I was using Acronis as my bootloader to boot into XP and OS X. I just installed Vista and now when in Acronis I go into XP or Vista, it shows me a Vista bootloader. This one asks me whether I was to go into XP or Vista.

I want to disable this second bootloader so that when I select an OS in Acronis it directly enters that OS. I've tried a few things so far and nothing has worked. Thanks for any help

This is what happens so far:
OS X ---- Directly enters OS X

XP ------- Bootloader: XP or Vista

Vista ---- Bootloader: Xp or Vista

I want this:
OS X ---- Directly enters OS X

XP ------- XP

Vista ---- Vista

Uninstall the Acronis bootloader and use only the Vista bootloader. Download EasyBCD & add a Mac OS X entry.

thats what i do

acronis is slooow

you are right

Acronis is also very prone to breaking its own bootloader from time to time if you restart a lot.

True. But I need its flexibility. I install and uninstall too many operating systems.

I don't believe it can be done.

I did post on his other thread how it can be done.

One has to hide xp partition before installing vista, so that vista doesn't put its boot files in xp's partition.
Then acronis (or grub, or darwin bootloader) can load each of xp and vista without getting the ntldr or vista boot menu.

If this hasn't been done, then one has to correct the situation and re-establish xp's own bootloader/bootsector: fixmbr, fixboot, make sure ntldr and ntdetect.com files are on xp's root, recreate a boot.ini file for xp; then reactivate aoss with acronis boot cd, or reactivate grub, etc. Modify/complete at will the details.

I suppose there's no way to do it without having Vista invisible to XP and vice versa.

Why not?
Better to make them invisible to each other at install time, so as to install vista onto it's own active partition.

One could try to create a new partition for vista, make it active, and then install vista on this partition (reformating with vista's partitioner at install time), and still leaving xp's partition unhidden... but I prefer not to risk it: I've always taken this precaution in the past with multi-windows installs, always paid off with less problems.

But afterwards? Sure, vista's system can see xp's partition, and vice-versa, by unhiding. After.
You'll have to be careful about restore points maybe, and you'll see vista writing some system folders/files on xp's partition (esp. if its ntfs), but maybe it won't be problematic... Maybe. Your choice.

So Vista won't detect XP and re-do its bootloader when you un-hide it? Oh. Didn't know that. Cool. :-)

cbmkgd
Thanks a lot for your replies on both threads. I just wanted to ask if you meant using Acronis OS loader's 'hide' function when you suggested I hide XP when installing Vista.

Also when you said to reactivate Acronis with the boot cd were you referring to the "Bootable Rescue Media Builder" option in start menu under Acronis.

I know these sound like stupid questions but I just want to be 100% sure before I start formatting my system and giving it a try. ANd by the way I tried the fixboot & fixmbr steps from Sabrs link but they didn't really get where I wanted.

That, or using DiskDirector from the acronis bootable cd, from which you could also make the vista target partition active while you're at it.
Making the target partition active will help vista accept it better; note however that if you create that target partition with DiskDirector, do use the vista partition tool anyway to delete then recreate that partition: it seems to like better its own tool for some reason (or maybe that was only an issue with diskdirector 10 build 2117).

Yes. And if you have Acronis TrueImage also installed, that bootable can contain both bootable tools: DiskDirector and TrueImage, as well as the AOSS tools (to reinstall or reactivate).

I suggest you also browse through the pdf manual, freely downloadable from the acronis web site, or at least have it handy (as for any software, right? ).