I went back and ran 56 again (from my saved download), which worked perfectly last time it ran.
This time it did the uninstall, ran through all of the install successfully to the "do you want to do any tidying up" phase, and before I could select anything, the UI disappeared. There was a lot of disk activity audible, but the system was basically hung until a "sorry but windows is going to have to close in 1 minute" message. Eventually it rebooted perfectly into Vista.
The only thing I can think of to explain why a build which worked perfectly before should suddenly cause the system to close is the set of x64 critical fixes that went on with WUD last week are causing a clash, but why only on my system ? Is it an x64 problem ? is anyone else who tried it using 64 bit ?
Addendum:
Oh and I should say for completeness that I ignored the "unplug all your USB devices" message (left them in) which makes this technically different to the previous run of 56 (where I removed them).
But I did so in the belief that the message was redundant but hadn't been removed from my copy when I downloaded it ?
Addendum:
The previously mentioned disk activity before shutdown sounded suspiciously like it was compiling a dump, but still no minidump folder has ever been created in my windows folder.
Is there anywhere else it hides dumps ?
Addendum:
I just tried build 58 again with the firewall removed, but things are still basically the same. The reboot is random (this time it had got far enough for the Vista boot to complete ok - but still preceding the menu screen with the invalid partition table message), but it always happens somewhere. (this time I got a windows "UI is closing - do you want to search online for a solution" dialogue while the install was hanging in the penultimate stage.)
I ran the UI twice, once for uninstall - worked perfectly, and once for install.
NeoSmart intelliLogger 1.0
Logging started on 20/08/2008 at 02:28 using log level Debug
02:28 Vista Hide 'n Seek 0.5.0.58
02:28 Boot drive: D:\
02:28 Listing drives involved in the procedure.
02:28 Beginning Uninstall process.
02:28 Reverting BOOTMGR on C:\
02:28 Reverting BOOTMGR on D:\
02:28 Reverting BOOTMGR on E:\
02:28 Reverting BOOTMGR on F:\
02:28 Reverting BOOTMGR on G:\
02:28 Reverting BOOTMGR on H:\
02:28 Removing menu.lst from D:\
02:28 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on C:\
02:28 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on D:\
02:28 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on E:\
02:28 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on F:\
02:28 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on G:\
02:28 Attempting to revert boot.ini.hns, XP.ID.HnS, & Vista.ID.HnS on H:\
02:28 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from C:\
02:28 Access to the path 'C:\NTLDR' is denied.
02:28 Access to the path 'C:\NTDETECT.COM' is denied.
02:28 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from D:\
02:28 Access to the path 'D:\NTLDR' is denied.
02:28 Access to the path 'D:\NTDETECT.COM' is denied.
02:28 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from E:\
02:28 Access to the path 'E:\NTLDR' is denied.
02:28 Access to the path 'E:\NTDETECT.COM' is denied.
02:28 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from F:\
02:28 Access to the path 'F:\NTLDR' is denied.
02:28 Access to the path 'F:\NTDETECT.COM' is denied.
02:28 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from G:\
02:28 Access to the path 'G:\NTLDR' is denied.
02:28 Access to the path 'G:\NTDETECT.COM' is denied.
02:28 Deleting NTLDR and NTDETECT from H:\
02:28 Access to the path 'H:\NTLDR' is denied.
02:28 Access to the path 'H:\NTDETECT.COM' is denied.
02:28 Re-creating NTLDR and NTDETECT on D:\
02:28 HnS has been successfully uninstalled.
NeoSmart intelliLogger 1.0
Logging started on 20/08/2008 at 02:28 using log level Debug
02:28 Vista Hide 'n Seek 0.5.0.58
02:28 Boot drive: D:\
02:28 Listing drives involved in the procedure.
02:28 H as Unknown
02:28 G as Unknown
02:28 F as Unknown
02:28 E as Vista
02:28 D as XP
02:28 C as Vista
02:28 Beginning Install process.
02:28 Attempting to rename D:\boot.ini to D:\boot.ini.hns
02:28 Copying NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM to D:\
02:28 Creating boot.ini on D as partition(2)
02:28 Creating Vista entry in menu.lst.
02:28 Adding XP entry D to menu.lst
02:28 Renaming BOOTMGR, creating GRLDR on D:\
02:28 Updating the bootsector on all partitions.
Addendum:
Just before closing down for the night, I rebooted to check the cosmetic edits I'd made to menu .lst
viz.
# NeoSmart Technologies' Vista Hide 'n Seek Beta
# DO NOT MODIFY!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
timeout 8
default 0
find --set-root /vhns.xpm.gz0
splashimage=/vhns.xpm.gz
foreground 000000
background 8f8f8f
title Vista 64 bit
find --unhide /Vista.C.HnS
find --unhide /Vista.E.HnS
find --set-root /BOOTMGR.HNS
makeactive
chainloader /BOOTMGR.HNS
boot
title XP 32 bit
find --hide /Vista.C.HnS
find --hide /Vista.E.HnS
find --remap-root /XP.D.HnS
find --set-root /XP.D.HnS
makeactive
chainloader /ntldr
boot
# All your boot are belong to NeoSmart!
which worked fine, but the splash screen is always preceded now by a multiple HDD seek and the messages that drive 80 and drive 82 have invalid partition tables and need to be rebuilt.
This is the same message as I got back at about build 45, which was followed then by the cmain message and a dead system, but seems to be causing no problems other than the seek noise and the extra delay now.
What step got omitted during the install to cause this message ? (the system works perfectly btw, all drives present and correct), and can I run it manually to clean up the start of the boot ?