BCD and disc signatures


  1. Posts : 2
    Windows 7
       #1

    BCD and disc signatures


    Hello,

    I have Windows 2008 R2 installed on C:\. From within Windows 2008 R2 I installed Windows 7 RC on external sata drive (mounted as drive E from diskmanagement) . Dual boot works OK.

    Then I disconnect first esata and connect a second one (identical, also drive E). I perform same steps as before to install Windows 7 RTM. Dual boot with this drive works OK.

    Problem !!!

    If I now connect to my first esata drive again, dual boot does not work anymore. I get :

    Windows Failed to start. A recent hardware ...

    I did some research and my guess is that it is the signature of the drive that plays havoc with the BCD.

    So here are my questions:

    - Is my guess OK
    - If so how can I modify the drive signature within the BCD store since I do not see any reference in the BCD elements.

    Thanks for your feedback.

    Regards,

    Wilke
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 1,557
    XP, Seven, 2008R2
       #2

    hello, please post the output of bcdedit /enum ALL

    Maybe you need to create another boot entry. So you end up with three

    Windows Server 2008 R2
    Windows 7 RC
    Windows 7 RTM
      My Computer


  3. Posts : 2
    Windows 7
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Hello,

    I eventually got it working. I forgot to mention that I deleted the BCD entry for the first Windows 7 installation, my mistake.

    By looking a bit further I found that the BCD elements 11000001 and 21000001 (Device and OSDevice) contains the disk signature.
    So I exported the BCD object for the working Windows 7 installation via regedit, I changed the disk signature and the Guid and then imported it back again. Then I needed to add the new entry in the bootmanager bcd object (BCD element 24000001, displayorder)
    After this I coukd again use my two Windows 7 installations.

    Wilke
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 1
    windows 2008 server
       #4

    Hi Wilke,
    I read your reply and regarding how you managed to fix BCD. I have a situation where I have virtual disk with Windows 2008 R2 Standard edition installed (its a guest OS on Xen). Its a bootable image and everything is working. Now I mount this image as data disk on another windows VM and somehow the disk signature gets modified. Now after un-mounting the image is not booting. The reason behind this is the disk signature of disk and disk signature stored in BCD does not match.
    I want to fix this problem, but I don't have a Windows 2008 installation disk to repair the non-bootable image.
    How can I read disk signature from BCD? OR How can I write disk signature in BCD? Remember I need to do this from another Windows VM by mounting this non-bootable image (as I don't have a repair CD/DVD/ISO).
    Thank you in advance.
    ~Shri
      My Computer


 

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