Re: Hiding Vista volumes from XP (volsnap.sys issue revisited)
The funniest thing is that we are discussing this on 2 threads. LOL
Colin, I thought that since you seem to be quite savvy with O/S talk and
since I am French and don't always find the right words, I thought that
saying a reg hack would have been understood by you because I often see this
type of term used.
I meant BOOTMGR
So let's call it a registry modification.
Now, let's make this clear.
1.. System is powered on
2.. The CMOS loads the BIOS and then runs POST
3.. Looks for the MBR on the bootable device
4.. Through the MBR the boot sector is located and the BOOTMGR is loaded
5.. BOOTMGR looks for active partition
6.. BOOTMGR reads the BCD file from the \boot directory on the active
partition
7.. The BCD (boot configuration database) contains various configuration
parameters( this information was previously stored in the boot.ini)
8.. When windows vista is selected, BOOTMGR transfer control to the
Windows Loader (winload.exe) or winresume.exe in case the system was
hibernated.
9.. Winloader loads drivers that are set to start at boot and then
transfers the control to the windows kernel.
10.. There is not msgina.dll in windows vista ( the shell draws the login
screen)
With XP it was called NTLDR with boot.ini file
With Vista it's called bootmgr with a Boot Configuration Database. to pay
with boot configuration, you need to run in admin mode command bcd.exe
Imagine, if we didn't have have VisatBootPro, imagine were we would be if if
BCDwas gone!!
Now Don, the reason you have this issue, is because your XP drive was
plugged. That is one amongst many reasons that experienced users prefer to
use bios option than Vista boot manager.
As you can see from my pic, BCD store only shows Vista, but can't see XP
because I unplugged the drive when I installed Vista.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Now for those who have installed Vista while XP was plugged in and have the
Volume shadow copy issue and restore points can't be seen,
Copy this command into notepad. for each drive that you want to change,
modify the letter of the drive that you wish to be offline. In this case if
it were J, then E in my reg tweak would be J. This command works for XP and
Vista.
In your case Don, I imagine that since you have three drives and two are for
XP the third drive would be E for your Vista drive (check to make sure in
XP). The command would be E in this case to fix your issue. If this is the
case, paste what is between the two lines into notepad and save as
Offline.txt press enter. Then rename the .TXT extension to .REG and click
OK. Now double click on the reg file and you have just created a hidden
Vista E drive from XP.
BTW Clint, you did some nice work in your article and is is very nice. Just
one thing, as you can see the reg key has quotes and a back slashes before
and after DosDevices. Double slash if you create an auto Reg tweak and
single slash if you modify directly from the registry (don't forget to leave
the quotes)
___________________________________________________________________________________
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices\Offline]
"\\DosDevices\\E:"=dword:00000001
___________________________________________________________________________________
--
Lance Frca {497083/1008563} MVP Shell/User
www.zardoc.com
XP-Vista Trucs et Astuces et autres
"Colin Barnhorst" <c.barnhorst@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:0F913803-1A1A-4C92-A769-DACD2AD00C40@microsoft.com...
> Well it means that you can use a standard boot menu with as few as just
> one new registry key and thereafter not be concerned about dual-booting
> any more than you would any other two Windows operating systems. It means
> you don't have to enter the BIOS each time you want to change operating
> systems.
>
> It only looks complicated if you are new to the registry or unclear about
> the issue. Someone well experienced in such things needs only the
> specifics of the registry key and would not need any of the rest of it.
>
> Something like "Create
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\MountedDevices\Offline\DosDevices\D: ((DWORD),
> where "D:" is the Vista drive letter) with a value of 1 and then reboot"
> gets the job done. That would intimidate many so I spelled it all out. A
> kind of "Fixing the volsnap.sys issue for Dummies."
>
> "Lance Le Claire" <la_1@videotron.ca> wrote in message
> news:evb0m1xdIHA.6136@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
>>I congratulate you on your hard work (i really do) but man it's really
>>complicated for nothing if you have a bios boot option. Choosing from one
>>screen or another isn't much different.
>>
>> --
>> Lance Frca {497083/1008563} MVP Shell/User
>> www.zardoc.com
>> XP-Vista Trucs et Astuces et autres
>>
>> "Colin Barnhorst" <c.barnhorst@comcast.net> wrote in message
>> news:6B58D5E1-58B0-4B4A-92D1-2053C15B76FE@microsoft.com...
>>> There is still lots of confusion about the incompatibility between XP
>>> and
>>> Vista that leads to the loss of Vista's recovery options when
>>> multi-booting
>>> Vista and XP. I have prepared a Greypaper (it would be a whitepaper if
>>> I
>>> just knew what I was doing 
) for those interested or needing to
>>> resolve
>>> the problem on their own computers. The attachment is based on my own
>>> notes
>>> in securing my test box from this problem. I multi-boot XP Pro x86, XP
>>> Pro
>>> x64, Vista x86, and Vista x64 so the example in the Greypaper is for
>>> more
>>> than just dual-booting.
>>>
>>> The attachment is in Word .doc format so any edition of Word or the Word
>>> Viewer (free download from Office Downloads) will do as well as Open
>>> Office,
>>> etc.
>>>
>>> Before you net-police start posting replies about "back up everything
>>> first", its all in the doc already.
>>>
>>> Feel free to use the attachment as you want, including modifying,
>>> reposting,
>>> etc.
>>>
>>> OK, all you flamers, let me have it.
>>>
>>
>