Well here's an other one.. once again dual boot with windows 7

So I got an other setup done with the same parts as the first, for my office. Trying to install two windows 7 again. Here's the exact steps.

1. Open case
2. Unplug all HDD's
3. Plugin HDD 1
4. Iinstall windows.
5. Boot to see if windows boot, it does!
6. Unplug HDD 1 (Media BCD, DISK E:)
7. Plugin HDD 2 (Normal, DISK C:)
8. Install windows
9. Boot to see if windows boot, it does.
10. Plugin HDD1
11. Boot to use the one time boot options, both can boot. But HDD 2 (normal) is the default one.
12. Install easybcd to make the boot manager.
13. Easybcd does not see any boot at all, the edit boot window is empty.

Adding a new entry in easybcd does nothing, even if it tells me it was added successfully, I still can't see it in the edit boot menu.

I really don't know what's going on and why it's so hard to make a dual boot with windows 7, but I've been going for 4 days until I finally gave up.

This is the disk Managment, for four days I have been reformating (a true fresh format not the quick one) my hdd's and trying to install windows, and I always end up with either 1 or 2 partition in front of the actual windows partition.



I tried removing them using gparted, but that didn't work out either.

So once again I'm here hoping you will be able to help me sort this out.

I don't know how you've managed it, but you have two EFI partitions that appear to have nothing in them, you don't have a System Reserved partition for the boot files and no partition holds the Active flag, which explains why EasyBCD cannot see any operating systems.

I'd be inclined to start again, but this time delete the old partitions and use the Windows installer to create a new one, as explained in this tutorial.

Clean Install Windows 7

The instruction you gave me is exactly what I did each and every time.

As I said, the installation were on freshly formatted hdd's so there was no partition present at the time. Infact when I was in the windows installation menu of my dvd I deleted the partition that was created by the format, and reformatted the drive using the windows installer dvd. As I said, for the past 4 days, each time I tried to install windows, it either gave me one efi partition of 100 mb in front of the windows partition, or one efi 100 mb partition and one 127 mb system partition infront of the windows partition, and that's always using the installation dvd that I have (it's not a copy it's the actual dvd I purchased).



And each time it's the same results, the windows partition is not the active one. Now in the last 4 days I've installed, deleted, reformatted, reinstalled at least 15 times, always with the same results. So I'd appreciate a way that wouldn't mean me spending an hour of reformatting/installation again.

Oh yeah btw if I tried to install it without using the uefi boot sequence (choosing the uefi drive in the bios boot) it would tell me that windows could not be installed because the selected drive was a gpt style partition and I would have no options to delete/reformat the drive in the windows installation menu dvd when working from the boot up. So I then had to reboot the computer and make sure the select the uefi windows 7 ultimate installation boot dvd drive. Now while using that one, I could delete, make new partitions, format them etc and of course install window, which it wouldn't let me do if it wasn't from the uefi boot.

My windows is a 64 bit version, so I guess it would be normal to use the uefi since it's supposed to replace bios?

I am not sure if Visual BCD Editor - Windows 7|Vista works on EFI.
You can just run and see if loader entries are displayed.

If yes - adding second Win 7 would go like this:
right-Click in left pane select "Create missing Windows loaders" and confirm.

Curious about outcome.

Have you considered reverting to the older MBR (Master Boot Record) partition table format rather than the newer GPT (GUID Partition Table)?

Convert GPT Disk to MBR Disk

boyans said:

I am not sure if Visual BCD Editor - Windows 7|Vista works on EFI.
You can just run and see if loader entries are displayed.

If yes - adding second Win 7 would go like this:
right-Click in left pane select "Create missing Windows loaders" and confirm.

Curious about outcome.

It's not seeing disk E: so I can't work with that.

seavixen32 said:

Have you considered reverting to the older MBR (Master Boot Record) partition table format rather than the newer GPT (GUID Partition Table)?

Convert GPT Disk to MBR Disk

That doesn't work either because I can't delete the efi 100 mbs partition that is in front of the windows partition.... This is getting very irritating.

To avoid EFI installation remove the EFI Boot Disk listing from BIOS Boot order. You can then install to MBR disk without EFI. There may be other EFI settings for your mobo in BIOS setup.

I'm not sure why you would go to the trouble of configuring the cleanest method of Dual Booting - via the BIOS Boot order or one-time BIOS Boot Menu key - and then want to create a Windows Boot Menu on top of that. Why can't you use the method you have now to boot?

It's not seeing disk E: so I can't work with that.

If disk E: is mapped in first Windows 7 then try to manually add boot entry for second Win 7:

RightClick,
select "New Vista/7/VHD Loader"
This will create a default loader for partition1 on first disk.
Change ApplicationDevice and OSDevice to E: (doubleClick and select drive E:)

Try if new loader will boot Win 7 on second disk.

Mapping handling should be independend of underlaying MBR or EFI disk.

gregrocker said:

To avoid EFI installation remove the EFI Boot Disk listing from BIOS Boot order. You can then install to MBR disk without EFI. There may be other EFI settings for your mobo in BIOS setup.

I'm not sure why you would go to the trouble of configuring the cleanest method of Dual Booting - via the BIOS Boot order or one-time BIOS Boot Menu key - and then want to create a Windows Boot Menu on top of that. Why can't you use the method you have now to boot?

tried that already but the problem is that it wont let me.

Emcha said:

Oh yeah btw if I tried to install it without using the uefi boot sequence (choosing the uefi drive in the bios boot) it would tell me that windows could not be installed because the selected drive was a gpt style partition and I would have no options to delete/reformat the drive in the windows installation menu dvd when working from the boot up. So I then had to reboot the computer and make sure the select the uefi windows 7 ultimate installation boot dvd drive. Now while using that one, I could delete, make new partitions, format them etc and of course install window, which it wouldn't let me do if it wasn't from the uefi boot.

The reason being that when I work I'm not always by the computer so when it's booting and I'm doing something else, I prefer it waits until I give it which to load, than having it load the wrong one and I have to reboot the system.