Configuring Dual boot on Windows 7 using BCDedit


  1. DannyNUFC
    Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
       New #1

    Configuring Dual boot on Windows 7 using BCDedit


    Hi everyone hopefully one of you can help!

    I had 2 Windows 7 installations on a single hardrive spilt into two partitions, one for work and one for family etc. The primary partition i.e the one with the most disk space became corrupt and I decided to format that and reinstall Windows 7 onto it. Now I'm having some trouble configuring the boot menu to display both o/s on start up. The computer will boot into the existing smaller partition automatically and I thought it would just be a case of downloading EasyBCD and configure dual boot. However this doesn't seem to work. Here are some Screen shots of bcdedit.exe from cmd prompt and Disk Management.



    I also noticed the boot manager has D: drive as device id?? Not sure if that has any relevance.

    Does any one know how I could resolve this?

    Any help would be much appreciated. :)
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  3. Bare Foot Kid
    Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       New #2

    Hello DannyNUFC, welcome to Seven Forums!



    We can help but the snip you posted doesn't show what we need to see, will you please post a snip of just Windows disk management using the method listed below and make it as 'max' as you can, describing which OS is on which partition?

       Information

    In the Windows start menu right click computer and click manage, in the left pane of the "Computer Management" window that opens click disk management and post a snip of that.

    How to Upload and Post a Screenshot and File in Seven Forums

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  4. DannyNUFC
    Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    Thanks for the quick response.

    I have Windows 7 x64 on both
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails Configuring Dual boot on Windows 7 using BCDedit-untitled.jpg  
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  6. Bare Foot Kid
    Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       New #4

    OK, here's what I would do; mark the first "System Reserved" the one with no drive letter as "Active" then run the 3 separate startup repairs outlined in this tutorial at the link below to create a new set of boot files to that partition and that should automatically configure the Windows managed dual boot option; be sure to post back with any further questions you may have and to keep us informed.


    Startup Repair - Run 3 Separate Times
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  7. DannyNUFC
    Posts : 3
    Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    Thread Starter
       New #5

    That worked great! thanks alot for taking the time to help me out. Really appreciate it!
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  8. Bare Foot Kid
    Posts : 22,814
    W 7 64-bit Ultimate
       New #6

    I'm glad I could help!

    The next thing I would do is to wipe the second "System Reserved D:" using the installed Partition Wizard program and then that space can then be easily recovered into the first SysResv partition using Windows disk management; have a look at the second link below at Option Three for an outline of the wipe (secure erase) process.

    That will free up the option of creating another Primary partition for use.


    Partition Wizard Home Edition

    Partition Wizard : Use the Bootable CD



    I don't believe I've ever seen 2 separate SysResv partitions on a single HDD before, do you have any idea how it got that way?
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