Is it EZ to corrupt Vista's BCD modding boot options w/11.1?

English Install/Boot/Login
1

Finally got Suse 11.1 installed, then I think I whacked Vista’s bootloader from within Suse.

It was late, like 2:30 in the morning, and I believe I may have caused the issue when “tweaking” things.

While waiting for updates (Yast), I decided to modify the boot loader from within Suse. Dual boot with Vista installed first, didn’t have any problems letting Suse configure the partitions, started with an empty 30 gig partition for Suse to use. Had rebooted to both Vista and Suse several times before this happened.

Original Suse boot config:

OpenSuse 11.1 (default)
Windows 1 (Gateway recovery partition)
Windows 2 (Vista)

I made the following changes:
Renamed Windows 1 to Gateway Recovery, renamed Windows 2 to Vista, re-orded placing Vista first, and set Vista as the default OS:

Vista (default)
OpenSuse 11.1
Gateway Recovery

Upon reboot, I was greeted with the BCD error screen.

Could these changes have corrupted Vista’s BDC?

2

11.1’s bootloader is VERY messed up. I had an 11 / 11.1 dual boot system, and when I went into YAST (in 11.1) and changed the default OS to 11 from 11.1 and rebooted, I got a “No Operating System Found” error, and lost both OS’s.

What I did to fix it was reinstall 11 and 11.1, but set 11 as the default OS during the install process, when you are are given one last chance to make changes before hitting the “Install” button after entering passwords and specifying which desktop you want, etc.

This worked, for some reason, setting the default OS at the beginning of the installation rather than doing it from within 11.1 after the install was finished.

So you may try this. I found that none of the rescue options on the install disc worked, but you might try this as well, maybe you’ll have better luck.

3

Sounds like I did indeed create the problem.

Had no idea Vista was so sensitive!

4

Probably would not have happened with 11. It’s not your fault, how were you supposed to know?

No previous versions of OpenSuse have done this, that I’m aware of, so it’s not like there was any warning.

I’m confident that a reinstall will make Vista bootable again, just set your booting options at the beginning of the install.

5

You are correct!

I re-installed and configured my boot preferences during the install, and all is well!

I renamed the 2 Windows partitions and set Vista as the default - no problems!

Thanks for the advice!

I didn’t see this information anywhere in the newbie stickies that I perused during the last week.