I used Easy BCD and dual boot through Windows Boot manager Linux choice pointed to Grub on Linux partition. Good explanation here as to why you want to preserve the Win Boot mgr.
Matthew Moore, How to Dual Boot Windows and Linux. (The Nontraditional way)
Yes Snick, that's absolutely right. I know the Matthew Moore tutorials on YouTube very well, and I've been a supporter of his method, and a user of EasyBCD, for years. I have three other computers (plus my wife's netbook) all set up to dual boot Windows with one or more Linux distros. They all work flawlessly.
BUT...... the issue with this refurbished Lenovo T430 laptop (as I tried to explain in my OP) is that the boot arrangements are not "normal". The boot manager, the boot loader, and/or the BCD, appear to have been modified. I don't know whether this was by Lenovo (as part of their OEM Recovery setup) or - less likely - when the laptop was refurbished.
The result is that the normal EasyBCD configuration doesn't seem to work. Although I installed Linux Mint and its Grub into a separate partition, and added that to the BCD using EasyBCD, the boot process doesn't seem to "see" or use that BCD. It only boots, as before, into a briefly-displayed screen with "Boot normally into Win7" or "Restore System Image" options, and then goes on to boot into Win7. So the normal EasyBCD dual boot process doesn't seem to kick in even though Linux shows up as having been added to the list of installed OSs.
I don't know why this Lenovo boots up like that - apparently bypassing the normal BCD and/or boot manager - and I don't know how to change or correct that so that EasyBCD will do its stuff.
Regrettably my requests to the EasyBCD support forum have brought no answers. I was hoping that someone who understands the boot process better than me (and perhaps is more familiar with Lenovo's setup and recovery arrangements) might be able to diagnose and explain. I am reluctant to try to mess around with or "repair" the bootloader - which at least still boots Win7 - until the cause(s) of the problem are pinpointed so that I know what any repair process is aiming to do.
You could post a screenshot of disk managament window, so we can see the partition layout.
You could also post a zipped copy of your current bcd store.
Happy to do both, SIW2, but with slight delay as I'm now away travelling for a few days and have left the problematic computer in a drawer at home while relying on another laptop which is configured normally.
I posted details in my post #3 of the entries in the BCD which EasyBCD displayed; and I listed the (few) differences from what the BCDEDIT command prompt displayed in the terminal. I don't know whether "the BCD store" would reveal anything different....?
What remains a mystery to me is whether, or how, the laptop is currently using this BCD during boot-up, if at all. The only menu screen I see during the process is this mysterious "Boot Windows Normally or Restore System Image" display for a couple of seconds before the Win7 logo/splash screen appears.
Screenshots to follow when I get home later in the week....
A follow up to the suggestion that I post a screenshot of my disk management screen. Here it is
Just to clarify what the image shows.... The first three partitions are those which were originally on the computer (System Reserved, Recovery, and Windows7 OS). The next three partitions, which I created with GParted, are formatted ext4, so they simply show as empty in the Windows disk management display. The 30GB partition has the Linux Mint operating system on it; the 90GB one is the "/home" partition for Linux Mint - where I would keep my files; and the 10GB partition is the "swap" space. Then there is a small unallocated space at the end.
I shall be interested to learn whether SIW2 or anyone else can find clues in this as to why the computer boots up in the way I have described!
I will try to add, in a separate post, the details of the contents of the current BCD store - if I can find out exactly how to do this. I'm not clear whether this would be different from the details of the BCD entries which I have already provided in my post #3.
The second part of the response to SIW2 's request.
Here is a screenshot of the display in response to the BCDEDIT command prompt. I assume this reveals the contents of the current BCD store? To me it looks pretty much the same as the information shown by EasyBCD..... although the EasyBCD information has more precise details (eg in the 'identifier' and 'device' lines) than the command prompt display.
It does seem - to my non-expert eye - that the key to understanding how and why the laptop currently boots the way it does lies in the entries for 'device' in the Windows Boot Manager. The command prompt says "locate=unknown". EasyBCD seems to suggest that there is a custom entry for this and/or the path.
At present the boot process works - in a way. The system boots up into Win7 (albeit via an unusual screen). It does not show the normal Windows Boot Manager menu (which ought to list Linux Mint as an option). The crucial question is - what specific change might be needed to make the boot process work normally? I am just a bit wary of any kind of "automatic" Boot Repair, since there is no way of knowing what such automatic repairs might change, and I would prefer not to end up with a system which won't boot at all, not even into Win7.
You can make a copy of your current bcd store from an admin command prompt
bcdedit /export C:\bcd-copy
That will dump a copy onto your C partition.
Then zip up the bcd-copy file and post it here.
Okay, SIW2, thanks for that useful advice on how to do it!
Zipped copy of BCD store now attached (I hope...).
bcd-copy.zip
I haven't looked at it, but I'm ready for whatever insights, diagnosis or instructions you're willing to offer.
And by the way, thanks for your patience and help on this. It will be interesting to see if we can get to the bottom of how the boot process is configured on this computer.
Run these from an admin command:
bcdedit /set {current} osdevice boot
bcdedit /set {current} device boot
bcdedit /set {bootmgr} device boot
bcdedit /set {memdiag} device boot
bcdedit /set {a6ea9bab-24b4-11e9-8e96-f82fa8e876d9} device boot
bcdedit /set {ae5534e0-a924-466c-b836-758539a3ee3a} SDIdevice boot
Okay, SIW2, will do.
Forgive the idiot question: do I run these commands one-by-one separately, and wait for each to complete before putting in the next? Or do I copy-and-paste the whole lot in one go?
And can I ask (in the spirit of my - steep - learning curve!) what you found in the BCD store and what changes these edits will deliver?
I'm just curious to know how/why the boot process was different from that in any other computer I've used, and whether there is any way of knowing if the BCD arrangements which are now to be edited were a Lenovo OEM setup or a mod done at a later stage (eg when the laptop was refurbished and/or Win7 reinstalled, before I bought it).
EDIT: This may be a total red herring: but ahead of the reconfiguring of the BCD, I have been reading up and checking on the Advanced Boot Options and the System Recovery Options in Win7 - partly because at present on this Lenovo computer I cannot access those screens and cannot boot into Safe Mode (eg by using F8).
This led me into looking at the msconfig screens, and in particular at the Boot tab in msconfig. I found something peculiar. I had expected to see only Win7 listed (as in my other laptops). But in that Boot tab in this problematic Lenovo computer, there were two entries. First was Windows 7 (\Windows). Below it was another entry AuditPE (\windows): Default OS.
What is that and why is it there? Just as an experiment while I had msconfig open, I changed the first entry, Windows 7, to be the default OS, and rebooted. Made no difference. But I am still puzzled as to what AuditPE is, and why it seems to be listed as a second (?) OS in the Boot tab of msconfig. An online search for AuditPE gives very little information that I can understand.....
Like I said, maybe a red herring and nothing to do with the BCD issues we have been grappling with. But I mention it just in case it is relevant, and because I wonder what if anything to do about it.
Last edited by br1anstorm; 26 Mar 2019 at 09:47.
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