How do I move the BCD?

Pilotwings64 · 13 Apr 2010

I just installed Windows 7 and the Boot Configuration Database is on my F drive. I want it on my C drive, or at least not on my F drive. Does anyone know how I can accomplish this?

Thanks,
Justin

derekimo · 14 Apr 2010

Welcome to the forum Justin,
See if this tutorial helps you out,
BCDEDIT - How to Use

Pilotwings64 · 14 Apr 2010

Thanks, I'll give it a try.

Dwarf · 14 Apr 2010

Do you have a multi-boot system?

Pilotwings64 · 14 Apr 2010

Dwarf
I don't have multi boot system yet, but I might. If I find out that some of my critical programs don't work with Windows 7, I will have to include XP in the mix for a while.

derekimo
I tried your suggestion. The first picture is the important part of what I saw. It seems to be saying that everything is on the C drive. Is that true? Still, when I use Norton Ghost to back up the C drive, I get the message displayed in the second picture.

Note: the F drive is now the P drive.

Thanks again,
Justin

Bill2 · 14 Apr 2010

Pilotwing,

Provided you have your Win7 install disc, there’s an easy solution.

Boot into windows and enter Computer Management, then click Storage, then Disk Management.

Right click your C: drive and select “Mark Partition as Active.” This tells Windows you’ll be booting from this drive.

Restart your computer and enter your BIOS. Set your boot order so that the Optical Drive is at the top.

Save and exit.

Boot into your Win7 install disc, and go to the recovery options. Run Startup Repair and you are done. Afterwards, you can set your C: drive back to top of the boot order.

Pilotwings64 · 14 Apr 2010

This picture is what I see in the Computer Management window. C is already active. What concerns me is that P is also active. I also already set my dvd drive as the first in my bios boot order.

I'm basically concerned about two things.

1. I'll decide I need a dual boot system and the ghost images I've already created will be useless because the BCD isn't included in them. BTW it took about 4 hours for win7 to install on my media pc, so I don't want to have to do that again.
2. Since drive P is "active" windows will do other things to it that I don't want done. It's a drive for file storage, nothing else.

Are either one of these concerns reasonable?

SIW2 · 14 Apr 2010

D/l this , sisparV6.zip

( as always, rt click it select properties>unblock>apply>ok )

Rt click it and select Extract.

Rt click on sisparV6.cmd and RUN AS ADMINISTRATOR.

Select C as the new system partition.

Enter N to adding existing boot menu items.

Select Y to making a partition Inactive.

Select P as the partition to make Inactive.

That's it.

Bill2 · 14 Apr 2010

Pilotwings,

Am somewhat confused now so just clarify a few things.

1) You have 2 separate hard drives with the os on one and boot files on the other?

2) You dont want the 2nd hdd to be bootable?

Pilotwings64 · 14 Apr 2010

Bill2

I have many hard drives in this computer. I installed windows 7 on the c drive, but for some reason it made the P drive the system drive. That seems to be the problem. Since the P drive is just for file storage, I don't want it to be bootable.

SIW2

I will try that right now. Thanks.