Windows 7: Dual Boot Menu Problems

jweigel · 12 Jan 2009

I am having trouble getting both the 32bit and 64bit installs to show up on the boot menu. I orginally had Vista as the Default/boot. Created a second partion and installed Win732bit. It added the second boot option and all was fine. I recently installed Win764bit overtop (formatted - clean install) of the orginal Vista/boot partition. WHen it completed and reboot I now only see the new Win764bit as a boot option. I also noticed the Win732bit partition was assinged a drive letter whereas before when I was logged into Win732bit, you only could see the vista partition within Disk mgmt and it was not assinged a drive letter.

Attached is what I now see in Disk Managment. I have EasyBCD installed and have tried to get Win732bit option added but with no luck. Any advice?

Thanks in advance.

jjw
ND

Brink · 12 Jan 2009

Hello Jweigel,

You will just need to add a drive letter for the Win732bit partition other than C: from within Windows 7 Disk Management. For some reason it just does not do it automatically during the installaton of Win764bit. When you startup in Win732bit again, it will still be the C: drive there though.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

jweigel · 12 Jan 2009

I really do not need to see the non-boot OS partition. I am more interested in getting the option to boot into either Win732 or Win764 at startup. I am suspicious that the fact that the Win732 OS partion was assinged a drive letter while I am logged into WIn764 is part of the problem. Should this partition be set to Active? Should only one partition be set to active or can more then one?

Attached is what I see in EasyBCD now. I have made several attemps at getting the Win732 added so it might not be exactly as it was just after I installed Win764 into the original Vista (Factory Boot Partition) which removed the previous dual boot (Vista and Win732) and replaced it with just one boot (Win764).

One small observation is I now see the older Windows 7 (6801) boot splash (the green horizontal bars versus the quad color Windows Star spash (7000) even though I boot into WIn764.

THe Win732 I have installed is 6801. The Win764 is 7000.

jjw
ND

Brink · 12 Jan 2009

You could run a Startup Repair on the Win732 to fix it's boot file for it be included in the boot selection, but then you will need to change the default boot OS back to Win764 if you wanted that one instead.

limneos · 12 Jan 2009

You can just update bcdedit to show both installations at boot time.
Like this:

Code:

 
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {current}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows 7 Beta 32bit Build 7000
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {d22b5cc4-c693-11dd-b04b-ebb59894af39}
nx                      OptIn
numproc                 2
usefirmwarepcisettings  No
 
Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {ddab5cc4-cd93-13dd-c04b-fbb59894af39}
device                  partition=D:
path                    \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows 7 Beta 64bit Build 7000
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
osdevice                partition=D:
systemroot              \Windows
resumeobject            {d22b5cc5-c694-d3dd-b04b-ebb59894af39}
nx                      OptIn
numproc                 2
usefirmwarepcisettings  No

To do that, do the following...

1. In 64 bit version, locate what drive letter has your win732bit partition. (e.g. D: )

2. In 64 bit version, open cmd with administrative rights ( elevated command prompt)

3. In command prompt, type:

bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Windows 7 32bit"

this will copy your existing boot settings to a new entry.
when you do that, you will get a line like:

The entry was successfully copied to {d22b5cdb-c693-11dd-b04b-ebb59894af39}.

this {d22b5cdb-c693-11dd-b04b-ebb59894af39} is your new identifier...you will use it below:

4. bcdedit /set {your_new_identifier_as_given_with_command_above_including_brackets} device partition=D:

(or any drive you 32bit Windows 7 is )

5. bcdedit /set {your_new_identifier_as_given_with_command_above_including_brackets} osdevice partition=D:

(or any drive you 32bit Windows 7 is )

6. Reboot and enjoy

A complete example:

C:\Users>bcdedit /copy {current} /d "Windows 7 32bit"
The entry was successfully copied to {d22b5cdd-c693-11dd-b04b-ebb59894af39}.

C:\Users>bcdedit /set {d22b5cdd-c693-11dd-b04b-ebb59894af39} device partition=d:
The operation completed successfully.

C:\Users>bcdedit /set {d22b5cdd-c693-11dd-b04b-ebb59894af39} osdevice partition=d:
The operation completed successfully.

C:\Users>

I hope it helps

jweigel · 13 Jan 2009

That is what I needed....everything back to normal.

Thank You.

jjw

saiboat · 13 Jan 2009

hey, i didnt want to open another thread for this.
i installed Windows 7 but my fav game tf2 didnt work as it should so i reinstalled xp on a newly created partition. after that the system only booted xp. so i used that Windows 7 startup fix thingy and now it only boots Windows 7 again and i cant work out any way to make it show xp aswell at startup.
any ideas?

Bare Foot Kid · 13 Jan 2009

Hello saiboat,welcome to Windows 7 Forums!

Have a real good look through this, it'll answer any questions you have; at the link below.

It works for Windows 7 also.

How to dual boot Vista and XP -- the step-by-step guide with screenshots

Be sure to keep us informed!

Later

Ted

saiboat · 13 Jan 2009

that didnt work out. it keeps saying something like
"couldnt fint /NTRL" or so. tried it a couple of times with different drive letters aswell :S

limneos · 13 Jan 2009

Quote: Originally Posted by saiboat

that didnt work out. it keeps saying something like
"couldnt fint /NTRL" or so. tried it a couple of times with different drive letters aswell :S

How exactly did you try that?

open elevated command prompt (with admin right) and type this.

bcdedit {enter}

post results here.

Windows 7: Dual Boot Menu Problems

Dual Boot Menu Problems problems?