[Download] Vista Hide 'n Seek BETA

Here's the screen capture - I hope !
(though I've never made this work before)
 
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Oh, I just do start -> run -> cmd.exe
Code: 
cd desktop
"drive grabber.exe"

Then right-click: select all. Then drag what you really want and copy. (it's a PITA)

So the numbers are right? I'll switch HnS to use this code then!


Addendum:


Download: The NeoSmart Forums
 
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EUREKA !
Build 37 is IT.
(well I know I haven't found it - You have, but I did latin at school, not greek, so I don't know the correct ending)

Everything is Hunky Dory now, functioning perfectly. I just need to trot into EasyBCD and set the Vista bootloader to zero wait to get rid of the (now) spurious 2nd menu, and thats it.

Now I don't like to throw a wet blanket on this moment of celebration, but when's iReboot going to be compatible ? (just a joke - really)

btw. A possible reason for the b35/36 problem. Though the boot disk is 0 and now the HnS menu.lst correctly identifies the hide/unhide entries as 0,x (and everything is working perfectly). I notice that Disk Management in both Vista and XP says that my G disk (IDE) is disk 0 and my CDH(EF) disk SATA is disk 1 despite being the boot disk.
It seems that Windows can't even make up its mind what to number them !
 
Have been watching this thread with keen interest. Ran drive grabber from within Vista, and found that the logical drives on the extended partition on disk #2 (the WindowsXP drive) are shown with only the drive letter and no GRUB partition number whereas disk #0 follwed the example precisely. All three drives are SATA. Seemed a little odd to me - is this what you would have expected, Guru?

Also, I see in your example that you marked a non WindowsXP boot drive as XP - in the earlier version I found this added the drive to the boot menu. Does HnS now check that the XP drives are actually bootable system drives?
 
geoffp:
The XP thing in the example: No, that's a mistake in the screenshot.
As for the numbering: That's not what I expected... Drive Grabber (and, hence, HnS) should assign GRUB numbers to all logical partitions. Can you please post the output of the attached copy of drive grabber?

Terry:
Eureka indeed! The problem was that Windows couldn't make up its mind, so I'm accessing the BIOS directly instead, the same way GRUB would do it.
 

Attachments

  • Drive Grabber.exe
    6 KB · Views: 12
Here is a copy of the Drive Grabber output as seen from the Vista boot drive (disk #0):
<quote>
\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0
Disk #0, Partition #0
C:
Disk #0, Partition #1
D:
Disk #0, Partition #2
E:
Disk #0. Partition #3
F: - GRUB partition #4
G: - GRUB partition #5
H: - GRUB partition #6
\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1
Disk #1, Partition #0
P:
Disk #1, Partition #1
R:
Disk #1, Partition #2
V:
\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2
Disk #2, Partition #0
L:
Disk #2, Partition #1
M:
N:
O:
<unquote>

Thought it might be a little odd.

Also managed to catch the warning messages on boot, and see that they are all GRUB problems (err=114) so outside of HnS.

Glad to see that you made it back!
 
Thanks.

Is that output with the very latest version I attached in my last post? Because it's supposed to look like this:

Code: 
C:\Users\Computer Guru\Desktop>"Drive Grabber.exe"
\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0
Disk #0, Partition #0, Type: Installable File System
E:
\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1
Disk #1, Partition #0, Type: Installable File System
C:
Disk #1, Partition #1, Type: Installable File System
D:
\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2
Disk #2, Partition #0, Type: Installable File System
J:
\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE3
Disk #3, Partition #0, Type: Installable File System
G:
 
OK, here's another Drive Grabber build that should show both the type of the filesystem (like in my last post) as well as POSSIBLY fix your problem with GRUB partitions not being labeled properly.
 

Attachments

  • Drive Grabber.exe
    6 KB · Views: 17
Sorry, Guru - I must have run the original Drive Grabber the first time. The second Drive Grabber gave the additional 'Type' information but still failed to give GRUB partition numbers to the extended partition logical drives on Disk2.
Last offering, SUCCESS! All partitions given GRUB partition numbers.
Results when run from Vista were:
\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE0
Disk #0, Partition #0, Type: Installable File System
C:
Disk #0, Partition #1, Type: Installable File System
D:
Disk #0, Partition #2, Type: Installable File System
E:
Disk #0. Partition #3, Type: Extended w/Extended Int 13
F: - GRUB partition #4
G: - GRUB partition #5
H: - GRUB partition #6
\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE1
Disk #1, Partition #0, Type: Installable File System
P:
Disk #1, Partition #1, Type: Installable File System
R:
Disk #1, Partition #2, Type: Installable File System
V:
[FONT=&quot]\\.\PHYSICALDRIVE2
Disk #2, Partition #0, Type: Installable File System
L:
Disk #2, Partition #1, Type: Extended Partition
M: - GRUB partition #4[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]N: - GRUB partition #5
O: - GRUB partition #6[/FONT]

When run from WindowsXP, the two hidden Vista primary partitions are marked as 'Type unknown' and the hidden Vista Logical drive on the Extended partition is ignored and not listed. Guess this is now exactly as it should be?
Only observation is that as the hidden logical was the first in the extended partition, the remaining two logical are given GRUB partition numbers one less than before (ie #4 and #5 in XP when they had been #5 and #6 in Vista).
 
