To get the beta or not...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Eddie G
  • Start date Start date
E

Eddie G

I am skeptical about getting a beta OS. Have there been any known issues
where a beta has totally corrupted someone's system requiring a re-format?
Can I keep XP and add Vista Beta and choose which OS to use on boot-up?
Would all my current programs work on both OS's with dual OS selections?

Thanks,

Eddie G
 
Eddie G,

There are always a chance you may have issues if you choose to install Beta
software. It is recommended that you do not install Vista Beta on a
production PC that you may be afraid of something happens to files/programs
on that pc.

As far as XP and Vista, I dual boot my system between the 2 without any
problems. Not all programs currently work with Vista.
 
If you do not have the Vista Beta 2 by now, then you will not be able to get it since the Beta 2 program is closed to new downloads. You may be able to get RC1, or it may be restricted to those who have ordered, or downloaded Beta 2 and activated it.

William
I am skeptical about getting a beta OS. Have there been any known issues
where a beta has totally corrupted someone's system requiring a re-format?
Can I keep XP and add Vista Beta and choose which OS to use on boot-up?
Would all my current programs work on both OS's with dual OS selections?

Thanks,

Eddie G
 
Thanks, Jason. Now can you please direct me to a reference for dual booting
procedures? If I install Vista beta how do I tell it NOT to overwrite XP so
I can still use XP?

Thanks!

Eddie G
 
If you scan the newsgroup you will find many requests for help because a
beta has corrupted a system. To add to Jason's good advice, do not install
on a primary home computer either. Use a test box. There is some risk of
losing data even when you install to a separate hard drive unless you
isolate the drive in the BIOS. I use a multi-boot system on a test box and
have had some occasions when I had to recover the base system (XP Pro x64).
 
Eddie--

I strongly encourage you to try Vista--you'll have to find some way to get
it now. It may be back on their site with a shot at it when RC1 rolls out,
and it goes without saying to follow the mantra on this group and the setup
group to put it on another drive from XP--and if you have another hard drive
or box so much the better. A dual boot works very well for most people.

I'm happy to post dual booting proceedures. You may have to look around on
the Torrents since MSFT has cut off their public downloads as a sales ploy
since the main reason they make the beta pubilc is to evoke interest for
sales. They don't give a damn about public feedback or the public. That's
obvious in the policy of their accountant VP of OEM sales who ensures there
is no recovery mechanism for the OS accessable via the joke DVDs and
partitions shipped by the 300 named partners.


When RC1 is made available, you may have to get someone to send you a
product key. They are stupid to limit the public download, but then
,stupidity is often the consistent hobgoblin of the MSFT mind. There was no
upside to cutting off the downloads.

Pay attention to these details and you should have no trouble burining the
ISO and dual booting if you want to after that:

*Setting Up A Dual Boot XP and Vista**

Make sure you alot enough space on the Vista target drive or Volume to
install Vista (8-11GB and another 10025GB at least to comfortably install
your programs. I strongly recommend that you burn the ISO from within
Windows XP and then you will easily be able to run the setup from your XP
desktop. Your drive letters will not change.

I would add to these directions, that on Nero 6 and above you can click on
Iso and streamline the steps a bit:

Steps to Burn Iso:
http://iso.snoekonline.com/iso.htm#Nero Burning ROM

Alternative Dual Boot Directions with Screen Shots:
http://www.lifehacker.com/software/...-boot-windows-xp-and-windows-vista-179906.php

*How To Burn the DVD and Dual Boot Vista From Windows XP*

1) If or when you have the dual boot in place in the future, you may want to
save or backup whatever you files/folders, shortcuts you created on the
previous Vista boot so you won't have to go after them again (right now
there is no previousVista boot for you) but there will be the next time
around. You'll able to do that with Vista's backup or just burn to your DVD
burner (Vista also has native DVD burning software).

2) If in the future you have XP on one boot and Vista on the other, boot
into XP and type diskmgmt.msc in the run box and right click the drive where
your current Vista is so that you clean it to put on the future Vista. There
are lots of ways to format, but this one is quick and easy and it works.

3) Open up Nero Burning Rom, One of the selections in Nero on your All
Programs menu. You will drag the mouse accross the Nero Ultra entry in All
Programs first. If you have Nero 6X and 7, (I can't remember how it was in
5X; you will have two dialogue boxes pop up when you click Nero Burning Rom.
The one facing you will say "New Compilation." The only thing you have to
click on that is ISO. The other checkboxes and pulldowns don't need to be
touched to burn the Vista Iso.

Then you'll find a new button on the Upper Right. Click it. Make
absolutely sure when given the option to Close the DVD burning session you
do this so that it will be bootable. Burn at a slow speed--this is an
Operating System Iso so use 8X or even 4X. You don't need to burn any more
slowly and a DVD + gives you an edge in burning accuracy. It's not going
to take that long.

4) Make sure you close the session.

