Install and use neogrub instead of bootmgr

S

smx

Member
Hello, i'm new and this is my first post :smile:
I have 2 Hard Disks
Hard Disk 0
3 Partitions
(hd0,0) Windows Vista
(hd0,1) Windows XP
(hd0,2) Files
Hard Disk 1
(hd0,0) Files

I'd like to install and use Neogrub as default boot manager instead of Windows Vista BCD (i'll chainload it with Neogrub).
Any Help?
 
The problem isn't hide partitions, because i can already do it with Neogrub with "hide" and "unhide" commands.
I'd like to keep all partitions visible, make Neogrub default boot loader and use "makeactive" command to make a partition active and then boot in it.

I already tryed and it worked, but at reboot i see the message "bootmgr is compressed", because the vista partition with BCD is not active. If i insert the Vista DVD it say that there are wrong boot options, then i reboot again into Vista DVD and now he say that Vista is installed in the XP Partition, and it installs BCD on it.
 
AFAIK you can't use neogrub as MAIN bootloader, because it depends on bootmgr. Your best bet is to use regular grub (Dunno if you can use it without installing whichever linux distro it comes with)
 
smx said:
I already tryed and it worked, but at reboot i see the message "bootmgr is compressed", because the vista partition with BCD is not active. If i insert the Vista DVD it say that there are wrong boot options, then i reboot again into Vista DVD and now he say that Vista is installed in the XP Partition, and it installs BCD on it.
Click to expand...
Most likely, the real reason you're getting that message is because bootmgr IS compressed, for some reason. Did you by any chance compress or encrypt the contents of your Vista partition, using for example a program such as Servant Salamander?

If so, you'll want to uncompress or decrpyt your partition's contents so it can boot, and then you can go ahead and compress again your user files if you want (but ONLY your user files).
 
Justin, you can uncompress a single file. Just run from the recovery disc:

Code: 
compact /u c:\bootmgr
 
Funny. :smile:
Thanks for that. I love it when people get my name wrong.

About the uncompressing thing...
Yeh, I figured that. I just didn't know how to uncompress a single file.
Thanks for the above command. I'll be sure to make a mental note on it for future reference.
 
Problem Solved

Let's start answering questions
1 The file was not compressed and the problem was making vista partition active after i logged into xp and before logoff
2 I downloaded grub4dos
http://sourceforge.net/projects/grub4dos/files/GRUB4DOS/grub4dos 0.4.4/grub4dos-0.4.4.zip/download
and grubinst to install in on NTFS Partition
http://sourceforge.net/projects/gru...nst 1.0.1/grubinst_1.0.1_bin_win.zip/download
Then i used grubinst to write MBR to GLRDR and then i copyied the whole content of grub4dos to selected partition. It's safe because grub4dos automatically backups the old MBR to the 2nd sector of HDD and if grub4dos doesn't boot for any reason the program will boot the old MBR (BOOTMGR/NTLDR/........)
Thank you all anyway :grinning:
 
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