Boot issues with virtual hard disk. No windows boot manager

[voirin]

Hi, I really need some help here.

My system has two drives:
1) SSD (C: drive) where my win7 OS boots from (call this normal_win7)
2) HDD (D: drive) where I keep my data

I created a D:\virtual_win7.vhd file and installed win7 on it (for testing purposes) following these instructions:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2953-virtual-hard-drive-vhd-file-create-start-boot.html

When I boot, I get no boot menu asking me to choose either between normal_win7 or virtual_win7 install. By default, it boots into virtual_win7. To boot into normal_win7, I need to press F11 at reboot to enter into Boot Menu and select it. I thought I would be presented with a boot menu at reboot each time? Those instructions I followed in the link told me the boot manager would be present. So I got a feeling something went wrong somewhere.

These are some things I observed:

1. I installed EasyBCD within normal_win7 and it only has one entry listed in the bootloader:

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

2. Within System > Advanced System Settings > Advanced > Startup and Recovery, there is also only one entry.

3. In Disk Management (within normal_win7), the vhd does not appear.

Questions:

What do I need to do to get the boot menu manager going when I reboot my system to allow OS selection?

Why doesn't the vhd appear in Disk Management within normal_win7? Is it because it is being dynamically mounted each time it is booted into? I thought the vhd would display persistently within Disk Management

There is another thing I noticed. When i boot into virtual_win7, my D: drive is renamed as E: drive. This now appears as a system drive, which I think is because my vhd is being mounted from it. I tried to change the drive letter of E: back to D: but it won't allow me to do this for obvious reasons as it is now a system drive. I really need to get it to be drive D: again (reasons are because I need to run lots of code on D which has lots of absolute paths set, and other reasons). I thought I could solve this by copying my vhd to my SSD using normal_win7. Then boot into virtual_win7 and rename the drive E: back to D:. But I don't want to break anything. How do I do this?

Any help very much appreciated.
V

 

[voirin]

I guess everyone is using win8 these days, or my question is at the cutting edge of technology that no one knows the answer