my dual boot experience bad very bad

Overall a very bad experience with a series of system errors. Started with simple blues screen errors when trying to boot into XP progress to more serious problems. The early problems were resolved by rebooting again. Then booted into XP was advised that there had been major hardware changes that required activation of XP. There had been no hardware changes since before installing XP. But the capping error happen this morning when I was unable to boot into XP. The blue screen stated Bad sys config Info. Thankfully I had a pre Vista disk image and was able to get my system up and running again without Vista since the boot manager was no longer installed. Reformated the drive that contained Vista. No more starnge system errors.

Since you are saying absolutely nothing about what kind of computer you are using and how you are installing, no one can offer advice. As feedback, this should be sent to MS via the feedback link. I have not had any of the problems you describe.
"mouse" wrote in message

Overall a very bad experience with a series of system errors. Started with simple blues screen errors when trying to boot into XP progress to more serious problems. The early problems were resolved by rebooting again. Then booted into XP was advised that there had been major hardware changes that required activation of XP. There had been no hardware changes since before installing XP. But the capping error happen this morning when I was unable to boot into XP. The blue screen stated Bad sys config Info. Thankfully I had a pre Vista disk image and was able to get my system up and running again without Vista since the boot manager was no longer installed. Reformated the drive that contained Vista. No more starnge system errors.

Yep; we really need specifics,and we could help you have a very good dual boot experience. I don't have a clue from what you typed what your errors were, how you burned, if you setup and burned from XP as I would advise. I don't know what a capping error means but I can promise you I've looked at a few errors from MSFT in Windows., I tthink you should be commended though for deploying your recovery disk and pulling your XP out of it--good job! Now you can make sure you have a good burn and succeed in dual booting and you'll feel a lot better and it has some definite advantages, I think because you don't have to move all your files and folders and settings from XP when you can access them from the Vista desktop easily.
Most likely your errors had zero to do with dual booting if you tried this correctly and more possibly to do with your Iso burn. I find it easy to dual boot using these steps:
Here's how most people dual boot the system and it works well, and has worked well with every build of Vista through 5384.4 (Beta 2) with a bonus tip. Always install the olderst Windows Operating System first, and that's XP in this case.
1) Burn the DVD from XP. Use iso tab/burn slowly/close session. 3) You can find Checksums that will check the integrity of the burn. There are md5 hashes on the web you can use to check--I don't know if an ISO download CRC tool is made for the public download. Maybe someone can tell you.
An added tip is to optimize your burn do this:
Get to Device Manager by typing devmgmt.msc in run/win key + pause break or Rt. click My Computer>Prop>hardware tab>Device Manager if you like 5 steps instead of one cmd. If you're set to PMI here change to DMO and if set to DMO change to PMI:
a.. Click the + in front of IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers a.. Double Click the Secondary IDE Controller a.. Click Advanced Settings a.. Under Device 1  Next to Transfer Mode choose DMA (or vise versa) a.. Click OK a.. Reboot your System
2) When you burn the DVD from Windows XP, you will have the Vista setup screens on your XP desktop and you will have the option to direct it to the volume/partition/drive where you have made space. I would give yourself 30-40GB depending on how many programs you plan to install on the Vista boot. Vista does not take that much space nor do its files and this is documented on this group, but you will get crowded if you use much less than 20GB fast.
The reason for going into the Vista setup this way from the XP desktop is you will not get your drive letters rearranged. If you boot from start outside of XP, this will happen. So be sure to burn the Iso from XP and go into the Vista setup from the XP desktop--it will be waiting for you when you complete burning the Iso.
3) This will install easily and you will then have a black and white screen when you start up that has a list of the current Windows Version (Vista) and the Previous Windows version.
4) If you leave files/folders/apps in the space you plan to install Vista, it will tuck them into a Windows Old folder or two. It is optimum to start fresh and clean, but you should not lose what you have on the drive.
5) The *bonus tip*--How to Access the XP desktop with a click from Vista and use the XP files and folders without wasting time and space moving them:
6) Once on the Vista boot's desktop, you can save time and real estate by making a shortcut to the XP desktop assuming XP is on C:\ by typing C:\Documents and Settings\Bill's Profile\Desktop and dragging the folder icon from the name bar of the Explorer Window that comes up on the Vista desktop. If it were an XP explorer folder, you'd be dragging from the corner of the title bar. This difference also occurs in an IE Windows in XP and Vista as to dragging the shortcut from the Title Bar in XP and the Address Bar in Vista.
If you run into problems along the way, and give us specifics, someone would and could help you.
Good luck,
CH