My system correctly identifies my logical drive as unknown, exactly the same as for the primary partition on examination in XP's disk management.
 
Thanks guys.

I was originally searching for "Extended w/Extended Int 13" only, didn't know there was an option for "Extended" by itself!

I'll try to get a new build up soon with this fix.

Addendum:

OK, pushed a new version out.... hopefully this'll take care of the extended partition issues for once and for all.......................

Download build 38: http://neosmart.net/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=213
 
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Guru,
Not a lot of use to you because the last build worked perfectly on my layout anyway, but I downloaded and ran this build just to verify that it's still perfect - It is.
You'll have to wait for Geoff to verify that his anomaly has gone away, but at least you know nothing new untoward has crept in to this build - at least as far as my system is concerned.

(Haven't been around much today - my 3 wireless adapters arrived this morning 2x MSI PC60G-F and 1 MSI US60SE and I've been experimenting with ad-hoc PC to PC networking while I'm waiting for my broadband router to arrive. What a nightmare, this PC as you know, Vista/XP, the other PC XP, and an old Thinkpad with W98 - all the networking software looks completely different on the 3 systems, and I'm on a steep learning curve - never networked before, never used wireless ! )
 
Nice choice of cards there, Terry.

Thanks for the testing it and making sure it didn't break anything - I was rather hoping you would :smile:
 
Guru,
Happy to confirm that the latest build also worked on my system, creating a menu.lst identical to that from build 35. When GRUB stops issuing a list of 'Warning: Unrecognised partition table for drive 80' messages on boot the operation will be perfect! Even though these messages appear, the functionality is spot on and both Vista and XP boot just as expected.

Did notice that there was a minor mismatch on the HnS screen between the instructions and the actual button labels - wish I had noted them at the time but was something along the lines of 'Press Next' vs 'Proceed' - might cause confusion?

Think you might have cracked it! Just waiting now for the general release so that I can recommend it to others.....

If I haven't said it before, many thanks, Guru! A great little utility.


postscript:
Just a thought, Guru - is there a way of making GRUB operate in 'silent mode' to inhibit the warning messages? Have been trawling the GRUB web pages, but could not see anything obvious. Clearly needs much more expertise than I have...
 
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Thanks.

GRUB partition table error: looking into it.
Quiet mode: possible, but perhaps will require intervention to show the menu, looking into it now.
Messages that flash up before the menu appears: the next build (hopefully)
Tooltips on the install screen: soon...
Cosmetic changes (buttons, label matching, etc.): next build+


I'm happy to say that it's being bumped to BETA instead of ALPHA with the next build :smile:

I'll start readying the installer and spread the word.

Addendum:

Keep track of open bug reports and new features at Browse Project - NeoSmart Technologies BugCentral .
 
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Multi-Boot Problems

Hi
I am not sure whether I am posting this in the correct thread however here is my info:

I am happily running Vista Ultimate and XP Pro SP2 with zero problems EXCEPT for the lost restore points in Vista.

I have 2 HD with three partitions on each. I only have 2 NTFS which strangely are Vista and XP Pro.

I just used your latest version of Vista HnS and it didn't work but I fixed it!

By the way I no nothing of Linux and how it counts partitions but I do know DOS etc.

What happened was I installed it in Vista, identified which partition had what and rebooted.

A nice menu appeared giving me the choice between Vista (default) and XP. Selected Vista no problems back into Vista. Second time chose XP and it crashed. I think 13 was mentioned. Pressed return back to the menu, selected XP and went into edit where it was showing 1,4 selected this area and pressed Tab and options were, I think, 1, 4 and 5 tried five but that crashed so changed to 1 and BINGO into XP.

One other thing was noticeable, I already had another Menu that ran before XP giving a choice of two XPs, one of which is long gone HOWEVER there is now an ADDITIONAL entry, at the top - which is lucky because it is impossible to move the cursor, which says XPSP2 but pressing return goes into XP Pro without any further problems.

If any of this is new and you want more details let me know.
 
When it comes to Windows or Linux the partitions are easily determined. The count starts at 0 (Zero) and goes up from there. So if you have multiple drives the first one is 0. The the 2nd is 1 and so on. From there the partitions are done the same way. So it would be 0,0 (Zero,Zero) for the first partition on teh first drive. See how easy it really is? :wink:

So from what you have told me i can tell that XP is installed on teh 2nd drive on teh 2nd partition. (1,1)

It sounds as if you have your boot.ini file kicking on before teh BCD or Vista bootloader.

Have you used EasyBCD to remove any un-needed entries?
 
This was originally posted in the HnS thread as I was trying to be helpful to those programming the Beta.

I HAVE what I wanted! A PC dual booting XP Pro & Vista. With Vista keeping its restore points.

Cheers
 
Yes i see that now. It was noted to me by Guru that this was there. For some reason it was split. Maybe becuase you had some questions that we could answer for you.:wink:
 
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