5) There are times when people are unsuccessful at burning the Iso and there
is one more tip I use and it's outlined here:

Get to Device Manager by typing devmgmt.msc in run/win key + pause break or
Rt.click My Computer>Prop>hardware tab>Device Manager if you like 5
stepsinstead of one cmd. If you're set to PMI here change to DMO and if set
toDMO change to PMI:

a.. Click the + in front of IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers
a.. Double Click the Secondary IDE Controller
a.. Click Advanced Settings
a.. Under Device 1  Next to Transfer Mode choose DMA (or vise versa)
a.. Click OK
a.. Reboot your System

6) After you burn the Iso, while you are in XP, the setup for Vista will pop
up on your screen.

Tips on Burning the DVD Iso:

1) Burn slowly. 4X should be fine. Some of this probably varies with the
DVD writer
and the media.

2) Make sure to select an ISO tab if there is one on the burning software,
and make sure to close the session on the burn.

3) Try this tweak on your Windows XP drive and burn from there:

Get to Dev Manager by typing devmgmt.msc in run/win key + pause break or
Rt.click My Computer>Prop>hardware tab>Device Manager if you like 5 steps
instead of one cmd. If you're set to PMI here change to DMO and if set to
DMO change to PMI using these 5 steps:

1) Click the + in front of IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers

2) Double Click the Secondary IDE Controller

3) Click Advanced Settings

4) Under Device 1  Next to Transfer Mode choose DMA (or vise versa)>Click
OK

5) Reboot your System

6) Check your burn with a CRC utility and the links for this are below
including the direct Taco Bell link. It is very classy, sophisticated, and
very Wagner Edstrom/McCann Ericson esque for MSFT to adopt a Taco Bell url
for their public Beta 2 CRC checker. *Rock on Redmond Rednecks.*

Obtain CRC Utility for Vista Beta 2 Here: (The CRC utility is a way to check
the integrity of the ISO Burn which is probably where your problem
lies--it's #1 on the list):

Here's a link:

The CRC utility for Beta 2 is contained here (Scroll down to the bottom
under "Additional Information"

Microsoft® Windows® Software Development Kit (SDK) for Beta 2 of Windows
Vista and WinFX Runtime Components
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...73-F5EA-4B7B-B022-97755838DB94&displaylang=en

Additional Information:

To verify that your download of an ISO file for the Windows SDK Beta 2 build
is not corrupt, download the CRC Utility. (Note: this is not a Microsoft
application. Use at your own risk.)

To run the CRC test, open a command prompt and run the utility. providing it
the name of the file (i.e. crc
c:\6.0.5383.1.1.WindowsSDK_Vista_idw.DVD.Rel.img) The CRC utility will run
two tests on the ISO: it will verify if the ISO is valid, and it will give
the AutoCRC signature for the file. The AutoCRC signature for the Windows
SDK Beta 2 ISO is 0x28434EEF. You should also confirm the size of the ISO is
correct: 1.14 GB (1,229,355,008 bytes).

If it fails any of these three tests, re-download the ISO.

I really like the direct link to it though if you right click CRC here>left
click Properties:
http://tacobell.iexbeta.com/longhorn/crc.exe

Good Luck,

CH
 
Wow, Chad! Thank you so much. How large is the ISO file? Maybe someone
here could email it to me???
;-)
 
I don't think any email server is configures to accept 3+ GB files. I think
mine won't accept anything over a megabyte.
 
The spam filter would get it anyway. ;)

Mario Rosario said:
I don't think any email server is configures to accept 3+ GB files. I think
mine won't accept anything over a megabyte.
Click to expand...
 
Why would someone need to email the ISO file to you when it's ubiquitous in
torrents and other download mechanisms the same way the children of MSFT
employees including their anti-piracy attorneys steal music on the web?

CH
 
Eddie G said:
Thanks, Jason. Now can you please direct me to a reference for dual
booting procedures? If I install Vista beta how do I tell it NOT to
overwrite XP so I can still use XP?
Click to expand...

First and foremost to dual boot you need a spare partitioned section of your
hard drive or another spare hard drive. Either should be formatted as NTFS.
This will give you a new drive letter, for example D (everything after that
will shift one letter). Its advisable to have the D size a minimum of say
20Gb if you can - Vista takes up about 12Gb on install.
You can get partitioning software to do this for you. Some you pay for, a
few may be free. Partition Magic is probably the easiest to use but it
costs.
You can partition with the XP setup CD, but as far as I know, this can only
be done before you install XP.
Whichever way you get your new D drive you can then proceed to install Vista
on the D. Some from XP desktop, pop in the Vista DVD and run setup. It
will ask you what kind of setup you wish to perform. At this stage you need
to choose custom install. It will give a list of drives to install to.
Choose the D drive and continue. Thats about it really. Once Vista has
installed, when you reboot you get options on which operating system you
wish to boot.

