Am I screwed?

[philippo]

Hi
I think I may have just f****ed up big-time but I'll let you Win7 gurus decide...short story: I had a setup with Vista as my OS on the main disk but was dual-booting to a second disk with Win7 Home Premium on it.

After spending a fair bit of time tweaking and tuning that Win7 Home Premium version I decided to purchase a copy of Win7Ultimate and install it to my main disk (the one with Vista) and dual boot that setup with Windows 7 Ultimate as the default boot and my nicely tweaked version of Windows Home Premium as an alternate boot. I had planned to slowly grab all my goodies and files off of the Windows Home Premium disk at my leisure and gradually get Ultimate just the way I wanted it and then delete the 7 HomePremium version (and give it to my daughter), thus freeing up my second disk for data storage.

You've probably guessed already; I did a clean install of Ultimate over the Vista OS (formatting that disk, of course), and apparently did something wrong; now my default and only boot choice is the one for Ultimate -- even though the second disk that has Windows Home Premium is there intact, I can't for the life of me figure out how to boot to it also...? The bootpath now in msconfig reads: Windows 7 (C:\Windows) : Current OS; Default OS

Here's a link to the screen in disk management, if that would help:
http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/1598/captureol.jpg

Please Help if you can!
Thanks

 

[wee]

Not a guru myself, but I suspect your boot was in Vista, I think your in good shape the actual gurus will be by soon I suspect.

 

[Sanvean]

Boot sector was overwritten:

Boot from Win 7 cd, select language, keyboard setup....click next and select repair computer.
CD will look for Win 7 installs, click on your "lost" install...next.
Then click on startup repair, it will look for errors and correct them...done.

Restart and you will now have the option to dual boot.

PS: I have to hit da sack, but someone will probably be along to answer any further questions, you might have.

 

[gregrocker]

With separate HD's the cleanest way to dual boot is to do it via the BIOS, setting your preferred HD to boot first in BIOS setup (after DVD), or using the one-time Boot Menu key given on first screen to boot other HD. You would need to unplug the other HD when you install Win7 Ultimate to be able to set it up this way, then replug it after install.

When you have both HD's plugged in during install, it should normally update the System Active MBR on the original Win7 HP to create a Windows Dual Boot menu, but for some reason this failed. There are two ways to solve this:

If you want a BIOS-managed dual boot which boots via either BIOS boot order or the F-key for Boot Menu, then unplug the Ultimate HD, boot the Win7 DVD, select Repair on second screen, accept offered repair to see if it will start then, if not, boot back into Recovery Tools list to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots to repair the MBR on the Premium HD until it starts up. Then you can plug Ultimate back in, set one to boot first in BIOS setup, or use the Boot menu key to trigger the other one instead.

If you want a Windows-managed Dual boot, which interlocks the HD's and is harder to extricate, then install EasyBCD 2.0 beta and Add the missing OS on Add/Remove tab. The only possible problem I see is that Premium HD is marked active which is strange, and it might need to be inactivated at some point if you plan to use Windows-managed Dual Boot.

Let us know how either of these works out.

 

[theog]

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html?ltr=S
Note: You may need to do startup repair 3 to 4 times.

OR

Download EasyBCD 2.0
EasyBCD 2.0 Beta Builds - The NeoSmart Forums

How to use EasyBCD:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/8057-dual-boot-installation-windows-7-xp.html?ltr=D

 

[fishnbanjo]

I agree start up repair will recover your lost Windows 7 but so you'll know your choices for dual boot should read Windows 7 and Windows 7 (Recovered) the Recovered will be the one you lost.

 

[philippo]

thx for the quick replies, I'll post back with the outcome

 

[philippo]

I got it back, thanks! (I temporarily disconnected the Ultimate disk and did a startup repair on the Premium disk with the recovery tools) so now I can successfully boot to either by using F12 key during the startup sequence and changing the boot menu.

Just curious; is there any way now to get the usual Windows dual-boot startup screen where it shows both boot options, and I can use the arrow key to move from the default to the other?

Just wondering here...

 

[gregrocker]

Yes, if you prefer a Windows-manged Dual Boot then in your default OS install EasyBCD 2.0 beta (after doing quick forum registration to use beta) to Add the other OS on the Add/Remove tab.

 

[philippo]

Greg
Well, there's a tiny glitch -- I installed EasyBCD 2.0 beta while in Windows Ultimate on the C drive, added the other version using the "Add New Entry" tab but made Ultimate the Default boot. Below is how the settings read.


There are a total of 2 entries listed in the bootloader.

Default: Windows 7 Ultimate
Timeout: 7 seconds.
Boot Drive: C:\

Entry #1
Name: Windows 7 Ultimate
BCD ID: {current}
Drive: C:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload.exe

Entry #2
Name: Windows 7 Home Premium
BCD ID: {3204a1e9-53c2-11df-83df-9feb66d2dfcb}
Drive: D:\
Bootloader Path: \Windows\system32\winload

But it still boots into Home Premium if left to itself...the only way I can now boot into Ultimate is by tapping F12 which takes me to the boot menu, and then using the down arrow to highlight the actual drive that ultimate is on as the first boot device and hitting enter.

The computer then boots into the screen I want, (with the two choices showing and the proper default OS at the top) and ends up in Ultimate. BUT, from there a restart will go back to Home Premium...

Any ideas?

 

[gregrocker]

Do you have Ultimate HD set to boot first in BIOS setup?

Are you getting a Dual Boot Menu at all?

 

[philippo]

I'm good now!
I absolutely couldn't change the hard disk priority in the bios setup, I would arrow down to the drive I wanted to boot (it was second), hit enter and then + to move it up but it wouldn't budge. As a matter of fact I couldn't get the order changed at all so in desperation I selected to "revert to the default" and the drives switched order.

Thanks for the clue, Greg

(And imagine -- I actually had the hubris to think that I was in charge...)

 

[gregrocker]

Yeah, I hate glitches like that.

But resetting default reminds the ghost in the machine who's boss.

Nice work. Anything else?

 

[philippo]

Not right now, but I'm sure I'll I break it again before long...