This is what happened. I had Windows Vista Ult OEM on C: in a brand new Dell R5400 running on Hitachi 7200 RPM HDD and Seagate Barracuda 1.5 TB HDD as the secondary HDD where I installed WinSer 2008 Enterprise (MSDN subscription).Then I decided to replace Hitachi with WD VelociRaptor 10,000 RPM since I've done it already on another machine and it improved the performance measurably. Cloning the drive was not an option because of the odd arrangement for BACKUP partition I did not like:OEM created a D: partition on C: of 2GB size andwhen I tried to install Hyper-V on another partition itwanted to install it on D: and complained that the space was limited. It turns outHyper-V does not want to be on any other partiton. SoI pulled Hictachi, inserted VelociRaptor into the cassette and "reinstalled" Vista Ult OEM from the reinstall DVD. Now I don't have WinServer2008 in the boot sector.This is what I did at cmd prompt:>C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit /create {24f2****-f273-11dd-****-fc6e*******6} /d "Microsoft Windows Server 2008" -APPLICATION OSLOADER>The entry {24f291b4-f273-11dd-9292-fc6e1adf7ab6} was successfully created.No entry has been created. Perhaps ithas but it is not attached? If so I have no idea where it is. There is no command to enable it. When I do:>bcdedit /enum /v I get the same picture of only Vista OS loader.I saved bcd store from the first OEM Vista (that came with the machine originally). It is different from the one that I got now after reinstall. The GUIDs are different altogether.I tried to /import the store from the old OEM Vista file that I /export(ed). The operation was successful but I am afraid that I will not be able to boot since the GUIDs for this OS are different, so I reimported the store that I got after Vista reinstall which I also saved.When I imported the old OEM boot store I saw my Windows Server boot strap in there all right but what is the joy. I have no idea how to handle it since there seem to be no way to import just one entry, not the whole boot store or reliably create a new store. Perhaps I am missing something on the command line?My WinSer password is about to expire and I cannot get there because of this technical snafu.Please help.Thanks. AlexB

Hello AlexBB,Try using bootrec /scanos to rebuild the entriesas per this article.927392How to use the Bootrec.exe tool in the Windows Recovery Environment to troubleshoot and repair startup issues in Windows Vistahttp://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;927392Thanks, Darrell Gorter[MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

Thank you Darrell. It is an interesting option and pretty simple to try. I will do it tomorrow. I am slightly pessimistic however and the reason is that Vista is not Windows Server 2008 aware. WinSer2008 is a later OS chronologically.i will definitely try it tomorrow but I do have a backup option already. It isCopyObject Method of the BcdStore Class. I will have toP/Invokeit.Incidentally, today I played with bcdedit once more. I spent a few hours tonight exploring numerous options. The API is very rigid an unyielding. All I managed to do was tocopy my Vista entry in the system store with another name (Vista Ult 2). I tried to edit this duplicate replacing all elements with the ones I knewwould fit WinServer but could change only secondary and insignificant items.Thanks.AlexB

Hello AlexBB,You can boot to the Windows Server 2008 OS media and choose the repair option, open the cmd prompt,and run bootrec from there. The article references Windows Vista, but bootrec ships on the Windows Server 2008 media as well. That would give you the updated version.Thanks, Darrell Gorter[MSFT] This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights

I haven't done it yetbut gaines some negative and discouraging insight nonetheless. What happened I was trying to install a driver for a brand new PCIe card from HighPoint. It turns out the driver that came in with the DVD is not dgitally signed. I got a warning but went ahead nonetheless. Next time I could not reboot. I got a black screen with a message that the driver in question was not digitally signed. the same screen offered me an option to use the reinstallation DVD for Repair. I plugged it in, restarted and got the same screen. My machine ignored the DVD so many times I lost track. I had to reboot to last known good configuration. Deleted the driver, rebooted again and lo and behold my Vista is coming back with the DVD being ignored completely. In short I doubt that even WinSer DVD will work.I have no idea why it is happening. I won't mind to investigate but how? Where can I post for it?There is a chance mine is the only remaining option:) I mean doing it programmatically.Thanks.AlexB

Darrell, I owe you a drink:) I finally got around to do it tonight. It was like magic. I finally figured out what the problem was. I forgot to change the option in the boot sequence on the F12 key screen. Once I did that and chose Repair your computer it all of a sudden came up with a msgbox stating that there was a problem, one boot secort was missing and that was Windows Server 2008. I clicked OK. It took care of it.I had to use Vista OEM dvd though, WinServ2008 dvd did not work. It said that the OS was wrong. Happy ending.Many thanks.AlexB