Help needed with BOOTLDR, BCD on a multiboot machine

TheWindows · 12 Oct 2011

Hi there,

Eighteen months ago, I purchased Seven as a download only. For some reason, I didn't burnt it to a DVD but stored the expanded iso in a dedicated partition (say, the third partition of my second hard drive). So far, so good, install went fine and everything is dandy ever after.

Also, this is a dual boot machine, the primary OS being Ubuntu. Choose the OS at startup via Grub, (or, alternatively, by selecting the boot drive from BIOS).

Since then, I've been playing around a bit

with my partitions and boot sequences, most recently when I painstakingly

installed W7 SP1, which required me to move and expand the W7 system partition

.

My partitions layout is now briefly as follow :
disk 1 : [unused space][linux swap][linux sys]
disk 2 : [win sys][win data][win install][linux swap][linux data]

A bit complicated, but it works.

My only problem now is that the win boot process goes through the [win install] partition, no matter what. That's where the BOOTMGR and the BCD landed, for reasons that are not completely clear to me

. This does not impact everyday operations, but if I ever want to boot from the install disk, I simply cannot.

I'm now willing to clean up my act, that is :
1) make normal Windows boot totaly independant of the [win install] partition
2) re-build an install iso that I could burn to a DVD or squeeze onto a USB pen drive, regaining the ability to perform an eventual fresh install on an eventual new machine
3) proceed from 2) to build a rescue DVD or pen drive

As you can guess, I am really not familiar with BOOTMGR and BCD and such.

So the question is : Where do I start ?

Bonus track : what BCDEDIT currently says :
Microsoft Windows [version 6.1.7601]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. Tous droits réservés.

C:\Windows\system32>bcdedit

Gestionnaire de démarrage Windows
---------------------------------
identificateur {bootmgr}
device partition=Z:
path \bootmgr
description Windows Boot Manager
locale fr-FR
default {current}
resumeobject {0476f794-f432-11e0-aa18-806e6f6e6963}
displayorder {current}
timeout 30

Chargeur de démarrage Windows
-----------------------------
identificateur {current}
device partition=C:
path \Windows\system32\winload.exe
description Windows 7 Home Premium N (récupéré)
locale fr-FR
recoverysequence {502b3cab-f43a-11e0-b5c7-c8976b7f0609}
recoveryenabled Yes
osdevice partition=C:
systemroot \Windows
resumeobject {0476f794-f432-11e0-aa18-806e6f6e6963}

C:\Windows\system32>

theog · 12 Oct 2011

1) Burn the ISO to DVD disk.
2) Physically disconnect the Linux HD.
3) Make the Windows 7 HD, disk0 & first HD boot in BIOS.Also connected to the first Sata port on the MOBO.

To Remove Linux take look at this post:
Error 0xc0000225 on boot

boyans · 12 Oct 2011

1.) Download a Windows 7 Recovery image - ~150MB (64-bit for you?) - put either to CD or USB using Windows 7 USB DVD Download Tool.
2.) The expanded Windows 7 installation files have to be put to iso with some tool - this is a separate task - you have already altered some files on this partition using it as Windows 7 'system' partition ! (changes are mainly in \Boot folder and BCD store)
At this point you will have all installation sources (Win7, Ubuntu) + Windows 7 Recovery media.

To make [win sys] your boot partition you have to mark it active - use Windows Disk Management.
To make [disk 2] bootable you have to connect it as theog described in post above.

3.) Boot from Win 7 Recovery USB/CD or from Win 7 Install USB/DVD and select Recovery - on recovery console:
a) write mbr & boot sector using 'bootsect.exe' (gives help with /?)
b) recreate boot config data & bootmgr using 'bcdboot.exe'
This will make [disk 2] bootable from 1st partition.
For doing 3.) you can also use Win 7 "Automatic Recovery" - run it up to three times with rebooting after each until no errors reported.

