:

[Knight]

Probably need to create the partition in the unallocated space from disk management console first. You don't necessarily have to format it, just create it (primary) and give it a letter (I suggest V :) )
BTW, I prefer to start the vista install from INSIDE xp. This keeps it from changing all your drive letters around depending on which os you boot. I found that quite confusing-it also afforded me the opportunity to delete my data partition by mistake :slapass:

Cool thanks!

LOL Yeah I used the letter 'V' because it didn't list my favorite letter. :( :D

[Daveb2012]

I'm having problem's with OS selector. I have windows xp and Vista on two separate harddisks, installed os selector in windows xp, But when OS selector starts when i boot, it refuses to start Vista, only xp works :-( When i try to start vista it says : Fallback 1 Find --set-root /Bootmgr. Anyone having a solution ??

I'm pretty confident only the latest version is Vista compatible.