I strongly advise you to backup all of your important work to another format
(like cd/dvd) before you do anything. Whilst installing Vista is easy, you
can get problems and you really do not want to lose your important work.
 
You also can use Ranish to partition first if you need to and it's an
excellent free application:

Ranish Partition
http://www.ranish.com/part/

ranish.com » Partition Manager
Ranish Partition Manager is a powerful hard disk partitioning tool.
It gives users high level of control for running multiple operating systems,
such as Linux, Windows 98/XP, FreeDOS, and FreeBSD on a single disk.

Partition Manager can create, copy, and resize primary and extended
partitions.
It includes command line interface and simulation mode that works with large
files
so you can safely experiment before working on the real hard drive partition
tables.

CH

What the highly paid, first class cabin, diplomatic set and the jaded double
parked Escort service supporting UN officials in Mid-Town Manhatten need to
learn once and for all:

The term "lasting cease fire" is a pure oxymoron and pipe dream without the
hard work of severely decapitating Hezbullah in order to deal a significant
blow to Iran (Israel is really fighting Iran and Syria through their
surrogates and Syria shudders at the thought that Israel would make an
objective of taking down Syria and Iran because they could in ways the US
with its forces stretched and damaged to the limit could not.

Note that UN facilities and office equipment was destroyed yesterday by
peace loving Lebanise who have facilitated and harbord Hezbullah to blow up
cafets, schools, and clubs in Israel for years. Methinks if it were
Seattle, there would be some reaction different from the pitty parties for
Lebanon the media is holding.

When human shields are used by terrorists and blocked from leaving by the
same terrorists, the human shields suffer the fate of shields in the movies
you watch on Trojan wars.
 
Chad Harris said:
You also can use Ranish to partition first if you need to and it's an
excellent free application:

Ranish Partition
http://www.ranish.com/part/

ranish.com » Partition Manager
Ranish Partition Manager is a powerful hard disk partitioning tool.
It gives users high level of control for running multiple operating
systems,
such as Linux, Windows 98/XP, FreeDOS, and FreeBSD on a single disk.

Partition Manager can create, copy, and resize primary and extended
partitions.
It includes command line interface and simulation mode that works with
large files
so you can safely experiment before working on the real hard drive
partition tables.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Sorry for not naming a freebie one but I have not used them so do
not know how they fare.
 
Chad Harris said:
Why would someone need to email the ISO file to you when it's ubiquitous
in torrents and other download mechanisms the same way the children of
MSFT employees including their anti-piracy attorneys steal music on the
web?

CH
Click to expand...

If that was unsuccessful I guess there's no way I can get it now?

What's the "ft" in "msft"?
 
Eddie --

I feel confident that come RC1, MSFT may open up the program again for
downloads, but I would always be the last to know anything they did, much
less have a chance to understand why. I feel confident that somewhere there
are torrents, and Vista and everything else, but I also have to respect
Justice Souter's majority opinion--just as ole Brad Smith MSFT General
Counsel, and his side kick ole Associate General Counsel and head of the
MSFT piracy cops Nancy Anderson would like.

Nancy "I never met WPA Spyware to put on customers' machines that I didn't
luv" Anderson--"Ya Can't Go Home Again said Thomas Wolf but ya can sure have
your box phone to Redmond constantly. Yeah we'll cut down the number of
phones about as much as we cut down UAC prompts. Sorry our security didn't
keep the United States State Department from Being Hacked"
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2001/oct01/10-19piracyqa.mspx

*(The New York Times is a Small Newspaper from a Small Rural Town Outside
Seattle called New York City)*

How UAC and MSFT Security Works on the Ground:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/12/w...357efafd741931&ex=1154577600&pagewanted=print

Oral Argument MGM v. Grockster (first Supreme Court case to cite a blog--by
law students Outraged Moderates: Government Document Archive at
http://www.outragedmoderates.org/


http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cach...pdf+mgm+v.+grockster&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1

Opinion written by Souter, J.
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/04-480.pdf

Opinion Commentary
http://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/

I noticed that they closed the Office 2007 downloads for all my good Aussie
friends yesterday--because they had a huge response down there.

Again, I can't understand it since when I read public download of Beta I
ready "Yeah we're marketing again at Redmond."

They closed because

1) Kangaroo Pouches were too full of Office
2) Ribbon is a coded curse word in Australia
3) Aussies feel they have enough style without the style feature prominently
defaulted on the toolbar.
4) The whole "Mel Gibson thing" that the airhead American media is giving
almost equal play to the potential beginning of WWIII (if a cease fire and
peace keeping force is going to work then I'm running Blackcomb Vienna RC2).
Confusious Say--You let Assymetric warfare hold its own with terrorists and
they breed and do it again like bunnies.

CH
 
Not everyone has broadband yet. My area just got about 6 months ago It would
have taken me FOREVER to download a 2 gig file on a dial up modem. And that
is why Microsoft offers the DVD's through the mail.
 
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