I had Windows 7 installed two times on two different partitions of the same HD. Then I added a second hard drive and installed Windows 7 a third time.
Now the boot menu shows 4 entries, with the main OS listed twice. And I can boot from either one. However, when I open BCDEDIT or use Easy BCD, only three OS' are listed.
How can I remove the duplicate entry from the boot menu?
Enter msconfig>Boot on the main OS and see if you can figure out which is the duplicate to delete it.
Strange it's not showing in Easy Edit Boot Menu tab. You may have overdone it with the multi-booting.
When you have separate HD's it's better to boot via the BIOS Boot order or one-time BIOS Boot Menu so that the HD's remain independent and free to come and go as you please. You can delete the separate HD's OS entry in Easy to use that method now if you want.
[QUOTE=gregrocker;1730558]Enter msconfig>Boot on the main OS and see if you can figure out which is the duplicate to delete it.
The main OS is listed twice in msconfig as well as the boot menu. They look identical. And when I change one to Safe Boot for example, the other one changes as well. So because they seem to be referencing to the same actual OS, I don't think I want to risk deleting one of them for the risk of deleting both of them.
Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
You cannot delete the OS you are booted into, but maybe it's duplicate.
Set a System Restore Point - Create
System Recovery Options
Hi, I wasn't booted into the main OS. When I'm booted in to the 2nd OS, the main OS is listed in msconfig twice and the delete button is active and can be used. However, if I change the first instance of the main OS to safe boot for example, immediately this change is also reflected in the second instance. So the problem is that msconfig and the boot menu is showing the same OS twice, and deleting one would therefore probably delete both.
However, Easy BCD is not showing this duplicate.
Last edited by Don69; 06 Jan 2012 at 10:20.
Download and install Visual BCD Editor - Windows 7/Vista
It shows complete contents of BCD in explorer like style.
If you are a novice user read the one page Document for the tool - boot-menu, loaders, default boot entry and so on is covered.
It is not possible that 2 boot entries are the same as they are different loader entries (objects) in BCD - objects with different {GUID}'s at least.
You can rename one of the entries to say "... 1" the other to "... 2", boot to each to see if they behave the same, then you can delete one of them (or make one of them to boot into safe mode permanently).
Visual BCD is the only GUI tool (until now) to show and handle the whole contents of Windows BCD, other GUI tools show only partial contents and can edit even less.
Hi Boyans,
that solved it! But something was definitely not right.
Visual BCD showed an extra "Loader" called Windows 7 (a name I don't use for any of my installations). So I deleted that, including the Windows Recovery Env. But then in the "Edit-Boot Menu", my main OS "Trading" still showed up twice. And if I changed the name of "Trading" under Description, both entries under the "Edit-Boot Menu" changed name as well. So finally I just deleted one of two "Trading" names in the "Edit-Boot Menu", and then everything was back to normal.
Thanks again!
Don
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