4. Connect disks as they where before.
After booting to Ubuntu you have to run 'grub-install' to update boot config for the moved Windows boot partition.

gregrocker · 12 Oct 2011

I would clean reinstall Win7 to it's HD with Ubunutu HD unplugged: Perfect Reinstall

After install plug back in Ubuntu and boot it only via the BIOS one-time Boot menu key - remove GRUB if it is unnecessarily installed.

TheWindows · 15 Oct 2011

theog said:

1) Burn the ISO to DVD disk.
2) Physically disconnect the Linux HD.

Mmm, OK thanks, but my problem is precisely that I don't have the ISO anymore.

TheWindows · 15 Oct 2011

boyans said:

1.) Download a Windows 7 Recovery image - ~150MB

This sounds great. Where can I download one ?

boyans said:

you have already altered some files on this partition using it as Windows 7 'system' partition ! (changes are mainly in \Boot folder and BCD store)

Yep, that's the whole point. Will the Windows 7 Recovery image you mentionned above enable me to somewhat revert this partition to an "install ready" state ?

boyans said:

To make [win sys] your boot partition you have to mark it active - use Windows Disk Management.

I tried this before. Result : BOOTMGR missing. The problem, once again, is that said BOOTMGR nested itself without my knowledge nor consent in the [win install] partition. Catch 22 anyone ?

boyans said:

To make [disk 2] bootable you have to connect it as theog described in post above.

[disk 2] is bootable, no issue here, I've just booted from it.

boyans said:

3.) Boot from Win 7 Recovery USB/CD or from Win 7 Install USB/DVD and select Recovery - on recovery console:
a) write mbr & boot sector using 'bootsect.exe' (gives help with /?)
b) recreate boot config data & bootmgr using 'bcdboot.exe'
This will make [disk 2] bootable from 1st partition.
For doing 3.) you can also use Win 7 "Automatic Recovery" - run it up to three times with rebooting after each until no errors reported.

4. Connect disks as they where before.
After booting to Ubuntu you have to run 'grub-install' to update boot config for the moved Windows boot partition.

I take good note, this really seems the way to go.
Alternate question though : since bootsect.exe and bcdboot.exe are already present on my HD, both in the [win sys] and [win install] partition, would there be a way for me to use them already, forgoing steps 1 to 3 ?

Anyway, many thanks for your much detailled & helpfull answers

TheWindows · 15 Oct 2011

gregrocker said:

I would clean reinstall Win7

Even if I could, that would be an overkill with many unpleasant side effects, like ruining a patiently handcrafted and otherwise perfect configuration, including a finely tuned IBM Lotus Domino server.

Anyway, the main point is that, as of now, I just can't.

boyans · 15 Oct 2011

Using bootsect.exe you can write always a partition boot record (PBR) to any Windows mapped partition. The MBR is written only to first disk !

The boot sequence for Windows XP or later is always - first disk MBR and active partition boot record from first disk then ntldr or bootmgr.

bcdboot repairs or creates [bootmgr & \boot folder] on the "system" or on the partition specified with parameter /s. Here the "source" parameter (letter:\windows) is crucial - it must point to latest Windows version on your computer in a dual-multi boot scenario.

All advice given to disconnect other disks and connect disk to be repaired to be the only one connected is because then Windows Startup Repair has best results. It is better to keep things simple - best is if there are no choices and parameters to specify and the user can go only one way (the right way) to get things done.

Download link for Windows 7 Recovery disks:
http://www.proposedsolution.com/down...dvd-iso-image/

TJG · 15 Oct 2011

This might be usefull. If you have expanded installer in a folder or partition. you can use UltraISO or some other program to build a bootable DVD installer. In ultra click on bootable then load boot file. When the windows opens find the installer files and go to the boot folder and select or type into file area etfsboot.com and click open. Now ultra should show that it is bootable. Next drag folders and files to top window from installer files then burn dvd. You should now have a bootable installer to use to install or repair windows7.

TJG :)

TheWindows · 16 Oct 2011

TJG said:

you can use UltraISO

Thanks for that tip, it helps

Help needed with BOOTLDR, BCD on a multiboot machine

Help needed with BOOTMGR, BCD on a multiboot machine