Windows 7 reverts to WinVista Boot Screen

[kornfan71]

Hi,
I just went through a lot of trouble to get Windows XP, Windows 7 and Grub2 (for all my Linux distros) working together. In order to do so, I followed this post on the Ubuntu forums. The part that concerns Windows 7 is Step 2.
I ran all the commands and was able to get all of the OSes working together, but now Windows 7 is using Vista's ugly green scrolling bar as the boot screen.
I've tried

bcdedit /set {current} locale en-US

and

bcdboot %WinDir% /l en-US

Neither worked.
I'd rather avoid doing a clean install, if possible.
Help?

 

[KazeNoKoe23]

I believe it has something to do with a different bootloader being used, in this case, GRUB. I've also heard of it happening when an illegal bootloader is used for the purpose of bypassing/cracking activation in 7. Strange that in both instances that the boot screen would be Vista's screen though. May be something Microsoft overlooked.

 

[gregrocker]

Then only way I know to repair it is a http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/3413-repair-install.html?ltr=R but then Win7 will reconfigure the boot to take control from GRUB.

You'd need to remove GRUB and reinstall it afterward, but that might just recreate the problem.

Best to ask in Ubuntu too since they know GRUB best.

 

[Saltgrass]

Can you attach a copy of the bcdedit readout? Open an administrative command prompt and type:
bcdedit

I got the Vista screen once when I was dual booting between Win 7 32 bit and 64 bit. It didn't hurt anything, just looked funny.

 

[RJ12]

Also, did it ever show the real boot screen? Like on my netbook (dont have it anymore) it showed that screen because of the screen resoulution (I have no clue why Microsoft did that)

 

[logicearth]

...because of the screen resoulution (I have no clue why Microsoft did that)

Because the size of the screen, logical. You had a clue all along.

 

[kornfan71]

The screen resolution is fine. The correct boot screen has also been used until I performed the instructions at the link above. Since I've had the normal boot screen with Grub before, I'd venture to say that it isn't the problem.
Output of bcdedit:

Windows Boot Manager
--------------------
identifier              {bootmgr}
device                  partition=H:
description             Windows Boot Manager
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {globalsettings}
default                 {default}
resumeobject            {4945e62e-ce3a-11de-a974-b35f472bd77d}
displayorder            {default}
toolsdisplayorder       {memdiag}
timeout                 30

Windows Boot Loader
-------------------
identifier              {default}
device                  partition=C:
path                    \windows\system32\winload.exe
description             Windows 7
locale                  en-US
inherit                 {bootloadersettings}
osdevice                partition=C:
systemroot              \windows
resumeobject            {4945e62e-ce3a-11de-a974-b35f472bd77d}
nx                      OptIn
detecthal               Yes

Drive H: is the first partition of the first hard drive, and drive C: is the second partition of the third drive. In disk management, C: is marked as the system partition, and H: is just Active. Most of the files for BOOTMGR are gone on H:. All that is left is \BOOTSECT.BAK & \Boot\BCD & \Boot\bcd.log

Perhaps if I reinstalled BOOTMGR onto C: and removed all traces from H:?
I'm not exactly sure how to go about doing that though...

 

[logicearth]

I assume you followed the steps to the letter?
You copied the boot files from the DVD to the HDD, correct?

 

[kornfan71]

If you are referring to the tutorial I linked to, then yes, I followed it to the letter. However, I did accidentally copy files to "C:" at one point (which should be H: now...). I never did anything with those files, though. I just left them there, and later deleted those which I could. H:\boot\bcd and H:\boot\bcd.log are not deletable, even though they shouldn't be being used....

 

[Saltgrass]

Just to help us keep it straight, which drive is listed in the bios as the primary drive, or the first one in the Disk order? It does seem GRUB likes to swap primary drives, so that might make things a little confusing..

Have you ever had Vista on this machine or any of the hard drives you are using? Since I saw the Vista screen using 2 versions of Win 7, I have to assume the screen is buried in Win 7 or it was on one of my hard drives, or possibly even in the bios somehow, but that would be just a wild guess.

 

[gregrocker]

Vista's startup animation is the default for low-graphics Win7 installation, so it has somehow been triggered by your repairs.

The wild card here is GRUB, defying normal fixes like Repair Install since that would overwrite GRUB when it reconfigures the multi-boot.

However you can remove GRUB, run the Repair Install to fix Win7 boot, then reinstall GRUB according to the steps given in the most popular Win7/Ubuntu dual booting tutorial: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1035999

The scenario of Win7 installed last applies here since the Repair install is effectively a reinstall which reconfigures the boot.

 

[SausageHacker]

Well the same problem when I installed Windows 7 onto a minimum requirement system to see how it would run (off topic: it ran better than expected!). Whenever I power it on, the Vista boot screen is there instead.

I believe it has something to do with compatibility. I take note of that 100 MB system partition, which GRUB seems to overlook. Because it think that W7 is "Windows Vista (Loader)" it boots partition 2 (or actually 1 since 0 is the system partition). The BCD is in the main partition, because Vista never had the 100 MB partition.

As for solving it, maybe editing menu.lst or grub.cfg to use that system partition instead of the W7 primary partition.

 

[kornfan71]

Unfortunately, Sausage, the Windows 7 partition is marked as the system partition...
I've reinstalled Grub umpteen million times, so I'll be giving the Repair Install a try. Let's hope it works!

 

[gregrocker]

Perhaps force deleting the 100mb System Reserved partition if you've got it will allow GRUB to configure correctly?

When deleted it normally requires booting into the Win7 DVD to run Startup Repair 3 times to rewrite the MBR to Win7.

However, you don't need the Win7 MBR if you want GRUB to do the job?

 

[Saltgrass]

Well, maybe this will help. I just set up a system so the boot files for a Win 7 install were on another drive, then removed that other drive, so there were no boot files on the Win 7 drive.

I made the partition active, then copied the bootmgr file, and the Boot folder with just the bcd file inside it. Then I rebuilt the bcd store. When I rebooted (and it worked), the Vista loading screen came up.

To check, I added some more files to the boot folder and found if I put the fonts folder in the Boot folder, the Win 7 loading screen would come up. If I removed the fonts folder, it went back to Vista.

You might try replacing your fonts folder in the root directory Boot folder to see if it helps. You might even try booting without the folder then replace it later.

This may not be the only reason for the Vista screen to come up, but you might try.

 

[kornfan71]

Well, I fixed it...
I used EasyBCD 2 Beta to re-create boot files on my Win7 partition, then reset the BCD configuration and changed the boot drive to the Win7 partition. Then, using Linux, I cleaned up every trace of BOOTMGR from anywhere but the Win7 partition, then restored the Windows XP boot sector.
Every OS boots, and Windows 7 has its normal boot screen.

There is only one tiny issue left. If I try to do a Windows Image Backup, it backs up the Win7 partition, but forces me to backup my H: drive (1st partition of 1st disk...once upon a time Windows 7 installed a bootloader there), since it considers it a "System" partition in my Backup & Restore center. However, in the Disk Management console, only my Win7 partition is a System partition.
How can I fix this behavior?

 

[gregrocker]

Can you post back a screenshot of your full Disk Management map using Snipping Tool in Start Menu, attach files using paper clip in reply box?

There is some reason why backup is still seeing H as a system drive.

Otherwise just move the data off and format it logical which is preferred for data drives since it cannot be marked active.

 

[kornfan71]

Heh, silly me. I had H: marked as Active. Used diskpart and set it to be inactive and now all is well...:huh:

Thanks for all of your guys' help!