"mouse" wrote in message

Overall a very bad experience with a series of system errors. Started with simple blues screen errors when trying to boot into XP progress to more serious problems. The early problems were resolved by rebooting again. Then booted into XP was advised that there had been major hardware changes that required activation of XP. There had been no hardware changes since before installing XP. But the capping error happen this morning when I was unable to boot into XP. The blue screen stated Bad sys config Info. Thankfully I had a pre Vista disk image and was able to get my system up and running again without Vista since the boot manager was no longer installed. Reformated the drive that contained Vista. No more starnge system errors.

mouse wrote On 6/19/2006 7:34 AM:

Overall a very bad experience with a series of system errors. Started with simple blues screen errors when trying to boot into XP progress to more serious problems. The early problems were resolved by rebooting again. Then booted into XP was advised that there had been major hardware changes that required activation of XP. There had been no hardware changes since before installing XP. But the capping error happen this morning when I was unable to boot into XP. The blue screen stated Bad sys config Info. Thankfully I had a pre Vista disk image and was able to get my system up and running again without Vista since the boot manager was no longer installed. Reformated the drive that contained Vista. No more starnge system errors.

Sounds like you are using multi-boot without a proper boot manager and probably with Vista and XP on the same partition. You might have more success if you use a boot manager and put Vista on a completely separate partition from XP. Then hide the XP partition from Vista and vice versa. Put your user data on a third partition and tweak Vista and XP to find your user data on the user data partition.
That should stop the starnge "major hardware changes" messages.

a "boot manager" ? ?
"KWE" wrote in message

mouse wrote On 6/19/2006 7:34 AM: Overall a very bad experience with a series of system errors. Started with simple blues screen errors when trying to boot into XP progress to more serious problems. The early problems were resolved by rebooting again. Then booted into XP was advised that there had been major hardware changes that required activation of XP. There had been no hardware changes since before installing XP. But the capping error happen this morning when I was unable to boot into XP. The blue screen stated Bad sys config Info. Thankfully I had a pre Vista disk image and was able to get my system up and running again without Vista since the boot manager was no longer installed. Reformated the drive that contained Vista. No more starnge system errors.
Sounds like you are using multi-boot without a proper boot manager and probably with Vista and XP on the same partition. You might have more success if you use a boot manager and put Vista on a completely separate partition from XP. Then hide the XP partition from Vista and vice versa. Put your user data on a third partition and tweak Vista and XP to find your user data on the user data partition.
That should stop the starnge "major hardware changes" messages.

I suggest that you don't be too concerned about a boot manager during beta. Some folks make the case for third party boot manager software in lieu of using the Vista generated boot options screen. In your case the "boot manager" that disappeard was the Boot Configuration Data store which the Vista installer puts on your XP partition (in most scenarios).
"JC" wrote in message

a "boot manager" ? ?
"KWE" wrote in message mouse wrote On 6/19/2006 7:34 AM: Overall a very bad experience with a series of system errors. Started with simple blues screen errors when trying to boot into XP progress to more serious problems. The early problems were resolved by rebooting again. Then booted into XP was advised that there had been major hardware changes that required activation of XP. There had been no hardware changes since before installing XP. But the capping error happen this morning when I was unable to boot into XP. The blue screen stated Bad sys config Info. Thankfully I had a pre Vista disk image and was able to get my system up and running again without Vista since the boot manager was no longer installed. Reformated the drive that contained Vista. No more starnge system errors.
Sounds like you are using multi-boot without a proper boot manager and probably with Vista and XP on the same partition. You might have more success if you use a boot manager and put Vista on a completely separate partition from XP. Then hide the XP partition from Vista and vice versa. Put your user data on a third partition and tweak Vista and XP to find your user data on the user data partition.
That should stop the starnge "major hardware changes" messages.

