Solved bcd/bcdedit problems and others after Acronis DD11

[front360]

My problem is that the Boot tab in msconfig is blank, and the default os is also blank in advanced system settings/advanced/startup and recovery.

Somehow Acronis Disk Director 11 messed up my windows 7 bootloader thing. I am able to boot windows 7 which is good, but after I uninstalled DD11 things are messed up. When I type bcdedit in elevated CMD Prompt, it says "The boot configuration data store could not be opened.The system cannot find the file specified." But if I use CMD Prompt from my Windows 7 Repair Disk, it works fine. And it also works fine from within windows, if I assign the 100mb hidden system partition a letter.

I tried bootrec /fixmbr /fixboot and /rebuildbcd but they didn't help.

The hidden system partition is marked "Active" and "System" and my OS partition is shown as "Boot" from Windows Disk Management. Are these correct? Can anyone help me sort out these issues? Thanks in advance, to anyone willing to help me out.

 

[solarmystic]

Hello front360,

Perhaps these tutorials will help you out:-

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/681-startup-repair.html

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/105541-startup-repair-run-3-separate-times.html

 

[front360]

I have tried startup repair before but it didn't help. I'll try running it 3 times with restarting windows in between the 3 repairs now.

Is the registry involved with the boot tab in msconfig, or the startup and recovery tab?

edit:Running 3 times did not help

 

[solarmystic]

AFAIK, the registry contains some entries relating to your startup options in the startup and recovery tab



EDIT:-

The hidden system partition is marked "Active" and "System" and my OS partition is shown as "Boot" from Windows Disk Management. Are these correct?

Yes. This is normal.

 

[front360]

Hmm, in your first pic my FirmwareBootDevice is the same as yours, but my SystemBootDevice is different. Mine shows multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2). Is the partition(2) my problem? If I change it to (1) will that point to my hidden "system reserved" partition? Is this correct?

And my SystemStartOptions is blank, is this correct if I didn't check off noguiboot, etc. or should there still be something there?

 

[solarmystic]

Hmm, in your first pic my FirmwareBootDevice is the same as yours, but my SystemBootDevice is different. Mine shows multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2). Is the partition(2) my problem? If I change it to (1) will that point to my hidden "system reserved" partition? Is this correct?

Mine is set to (1) because i do not have a hidden system reserved partition on my system that is created during the Windows installation.

(2) is most definitely the correct partition to boot from in a configuration like yours.

A blank SystemStartOptions would be normal if you did not select any special options during boot up..

Hmm... have you considered trying EasyBCD to add in the missing entry for your Windows 7 installation entry?

EasyBCD - Take control of your boot loader | NeoSmart Technologies

It's quite easy to use and user-friendly with a GUI interface..

 

[front360]

Mine is set to (1) because i do not have a hidden system reserved partition on my system that is created during the Windows installation.

Oh ok, I thought the Disk Management pic you posted was yours.

I installed EasyBCD and when I run it I get an error that I pasted below:

After I click no, I can't located my BCD file until after I assign the "System Reserved" partition a letter. Should I also have a BCD file in my c: (OS) drive, or just the hidden partition?

 

[solarmystic]

Hmm even BCDEdit won't start up properly on your system?

We're getting nowhere here, hold on a bit, I'll get some help.

 

[Kaktussoft]

All is fine for now! Let's recap:
in elevated command prompt:

bcdedit /enum all

works if "system reserved" partition is assigned a drive letter. If not assigned a drive letter ... it fails. Is that correct and the only problem? Also msconfig lists the right info if drive letter has been assigned

 

[Kaktussoft]

Post a screenshot of "disk management" with all fields visible.

 

[front360]

All is fine for now! Let's recap:
in elevated command prompt:

bcdedit /enum all

works if "system reserved" partition is assigned a drive letter. If not assigned a drive letter ... it fails. Is that correct and the only problem? Also msconfig lists the right info if drive letter has been assigned

Correct.

 

[Kaktussoft]

All is fine for now! Let's recap:
in elevated command prompt:

bcdedit /enum all

works if "system reserved" partition is assigned a drive letter. If not assigned a drive letter ... it fails. Is that correct and the only problem? Also msconfig lists the right info if drive letter has been assigned

Correct.

bcdedit /enum all

When no drive letter assigned. What exact error message?

In \Boot\bcd (on system reserved) is all the bootmenu info. it's actually a registry hive. It doesn't contain info like "win7 is on physical disk 3" and also not "win7 is on partition 2". It contains info like "win7 is on physical drive with signature 732A9F on partition starting on sector 12389108" that is why you can swap disk ordering without problems. even creating partitiosn on physical drive isn't a problem... as long as the start sector remains the same.

Your win7 boots and is fine. It finds the bcd on "system reserved" and start further from C-drive. Very strange.

disk management knows the partition where bcd store is located. It is marked as "system" succesfully (?) bcdedit/enum command should be able to display it.

 

[front360]

In my OP i stated, When I type bcdedit in elevated CMD Prompt, it says "The boot configuration data store could not be opened.The system cannot find the file specified."



What should I be looking for In \Boot\bcd (on system reserved)??

 

[Kaktussoft]

Can you post the disk management screenshot again, but now with drive letter assigned

 

[front360]

sure here ya go



Why does it only label it "System Reserved" when assigned and is this normal?

 

[Kaktussoft]

sure here ya go

View attachment 220631

Why does it only label it "System Reserved" when assigned and is this normal?

good question!! And why did it not show it as filesystem NTFS? And why it didn't know the used space?...

in elevated command prompt:

diskpart
sel dis 0
list part (note the partition number of 100MB partition)
sel part 1 (replace with actual number)
det part
exit

post output

 

[TJG]

Don't mean to intrude, but in Admin cmd prompt, can it find bcdedit in c:\user directory?

TJG

Sorry, I just answered my own stupid question. Yes it can.

 

[front360]

I know what you want me to do but I don't understand what you meant by;
list part (not the partition number of 100MB partition)
sel part 1 (replace with actual number)

This is when it's assigned

 

[Kaktussoft]

Don't mean to intrude, but in Admin cmd prompt, can it find bcdedit in c:\user directory?

TJG

bcdedit.exe is in C:\Windows\system32. And C:\Windows\system32 in in the search path!
So I don't see the problem

 

[Kaktussoft]

I know what you want me to do but I don't understand what you meant by;
list part (not the partition number of 100MB partition)
sel part 1 (replace with actual number)

This is when it's assigned
View attachment 220635

not=note. typing error. Output looks fine. Now same commands again. But first deassign drive letter. Post output