After my posting the message below, i saw THIS: http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=86461&hl= (Post 17, at Bottom) i think i would try it FIRST... =============================================== If -i- were in your position, what -i- would try is this: 1. enable hidden files, system files, etc. so that i can see -everything- 2. then i'd burn an installable DVD using the file "BOOTSECT.BAK" as the boot image. Note: i would be doing this "by the seat of my pants" - which means "guessing". 3. This file is in the root of my C: (install) drive, for my copy of Vista beta of Premium. 4. its 8KB big = 16 sectors, which seems favorable for a CD/DVD boot... 5. I do -NOT- have vista installed on my computer, but i -do- have it installed under MS VirtualPC 2007. 6. Also, I have DVDs of 32bit and 64bit V. premium, RC-1, but these may differ from "released" versions. 7. Be extra --careful-- with Vista hard disk boot-sectors. It has a TOTALLY different format from XP, etc. You need a special Vista program to deal with it, called "BCDEDIT.EXE". 8. Root of beta DVD only has file: BOOTMGR, no ntldr. Same with Virtual PC root files. 9. Is yours 32bit or 64bit (which has even -different- boot sector format) ? Also note that the CD/DVD boot is different than the hard-drive boot... good luck Tried the Bootsect.bak file, didnt work, but thanx anyway for the suggestion. I'm still trying to get a extracted Vists DVD boot image from somewhere, but Google doesn't help that much