"Colin Barnhorst" wrote:
I am not sure what this guy is referrring to exactly by dual boot. My own problems are very similar to his. In my case the pc with "dual boot" has 2 partitions - one with winxpsp2(German Lang.) and on the other partition there is Linux Suse10 with the whole thing using grub to allow me (up until I unwisely treid to upgrade the xp to vista beta2 - unwise because this *is* a primary pc - I just dont have the cash to buy a second pc for trying beta stuff and mostly have been lucky in the past) to choose when booting which o-system to boot into.
Experiance has almost been identical too what the gent expressed in this posting. Now the grug boot manager no longer functions correctly so I have to head for xp vial the linux-suse10. The grug option screen shows for the normal 5 seconds but is inoperational - i.e. I cant switch the boot preference away from suse10 to windows. One hits the down arrow-key as usual but nothing happens.
Inside suse10 I get an error report that there is no music cd in the drive and/or do I have authority to access it.
When shifting from the suse10 to xp I can then acess the o-system but with a number of fault reports - stuff like driver needs to be installed for a RAID system and demand to look for a driver for multimedia suppport and so on - I just have to click these fault reports away each time and then stuff works basically ok.
I use a MSoft wireless keyboard and mouse and the mouse seemed to be acticing a bit lame but that turned out to be low battery status which latter showed a warning window and was resolved.
The machine is a amd 3000+ based box with 512mb of ram and a 125mb grafic card.
The blue-screen that the vista- beta2 install produced said (a lot of stuff in general but also-) that there was a problem with newly installed hardware/software which needed to be fixed. I uninstalled a logitech webcam (comncated STX(c)) that I had very recently installed - and the associated suite of software for it, but the blue screen showed up again.
I kinda suspect that the problem may be an old tv card with more-tv soft that I have running occasionally when in the xp environ.
But too be honest - once bitten - twice shy - one really should not be messing with beta-testing on a main/only pc and so while I will be following the infos here with interest to learn what I can - appart from finding the time to repaire the grub and or re-install the whole system (xp and linux - a HUGE undertaking - like 1- 1-1/2 week of work - I am going to leave the beta of vista until I win the state lottery (or find a _real_ job - I am in Germany and 57yo so that is unlikely) and then actually have a second pc to make a clean install onto.
(remind me of the command in winXP to produce a system-config data sheet and I will post it if anybody is interested?)

Since you are saying absolutely nothing about what kind of computer you are using and how you are installing, no one can offer advice. As feedback, this should be sent to MS via the feedback link. I have not had any of the problems you describe.
"mouse" wrote in message Overall a very bad experience with a series of system errors. Started with simple blues screen errors when trying to boot into XP progress to more serious problems. The early problems were resolved by rebooting again. Then booted into XP was advised that there had been major hardware changes that required activation of XP. There had been no hardware changes since before installing XP. But the capping error happen this morning when I was unable to boot into XP. The blue screen stated Bad sys config Info. Thankfully I had a pre Vista disk image and was able to get my system up and running again without Vista since the boot manager was no longer installed. Reformated the drive that contained Vista. No more starnge system errors.

I don`t beleive it! I just wote a long complex answer to this posting and posted it with a copy to bln.comp.pc and the response was: "There has been an effor and your post has not been received - goddammit - what was all my effort for doing the article if this is what is going to happen when posting it!?

The web-based reader gives a false report sometimes. That accounts for the multiple postings (folks naturally try again).
"flybye88" wrote in message

I don`t beleive it! I just wote a long complex answer to this posting and posted it with a copy to bln.comp.pc and the response was: "There has been an effor and your post has not been received - goddammit - what was all my effort for doing the article if this is what is going to happen when posting it!?