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Boot issues with virtual hard disk. No windows boot manager
Hi, I really need some help here.
My system has two drives:
1) SSD (C: drive) where my win7 OS boots from (call this normal_win7)
2) HDD (D: drive) where I keep my data
I created a D:\virtual_win7.vhd file and installed win7 on it (for testing purposes) following these instructions:
Virtual Hard Drive VHD File - Create and Start with at Boot
When I boot, I get no boot menu asking me to choose either between normal_win7 or virtual_win7 install. By default, it boots into virtual_win7. To boot into normal_win7, I need to press F11 at reboot to enter into Boot Menu and select it. I thought I would be presented with a boot menu at reboot each time? Those instructions I followed in the link told me the boot manager would be present. So I got a feeling something went wrong somewhere.
These are some things I observed:
1. I installed EasyBCD within normal_win7 and it only has one entry listed in the bootloader:
2. Within System > Advanced System Settings > Advanced > Startup and Recovery, there is also only one entry.HTML Code:Entry #1 Name: Windows 7 BCD ID: {current} Drive: C:\ Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe
3. In Disk Management (within normal_win7), the vhd does not appear.
Questions:
What do I need to do to get the boot menu manager going when I reboot my system to allow OS selection?
Why doesn't the vhd appear in Disk Management within normal_win7? Is it because it is being dynamically mounted each time it is booted into? I thought the vhd would display persistently within Disk Management
There is another thing I noticed. When i boot into virtual_win7, my D: drive is renamed as E: drive. This now appears as a system drive, which I think is because my vhd is being mounted from it. I tried to change the drive letter of E: back to D: but it won't allow me to do this for obvious reasons as it is now a system drive. I really need to get it to be drive D: again (reasons are because I need to run lots of code on D which has lots of absolute paths set, and other reasons). I thought I could solve this by copying my vhd to my SSD using normal_win7. Then boot into virtual_win7 and rename the drive E: back to D:. But I don't want to break anything. How do I do this?
Any help very much appreciated.
V